Bed by 9pm on a Friday

I opted to sleep in well past 530am waking somewhere closer to 6am. However, I planned to work from home, so I wasn’t behind much if at all. I quickly completed both sit-ups and push-ups then sipped coffee for a short time at my PC.

I headed up to wake Mindy ahead of meditation and a stretch. I closed the bedroom window and turned up the heat. It was clear outside and plenty chilly. According to Yahoo, only 34 degrees.

Left for a run while Mindy was upstairs blow drying her hair. Wasn’t sure if she’d still be there when I returned. It had to be approaching 7am. I shortened my run to just three miles getting me back home just ahead of 730am. Mindy was still at the house and had my breakfast waiting in the microwave. It was then that I shared my intentions to work from home. She wanted to know if I’d be there to get the kids off the bus. I assumed I would. She left a couple minutes later.

I opted to work in my running clothes since I planned to cut the lawn during lunch. If everything went as planned, I hoped to call it a day around 3pm to help balance out the extra hours I worked all week. It was a very busy morning. More and more it was looking it would be another full day. Come noon, I forced myself away and headed out to at least start on the lawn. It was beautiful and sunny, but also pretty chilly. Was still only 50 degrees.

I got all the push mowing done then headed inside to check in with work. Responded to a couple issues but then headed back outside to finish the lawn. I followed that same pattern for the next couple hours, heading inside to check in every 30 minutes or so until the lawn work was completely behind me.

Around 3pm I headed out to dig up some of the volunteer blue salvia and transplant it elsewhere. I also tried my hand at spray painting two bland looking old plastic flower pots that we use each year on the deck. A couple weeks ago I bought a can of textured brown spray paint that I thought would give them a more appealing look. I took them out to the tree house area to do the deed. I was very disappointed to run out of paint even before getting one pot close to completed. The pots looked terrible and it would take at least two more cans to complete the job. Plan ‘B’.

The kids got home while I was around back transplanting blue salvia. Mindy was home a few minutes later. She carried in my package from Fed Ex – the Rain Bird irrigation parts I ordered. I asked for her help watering in the transplanted plants then was ready to call it a day. Around 5pm I headed back to my PC to complete my weekly time reporting and set my out of office for the weekend after working 10 straight days. Felt good.

It was supposed to be a Jimaken weekend. Jim picked up Jacob around 5-530pm. Bella wasn’t going since she had a gymnastics event in Rio Grande, Ohio on Saturday. We’d have to leave the house between 6-630am to be there by 8am. Jacob and Jim had a soccer game in Hilliard early afternoon. I wasn’t at all looking forward to getting up at 5am Saturday to complete my run before leaving for Rio Grande, but that’s what you do when you’re a parent. Still, part of me wanted to scream. 

I called my mom around 6pm to see if she was up for meeting us for lunch in Jackson at Dakota’s after Bella’s gym meet. She was. We planned to meet there around 1pm. At the time I wasn’t sure how far it would be off the highway.

Mindy called Bella in from play around 8pm to get a shower and to ready for bed. She was upset and even crying about having to call it a night so early on a Friday. She was bellyaching about needing to be up so early for her gymnastics meet too. I could only laugh at that. The last thing that Mindy and I wanted to do was get up so stinking early on a Saturday.

Mindy, Bella and I figured to be going to bed early. After a much deserved shower, I cracked a beer and snacked on pita chips and hummus. I cracked a 2nd beer around 7pm. I started following the NFL draft again around 730pm, excited to see who the Vikings would pick. But because they traded their 2nd round pick for another late 1st round pick, it would be a while before they were up again. We headed for bed near 9pm with the NFL draft whirling on the bedroom TV. I got to see the Vikings pick then quickly fell asleep.