Hunkering Down to Remember the Good Ole’ Days

This will always be my house, even if I have to photograph it from a car window!

The Husband and I often ask ourselves, “what did we used to do on weekends before kids?”. We ask that because most of our weekends now are spent running here and there until we all crash into bed at night. It is non-stop action starting early Saturday morning and we often wonder how we filled all that time when there weren’t practices or playdates galore.

This weekend we got a chance to find out. We were supposed to spend the weekend in State College, PA watching the Penn State game with our brother-in-law the PSU Alumnus and all of The Husband’s other siblings and spouses. We decided early this month that even a trip “on the cheap” was still too rich for our budget as we head into the holiday spending season so we had to beg out of the festivities.

We had secured a kid overnight stay with the in-laws when we thought we’d be travelling and they graciously agreed to keep the date for Saturday night. We dropped off our kids after karate Saturday mid-afternoon and weren’t set to pick them up until after lunch Sunday.

That’s 24 straight hours child free.

Sweet, sweet, freedom.

We didn’t really make many plans as we were limited by the aforementioned budget. We figured maybe we’d use a giftcard we have for dinner and maybe just walk around town.

Then the freaky winter storm news hit and we realized there would be no leisurely strolls. There was a brief but very frantic afternoon spent toying with the idea of renting a hotel room for the night and using it as ground zero for ultimate laziness. There were  google searches for cheap hotels all along the Jersey coastline (we even considered surprising the gang in State College)  but ultimately my intelligence got the best of my insatiable need for a vacation and we opted to stay home.

We did however give in to the idea of just staying in all day. The weather was miserable and our house was clean enough that the filth wouldn’t get in the way of relaxing, so we decided to have a good old-fashioned lay in. We dubbed it “recreating Jackson Street” which was the house we shared in Baltimore before we had kids. You know, a lifetime (or three) ago back when we had time to read entire newspapers and drink hot coffee and sometimes start drinking beers before the sun went down.

So Saturday afternoon, we dropped our kids at their grandparents’ house, headed to the Whole Foods for salads, sushi, guacamole and of course a few bottles of wine. Then we watched two movies, two football games (both wins!), ate too much, developed a business marketing plan, drank too much and spent more than a few hours with our butts firmly planted on our couch.

It was glorious.

These two kids were super fun, once upon a time.

At about 8:30, halfway through movie number two, I decided we should get dressed and go dancing.

By nine o’clock the movie was over and we were still on the couch.

It seems the hunkering down was not over yet.

Sunday morning we slept until nine (NINE!!) then went for a run on the beach and had breakfast at a counter. We used to eat breakfast at diner counters a lot in Baltimore, never wanting to wait for a table like all those suckers with kids. Now, we’re the suckers most days. But this Sunday, we ate at a counter and the food has never tasted so good.

Of course, I love my kids. Of course, I’d never go back to those days in Federal Hill and trade them for my life right now. But I sure did love that time in our lives and it sure is nice to re-enact it every now and again.