Checking Out

This is from a few weeks ago but I wanted to post it because it was such a valuable thing for me to pay attention to...

Every once in a while it's good to check out.  Ignore the texts and emails.  Ignore the work due and deadlines approaching.  Ignore the dust bunnies scrambling around the house and just check out.  I was recently reminded of this.


Last week, due to a combination of a light schedule and a touch of stomach bug, my daughter and I had a day at home.  It. was. awesome.  We have a pretty full schedule around here regularly: school, dance classes, play dates, camp, swim lessons, art classes... oh, and let's not forget running my own business and other work.  Oy.  I'm getting a headache just reading that list.  Like it or rue it, it's our life for now.


But getting back to that awesome day last week.  I woke up, wasn't feeling great and had a bit of a slow start to the morning.  Mid-morning, my daughter suggested we do a little scrap booking, something I had been wanting to do recently but never got around to squeezing it in.  One hour led to another.  We had an incredible time- being creative together, listening to music, talking.  So great!


After, we had a little lunch, watched some junk T.V., and did some other not-too-urgent things.  It was totally rejuvenating.  All I could think was, "why don't I do this more often?"  Really, why?

Whole Foods Fantasies

I was walking in Whole Foods the other day, cruising the snack aisle, when I looked over and saw this woman with one of those half carts. You know the ones- for single, unencumbered people and old people who apparently don't eat enough to qualify for a large cart. In the interest of full disclosure, I , too, had one of the half carts but I had it because I was planning to pick up a total of three items in ten minutes, shopping in between other errands before I was expected to return to my family unit. Anyway, I saw this woman and glanced down in her cart. Tortillas... some cheese... a few pieces of fruit... a couple of cans... two containers of yogurt (not industrial size). Ahhhh, a single person. Boy, did it take me back. I was slammed with this just-yesterday feeling of Carefree Saturdays. I capitalize those words because they deserve that importance. At the time, and you don't know it at the time, those are moments to be treasured. I remember when I was single, living alone, a typical Saturday entailed one of two plans:

Plan A- a nice, long walk in the morning, followed by some planning of what kind of yummy food to cook for dinner (which, on a Saturday night, was a meal often savored in front of a good movie), followed by a trip to the grocery store, followed by maybe a nap, movie, or good book... or all three.

Plan B- a trip to the farmer's market (often on my bike) or the grocery store, an afternoon of made-for-TV movies, maybe a nice walk at the local nature center, an evening with friends, maybe an art opening or something.

Ahhhh, freedom. No responsibilities (to be addressed in a future post). Choices that can move with the wind. But life is all about rosy colored glasses, no? And I often think about my satisfaction level/happiness quotient would be if I was, 10 years later, still living out Plan A or Plan B. I venture to say it would have gotten old. And I have traded Carefree Saturdays for bike rides and playground trips and Pancake Sundays and "Mommy, I like you."

But a girl can still have her Whole Foods fantasies...