Saturday, September 03, 2005

Weekend Bliss

Coffee and The Writer's Almanac, The Dog barking "good sabbath" as the neighbors walk by, The Child eating "sweet cereal" and watching cartoons (only allowed on the weekend) and the day stretching before me with no obligations or commitments. The laundry is done, the dishes are done, groceries are in the house...ah, the weekend.

We're having the usually Labor Day Do tomorrow. A surprising number of the usual suspects are out of town but the folks who are coming are big fun. I may decide to bake brownies today instead of doing it tomorrow after church, but maybe not. I love not having to be anywhere or do anything. I'm fixin' on playing a nice long game of "Age of Empires" today.

Yesterday with The Child was less than blissful. There were two episodes of note. The first was in the morning when I caught her and one of the neighbor kids on the roof. Yes, on the roof. Of our house. I ordered them down, sent the neighbor home and banished The Child to her room until I stopped spurting blood from my ears. According to the logic of an 11 year old, however, I was completely over-reacting, unfair and a host of other invectives, topped off with a steaming dose of "You are the worst person in the world" screamed at level 10. Maybe this roof-top exercise was some sort of show of solidarity with the people of New Orleans, which is certainly impressive in ones so young and yet I remain confident in my position that it was a bad, bad idea.

Later in the evening, after I had been restored to regular Mom status, The Spouse caught The Child eating olives in our room. He asked her to please not eat in our room and to finish her olives elsewhere. She complied. When he left she then helped herself to more olives and returned to our room, only this time she leaned out of the window. The Spouse caught her, banished her and the caterwauling began. He won the prize though because I think "I hate you!" beats "You're the worst person in the world". Yeah, Daddy! (Those of you who knew me at a tween/teen may snigger at will but please keep it to yourself).

After all sorts of tears and acrimony (hers) and fierce lecturing and finger-in-the-face posturing (mine) we calmed down and I asked (ever the brilliant, sensitive and on-it mother) if anything was bothering her. And of course, she's nervous about the first day of school. Sixth grade is a big deal and she still has her doubts about some of her classmates. (There are a couple princesses in that class who I would personally like to have alone for 15 minutes. Just 15 minutes...) But she's excited about her teacher and seeing her friends. So we talked for a while and had a cuddle and then she got up and brought her backpack into my room. She started unloading it and arranging all the contents just so all over my bed. "This helps calm me down," she explained. "I've done it like 12 times already". After she got it all arranged, she looked at it for a moment, then crossed herself and started reloading. Whatever works.

So, in the ebb of all that emotion, she's much calmer today. The Spouse is full of little tunes and happiness because he has a three days off. And as I mentioned, the house looks lovely. Plus, I got some super fantastic shoes yesterday which I cannot wait to wear to church tomorrow. Don't you just love the weekend?

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