Here I am on a somewhat lazy Sunday afternoon. In my kitchen a beef brisket cooks slowly in the crock-pot simmering in BBQ sauce. We had omelets for breakfast and I cleaned up after, even running the dishwasher, yea me. The kid is watching my Darling play his new video game, lots of mechanical spiders, dragons and lava, not my cup of tea but then I was born in the wrong generation for that skill set.

I am on the lagging edge of the boomer generation whilst My Darling is placed midway through the Gen X crowd. I played Atari and he had Nintendo and PlayStation, I remember when Pong came out, he remembers Zelda, it's a wonder we manage with so much difference. What we don't do is play video games together. I find other activities when he is playing. He isn't an addict or anything but he has spurts when he will play fairly non-stop (a new game) then months will go by and he won't even think about playing anything other than a silly phone app comparable to twiddling his fingers when he is bored.

We just finished hauling my treadmill in from the garage. When the tree came down the hole left behind was sizable enough to house the tread mill so now I have an obligation to actually use the damn thing. I am getting older (what's up with that) and so I am moving inexorably into my declining years. I know I can stave off some of the effects of aging by keeping in shape. Running, even walking, along with reasonable diet can keep me in shape for years to come yet. With a new family this is crucial, otherwise I may not be able to keep up with them when they start sporting around during the boys teen years. I don't want to be relegated to waiting at home while they go off and have fun.

I spent Friday and Saturday doing housy chores, laundry and such. Baked cookies with the boy. He loves to cook. Of course it's probably more of the wanting to do whatever Mommy is doing. He likes to help. In keeping with the desire to make him feel part of things we have him set and clear the table, he takes care of putting his laundry down the laundry chute and putting the clean clothes away after they are folded. Mommy and Daddy are pretty particular about how things are folded so he has to skip that step. Daddy takes him out to help plow the driveway and he has his own shovel to help with the walk.

I realize that this kind of helping has a short half-life. The desire to help will decay and we will be left with a radioactive surly teenager who will need a fire lit under his bum to make him complete any of the above tasks. For now we enjoy his "help" and he enjoys it even more.

Tomorrow I will work a long shift followed by the same on Tuesday. The storm predicted for Tuesday night is supposed to dump more than 8 inches possibly a foot on us so Wednesday should leave us trapped. The boy might enjoy going out into the yard but I'm not thinking I will want to go out grocery shopping as usual. Maybe after work on Tuesday I can pick up the necessities. It's been more than a week since I have been to the thrift store (sorry Anna, I am still looking for joggers for you just haven't found anything right yet). I miss shopping there. I can have all the distraction of shopping for pennies on the dollar. Even the boy likes it "I buy this Mommy". He spent his Christmas money (a whopping $7) on a remote control hummer. He would never have gotten so much for his money anywhere else. I am hoping he doesn't get all weird about used stuff when he gets older, we will never be as affluent as the rest of his family.

Oh, strange thing, I opened a suitcase that I thought contained music books, which it did, but also found a script I wrote 15 years ago (or so). I forgot I was working the story as a script once. Strange to find something like that just tucked away.

Oh well, time to go back to my lazy Sunday. Toodles

I wish you Peace

~alison~

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