Suburban Correspondent here, wanting to keep it light today, all righty? No serious topics, no politics, just some blather about, say, birthdays. Can't argue about birthdays, can we? I hope not. Mine was yesterday - I turned 45. And, you know, it felt good. I feel....free.
I don't know why I feel so free. After all, despite my advancing years, I still have 6 kids at home to raise, 4 of them not even teens yet. But maybe, since I haven't gotten pregnant in the past 3 years, I'm realizing that the baby years are done. Sure, life with teens can be a wild, sleepless ride; but it doesn't compare to the crazed early years, when my only goal was survival. I'm moving beyond my survival-only life now; and it is refreshing to be able to look around and survey the horizon. Let's see...there are just so many things I can do, now that I'm not spending all my time comparison-pricing disposable diapers or buckling little people into shopping carts and strollers. I could go back to school or I could knit and crochet more or maybe I could even get a part-time job, just to get out of the house in the evenings.
Of course, I know a lot of other, more fun ways to get out of the house after dinner: Mothers Nights Out, yoga, Stitch 'n' Bitch. But those reasons tend to get pushed aside for the kids' stuff, like homework or Boy Scouts or whatever. Somehow, needing a sanity break just doesn't rank with all the zillion and one things that kids need done for them in the evenings, even though it darn well should. Even the teens seem particularly needy just when I'm hoping to get a little me-time. Suddenly there is a clothing crisis (Anna) or a math crisis (Theo), and life as we know it has to stop until things get resolved. I'm fantasizing that a job would take precedence over all this; and, by getting out in the evenings, I wouldn't feel like a prisoner anymore.
Not that I like to compare being a SAHM to being a prisoner; but I'm thinking that the detainees at Guantanamo get out more, and with less fuss, than I do. And torture? Put those guys in a room all day with 2 small children fighting over who gets to sit in the flowered armchair; they'd break down, all right.
Where was I? Oh, yes, keeping it light. Right. So...I'm sitting up at 11:30 PM on my birthday, baking blueberry bread and making sandwiches. Why? Because Larry and Anna are leaving at 5:30 tomorrow morning for a week of work camp, and they need food for the car ride. Since I got the day off for my birthday and spent 2 hours browsing through every clearance bin in the bookstore, and another 2 hours reading Devil in the Details, well...stuff that should have gotten done, didn't.
You know, if you're gonna dance, you gotta pay the band.
Still, I love birthdays. Mine, that is. And now it's only 365 more days until my next one. So give me some ideas for my next chance to goof off for 24 hours - what would you do?
Happy Birthday, SC! Did you really bake blueberry bread instead of, say, watching CSI? Or sleeping? A day off should mean a day off, girl. Next year, it's a spa for you and Lunchables for everyone else!
My 46th is coming up in a couple weeks and all I can think of is a day off from trying to house train the puppy. But I know it would mean that I'd just be stepping in unexpected puddles all day. *sigh*
Posted by: Laura Benedict | June 22, 2008 at 10:58 AM
It is odd how the work doesn't take care of itself when you're taking a day off. Enjoy your week with a little less drama in the house.
Posted by: Jenn @ Juggling Life | June 22, 2008 at 11:18 AM
A lot less drama! Praise be to God! I don't realize how much it is weighing me down until it's not there.
Posted by: suburbancorrespondent | June 22, 2008 at 12:33 PM
Happy belated birthday! I am glad you got to get out for a little while, even if it meant having the things which were put-off to do when you got home.
I sometimes think having kids keeps me young. I find myself wondering what my life is going to be like once they are grown and gone, and I don't even want to think about it!
Posted by: Devilish Southern Belle | June 22, 2008 at 04:14 PM
SC, during your next 24 hours of goof-off, you should write yourself a letter about what you're going to do when they're all out of the house. Then, if you get to feeling all sentimental and wistful when they are, you can read it. And laugh.
Posted by: Kalynne Pudner | June 22, 2008 at 07:20 PM
Happy birthday! Somehow, after 40 they're not as painful. I think my 30s were more momentus. Maybe it's the lack of diapers...I like that part, too. Have an extra piece of cake!
Posted by: Daisy | June 22, 2008 at 08:34 PM
Happy Birthday! You do know 14yos and 16yos can pack their own food, don't you?(ducking before she can smack me). You are over a year younger then me :P~~~that should make you feel better.
Posted by: JaniceNW | June 22, 2008 at 09:07 PM
The travelers were having to get up at 5 AM and I would be sleeping in - that's why I martyred myself in the kitchen making their sandwiches, etc. Plus I had already worked Anna's butt off in anticipation of her being gone for an entire week.
Posted by: suburbancorrespondent | June 22, 2008 at 11:24 PM
Happy Birthday to a cool lady!
From a much older woman of almost 47!
Posted by: JCK | June 23, 2008 at 12:14 AM
Goof off for 24 hours? What would I do? READ and eat good healthy dark chocolate.
Preferably (but not likely!), in a hammock at the beach...
Posted by: Bailey | June 23, 2008 at 06:55 PM