The Daily Grind

When the car door slams behind my daughters after I drop them off at school, a seven hour stretch of quiet and boredom sets in. Have you ever gone seven straight hours without hearing your voice? I do it most days. I have actually contemplated calling my house phone with my cell phone just to verify that the house phone is working because it has been days since it has rung.

It’s a catch twenty-two. When your children are really little you long for a day alone in the house with peace and quiet. Then they get older and head off to school and most people head back to work full time. Due to my most recent circumstances I am back at home full time with no one to care for. I drop my children off at school and head home to an empty and very quiet house. I passed the point of being able to enjoy the peace and quiet a long time ago. Now it is just plain boring.

My weeks are pretty dull. I do laundry on Monday, clean the house on Tuesday, ummm nothing really for Wednesday, Bible Study on Thursday, and volunteer in Hailey’s classroom on Friday. I also get to go grocery shopping on Friday which is exciting for me because I pretend I am “real” shopping. Due to my recent circumstances I have also had to curb my shopping. Grocery shopping is a close second. Every now and then I get to throw into my week an “extra event”. This could be something like getting my hair cut, going to the PTA meeting, or visiting the dentist. It is on these days that there is a little extra pep in my step, sparkle in my eyes, and glow across my face. Now I ask you, how sad is it when a woman gets excited about her annual exam? It’s just not right.

Just recently I was roaming around my home town when I noticed a home décor store had a sign advertising free home decorating classes. I nearly stood out on the sidewalk and screamed! Are you kidding me? Oh happy day! I ran right in and signed up for every class. That evening I announced to my family that I had signed up for some free home decorating classes. Tom was overjoyed as he feels I definitely need classes in this area. Megan asked me when I would be attending the class. I told her it was on Thursday. She said, “Oh, Bible study and a decorating class all in one day. That’s a big day for you Mom.” So sad when your child even realizes that you have no life.

On the day of my mantel decorating class, a friend of mine from my old hometown emailed me for her routine safety check. I responded that I was alive and doing well. I told her that I had attended a mantel decorating class. Her response was, “What kind of class?” Yes, they do have whole classes devoted specifically to decorating ones fireplace mantel, and yes I attended one. I could tell she was laughing at me from the other end of the email, but she said it sounded like a great class. She admitted that she would be interested in attending a class on mantel decorating. She also stated she was glad to know I wasn’t spending all my days on the sofa viewing one Lifetime movie after another. Well not today anyway thanks to my class, but tomorrow is another story.

My friend shared this mantel decorating news with a mutual friend of ours. Her response was that the class sounded like fun but did they have a mantel building class as she would need that first. I told her I would check at Home Depot and look into it. I offered to take the class and build her a mantel if Home Depot had such a class. My friend didn’t seem opposed to my offer, but then again she’s never heard about my chainsaw massacre.

Yes, it is a challenge to fight the daily grind, but I am finding that there are a lot of unique and interesting opportunities out there. On my list of future possibilities are Salsa classes, a mammogram, and something called Krumba?