So... How Are You Spending All Your Free Time?

Now that I am the parent of two school age kids and Elise is an old kindergarten pro (it's been 12 days!), this is the question everyone seems to be asking. Why anyone needs to ask, I'm not sure, because the answer is obvious: I am sitting around eating bon bons, of course.

I hate that question. Despite my newfound absence of preschoolers in the house, my window of kid-free time is three hours a day. Not that I don't appreciate it, because believe you me, I do. But, I will admit that I have, in a sense, used the cumulative 36 hours of solitude to catch my breath after five plus years of stay-at-home mommy-hood.

I'm scheduled to run my first marathon in nine days. On four of these 12 days, I have gone out for training runs. You read that right. I went out, just me, on four beautiful days, and did something that benefited no one but me. I wish I could tell you that I had every last dish done and every piece of laundry neatly folded and put away before indulging myself in the pure, unadulterated selfishness, but that would be a lie.

And, my selfishness doesn't stop at running. Yesterday after sending my happy kindergarten kid on her merry way, I went to lunch with some friends. At the ripe old age of 34, I was the youngest person at the table. We talked like grown-ups. It was new and different and exciting. At this particular moment, I'm blogging. And, as if all that weren't enough, on Monday, October 4, the day after the marathon, I'm going to get REALLY crazy. I'm going to get my hair cut.

I wish I could tell you that I have put away all the summer clothes, cleaned out each and every one of our disastrously disorganized closets, rearranged my spice cabinet, removed all the clothes the kids have outgrown from their drawers, tried seven new, nutritious and fabulous recipes that even the kids loved, aerated the lawn, started a new and fabulous skin care regime that has me looking like I'm 24, and sent out 62 resumes/filled out applications so that I can spend my whopping 15 hours a week making something of myself and bringing home a paycheck. But despite the recent changes in the life of this family, I still am what I am. I am disorganized, I am somewhat lazy, I am selfish, and I am not one of those moms who takes care of everyone else and leaves nothing for herself. On some level, I have been a bit lazy, I will not deny it. I do have a to-do list as long as my legs (which really aren't long, as legs go, but still... it's a long list), and I am going to get to it. But, I am, for the moment catching my breath. I will apologize if you want me to, but don't ask me to make it a sincere apology.