Solitude

Something that I don't find myself dealing with too often is solitude.  My house is busy.  With me, Jim, Michelle and a busy 6 year old in the mix something is always going on.  Most weekend days I find myself  playing catch up trying to make up for everything that I didn't get done during the week, the errands that I neglected, the housework that I didn't have the energy to do or the attention that I failed to give to someone.  So my time is rarely my own.  It is just a fact of life and one that I am not complaining about, it's just the way it is.  But this past Saturday was different.  Jim was working and Michelle was scheduled to work an event down at Baker Park for most of the day. which she has done from time to time.  In the past however, I would probably have gone to the park with her and taken Bella to the different booths and let her play until either Michelle or Bella was done, whichever came first.  If Bella was done first, I would have taken her home and watched her until Michelle got home.  I have never minded doing it either.  Bella and I have a great time together and I would do anything to help Michelle out!  But this time, she didn't even ask for my help, as a matter of fact I didn't even know about it until late in the week.  Why?  Because of this:

This is Shawn.

He and Michelle are dating.  Shawn is also the father of a six year old boy named Aiden, and he was to have Aiden for the weekend.  So, Shawn volunteered to meet Michelle and Bella at the park and take Bella for the day.  He took the two kids around the park for a while and then got them some lunch and then they went to Aiden's baseball game.  Michelle was hoping to get to the game, but by the time she finished up the game was over.  Anyway, Shawn had the two kids for the day and I had the day to myself!  He may be wearing a tiara in the picture (courtesy of Isabella) but in my book he's a real prince.

So, what did I do with myself all day?  Well, first I ironed all of the clothes that had been stacked up waiting to be ironed.  For some reason whenever anyone is home and I want to iron, someone says 'Don't do that now, come sit.' so I never seem to get it done.  Got it all done.  Next I spent about two hours cleaning my bedroom, really cleanig it.  I love it when I can really dedicate time like that to cleaning instead of just giving it a cursory once over.  Next up was the living room.  Now something had really been bothering me in that room all week.  Every time I went in there I smelled something, but I couldn't find the source of the smell.  I kept thinking that one of the dogs had fouled themselves or it was stinkbugs or something, but I just couldn't find it.  Well, I was bound and determined to find the source of the smell and find it I did.  Any guesses?

If you guessed an unfound Easter Egg you would be right!  It was between a large plant pot and the plastic lining of the basket that the potted plant sat in.  The egg was liquified and stuck to both the pot and the plastic and smelled so bad that when I picked it up the dogs went running outside!  What a mess that was to clean up.  How did we not know it was missing in the first place?  Well, Michelle and Timmy hid the eggs and before we were able to get downstairs, the dogs were down there and had taken some of the eggs but we didn't know how many they had taken.  So, when we couldn't find any more, we thought we had gotten them all.  The egg that I found was hidden between the plant and the basket and must have been bumped and fallen down to the bottom of the basket and somehow gotten jostled enough to get underneath the potted plant!  Go figure.  Next year it's plastic eggs all the way!

I finished cleaning the plant up and the rest of the living room, cleaned the foyer floor and the powder room, the kitchen and then made fresh banana nut bread because I had a few over ripe bananas.  It was just a really nice day!  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I even scrapbooked a little bit and got in a quick nap.  Amazing what you can do in a day!