Two weeks ago, when it was 30 degrees outside and the kids were running around the backyard with the water hose, I decided to plan a BBQ for all the people who have had us over in the last few months, along with a few new faces from around the neighborhood or from Justin’s class. I reasoned that I could handle a fairly lengthy guest list because the kids would be running amok in the yard rather than in my living room. And almost no one said no, so we were set for a good time. Then the weather went to s*** and we found ourselves praying that the rain would stay away long enough to at least let the kids play outside (37 people crammed into my house would not have been much fun). We got lucky — it was cloudy and a little cool, but it never actually rained, and everything went pretty much the way we’d hoped. I was too busy to get many pictures, but there are a few (check ‘em out in the photo gallery).

Inspiration for this blog has been hard to come by lately, but maybe that’s actually a good sign, since it means there are no major crises in my life. I’ve noticed I’m not the only one who’s been slacking — a few of the blogs I read regularly haven’t been updated in a while either. It’s interesting that my public writing (this blog) and private writing (my journal) often mirror each other, and while there are things I write privately that I don’t share publicly, it’s been a while since my last journal entry too. The bottom line: life is kind of boring these days.

But I’ll take boring. One of my college classmates passed away unexpectedly last week, and while I didn’t know him all that well, it was still a shock to think of someone my age dying so suddenly (the guy was only 35!) I don’t want to get into all the feeling-a-sense-of-mortality stuff, so suffice it to say that boring is not a bad thing.

How is it possible that there’s only a month left of school?!? I always dread the end of routine, but the summer is shaping up to be pretty busy (summer camps, my brother’s wedding, my course in Vancouver) so I’m not going to complain too much ahead of time. The boys are independent enough now that they don’t require supervision every second of the day, but I often have to referee, so life is a lot easier when at least one of them is out of the house. We’ll see how things go.

Chris promised me a day to myself to make up for leaving town over Mother’s Day, so last weekend I had a day out with the girls: nine holes of golf followed by a nice lunch and a chick flick in the afternoon. At least two members of the group were only golfing to make me happy, but I think everyone ended up having a pretty good time. The next day Chris and I took the boys mini golfing and then out for dinner, both of which went great, so I have to say it was a kick-ass long weekend.

Someone’s calling for mom (sigh)…

I’m on day two of a four-day stint as a single mother while Chris jets off to Seattle for a weekend of baseball and beer. Over MOTHER’S DAY. OK, so he’s going for my brother’s stag, and he didn’t have any input in the date selection, but what were the organizers thinking? Almost all of them are leaving wives and small children behind to go get drunk with their buddies at some Mariners games. You just wait for Father’s Day…

I almost missed the Mother’s Day tea at kindergarten cause I had no one to watch Brayden, but at the last minute a friend of mine volunteered her husband for babysitting duty, so it all worked out in the end. I’m glad I went, cause it was a much bigger deal than I’d expected, and it would’ve been heartbreaking for Justin to be the only kid whose mom couldn’t come. They gave us cake and iced tea, the kids sang a few songs and everyone got to read the forms the kids had filled out with details of their moms (apparently Justin thinks my favorite TV show is Sid the Science Kid). It was pretty cute.

Up to this point the weekend has been filled with the kids’ activities, most of which Chris usually handles, so I’m still catching my breath. Justin had swimming yesterday, which is always a challenge cause I spend the entire time making sure Brayden doesn’t jump in the water, run on the pool deck or crack his head open on the concrete steps. This morning I dropped Brayden off at Grandpa’s (thank God) so I could take Justin to gymnastics, then this afternoon we’re all off to Brayden’s gymnastics class, during which Justin will hopefully stay occupied with his iPod. The real problem with all this running around is that it happens at exactly the times I would normally be making meals, so I’ve had to do a lot of cooking early in the day so we have something to reheat at the appropriate time. Whew.

But tomorrow is Mother’s Day, and more importantly it’s the day the kids spend the entire morning at Grandpa’s, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I haven’t had time to figure out what I’m going to do with my free time, but I’m sure I’ll come up with something. The grandparents are hosting dinner tomorrow night, so I don’t even have to cook, which is a huge bonus. Mother’s Day has actually been a little weird for a couple years now — we missed it last year cause Chris and I were on a plane back from Rome, and this year Chris is away again and I’m overdosing on family togetherness. C’est la vie.

(P.S. I love you Mom!)

It was pretty much a perfect Easter weekend. We used our points to fly Mom out for the weekend, and Dave drove down from Kamloops, so we had a nice family visit. Chris’s brother was also in town from Prince George, so he and Chris entertained the boys while Mom, Dave and I went golfing — we played three rounds in three days (and I birdied the last hole!) so that was awesome. I hosted Easter dinner, but that really just involved putting a ham in the slow cooker, so the whole thing was pretty stress-free. Very cool.

We actually kept forgetting it was Easter, so we didn’t really talk up the whole bunny-egg-candy thing with the kids, but they seemed to enjoy themselves. Justin took a while to warm up to the egg hunt (naturally) but once he got into it he was really into it — he even insisted on taking all the plastic eggs over to Grandpa’s house so he could hunt for them over there too. Brayden ate his Easter treats in a hurry and almost succeeded in stealing his brother’s. Good times all around.

We are officially past the toddler years — Brayden turned four yesterday. The day before, we had a Cars party for him (naturally) which went pretty well despite the wild and wacky weather (the kids did manage to play on the trampoline for a while in between all the snow, rain and hail). Justin was actually napping when the guests arrived, so when he woke up to a house full of people his anxiety got the better of him, and he never really got comfortable enough to join in the fun. Everyone else seemed to have a good time, though, and when I put Brayden to bed that night he told me, “All my friends came for a play date!” so he’d obviously enjoyed himself. Check out the pictures in the photo gallery.

And now that the birthday is over, it’s time to focus on Easter. My mom is coming for the weekend, as is my younger brother, plus we just found out Chris’s brother will also be in town, so the kids will be super busy. The forecast promises to be better, so I’m hoping to get out for a round of golf, but we’ll have to see.

And just 14 months from today we start our next cruise (sigh)…

I often wish there was less of a conflict between what I actually want to do and what I think I should want to do. I’ve been pondering the fact that I’m only a year and a half away from having both kids in school full time, which will leave me doing…? I feel like I should want to do some retraining and get back into a real career — but what I actually want to do is get a mindless part-time job (maybe cleaning houses…I used to work for Molly Maid in the summers between college years) so that I could fill some hours and make a little money but not have to turn around and spend it on child care. I also feel a bit guilty for wanting such a scenario because a lot of my friends are single moms struggling to support their families, whereas I’m fortunately not the one who pays the bills in our house. (Actually, while I’m glad I don’t have to be the breadwinner, it kind of bugs me that I couldn’t fill that role. Argh.)

We’re on day 3 of 14 of the kids being home all the time (curse you, spring break!) but actually it hasn’t been too bad so far. Justin was home sick for most of last week, which made me feel like we were under house arrest, but he’s feeling better now, so at least there’s a chance we’ll get out to a few parks (Brayden is showing signs of coming down with the same nasty cold, but we won’t focus on that right now). Both boys actually spent the morning at Grandpa’s, so I took full advantage of the free time and did all kinds of errands, including jogging my two miles on the treadmill. Ahh…

One of the many things I did this morning was book our cruise for next year. OK, so it’s 15 months away, but it’s nice to have something to look forward to. We’re going to spend two and a half weeks touring northern Europe — very cool. The cruise even spends three full days in St. Petersburg, which is one of the places I’ve always said I would love to see but would probably never go to. Awesome!

My sweet, bright, curious, charming little boy is six years old today! I can hardly believe how grown up he seems these days. A couple of his kindergarten friends came over for a play date this afternoon (Justin actually asked for this play date, which is a first) and it was amazing to watch the boys all play together. Justin had the odd Asperger moment where I’d have to intervene, but the other boys took it all in stride and never once treated him like an outcast, which really made my heart swell. These were kids his own age who liked and accepted him for who he was — what an incredible thing to see.

Happy birthday little man!

Today marks 22 years since I started my journal, which means I am one of the unfortunate few who can revisit (in great detail) their 12-year-old self. I don’t actually do that, of course — those older volumes are buried in a closet somewhere, plus I have no desire to go that far back in time. I sometimes look back two or three years, but that’s about it. Part of me believes that having my life on paper like that could help me be a better mom once my kids hit their teen years, but that remains to be seen.

Speaking of getting on in years…Justin turns six next week, which just seems unreal. We’ve got him doing a few things around here he never used to do (he gets his own breakfast, makes his own bed, washes the kitchen floor) and I constantly marvel at how much he’s grown up. He’s even doing so well at school that his aide has been telling the resource teacher that Justin doesn’t really need her, which is amazing. His class has been learning how to square dance and it’s beyond adorable to see him do-se-do’ing and laughing with all the other kids. His anxiety level is way, way, way down (at a birthday party a couple weeks ago he was right in there whapping the balloons with everybody else, and it wasn’t long ago that balloons would freak him out to the point that he would have to leave the room) and it’s just awesome to see.