The Weekend Winding Down

Grrrr. I need to be more zen. Sunday evenings should be an enjoyable time--we've had a fun weekend as a family and except for the fact that Martin has to go to work all day, my weeks are perfectly great. And if I were living in the moment, I'd be fully savoring this time when Anja is asleep upstairs and Martino and I are sitting here on the couch together splitting a beer. But I'm not very zen and I'm bad at living in the moment and all I can think about is waking up early tomorrow and Martin going off to work and me staying here with the ants and the animals.

We had a really fun and productive weekend. It's pretty nice having a baby as an alarm clock. We used to spend our Saturday mornings in bed. We rarely got up before 11:00 on Saturdays until Anja was born. But now it's great because we get up around 7:30 or 8:00 and we have the entire day ahead of us! We can achieve so much! This Saturday we got up early and got ready for our day before Martin went to the vets to pick up Karenin from her spaying operation. We carried out our plan of keeping her in her cage and leaving the house as not to bother her by driving down to Indy to go to the Keystone mall, at my sister's suggestion. She told us J.Crew had some great sales (they'd been down the weekend before.) So we thought, why not? and headed down. WELL, we didn't buy anything at J.Crew (although they did have some fabulous prices) but the trip was well worth it when I came away with a pair of Gap Long & Leans for $6.97. !!!! I took them up to the register and said, "Are these for real?" And indeed they were! That ended up being our only purchase of the day, but it was a lot of fun to look at all the fancy stores. We drooled over the baby clothes at Janie & Jack's, and Baby Gap, and we looked at all the super fun, and super expensive ties at Brooks Brothers. We felt very fancy looking at linen clothes and $40 onesies. However, we skipped over Tiffany's.

We ate Chinese food for lunch at the mall and came home later in the afternoon, in time to meet Matt Aiken at McCords for a coke and for Martin to get a run in before dinner. I made some vegetable soup, which boiled down and burned while I was playing my guitar at the kitchen table. I was six feet away and the dinner burned! Ugh. I don't know what we did after dinner, but I'm sure it was fun.

I forgot to mention Friday. On Friday when Martin got home from work we ate leftover stirfry for dinner while we watched a Raffi concert on DVD. Afterward Anja and I went on a little date. (You're going to think all I do is shop! It's not true!) We went to Plato's Closet where I found for myself THE sweater I saw on girls all over town and coveted for the entire fall and winter. I got it for $4.00. I also bought a pretty dress for $8.00 that I intended to wear for at least one of the weddings we're attending this summer. Sadly, it didn't fit and I returned it on Saturday. I don't think I really need to tell you if it was too big or too small. All I have to say is "Moo." (I love breastfeeding, but as I've said before, I'm looking forward to the benefits of NOT being a nursing mother.) From there we went to Once Upon a Child where I bought for Anja the cutest brown overalls with embroidered flowers on them and a pretty white sundress, also with embroidered flowers. I remember my grand total being $5.75, but each piece was $4.00, so maybe one was on sale and I didn't realize it. Aaaanyway... good deals all around!

Then came Sunday. 7:30 mass and McDonald's coffee on the way home. We cooked up some eggs and toast at home and afterward went straight to work in the yard. Martin mowed and when Anja went down for her later nap around 11:00 I joined him outside pulling weeds like a madwoman and finding the most gigantic wild onions on the planet. We tied Karenin to her line on the tree and she was good all day, except for the one time she slipped her collar and disappeared and Martin found her down at the end of the alley. Oops! I went outside and there was nothing in the yard but an empty green collar attached to a dog line. Martin worked hard all day cutting down trees and chopping them up and hauling them to the road. The Cooks were out for a lot of the afternoon too, and it's always nice to have a neighbor to talk to over the fence.

When Anja woke up we met up with Matt Aiken at Vienna, then came back to do more yard work. Anja joined us in her exersaucer on the patio, and I think she liked being out there with us for awhile. If it's nice this week, I should spend some time outside with her in the yard. For dinner Martin's family brought over Subway sandwiches. We hadn't seen John Mooney since Easter, so it was good to see him again. And I always do enjoy a cherry coke.

And now it's Sunday evening. I was going to bake up my friendship bread tonight, but I was too lazy and the ants made it slightly unappetizing. So I guess it'll have to wait until tomorrow, which really means it will have to wait until Tuesday because tomorrow is looking pretty full.

Another good weekend come and gone!