This morning I woke up around ten past seven, and heard HRH and Liam talking about going to see Grandma. It’s Liam’s first Grandma day since she fell ill last month, and both of them have been missing their alternate Fridays together. By seven-forty Liam had his shoes on and was cheerfully heading out the door with HRH. I waved to them as they drove away, then made myself a cup of latte and settled down to enjoy my morning of nothing. This is my first day in ages of not being home with the boy, or taking him out to childcare then getting home to begin the day around ten and hit my stride around twoish, only to finish around four or four-thirty and go get him again.

After a week of business stuff and scrambling to meet a deadline because of how childcare days happened to fall, I have a day with nothing crucial scheduled in it. And I have kept it as a day of nothing instead of working on my own writing. Well, I scrubbed walls and most of the kitchen (our pantry doors are white, who knew?) which amuses me, because did I scrub baseboards and doors before my mother visited? No, I did not. But for some reason it seems important to do it before kids between one and six years come over for Liam’s party tomorrow. (Stupidly, I didn’t think of the whole FMS limited-energy-available thing, so I blew my whole day’s worth of spoons on scrubbing walls. I feel rather the idiot.) I have made a Totoro t-shirt for Liam as a birthday gift. I have made a list of Things To Do between this afternoon and tomorrow morning. And other than that, I’ve relaxed, read news and journals, discovered a pre-Ghibli Takahata film entitled Goshu (or Gauche) the Cellist and have been watching ten-minute sections of it on YouTube. It just feels really, really nice to not be watching the clock, trying to fit in as much work as possible between getting home and having to leave to pick up the boy, and stressing. Granted, there will be running around this afternoon when HRH comes home around 1:30, but until then, my time is my own.

I honestly don’t remember the last time I just relaxed and enjoyed a morning like I have so far today.