Easy, Breezy, Beautiful, Free Weekends

There aren't too many weekends where we aren't jammed packed with things to do at our house. There have been a lot of birthday parties in 2011, which are a lot of fun. There are also special events around town, visitors, etc. And let's not forget the errands...

This weekend, I only had two things on the calendar. I had to do a 7-mile run, and I had to take X-man to Rec Center on Saturday for two programs, the Mad Scientists and the Lego Challenge.

The Rec Center called to tell me the Mad Scientist program was canceled from 1-1:45 p.m. I inquired about the Lego program, but it was still a go. Great, perfect. No worries.

On Saturday morning, I got up and met Special K at her house for a 7-mile run. It was only the second long run I'd done outside this spring. I was pokey. I made her walk three times. And I'm not really fast at all, but when we were done, nothing hurt, and we both seemed happy to have it done and out of the way. I consider those training runs successful.

Afterwards, I went home and played with my family. There were Lego games and movies to watch. X-man was in full Lego mode with MacTroll. So I did some dishes and picked up around the house. Nothing strenuous, just trying to get all the toys back to the floors they belong to. After lunch, we went to the Tolono Library and got X-man his very first library card. He filled up a bag of books and one DVD and checked out himself. He was very proud. But he refused to write his name on his card because he didn't think he could fit it all on the "very small line."

After that, the boys dropped me off at home and I napped from about 2:30-5, while they went to Lego Challenge (and MacTroll did his first brick workout for the triathlon in June). Turns out -- I didn't register him for the Lego program online when I did the Scientists. Instead, I registered him for the Saturday Morning Cartoon program next weekend. Oops!

But, the Rec Center, being as awesome as it is, let X-man come in and play with the three bigger boys, no problem. He didn't get a Lego kit, so MacTroll took him to Wal-mart and got him a helicopter for $10.

Then last night we messed around at home and I decided to take a Mom's night to Target to finally pick up items for a care package for a friend's sister who got deployed last fall. I've been meaning to do this since Christmas. Buying snacks and fun stuff for other people is so much more fun than buying shampoo and conditioner for your own home. It's funny how I'll compare which snack packs of raisins are cheaper to the dime for my family, but when it comes to buying gifts for others, I don't even look. I just toss it in the cart in the name of love and support.

When I got home, I packed up the care package to take to the post office on Monday along with a birthday present for my sister.

This morning I woke up to X-man gently singing, "Twinkle, Twinkle" in my ear. He saw me open my eyes, smiled and crawled into bed giving me hugs and kisses. It was 8:40 a.m. That's pretty late for my little guy. But it was nice. I like when he lays still long enough to really cuddle. We snuggled until he wanted to go play on the computer -- but, of course, I had to go with. So he played on Lego.com (he has an obsession with looking at the various minifigures).

Then I introduced him to watercolors. Yes, that's right. It occurred to me the other day that my child had only painted with washable tempera at home. So I picked up some watercolors. And I was shocked that he claims he's never painted with them at school. This claim was backed up with the fact that he was frustrated when he forgot to wash his brush and got black in the yellow. I smiled, dabbed them clean and then put fresh water at the tops for him. Two pictures later, his experiment with water colors was done.

Then I went to do some laundry and clean up around the house again, before I sat down and rebooked lodging for our summer trip to Lake Lanier. The house we rented fell through, so we're staying at the resort for 2 nights in a basic hotel room with two queens for our triathlon.

Now I'm lying in bed, seriously thinking of taking another nap. There's a large laundry basket full of clean towels to put away staring at me from the end of my bed. But I'm thinking I could just ignore it and roll over.

I love these kinds of weekends. I couldn't have them every weekend or I'd never really get anything done. But it's almost noon and I'm not out of my pjs. If KTDID calls back about walking the dog, I'll totally get up because I'm excited to see her. If not, I think I may just lie about all day...

You can tell "quiet time" is about to approach because suddenly there are frantic and frustrated shouts from X-man that the Lego planes keep falling apart (because he plays with them pretty hard and the more tired he gets, the more awkward his movements are.)

"You don't understand!" he shouts at MacTroll while MacTroll makes his lunch.

A nap is looking better and better. MacTroll is threatening going to the Bob the Builder store to pick up some items to fix a drawer pull in the kitchen, some eco-friendly light bulbs and some brushed metal tie backs for the curtains in the guest room after lunch. Maybe he'll take the kid with him. Of course, right now X-man's running around in a long-sleeve shirt and socks (that's it). Every time he hurts himself (which has been 3 times already today) MacTroll reminds X-man that if he put on underwear and pants his more sensitive bits wouldn't get in the way as often. Alas, the child is still naked...