thanksgiving sunday, and biking, and some other super awesome randomness

This is a weird Thanksgiving weekend for us. There have been years where we have had to squeeze two or three gatherings into a single weekend, sometimes a single day. This year? Nada. I'll admit, there were times this weekend when I was a little pouty about having four days off and no plans, but on the other hand, it was kind of nice to have a weekend without a bunch of running around. It seems our weekends fill up really fast these days.

Today (on Sunday, because of course I'm not backdating this, that would be Blogtober Cheating, and I'm nothing if not completely honest), I got up at 7am and decided to go for a bike ride.

Keep in mind I'm more of a runner/walker, and when it comes to biking, it's more for leisure or family time. But no, today I was going to make this my exercise, so I went alone.

I must also add, that, should you think it unkind of me to ditch my kids and husband to go biking, when clearly, everyone loves it, remember that I spend a lot of time with a lot of kids. Disclaimer over. I really do like biking with my kids, you can tell by all the yelling I do at each intersection.

Just when you thought I couldn't add any more "asides" to a blog post, this one seems to be entirely composed of them. I'd like to add at this time, as part of the main blog post, and not at all as a side note (see what I did there? Technically, I'm not off topic), that I've been playing this virtual reality game, in which the platform is, well, the earth. With the use of maps on your smart phone, you can seek out locations where one of two factions (Viva la Resistance!) has claimed a portal. There are currently 58 portals in Portage. All but one of them have been claimed for my faction. The thing about this game, is that you have to actually pull up this interactive map on your phone, where the roads and portals are shown, and bike/walk/drive to the portals to do any game play with them. Steven thinks this is all incredibly nerdy and makes fun of me all the time, which is not cool, because I am nothing but sweet with him. But I digress.

Where was I? Oh, right, portals all over town that I need . . . sometimes casually, maintain. It turned my bike ride from something that would make sense, into this:

Twenty miles of meandering all around. It was fun, and the alone time was nice, and it took over two hours. I must admit, I am loving this beautiful fall weather and will be super sad when there is snow.

Then I came home for waffles, made by my lovely husband and children. Tennyson was pouting last week because his grade 3 class made waffles at school, and he was convinced that the part he played was insignificant and beneath him. All week he'd been bugging us to make waffles at home so he could do more of it.

I have a confession (there are so many, but you're only getting one right now).
I seriously kind of hate doing stuff in the kitchen with the kids. The sweet parental ideals of Mom happily smiling as her kid helps put ingredients in a bowl, and then hand over hand helping happily as the kid mixes and stirs and lays cookies out, etc. etc. I kind of hate that stuff. My patience levels are zero. Where one mom would smile and happily wipe up spills with a super picker-upper paper towel, I am gritting my teeth and growling "Stop. Slopping. It. All. Over. The. Counter. No! No, you canNOT crack the egg. Why? Because that is for GROWNUPS, and you are NOT ONE. No. Give me the egg. No, you can not hand it to me. Elliot! Stop touching the eggs. Tennyson! Could you not be in my way every time I turn around!"

It's true. I can't handle it. Maybe it stems from my begrudging acceptance that as an adult I have to do things in the kitchen at all.

I'd rather just read. I would have been an awesome aristocrat, actually. I could read books and hack portals all day, and then just come home for super-stacked sandwiches made by someone else in my now-spotless kitchen.

Right, waffles. They were good.

After that, I may have done some laundry, I really can't remember, today was so long ago. I also probably read half the afternoon away.

Until...

The kids begged to go biking. Do you know what happens to a non-biker's ass bum after a twenty-mile bike ride earlier in the same day? Right. I tried to get out of it, but alas, I had to go. I survived. What started out as a beautiful morning turned into a beautiful afternoon. We played at a park for a while, then we came home and had taco salad for supper (we are the best thanksgiving pilgrims ever) and probably did some sort of family thing that was super thanksgiving-inspired.

But seriously, I love these kids, I love this husband, it was a good Thanksgiving. Home is where the heart is, and my heart is right here with all these roughians. Ruffians? Yes! Ruffians.

Happy Sunday!