Five Days in My Life

I am exhausted and restored at the same time.  I am full-up and empty.  I am lost and fully aware of my place in the universe.  I am full of joy and feeling the touch of bittersweet pain.

I just spent a week with my grand-children while their parents went away to celebrate their 40th birthdays.  Now, firstly, you must realize that I am not old enough in spirit to have children passing their 4th decade of life.  But it appears that factually I am that old!  Secondly, being responsible for a 3-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 10-year-old who spend the majority of their day in school and who are in bed between the hours of 8:00 and 9:00 PM cannot be portrayed by any stretch of the imagination as a difficult job.  They are really amazingly organized and well-behaved children.  They have rooms full of toys and books and games and their brains are sharp and creative.

I did not have a job to go to during the day or course work to complete in the evenings.  THEIR homework was sometimes challenging, on the other hand.  I was embarrassed to admit going brain dead briefly when working with fractions.  The terrible photo-copies of assignments sent home did not help in trying to understand some of the questions, but we muddled through.

We went to a park, hiked a trail, practiced bike rides, played board games, saw a movie, and walked to and from school each morning and afternoon.  They read to me and I read to them every single evening.  Even the 3-year-old has a favorite book that he read to me EVERY single night and we laughed at exactly the same places each time.

I cooked the healthy meals that Mom had left behind for me and they ate the carbs and protein and dabbled at the vegetables.  I got donuts for breakfast and chocolate Easter eggs for dessert, so we did not eat too healthy. 

So now I am spending daytime hours winding down back in my own quiet house in the woods.  Hubby is on travel and being in the house alone is much like a meditative experience for me right now.  I bought some new chanting music and plan on listening to it tomorrow and then plan the rest of my week and continue my process of being so thankful for what I have.