Thursday, April 24, 2008

A room of her own, and time

The other night, while not entirely typical, wasn't too far off of a normal day.

Son #1 wanted to see his girlfriend.
Son #2 wanted to attend a National Art Society thing at school.
Sons #3 and 4 had tae kwon do.

So, I took Son #1 to The Girl's house. Went home, started emptying the dishwasher, in preparation for making dinner. Piled the remaining Sons into the car, drove to the school, and then to the tae kwon do school, and then home. Back to the dishwasher. Son #4 called: he had been injured. So, back to tkd, and then home. More dishes. Time to pick up Son #3. Home. Dishes. Pick up Son #1. Thankfully, Son #2 found a ride home with a friend. Also great: Hubby ordered pizza. Because clearly I was never going to get dinner on the table.

So what would I do, if I had actual time? All the time I wanted, to do what I want?

I would read the manual
I love Hubby's camera. Use it more than he does, lately. But I would love to spend a day reading the manual and figuring out more about it.
Same goes with the computer.
The web cam.


I would catch up on all the housework
This sounds deathly boring, and it IS. But it would be nice to feel like everything was in its place, and smelled of scented candle instead of dog.

I would spend time in the city, alone
The Happy Boondocks are fine for raising children, but I really miss DC. I miss Baltimore. I would love to spend a day, every month or so, just walking the streets of a city. Stopping somewhere for lunch. Taking photos of the architecture. Visiting museums. Just roaming the city to see what catches my eye.

I would go dancing a lot more
Especially to fantastic blues music.

Speaking of which, I would follow ACME Blues Company and the Idle Americans like a Deadhead.
Hubby says I already pretty much do that. But he has no idea how often I think, "They're only playing an hour from here. I could go!"

I would go on long, meandering drives. I love to drive. I even enjoy the Beltway.

I would write more

I would take more pictures

I would spend a lot more time at the gym.

I think I would do some artsy stuff--nothing really impressive, but learn to silkscreen with Fiddlin' Writer like we keep saying we're going to do.

And most importantly I would spend a LOT of time with my Man. And since this is not officially a sex blog, I will leave the details up to your imaginations.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What do people always say..."You'll miss them when they're all grown up and leave home"
BOLLOCKS! That's when you get to do all that wonderful stuff ;o)

ALF said...

So, I really desperately want to be a stay at home mom. My husband thinks that I will be "bored" because I will "have nothing to do". You can feel free to beat him for me.

Christine said...

Alf, you WILL be bored. Because although you have plenty to do, it is 99% scut work. Doesn't mean it's not worth it, but...the boredom is inescapable, I must admit. It is hard to wrap my head around the idea that I am bored to tears, while having no time to sit down and string three thoughts together.

And you are RIGHT, PENELOPE. As we say on THIS side of the pond, "BULLSHIT!"

Anonymous said...

Ah, my friend, I hear you...I really hear you.....

Jill said...

I'm always amazed by people who have more kids than me & look less stressed than me...

And even though I seriously always wanted like WAY more than two kids, every SINGLE time I hear the words "science fair" I think more kids would be insanity. Then here you go with a post to prove it!

At any rate, hope you get time for ALL that, slowly but surely.

Alf - I was a stay at home mom until my son was two and you find things to do with yourself, useful things that your kids need. Schools would probably have to shut down without all the stuff parent volunteers do. It's true that there's all the boring stuff that you'd STILL have to find a way to get done even if you work (laundry being my personal all time most hated of all of them) but staying home can definitely be done without going out of your mind with boredom. I mean, when I did it there wasn't even any internet and I still wasn't bored! Or there was, but we didn't have it at first... :-0 :-0 :-0