Take it easy

I can do it.  I can do it.  The only thing, ONLY thing that was good about being sick for a week, was that it wasn't just okay to lounge around in pj's and watch the boob tube all day, every day, for days on end, it's what I was SUPPOSED to do to get better.

And it wasn't just okay that my kids were eating sugar cereal for breakfast lunch and dinner with a side of otter pops, it was what they NEEDED to do because it was the only thing they could eat in order to get better.

There was something seriously freeing in having zero expectations for the day, let alone the week.  The only thing that I needed to do was try to stay alive and make mine and my kids lives comfortable.  In a weird twisted way, it was almost like a vacation.  But even more relaxing, because I didn't even have to plan a surf camp day or a "swim with dolphins" excursion.  It was the first time, in I don't know how long, that I truly let myself be downright lazy.

Maybe I needed it for just that reason.  When it's just me that's sick, I am still worried that my kids are not getting stimulated, having fun, learning, etc...  But when we are all near-death, we can just curl in to one giant fetal position together and zone out to Design Star together.

But now it's over.  The house is full of healthy people, and we have to drink in the last few days of summer, gosh damn it!  We must have fun!  WE MUST BE MANICALLY ENGAGED IN MILKING EVERY LAST MINUTE OF SUMMER FOR ALL THAT IT'S WORTH.  Except, I don't quite have the desire to do that anymore.

Dalton has it in me to always be anxiously engaged in a good cause, but really only if that cause involves him socializing with a friend, or doing something really cool.  Shelby would rather do art for 8 hours while her cat rubs her leg.  Garrett just wants to play with anyone who will give him the time of day.

So, the last week of the summer may look a little more relaxed than I had originally thought it was going to be.  I had planned to take the kids to Yellowstone, with my cousin and her kids, because Gavin was going to be traveling for work, and I'll be damned (sorry the second time this post) if I am just going to sit around while he's gone!  I was going to show him that as a mother I can be a leader who takes our kids on great adventures.  But now, after having been sick for a week of summer, my kids don't want a road trip.  They just want to see their buddies in the neighborhood.

Fine.  Totally fine with me.  I haven't signed up for school myself...that starts in six days.  And I am really not sure if I will.  Maybe one class, but I am not going gang busters.  I feel that I need to ease in to the fall.  Ease in to life.

This week with Gavin gone, I am thinking of trying some new ethnic restaurants with the kids.  Getting Dalton a new mountain bike and maybe going for a ride or two.  And watching a lot more movies together.  We are reading the third Hunger Games book, Dalton and I.  I may still make them do a workbook sheet or two, just because it's not like my personality has completely vanished from my body.  But taking it easy may be my theme song for the rest of this year.

Take it easy...I like the sound of that.