Best Birthday EVER

Yeah, yeah, we all know I am an introvert.  But in the last few years of being a stay at home mom, I have developed from a run-of-the-mill gosh-I’d-like-some-alone-time sort to a full-fledged will-you-&#$!ing-leave-me-alone curmudgeon. 

So when my birthday came smack dab in the middle of a three-day weekend, I decided that I needed to go to the cabin.  Without kids.  I NEEDED TO GO TO THE CABIN WITHOUT KIDS, repeated the curmudgeon.

So I went. I left after tucking the kids in bed on Friday night and came home to kiss them goodnight on Sunday.   

I didn’t get to the cabin until pretty late that Friday, but decided to exercise my birthday prerogative by rearranging all the furniture that night.  Since I brought my coursework with me to complete that weekend, I wanted the desk right next to the stove.  I wanted things to be clean, organized, decluttered, and most necessary, cozy.  All so I could get a lot of studying done. 

Ta da!

 

Okay, so you can’t see much, but now there’s a reading corner and the desk is more usable. 

 

So immediately I set up my computer and…played Spider Solitaire.  (Not to worry, I really did finish that course over the weekend.)

I finished patching, retexturing, and painting the bathroom wall.

 

And did a few other little projects.  Even tackled the wet grass that had gone unmown for two months.  Oops.

 

And after issuing several invitation to friends to come over (sans kids), Rochelle was able to join me and I got to go for the long beach loop walk I’ve been wanting to since we first got the cabin a year ago.  I love good friends and solitude, and the best of the former doesn’t negate the latter. Thanks, Rochelle!

I woke up on my birthday to a quiet cabin.  I didn’t have to get up to feed anyone.  No toys were left for me to step on the landing, no broken crayons left all over the floor, no toilets left unflushed or opened packages of oatmeal strewn from the cupboards to the table.  I didn’t have to ask anyone to get dressed (you know, that thing we need to do every morning?) or get on shoes or to buckle up. 

One of the best things about the weekend was driving into town for wi-fi and cocoa, passing the church we go to on the island where an older man was cleaning the parking lot and thinking to myself “If I didn’t have kids and had the blower in the back of the car, I’d stop and help him.”  And then realize that I didn’t have the  kids then, and I had brought the blower to the cabin to clean off the deck and had put it back in the car.  I stopped and blew off the other half of the driveway with him in less than thirty minutes.  That’s how awesome the weekend was.

Next year, I turn 40.  Dwayne and I are thinking about celebrating big together on October 9, exactly half-way between our two birthdays.  Which means next November 10th, you will probably find me alone at the cabin.  I can’t wait!

 

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PS  I reached Zen in those 48 hours, and totally lost it by Monday morning.