Friday. I kind of fell into a should-less day. On Friday, I was mulling around the house, and a thought came into my head – can I go to the beach? And I went to the beach. Spent about 4 hours at Sandy Hook. I alternated my time there with hunting for pebbles, reading, wasting time on the Internet, planning, and just staring at the water.
Saturday. An open day! Kids had their gymnastics classes in the morning, L had piano in the afternoon. Then we bummed around the back yard, T set up and filled the pool, and we scavenged the refrigerator for an impromptu barbecue. We happened to have franks, ground turkey and I whipped up a salad. S’mores were the culmination to this nice evening.
Sunday. I started feeling down but I saw my two sister-friends. My fried F opened her place for a nice brunch, we all brought what we could, and had some quality time and nice conversations. On Sunday night I felt miserable. Looked at the calendar- yep, luteal phase. I spent the evening by myself, on Pinterest, feeling weepy and low.
My sister-friend B couldn’t make it and was missed.
Monday. Continued to feel utterly miserable. Low mood, weepy on the inside, “nobody loves me” feeling, moping, etc. Plus, it was raining! So that added to my misery.
But: R and I had tickets to the Liberty Science Center, so I was good for me to actually get out. The visit was so, so cool. The exhibits, the activities, the animals, the planetarium. R had a wonderful time. When we came back, we both collapsed for a nap- him, because he is four, and me- because, luteal phase and perimenopause.
Tuesday. The sun came out AND the period started. And I felt marginally better. L and I had tickets to the New York Botanical Gardens to see Curious Nature: Wonderland. All the installations and plant designs were based on Alice in Wonderland book. We left at 8:30 and arrived in the Bronx at 10:30. Two full hours in traffic and three accidents. The gardens opened at 10 and, by the time we arrived, were empty. We could have spent the whole day there but we had a long drive home. Arrived home at 3pm. The beauty of the plants is just astounding and of course I took a million pictures.
All in all, the five days off were nice. Thanks to the pool, the neighbor kids, the toys, the activities, the iPads, and other stuff to do, we had a good weekend. Long weekends with small kids can be rough because you run out of stuff to do real fast. There were days when I was like “how much longer till bedtime?”
Have you ever been to a botanical garden? Is there such a thing as Memorial Day in your neck of the woods? If not Memorial Day, is there a similar holiday?
Mom of Children 