I loved spending last week with Mom, especially since we both felt relatively well. She can’t do much, so I read to her, and we watched back to back movies, went out to eat as often as we dared, and ran a few errands. It isn’t that I did much–Mom really spoiled me this time by keeping the “honey-dos” down to a minimum–but now that I’m home again I’m tired.

MSB was a tad upset with me last night after we got in (he drove me down last Saturday and came back for me yesterday. I’m not quite strong enough to drive that far by myself yet). I unpacked, looked through my mail, and did a couple of light-weight things while he stretched out on his recliner and fell asleep. That was around four. I stretched out in bed with the TV remote and Normandie Ward Fischer’s Becalmed and had myself some girl-time–for the rest of the night. Only a couple of times did I come out of my haven to see what was going on in the land of the living. Mostly, I watched cooking shows and “Cedar Cove” on Hallmark, and fell asleep during a rerun of “Castle.” MSB felt a tad neglected.

Being tired is just one reason I retreated to my bedroom haven. It’s the only room in the house that didn’t feel the effects of leaving one husband and three cats alone for a solid week. Our bedroom has been a no-cat-zone ever since MSB got tired of waking up with shed fur in his mouth, so it’s fairly low maintenance. I don’t look around and think of the millions of things I should be doing; I can just relax. Well, there is the notion that I should free my closet of my fat clothes, but it’s promptly followed by my more logical side: “You’re going to gain it all back anyway. Why bother?” –a thought I loathe, but it gets me out of closet-cleaning.

I have so much to do today to make up for being gone a week. Not just the usual laundry, cleaning, and cooking, but I need to tend to all the writing I ignored, the email loops I shut down, the social sites I shunned, not to mention the submissions my boss sent because he forgot I’d be gone. One week gone means two weeks behind. Bleh.

But we had a terrific visit. This is the first time I’ve been able to be with Mom for longer than a weekend since my cancer scare early last year. And was she ever excited to have me there! She tried to spend every waking moment with me, which means she had some adjusting to do.

As long as I can remember, I’ve gone to bed early and waken up early, just the opposite of Mom, the original owl. Daddy always took us to school because Mom couldn’t be trusted behind the wheel of a car before 10 a.m.

Last week, however, we both tried to accommodate each other. Mom tried going to bed earlier, and I later. I tried sleeping later, and she tried getting up earlier. It didn’t work for either of us. I stayed up later, but woke at my regular time of 5:30. Mom went to bed at her regular time, but woke up at 7:30–way too early for her. After a week of that, we’re both glad I came home.

Right now MSB is having his before-work nap to get him through the day and half the night, and I’m writing this thing, which is late because I slept late this morning and had to hit the floor running because there is so much to do. I’d rather be napping. I’m tired. But being gone last week means I’m gonna pay for it this week. Lost time demands vengeance.