catnip and coffee

Why is it that on the days you have no morning obligations and you could potentially sleep in a little, your kid invariably is up early, bouncing on your bed, wanting breakfast, wanting his transformer transformed, whatever? Then on the days you all gotta be up and out of the house to go to, you know, school, those are the days he want to sleep until 8 o’clock! He’s only four, not fourteen!

Is it wrong to be counting the hours until my mother in law comes to get the boy for a whole weekend? Is it wrong to want to be alone in my own house? I hope not! Because at noon tomorrow I’m free for 48 hours!

The last time I slept in this house alone was exactly a year ago. My dear husband (dh from now on) is at the very same conference and the MIL took our dear son (aka ds) for two nights then as well.

I don’t recall doing anything particularly exciting. I only remember not having to cook or clean, being able to watch bad tv all day long, (and not even power rangers!) and getting as much sleep as I wanted without anyone waking me up! Woohoo! I’m gonna do that all over again baby! I might even be able to read. a. book. Shocking, I know.

Of course, I’ll miss my boys, and when they return on Sunday I’ll appreciate them so much more for having been gone, but until then I plan to wallow in my alone time. <sigh>

I made a new friend today. If you know me in real life it will probably surprise you to know that I don’t make new friends very easily. I make lots of friendly acquaintances but going deeper is so very hard. Anyway, one of the other preschool moms and I have been trying to get our kids together for a playdate for months now, and it just never worked out. Well, today she invited us for an inpromptu lunch. And we actually went.

Our lunchdate turned into a playdate and we ended up having a four hour conversation about serious and amazing things. However, our bond was not truly sealed until one of us (I can’t remember who) first admitted an addiction to a certain soap opera recorded daily on our tivos. I know this is quite a confession, but it is a terrible yet life long addiction. Both of us have watched since we were little girls sneaking a peek at it, me with my mother and she with her grandmother. Both of us could remember the characters, the supercouples, and the plotlines from the early 80’s. We even had the same crushes on those oh-so-cute dark haired actors. Silly? Yes. Embarassing? Also yes. But I don’t care - it was totally awesome to find a kindred Guiding Light fan - if not a little freaky.

Are you gonna spill your secret TV addiction? You know you have one and you might just make a new friend if you tell it

I was outside on Sunday for a bit between rainstorms, and I caught it. That first whiff of spring. If you live in the frozen tundra New England like I do you know what I’m talking about. It won’t be back for a while, with two feet of snow still on the ground, but that whiff is hope giving.

 So what did I do? I started some seeds of course! Only flowers for now, (I started my veggies too early last year and paid the price.) and I’m trying some new ones this year: yellow coreopsis, pink dianthus, mixed convoluvus, orangy gazania, bright red marigolds, starry blue laurentia. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! Or if they even sprout! Of course, I also started some basics, cosmos, pansies, coleus, and daisies, some more basil since I killed the last batch and spearmint since it likes any soil. Oh, and the morning glories. Did you know you have to nick the hard shell and soak them overnight? Huh. Well, neither did I, but now I know why they didn’t come up last year - I didn’t read the freaking directions.

You can now imagine what my house looks like: little pots of dirt taking up every flat surface. I used up all the plastic food containers I saved all winter, plus a couple mini greenhouse flats. Not to mention my usual houseplants and wintered over herbs. Yikes. Someday I’ll have a gardening station with a growlight in the basement….

I’m never late. In fact, I’m one of those freakishly early people. But I’m really late to this party. Everyone is already in the pool and I didn’t even bring a swimsuit. Do I jump in anyway? Nah. I think I’ll just dip my toes in the shallow end for now.