the art of being alone

Chris and Celia were still gone today. They stayed with his parents overnight after yesterday's wedding, and went to our niece's birthday party this afternoon. Here she is at the party.

 So, I've had a lot more free time than usual this weekend! I've never been away from Celia this long, and certainly have never had such a long period of complete freedom to do what I've wanted since she was born. Luckily I was feeling good enough to enjoy it. Today was probably the most beautiful day of the summer so far: High seventies, sunny, cool breeze, and my idea of perfect weather.

Since I haven't had so much free time in so long, this weekend ended up being a chance to remember all the things I like to do by myself, and re-learn how to spend time alone. I used to love having time alone and never had trouble filling it. By the end of this morning I had cleaned the house from top to bottom. There was no baby to play with, feed, change, or put to sleep. Nothing to cook, all the laundry done. Nothing I had to do? I was a bit stumped, and I missed Chris and Celia a little. I may have wandered into Celia's room a few times for no particular reason. Is that something all mothers do when they miss their children? I had lunch, read a magazine, made coffee and read a new book for a while. By mid-afternoon I was starting to feel at loose ends. And I kicked myself for it. How could I be bored? This was the first weekend I've had to myself in 18 months, and probably the last one for quite a while. I needed to snap out of it, so I decided to go to Staples for new school supplies. I got my beloved new planner and named her Charlotte. And a pretty notebook for lesson planning (Chloe).

After the Staples trip, I was back in the groove of enjoying the day. I got started organizing Charlotte and planning what I wanted to add. This year I'm going to keep a list of go-to dinners and their ingredients in one of my planners so I can make quick and easy meal plans and shopping lists. Today I made a delicious summer squash, tomato, and rice gratin for dinner. While it baked, I watered all the plants and pulled weeds. I had help too.

The bees were busy as usual in the coneflowers.

I had dinner with all the windows open, fresh cool air breezing in. I watched the news (never get to watch the news any more!). Everything cleaned up, I changed into comfy sweatpants (it was really getting cool out) and went for a nice walk around the neighborhood. The house is all cleaned up now, and I just have to wait for Chris to bring my little Pita home to me. She'll be sleeping and will go straight into the crib when they get home.

It's a good thing I had this time alone because I may have completely forgotten how to enjoy it if it had been any longer! I'm happy I was able to enjoy myself thoroughly, and will be equally happy to see my Blub and give our tiny pepita a big hug in the morning.