Lately, I wonder which one it is, my cabin fever or my life as a 53-year old empty-nester mom, that gets me longing for youthful days more? How do I recapture those recharged feelings I had in my youth or those I had during the years when our kids were young?
As the sun sets each night, I am thankful we live in the country where we get to enjoy the quietness and serenity of the ever-changing scenery. It’s nice to take time each day to reflect.
Moments of solitude help refresh my perspective on our current lot in life.
Our kids, with their rubber boots at the ready, would have been planning their next trip to the lake.
Holy crap, the lake – YES! that means we’re getting closer to real spring now! The formation of our temporary lakefront property means things will turn from white and brown, to green grass soon.
When I look out the window in the early morning hours, I get lost in my “me-time” and it kicks start my day.
The deer “me-time”, in this neck of the woods, is always early evenings.
Taking time to be alone is nice.
Like a deer who wonders off from the herd, I, too, can be a faceless person who left the crowd of other faceless people. It’s dark in our house in the early mornings…the pets have been fed and are sleeping or waiting for the Mr. to get up to feed them again.
Other times of the day, it’s nice to be part of our crowd. We work hard together to stay alive and to stay fed. And we get by with a little help from watching friends who stop by briefly as they navigate their way through the world we live in.
When others in my life are off doing their own things, I escape by blog writing and playing with my camera. Those moments bring me joy and cost way less than therapy or trips to far off tropical lands.
What more can I say – the Mr. is one lucky guy. I’m a cheap date, even when we venture out of the house like we did yesterday.
Ah, we know how to create empty-nest happy memories together…
Mr.: “What do you want to do today?”
Me: “I want to do something fun and get out of the house and my office.”
Mr.: “Uh-huh, so what do you want to do?”
Me: “Let’s go to Farm & Fleet, the bank, and stop at Taco John’s for lunch. I’m craving a Taco Bravo, you know, like our cheap date nights of 30 years ago when we first met. It’ll be romantic, right?”
Mr.: “Uh-huh, thanks for planning my day. Sounds like fun. What are we doing after that? We need to make sure we’re close to a bathroom after lunch.”
Me: “Oh yeah, good point. Our aging stomachs are way less tolerable of junk food aren’t they?”
Mr.: “Uh-huh. I’m game, let’s go.”
We both enjoy taking time to separate ourselves from the cat race (aka, Dessy’s meows and the Mr. who chides her to leave him alone, “I already gave you your treats.”).
Me: “I have to finish my blog post first, okay?”
Mr: “Uh-huh, just let me know when you’re ready to go.”
Mr. knows how important it is to let me savor the wasting away of my early mornings. I nourish my soul as I play with the words on the screen. A little grassy swallow or two of my Matcha tea or coffee helps heat the ideas up when I stop to think of what words to type next.
It’s easy to get lost in my own little world.
I glance out the window for inspiration or I take a dip down into words of a book to dig for ideas. I edit the photos from the day before and the ideas join together to form a blog post for the day. I add bits of quirkiness and playfulness to fit it all into a uniform theme.
If I stand still too long, things start to go numb. So, I do a little jig and shake my bootie. I also find myself doing leg squats, ‘cuz that not so little white tail has been sagging of late…53-year old skin has its challenges…and those skinny jeans don’t lie!
Eventually, I notice how much time has flown by (I’ve wasted).
I know when it’s time to look around to see where the others have gone and get on with the realities of the day. (Somebody has to pay the bills and get our record keeping up to date. I’m sure by now the online banking is done with their mandatory update session…I’ve procrastinated yet again…).
Even if our staycation spring has been our ticket to let’s spend-less happiness, my cabin fever remains relentless. Yesterday, I couldn’t stand it anymore. We splurged on lunch (we shared a medium tub of Potato Oles with our Taco Bravos) and the Mr. bought me flower seeds for the garden beds…
After all these years together, he still knows the way to warm my heart!
I can’t wait to enjoy a real deal bouquet of flowers!
And, yep, we’re both good for another 30 years on the Taco John’s lunch deal date idea.
Enough said…the cabin fever has gotten the best of me. I need fresh air or need to hit the treadmill to burn off a bravo calorie or two…hope I can get my legs to cooperate!
Post inspiration – a procrastinator’s entry into Thursday’s: Cee’s Which-Way Challenge
A post I was unsure whether to feel sad or happy about! A good mix of self reflection, outpouring and getting on with things. I felt like someone had held up a mirror and given me a glimpse of ourselves almost 20 years ago. What can I say, in our 47th year of marriage, been there ….. done that! But …. and here’s the rub, at 55 we stopped working, had our very own gap year, re-evaluated then reemerged to do something groundbreaking and completely different, something benevolent, challenging, bringing togetherness ….. OK, I’ll shut up! 🤫🤐
Thank you, Dr. B. Congrats on 47 years of togetherness and adventures. I admire both your wisdom and your challenges to look at life from different perspectives. I’ve got two years to plan a stop at 55 to switch gears…hmm…sounds like a good thing to ponder over a glass of wine? Burgundy if I can find a spot that sells it around here! Thank YOU for sharing your thoughts! As always, I appreciate hearing from you!
Thanks so much for playing this week.
Thank you for the opportunity!
Great post. It is funny how much our lives seem alike. Maybe it is the same for most of us and we don’t know it.
Thank you! I think you’re onto something big! 🙂
Very nice blog . Spending lovely time with our loved ones is the best thing we can can do in our lives. So , we should always try to never miss even one of them . Loved reading your touching blog. God bless you both 🙂
Thank you, Bakshi, I appreciate hearing your thoughts! God bless you and your family, too!
Thanks a lot mam for sharing your beautiful and interesting thoughts. 🙂
Thank you for reading them and for sharing your thoughts. I appreciate hearing from you!
Always welcome mam . So kind of you 🙂