Therapy

I was really wiped last night.  It had been a long day after a long week, and I couldn't remember the last time I had been alone for a significant amount of time.  (Significant being at least three uninterrupted hours.)  I went to bed feeling kind of dull and sullen, not wanting to get up the next morning unless it was to read in bed alone for the whole day.

Morning came anyway, and after a half an hour of quiet brain time, little people started to rise and wander into our bedroom.  Let the marathon begin!  We had a baseball game, a tennis lesson, Will's birthday party and a special program for the mothers and girls ages 12-18 at church.  I managed to double schedule Will's party and the program at church, and we had yet to figure out the details of how it would all play out.  Details like reserving a table at the pizza place, getting tickets in advance for the movie, where Elizabeth and Rachael would be during those two events, how we would get ten boys from the movie theater to the pizza place, how I would be in both places at once, when I would get the balloons, cake, plates, etc. for the party - just a few minor details to take care of in the hours between the sporting events of the morning and the 4:30 deadline for the party.  Yikes.

In the end, I had no choice but to send Kate to the program with the blessed Potter girls and mother, Brandon got his 16-year-old brother, Brent, to go to the movie with him and the boys (and Elizabeth), and I dropped off, picked up, and set up at the pizza place with Rachael, who fell asleep in the car between 5 and 6pm.  (She's been yelling in her crib for about a half hour now and it's 11pm.  I've given up the fight at this point!  What do we expect when the poor girl is submitted to the schedules and routines of children so much older than her!  Brandon has given up as well and they are doing what they do many, many nights these days: watching M*A*S*H together.  I think Brandon secretly likes it when Rachael won't sleep at night so he has an excuse to watch it.)

What got me through the day today were the FOUR uninterrupted hours of driving around alone taking care of business with nothing to slow me down.  It was like therapy for me.  I remembered gain that it really doesn't take much for me to feel rejuvenated.  It wasn't just being alone, it was the manner in which I traveled.  I took the freeway where I was going today and it was warm, sunny and windy.  I had Brandon's car with the sunroof open and I rolled all the windows down and blasted one of my favorite mix CD's from Trenton and Laura.  Great music, sun on my face and wind in my hair.  All alone.

I really love my kids a lot more after a few hours of that.

Here's a clip from the party taken on our new FLIP camera!  Seriously, I can't believe I hadn't heard of it before.