Finding a Small Slice of Sanity

I did two things this weekend that I haven’t done in a very long time.

1. I slept in until 12:30 p.m.
2. I spent three entire hours completely by myself (not counting the hours sleeping)

I actually didn’t do either of those things on purpose but I sure as heck enjoyed them!

I crawled out of bed around 8:00 Saturday morning because Evie wasn’t going to let me sleep anymore.  Just as I got to the bedroom door, Hubby was walking in and said, “Oh, I was just coming to get her so you could sleep for a while.”  After the choir of angels stopped singing, I handed Evie off and went back to bed.  About an hour later (or so it seemed) Hubby came back with her because she needed to nurse.  He also mentioned that it was 12:30 and I might want to get up.

I’m not sure when the last time I slept that long was.  I obviously needed it, but my first thought was that I had way too much to get done and there was no way I could do it all.  We had plans to meet some friends for dinner at 4:30.  By the time I finished nursing Evie and crawled out of my stupor, it was 1:00.  By the time I fed the kids some lunch, showered, threw in a load of laundry, and bathed the kids (because I was too lazy to do it the night before) it was time for us to leave.  I didn’t accomplish a single thing that I had wanted to get done that morning.

We spent a really nice evening with friends and ended up getting home later than planned.  Between the combination of staying up late the night before and the many beers he had throughout the evening, Hubby was ready to crash early.  He took Zach to bed with him where they snuggled and watched TV for a while until they both fell sound asleep.  Evie and I snuggled on the couch for a while until she passed out.  I put her in bed, woke Hubby enough to tell him where I was going and headed to the grocery store at 10:30 p.m.

I never realized just how relaxing it is to grocery shop at 10:30 at night.  The store was nearly empty.  If it weren’t for the very talkative (and very slow) cashier, it would have been a near perfect shopping experience.  I got home around 11:30, put groceries away, cleaned up the kitchen, living room, and playroom, finished watching a movie I had started earlier, and read two chapters of my book before I heard the familiar cries of a hungry baby.

When I looked at the clock it was 2:00 a.m.  I was still wide awake but figured I should try to get some sleep so I got Evie and snuggled up with her in Zach’s bed (since he was in mine).

Even though I spent the majority of that time grocery shopping and cleaning up the house, it was probably the most relaxing three hours I’ve had in months.  I don’t think I realized just how much I need that time to myself every once in a while.  I think it is more than just having time to myself though.  I need time to myself at home where I can do exactly what I want to do and not have anyone expecting anything from me.  Even with the little amount of sleep I got that night, I felt entirely refreshed the next day.

Sunday morning we got up and took the kids to visit Santa at the mall.  I was a little worried about how Evie would react, but as it turns out Zach was the one I should have worried about.  He was totally excited and ready to see Santa until he got up there.  As soon as they started trying to take pictures he put on his grump face and refused to smile.  He wasn’t mad or upset at all, he was just refusing to smile.  The one time he accidentally cracked a smile, he covered his mouth up with his arm.  Evie, on the other hand, was a perfect little angel.  After checking out Santa’s beard for a minute she was all smiles.

After the Santa visit, Zach and his bigger cousins got to go play at Monkey Bizness while my sister, mom, and I shopped for a bit with the little kids.  All in all, it was a good but exhausting day.  There was however an extra bonus to all the craziness – Evie slept from 11:30 to 5:30 this morning which is the longest stretch she’s slept in quite a while.

The major downside is that I still haven’t managed to start making my nephew’s birthday present which was my one big goal for the weekend.  It looks like I’ll have some late nights this week working on it so I can have it ready for his birthday party next Saturday!