A Day Trip... For Her

Yesterday was a day trip with my wife. Today is a day trip for my wife. The difference: I didn't go today. I was invited, which is fine because I didn't want to go. I wasn't uninvited either, which is nice because excluding each other is a generally bad idea. She went to Johnson City, TN, tonight to go try out "Black-Light Yoga" (link is a .pdf) at Simple Abundance Yoga, a studio owned by one of her friends that she met in Asheville. I stayed home to feed and watch the kids (more accurately, the "teenagers").

It's already been an adventure. Sullen and Moody took a two-hour bath earlier, blocking up the bathroom (which for over an hour of that time was the only bathroom in the house because the other is in my wife's office which was being used). Then she came out and claimed that the experimental bread that I cooked and then fed to her made her stomach hurt (you're welcome) and that she probably needed something sweet to settle her stomach (she's addicted to sugar like a junkie to the point where we took all of the sugar in the house with us to Asheville yesterday to keep her out of it -- she'll sit and eat it with a spoon or put it triple-strength in tea, which she'll then drink like a chain smoker going through cigarettes). I made her eat more bread and then made her some potatoes and green beans. That's about when Clueless and Belligerent showed up....

Clueless is currently in trouble. She's got a really bad habit of being late when we take her places and then tell her when and where we'll be picking her up (90% of the time letting her choose the time, with some contraints). The most recent time it happened, we told her that it wasn't okay and Belligerent spoke up, as usual (note: Clueless and Belligerent are two sides of the same child). Because of that, we didn't let her little friend come over the other day, so she asked if she could walk home through the park and hang out for a little bit with her friend. She didn't wander home until almost 9. That wasn't okay. We told her it wasn't okay. Belligerent told us what she thought. That also wasn't okay. Yesterday went without incident (that we know of... we were gone). Today, she left a note saying that she'd be walking home again (since when is that okay?) with a more reasonable time she'd be back by, and then Stupid was late again (note: Stupid is the same child as Clueless and Belligerent). Oh goodness, what to do. I just pointed at the clock and told her that I'd be talking to her mother about this when she gets back. Belligerent only gave me a look that said the belligerent things she's thinking. I love raising/living with teenagers sometimes....

So tonight, after making bread and doing whatever other chores needed to be done today, I went out and finished mowing the lawn (I only did half of it the other day because my wife was working and the sound would have been disruptive near her office), and took the mantle of handling the children so that she could go do something that she really likes to do in a way she's been wanting to do it for a long while. It should be fun, once the kids settle down into the dynamic (or go to their rooms like usual?), although I hear an awful lot of dishes that are going to need to be washed soon because apparently everything needs its own plate or bowl, and even tea has to be sipped out of a mug using a spoon (I really don't get that). Here's a POV view (self taken) of me mowing the wildly overgrown lawn, which now that I'm worked up about the ridiculousness of many of the things the children do I can think of as a relaxing memory of good, easy times:

This is the kind of stuff that my wife celebrates in me. I do this not only without complaining but actually happily, or at least unphased (even on a Friday night!). She has something she really wants to do, and so I'm glad to facilitate making it possible for her. The favor is returned often enough to where I don't feel shorted (not that I probably would unless it was really unbalanced), and everyone's happy.

Two days give two sides to the coin: supporting each other, like I said yesterday, is sometimes a matter of doing things together to show support and more often a matter of taking up the responsibilities that would otherwise hold us back... and doing it because we enjoy seeing each other grow and enjoying our lives.