Home Alone

Today was my first day home alone with no kids in 14 months.  I felt a little bit like Kevin McCallister:

Seriously, I was by myself from 7:30 until 6:15 without seeing another human being that wasn’t on TV.  A lot of people had asked me how I would be spending this day and suggested complete leisure, but I decided to find a balance between have to do and want to do, so this was my day:

5:00 am - got up and did some online correspondence

6:00 am – packed lunches for my family

6:30 am – fed the kids and got them dressed

7:00 am – took the kids to the basement to play

7:30 am – waved goodbye

Then I decided to give myself just 30 minutes to do what I would call damage control in the kitchen.  I could spend hours in there cleaning and organizing, but it wasn’t my priority for today.  So, for the next half hour I did dishes, wiped surfaces, took out the compost waste and the garbage, etc.  At 8:00 I started my major project for the day: cleaning the master bathroom.  It took about two hours, including scrubbing the tub and the shower and the toilet and doing the mirrors and sinks and countertops and floor and windows.  And now it’s perfectly spotless, sparkly, and fresh… for about another thirty minutes when it’s time to get the kids ready for bed.

At about 10:00 I took a break to eat breakfast, check my email, and post a blog about Emilia’s first day of preschool.  Then I did a little picking up where needed.

11:00 am – lunch and TV

11:30 am – called my mom for an hour and a half

1:00 pm – laid down to read but fell asleep

4:00 pm – woke up… wow, that was a three hour nap

From 4:00 until 5:15 I tackled my #2 project which is cleaning out the loft area.  This involves sorting children’s clothes to consignment, Goodwill, hand-down piles, putting clean children’s clothes away in their drawers, cleaning off a couch that no one has been able to sit on in months… you get the idea.  I am now about 65% done with the loft revival.  While I was working on the loft, I watched a re-run of Gilmore Girls, one of my all-time favorite shows.  Ah, the sweet joys of undisturbed TV time.

At about 5:30 I started cooking dinner and then I just waited for my gang to come home.  They were running very late and did not get here until 6:15.  Emilia was a little mad at me when she came in and would not look at me or hug me.  I was quite pleased with this behavior because it means she missed me and loves me.  She soon decided that she wanted her mama more than being upset and settled in with me for lots of cuddles and giggles.

And what did my children do while I was home alone?  Here are some excerpts from their daily reports:

“Emilia showed some interest and effort toward interacting with her peers today.  This morning a group of classmates were playing with the people figures and doing imaginative play.  Emilia joined the group as she was very interested in the figures.”

“Rex enjoyed listening to music and used a maraca while the music was playing.  He signed ‘done music’ when we left the blue room after music time.  We worked on fine motor skills.  A therapist helped Rex, but he sat quietly and tried hard.  He did a great job matching.”

Hubby was in an all-day meeting with the global capital systems leadership for P&G Babycare.

All in all, a good day for our family.