A few weeks ago, I woke up and decided to set out on a run considerably longer than I'm used to - more than my average 3-4 miles. I enjoyed every second of it and was reminded how wonderful it feels to really run and sweat for more than half an hour. As great as it was, I was really tired later! I showered, did some stuff around the house, and then Brooke and I ran a couple of errands while Matt and the boys enjoyed their weekly baseball workout.
Brooke and I got home and had lunch and then I put her down for a nap. I started a load of laundry and then so excitedly headed upstairs to my bed - yes, my bed. I didn't want to doze off on the sofa for a few minutes. I wanted to really sleep for an hour or so between the sheets. The house was quiet. Boys were gone. I got myself all nestled in my bed and just as it ALWAYS is, about 30 seconds after I dozed off, I heard Matt's car pulling up the driveway. Ugh. Well, I stayed put with no guilty feelings. Of course, I did not get the hour of sleep that I wanted - not even close - but I did enjoy my 45 minutes of laying in bed (which included frequent interruptions by the boys).
So, a few years ago, life was a little different from how it is today in that we had only 2 kids, I wasn't working, and the boys were, for the first time, in all day school. While Matt spent 40+ hours slaving away at the office, I spent my time volunteering in the kids' classrooms, playing LOTS of tennis, enjoying frequent lunches with friends, cooking, etc. (& watching the Food Network, Lifetime Movie Network, going on long runs, shopping...). You could say that I was living the "country club life." Of course, I downplayed it all to Matt - exaggerating the amount of time I spent doing the productive things and downplaying all the fun time I was having. I felt guilty that he was working so hard and I was... well, not.
One afternoon, after a long early morning run and several hours of playing tennis, I came home, closed my blinds, showered, put on my pj's, set my alarm to wake me up a few minutes before the bus would arrive, and Sandy (our lab) and I jumped into my bed. Mmmm... I was so happy to be snuggled up with Sandy with an hour and a half of sleep ahead of me. I closed my eyes, just started dozing off (when you're in that beautiful feel good sleep that comes just before you delve into real sleep) when I heard the garage door open and sure enough, Matt was driving up the driveway. {Expletive!}
Quick as lightening, I jumped out of bed, threw on some shorts and a t-shirt, grabbed a can of Pledge and a rag and you better believe, I played it off like I was busy cleaning. I believe I even began cleaning tables and faked a 'oh, I've been working so hard' pant. "Oh, hi honey!" I said as he walked through the door! He never suspected a thing and though he would have given me a hard time in a teasing sort of way, he wouldn't have cared - but I cared. (I played it off beautifully)
Fast forward a few years - add a child, a job, and a few years in age, there is very little time for napping, but if I need one, I shall not feel guilty about it! Sometimes, they are necessary to continue functioning the way we moms must.
If your kids are home, you want a nap and you need them to entertain themselves, please allow me to introduce you to the paracord nation. Matt and I took the kids a few weeks ago to the Sandy Springs Festival (which I loved and decided that I could just bounce from fair to festival to fair every weekend and love every second of it!), and we stumbled across these bracelets:
Apparently they are "trending" right now amongst the kids at school. Champ wanted to buy one for $5.00 from a vendor at the festival. When we walked up to the vendor's tent to buy one, we saw tons of cord in all different colors, clips, and a lady was standing there making one! We inquired and before we knew it, we did not buy the one already made for $5.00 - instead, we bought $5.00 worth of cord and clips so that Champ could go home and make 20 bracelets. What a great consumer lesson for Champ - you can save quite a bit of $$ if you do the work yourself. Not only that, but he and Matthew loved being able to "customize" their own bracelets. They are called Survival bracelets because you have to use several yards of cord to make one bracelet, and if you ever happen to find yourself out in the wilderness, cord can come in quite handy - you just undo the bracelet and whalaa... you have yourself a cord (to do what with, I'm not quite sure - strangle a bear? tie yourself to a tree like Katniss does when you need to sleep?).
I am going to buy a TON of cord (and spend less than $20) for the boys for Christmas because it's a great indoor activity for them that is creative and they enjoy doing it - and pretty soon, we will encounter some cold days when we're looking for something other than X Box or tv to entertain our kids.
Here is the buying information so that you can order some for your kids! The folks we met at the fair sell this cord on Etsy. Click here for the link. If you don't want to order 100 feet of a particular color, you can write to them in the notes section that you only want to buy a few feet.
When you are ready to begin making them, search "paracord bracelet how to" on You Tube and find a 2-3 minute tutorial on how to make them. Then the designing begins! Your kids will have a ball making these and trading them.
Perhaps I will have them make one for me and the next time I need a nap, I'll use the cord to reinforce the lock on the door so that I don't get disturbed. :)
Have a great weekend!
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