Sabbath

A friend of Ben's is arriving in Crested Butte today and they are going on a bike ride. Ben's worked hard this whole month, and the riding here is epic, so I agree that he should go on a ride.

BUT, like I have said before, I have issues with Ben going on bike rides! Here's my internal dialog: "Haven't I worked hard all month (day, year, week) too?!? When do I ever get to go have fun?!? Why do I have to watch the kids while he gets to go play?!?"

The solution seems easy enough--I just need to schedule my own time off. For some reason, it's really hard for me to do that. Possibly related to the fact that I like to sleep in. However, I was inspired by Holly Pierlot's example of the Mother's sabbath. She homeschools their 5 kids and takes every other Saturday as her day to go to Mass, window shop, read books, etc., and doesn't come home until she's ready. Wonderful!

So this morning, I got up at 7:30 (quietly, so no one would wake up) and rode my bike 6 miles into Crested Butte. Wow. It was a beautiful ride. When I got into town I noticed that there wasn't much traffic--I'm guessing most people partied hard last night and were sleeping in. This is a mountain town/tourist trap, after all. Most of the stores I rode past were closed. What was I going to do if nothing was open? I came around the corner to Camp 4 Coffee....and found the party! There were 15-20 people crowding into the tiny store, dogs leashed to benches, bikes strewn about the yard, the smell of freshly ground coffee beans in the air....ahhhh. So I got my hazelnut latte (with latte art!) and breakfast burrito and sat on a bench and read the paper. All by myself. With no interruptions. For 20 minutes. Heavenly.

Then I got on my bike and rode around to the whole foods store, cooking store, home decor store.....all by myself. Didn't have to tow the chariot. Didn't have to get the kids in and out of the chariot. Didn't have to talk with anyone. Didn't have to negotiate where to go next. I've needed this! After about 10 minutes more, I started to miss Ben and Nate and Abby so I called them. =) They were doing fine and having a great morning of sleeping in and eating breakfast.

Now I am here at the library, catching up on blogs and loving my life. I feel happy to let Ben go on his bike ride this afternoon and can't wait to see the kids. So, my BRAT (Bike Ride Action Plan) is to schedule a mommy outing, and (here's the kicker) actually do it.

Mountain adventures

I got to tow a Nissan XTerra out of the creek today. That was cool! I was getting us ready to go into town when a kayaker, sopping wet from the waist down, ran up and asked, "Can you help us? Our car is stuck in the creek."

I have laughed at Ben in the past for being such a prepared boy scout--he has one of everything in his truck, and everything has a place. Luckily I have paid attention, because I knew where the tow strap was, I knew to put the truck in 4-wheel-low, and knew the basics of towing. So, I got to be a BMW (burly mountain woman) today.

Laundry....I think I like laundromats. I did 6 loads last week and 3 loads today. There's something satisfying about the laundry being an event, getting it ALL done in 2 or 3 hours, instead of it being the never-ending, daily/hourly chore. Nathaniel and Abby had a blast putting the quarters in the machines and helping put the soap in. And Nathaniel was way impressed to be holding $20 worth of quarters at one time.

I've been reading "The Mother's Rule of Life" and it is fabulous. Highly recommended. I am guilty of sloth, and mistaking my freedom to mean irresponsibility, not responsibility. Lots of good ideas in there and I'm hoping that when we get home we will be able to work out our family rule.