Hello, Monday {Vegas & Back}

I can't believe it's Monday already. And I really can't believe that by next Monday, it'll be February.  January has been a blur. A weird month, but I always think that about January -- it's the waiting-in-the-wings month.

There have been lots of birthdays this month: friends, my dear sister, and the husband and my maternal grandma share a birthday, which was this past Saturday.  My grandma turned 91.  The husband flipped the calendar all the way to a new decade. We celebrated with a weekend trip to Vegas.

Hello, Las Vegas:

Time was, in the years B.C.  (before children) the husband & I drove out to Vegas a few times every year. Back then, I felt I  had the Vegas scene & vibe down pat.  Fast forward to now:  it's been three years since my last visit, and a decade since our last trip there alone, sans kids. Vegas is still the same place, the same glitz and grubbiness rubbing elbows. I guess it's me that's done all the changing. That old story.

Hello, Me:

What with these recent trips to Palm Springs & Vegas, I've been scrambling to put together some outfits and pay a little more attention to the details of being me. This winter I've been a style slacker during the week, living in jeans and a t-shirt & hoodie and my Converse sneakers.  Hardly a slob, but hardly feeling cute and stylish, either.  Here I am dressed on Sunday, the day we left Vegas. It was windy and cold out, and I knew there'd be several hours sitting in the car on the ride home.  Eh. My hair is slowly starting to grow out. (At least compared to how it looked on Labor Day.) But it still has a long way to go...damn, I just want it to touch my shoulders!

Hello, Open Road

 I wrote last week about how much I love "vacation life," those days of stepping out of the drudgery of routine.  There's been a lot of vacation life happening around here the last few weeks.  Part of me doesn't want it to ever end, wants to keep the suitcase ready on the bedroom floor. We're headed for home here, out on the open road, with trucks and RVs and cars speeding by --  and there's always a part of me that wants to yell, "let's just keep driving!" 

Hello, Rear View Mirror

But it's time to say good-bye to vacation life for a while, and get back into the routine of home.  Here I sit, in my sneakers and hoodie and jeans.  Maybe that's a routine I can switch up a bit (easier to do in the spring and summer).  Time to dive into getting the housework on track, my writing on track, my as-yet-to-be-determined new routines on track.  I want to make some changes. I'm not kidding when I say I don't even know where to start.

Hello, Family Life

It was both sweet and bittersweet to be away from the kids for 2 weekends in a row. It felt exhilarating to be out & among adults and most off all, focused solely on each other. That can't last, not with the schedules and routines of the kids. Spring soccer will start up soon, and before that, I'll drive myself halfway to insanity, worrying over the Odyssey of the Mind team that I'm coaching for my daughter.

If nothing else, these past 2 weekends drive home the fact that we simply must acquire a new babysitter in the near future. It shouldn't be so hard to enjoy an interrupted conversation, to step away from family life and have dinner & a movie. I adore my husband.  I don't want to lose our close connection that's re-built when we get away, but daily life sure chips away at that bond. So time to make some calls and track down a babysitter!

Hello laundry, hello figuring out dinners, hello husband-with-a-head-cold.  Back to the grind with a vengeance, it seems. 

 Linking up with Lisa Leonard for Hello, Mondays.