I’m sitting in my back garden with a glass of icy cold lemonade, listening to the sounds of a lazy summer afternoon. Apart from the buzz of the cicadas, It’s quiet. Eerily quiet. It has been for a week and it will be until the end of the month.
Two years ago, I finally managed to get all my kids away to camp at the same time for two weeks. That first year, I immediately got on a plane (literally that evening!) and enjoyed some long-awaited time just for me. Of course, that blew the budget so when the miraculous two weeks happened again last year, I had more of a staycation.
But this year, with two kids who have been away working at summer sleepaway camp since partway through June, and my youngest away today for a month of “leadership camp” I have four full weeks. For me. Just me! I’m a week in now and still enjoying it. I imagine, if history holds true, that sometime this week, I’ll start to miss the hustle and bustle that comes with three teenagers, but for now, it’s lovely. I’ve made time for dinners with friends, for coffee and drinks with former colleagues, and yesterday, I curled up on the couch and read for hours.
It’s the little things you appreciate at first – how the kitchen sink stays free of dirty dishes and how things stay in the same place you left them. How you’re free to eat dinner whenever you want to and how you can have whatever you want without taking anyone else’s tastes into account. How you can concentrate on the same task without hearing, “Muuuuummmmm!” at the most inconvenient moment. I’m not ashamed to admit that I love that first week I have to myself.
This coming week, I have a few more “productive” things planned. There are some touchups in my house that are a lot easier to deal with when there’s nobody here to run into freshly trim. The garden needs some tending to and I’m pricing out new carpet for the bedrooms. But there’s still at least one coffee evening planned, and the book I started needs finishing.
I don’t know what the second two weeks are going to feel like – it’s uncharted territory. I’ve already had my vacation time this year, so short of a day or two, it will be me and work and the dog. I’m sure that eventually the house will feel too big and the silence will feel too much as the return of chaos gets closer, but for now, I’m taking it easy and enjoying every second of it!
