Four Hours of Freedom

All day on Saturday, I felt giddy with the anticipation of knowing that I would be “going out” with my man sans kiddos! I found myself looking at the clock every few hours, wondering when my “Mommy shift” would end so my “just Beth” shift could begin. Not having any family in town to help with babysitting takes a huge toll on our budget. College students charge between $8-$10/hr to watch two kids! We had to pay $40 on babysitting alone just to go to a party up our street. Needless to say, we only go out on special occasions and when the event we’re attending is free. I am a bit consoled in knowing that…with our children…the babysitter will earn every dime we give her :).

Some friends of ours (who had a destination wedding earlier in the year) hosted a block party in front of their newly renovated home. One hundred or so guests mingled in the street eating hamburgers and drinking boxed wine. I am really trying to slim down this summer, so I only nibbled on some pasta salad and mostly stuck to wine. I’m not sure if it was the wine or my deeply repressed need to socialize, but we had the most wonderful conversations with most everyone at the party. I learned about one couple’s fertility struggles, another couple’s history of failed marriages, one woman’s joys of working in a flower shop after working at the Capitol, and another female lawyer’s desire to become more involved with the TV reporter she’d brought as her date. Matt and I listened, shared, and probably asked way too personal questions but had an absolutely marvelous time! It felt wonderful to just be a woman and a wife without the interruptions from a stinky diaper, or request for juice, or meltdown over who-knows-what.

I love my children. I love being a mother. But I also love just being Beth once in awhile.

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