The Annual Week Without Children

from someone called "Laff Away" on facebook

Strike "weekend's" and rewrite that as "week's" and now you know what I have really been up to. And actually, this year it's a week and a half!  FIL came down week before last to help DH on a project--putting a new roof on the woodshed, and turning it into a deck in the process--and he was ready to head back to Chico on Weds last week.  Well, this week is Vacation Bible School at Oma and Opa's church there in Chico, so we were already planning on taking the kids up this past weekend.  MIL suggested we just send the kids up with Opa a few days early.  Well, why not?  So the annual WWC began last Thursday morning--whoo-hoo! 

Yes, I have projects and things I have been planning to do this week--but the bonus days at the end of last week I decided to make my own personal "mental health" days.  The goal was just to do whatever would make me feel good.

--I started a long overdue cleaning job, on the new baskets I bought for the shower room that have to be meticulously brushed clean because they are starting to mold now that we're not making fires every morning. (Welcome to my world!)  But I am just doing a few baskets at a time, stopping whenever I feel like it and giving myself permission to walk away.  I've got all week. 

--I have exercised almost every day (that's a big accomplishment for me!) by dancing around the house, usually with a can of beans in each hand.  If you don't think that's exercise, think Flashdance.  That's what I've been channeling. Well, that and a little nod to the Sharks and Jets.  Every time I have ended up exhausted and sweaty--but smiling.

--I am eating so little, and feeling so much freedom in that.  I wrote last year about this revelation--that I feel like I normally spend so much of my waking thought on food, and am a little bit of a slave to my wonky blood sugar, yet find my urges for healthy foods like raw fruits and veggies thwarted by my allergies. Ptttthhhhhhbbbbb.  I am still trying to figure out what my body really needs, and then manage to make meals that are good for my body and that are fairly easy to make.  It has not been easy, and I am LOVING having days on end where I don't really need to eat--I am hungry, and that's ok.  I'm not going to be failing as a mom because of it.  I have nothing time-sensitive to accomplish, so I don't need a lot of energy.  I am hungry and it's OK.  It really is spiritually liberating for me.

--Then again, most of what I ate the end of last week was complete junk!  Bwah-ha-ha-ha!  I did errands on Thursday, and found myself driving past an excellent bakery (called The Buttery--if that tells you anything) that I normally never go by, and so I stopped in. And bought two decadent cupcakes--which served as "lunch" for the next two days, so yummy with my tea. ; ) 

--The cupcakes and tea also went really well with the Netflix movies I streamed in the middle of the day, just because I could.  And then Friday night DH and I watched the most recent Les Miserables on DVD--I know a lot of people say negative things about it, but it is still powerful and I think the casting was excellent (and have my official film theorist reasons why, which of course DH got to hear all about last night. ; ).  I also really enjoy the extra dimension lent to the final chorus of "Do You Hear The People Sing" in the movie--the visuals that suggests the line "beyond the barricades is there a world you long to see" is not only politically motivated, but spiritually.  That death itself is a barricade, and heaven is where we will one day find true, complete freedom from all that oppresses us. 

--Yes, with a quiet house and few distractions, I actually have been getting some good thinking in!  I've been working on designing different options/looks/themes for the bunks I really hope we will build this summer for the kids--and even if we don't use any of the designs, I had so much fun getting all creative!  I've been really thinking outside the box, and have been mentally playing with everything from wooden porch posts and rails to copper pipe to antique corbels to wrought iron lamp posts--yes, for structural elements for bunk beds!  Oh, the pin-worthy pictures in my head! ; )

--Oh, the luxury of a "vacation" of not cooking this past week, and eating our favorite indulgences!  We bought a Papa Murphy's gourmet vegetarian pizza, MoBo Sushi vegetarian rolls (ooooooh, I dream of these), and our favorite local Aptos Street BBQ--each of these fed DH and I for two meals.  Chipotle veggie fajitia burritos (if you ask for both kinds of beans and two kinds of salsa and all the extras, those babies are stuffed as big as they can be) were an even better deal--one burrito fed me for three meals!).  Frankly, food expense-wise, this is as cheap of a vacation as we could get. : )  And now I'm getting hungry. . . what do we want to eat for our main meal today?  Ah, this is such a treat.

--I got my hair cut.  And I splurged on a real salon, because I am tired of feeling old, and I wanted to see what a real stylist would do.  Here's the before, at the salon:

My hair had suffered a LOT of damage from my years of pulling it back into sloppy buns with elastic bands.  My advice to you--don't do it.  My poor hair really needed to be loped off to where it was healthy.  So here's the after, at home:

 

Not bad, considering this was taken the next day, after I slept on it.  (I put back on the same blouse so it would be as accurate "before and after" as possible. The "after" pic taken at the salon did not turn out.)  The third day of the haircut, after I washed it and then learned how much magic the stylist did with her conditioner and brush and blowdryer, it didn't look nearly as good.  So for church on Sunday I actually dug out the old fat curling iron I had back in my college years that's been living in a bin under the house to smooth things out nicely. . .  Not sure I will be doing that on a regular basis, so maybe I will just settle for being content with my hair no longer looking so stringy and tired as in photo #1, and who cares if it's pretty.

So that's a fairly good overview of the first half of our WWC. The second half will not be nearly as frivolous--yes, I do have some projects I did want to accomplish before the end of the week.  But it will still be fun, and I'm hoping to make the most of it!

May you all be having good weeks, whatever you are doing!