20 miles!

I accidentally biked all the way to Beverly yesterday! Backstory: Mike fixed me up an awesome little road bike.



Orange and blue!

I kinda just got on my bike and went. Mike took both boys to the Wenham Museum so I could nap, because I'd had a long sleepless night with a sick kid. But I couldn't sleep, so off I went, figuring I'd turn around after a few miles.

I made it to Manchester-By-The-Sea, and was ecstatic! I asked Mike to drive up 127 and meet me when he got out of the museum, so I just figured I'd keep going until I was really too tired and I'd wait for him. The great part was that 127 ends in Beverly, so the mile markers counted down, and when I got to Manchester it was at 5 miles left, and then I kept going and all of a sudden I saw this:



I was at Pride's Crossing, and Beverly Farms, and then in Beverly, and he happened to be waiting at a light right where 127 ends.

I won't lie, I stopped like 5 times, and walked up a few short but excruciating hills. And I know 15 miles is pretty much a cakewalk for most people, but I'm terribly out of shape, damnit!

Then, later, I took another bike ride around Wenham Lake with Mike, a shorter 5 1/2 mile ride. So, like, 20 miles! Woo!

State of the Garden

Last you saw, I had just planted our garden for the year.



This was taken nearly a month ago, when things were just getting rolling.



And here, this morning. The difference is insane!



Tiny zucchini! Yay!



Peas!

The weedblock stuff is legit awesome (newspaper under it really helps). I won't do it any other way again.

I'm totally okay with days apart from my kid. Am I an anomaly?

Confession: I'm not as distraught as I feel I should be when my kids aren't around me.

It's not like when we're apart I don't miss them. I just seem more detached than the other moms I know. For instance, once every couple of weeks Nathan sleeps over with my mom and dad (and sometimes my siblings who are in college). Sunday night, he asked repeatedly to see my mom until I called her at work, and we arranged to meet to drop him off until the next day. Sure, I missed him a little, but I also had so much time to get things done without him. Never at any point while he's with them do I think "I want to leave right now and get him!" A week and a half ago, my mom took him camping for two nights. I think every other mom I know would have never let that happen, but I was happy to get time to do homework and have more time to myself. I was glad to see him when he got back, of course.

The same happened while I was working. I missed them a little, but it was intensely relaxing not to be in a routine of manual labor taking care of them. It's not that taking care of them means constantly toiling, but it does have hard parts. Work has adult-time, which for me was really necessary. My need to feel validated by contributing to a workplace was far more pressing than my need to be around my sons all day, every day.



Maybe the fact that I know they're having fun, and in great hands with either their dad or a grandparent, leads me to be completely relaxed and laid-back about them being without me. Or maybe I'm too detached and individualistic, and I'm not the greatest parent?