Welcome Back, Mommy

So...last week I took a "Momcation".  I went away for a WHOLE WEEK without my kids or husband.  To pay credit where credit is due:  my husband did (as I expected) a great job with the kids and even planted about a dozen new plants in the yard while I was gone.  I thought I was going to be missed, but when I asked my youngest if he had missed me, he said, "No, I had the crazy flower".  The crazy flower is a *sprinkler*. 

OK...good to know.

I went to sunny Southern California to hang with two girlfriends; it's been a seriously rainy spring in Oregon (even by Oregon standards) and I needed to get outta here IN A MAJOR WAY.  I can only take so much rain.  (In true Murphy's Law form, the sun came out the day I left and has remained....summer has finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest.)

I LOVE Southern California.  I hate the traffic, but love pretty much everything else. I could happily live there.  At least at the beach.  (To be fair, I was never very far from the beach the whole time I was there.)  One friend lives in Carlsbad and well, what's not to love about Carlsbad, Encinitas, and Oceanside?  Cute little beach towns with cute little restaurants, nice piers, a relaxed attitude and surfers everywhere.  The other friend lives in Pasadena; I didn't go that far north (in fact, I never went more north than San Clemente), but she graciously drove down to hang with us in Carlsbad and San Clemente.

I took a surfing lesson while I was there (in La Jolla, with the lovely Surf Divas) and went kayaking.  When my grandchildren ask one day how often and how well I used to surf, I will, like all good grandparents, lie. 

I will say "all the time" and "very well".

Kayaking was more successful, though my friend and I agree that two control freaks should not be in the same kayak.  We both wanted to steer.  One control freak per kayak only.

We also went cheese-tasting in San Clemente at The Cellar (I didn't actually eat the cheese, but dined instead on wonderful almonds and figs).  I did taste one cheese-stuffed pepper, which was marvelously good and reminded me why giving up cheese is so damned hard.  My friend also ate crepes at a creperie in the same town (I had tea). She is a real foodie, though (obviously) not vegan.  I watched as she went practically orgasmic over her cheese, wine and crepes.  She claims that she loves cheese so much she'd have sex with it were that possible.  If that's not a statement that attests to how much people are attached to certain foods, I don't know what is.  And I *know* she is not alone in her love of cheese.  It's the hardest thing to give up being vegan.  Even Daiya, the most acceptable vegan cheese out there, doesn't stand a taste test against real gourmet cheeses.

I had thought, given what I see on the internet, that finding vegan food would be easier in Carlsbad and surrounding areas than it is in Oregon.  Not. True.  It *can* be found, for sure, but it's about equally likely there as here that you'll walk into a restaurant and be unable to find even one item that is animal products-free.  That surprised me.  Fortunately, when we ate out (we often ate in), restaurants accommodated me without any problems. 

My week away was a treat and I think should be required for Moms.  We NEED to get away.  Minimum once a year for a whole week.

I thought I'd come back with a cheery attitude and be totally into the Mom thing again.  Suffice to say that kids' squabbling and messes bother me just as much now as they did before I left.  Perhaps a week isn't enough to totally charge one's batteries after 13.5 years of parenting.

Still, I'm not complaining, only reporting.

I've been back 24 hours now and have had to clean up poo on the carpet (an accident nobody will claim, but which has only one likely suspect); I've had to wash my mattress because somebody came into my bed at night and had an accident (that one cannot be denied).  I've also had, curiously, to fish toys out of the toilet that NOBODY knows how they got there (again, only one likely suspect).

In other words, welcome back Mommy!