The morning scramble was over. I’d taken kids to school, given Patch his first-day-of-kindergarten send off, and returned home. I walked into the house…and it was quiet. No thumping, no yelling, no video game sounds or music, not even the quiet clack of lego bricks. It is amazing how loud silence can be. I frequently crave silence, but in the silence of this morning I was able to see how too much of it would be as oppressive as too much noise. This morning’s silence did not last very long, only until 10:45. I used the time to do accounting an business tasks so that by the time Patch came home I could spend time with him.
I sat with Patch and just listened to his chatter for about 45 minutes. His thoughts about kindergarten were not organized. He just said things as they occurred to him. So I learned random rules, and that there was a kid in his kindergarten class who had the same name as a different kid who’d been in his preschool class. His thoughts wandered all over as he was processing the experiences and trying to internalize the rules. I’d planned to work on reading with him, but realized that his head was already full of new things. He needed to assimilate, not learn more. He ran out of kindergarten thoughts and cookie at about the same time. Then he ran off to play.
Tomorrow will bring with it more silence. I’m glad. I need some silence in my days. The summer had none and I frequently wanted to just flee the house. Some people honestly lament when their little ones go off to school. I’m happy to see them go, because the space of silence allows me to be happy to welcome them back.
🙂 I love the images here.
I am so happy to read that it sounds like the school year is going to give you time to be both BusinessSandra and Mommy without having to divide your attentions. I’ll bet the business part will go worlds faster without the regular interruptions pulling you back into Mommy-mode. Then you can welcome the kids back without worrying about the business stuff sliding and having the back burner of your brain working out what to do business-wise the next time you can squeeze 15 minutes in front of the computer. 🙂
What does Patch think about the rules? They seem to have made quite an impression on him.
Exactly. I love being one and then the other. It is so much nicer than feeling fractured trying to be both simultaneously.
It isn’t so much that Patch was impressed by the rules, he just verbalizes things to remember them. So he was telling them to me out loud so that they stay in his brain.
Congratulations! You get well deserved quiet you time!
I had 2 hours to myself last year and it made the summer really hard! (where did my ME time go?)
Now that both kids are in school from 8am-2:10pm I’ve got all day to myself!
So far I’ve had so much I want to do that I just haven’t known where to start! So, yeah, I’ve wasted the last 3 weeks… but, it’s been good to have quiet-me time to wind down from going-to-bed-craziness and getting-everyone-to-school-craziness. and getting to watch grown up movies and t.v. shows and read my book quietly and type my blog and play a little World of Warcraft… has been great.
Now, I have to start getting work done. No more super fun time. LOL
House work (delayed Spring Cleaning) and my art project are demanding my attention.
How exciting! I’m so happy for you to have your own time to yourself!
Congratulations!
I don’t count it as time for myself since most of it is full of business tasks, but it is definitely a break from being mommy which is nice.