What the Future Holds?

Friday, just as I was tucking in Pumpkin for her nap, The Princess went skipping off to play with the neighbor (yes, the same snotty neighbor who wanted my daughter to rid the sandbox of ants – see, I knew it wouldn’t be long before my kid had dropped the grudge! But… I’m still carrying it).

My house was quiet. There were no kids to care for. No snacks to be made. No juice boxes to be opened. No diapers needing changing.

Wow.

I was able to get a big chunk of a project for work done. Awesome. I was able to sweep and scrub the floors in the kitchen, mudroom, laundry room and bathroom. Yay me. I read a bit of my book. I added some music to my iTunes library. I started the homemade dough for our pizza dinner. I sat around doing nothing. I caught up on blog-reading. I cleaned the living room a bit.

And nearly three hours later when Pumpkin woke up, The Princess was still playing with her friend. Hubby had arrived home at that time with Stepson, so I was able to then go out for a walk.

To have that huge chunk of time for myself makes me so optimistic about this fall. The Princess starts kindergarten in September, and for kindergarten the schedule is either Monday/Wednesday with every other Friday, or Tuesday/Thursday with every other Friday. School runs all day. This means that two, sometimes three days a week, I am going to have these blocks of time where one kiddo is napping and one isn’t home. Wow. That I’m actually going to be able to get a good chunk of work done DURING THE DAY versus working for hours after the kids go to bed (every night) is pretty thrilling. Even having time to decompress, put on the headphones and pick up around the house or start dinner prep without someone asking for a glass of chocolate milk. I mean, what on earth am I gonna do with myself?

I’m not fooling myself into thinking Pumpkin’s gonna take three hour naps every day, but, goodness, I’m somewhat excited by it all. I feel bad looking forward to the time The Princess will be at school, but you know: I am excited for her too. I wouldn’t be this thrilled if I didn’t know that she was going to have an awesome time in kindergarten. She’s going to love it. She’s going to love school. And she’s going to do just fine. I think these are going to be great times for us both.