Sunday Scribbling - Morning

I had grand designs to write a brilliant fiction piece for this prompt, but the inner critic is on a rampage and has convinced me the story needs more work before it sees the light of bloggerdom. Determined NOT to miss ANOTHER Sunday Scribbling, I'll humbly offer this vanilla flavored, hastily written, safe, benign look at my recent mornings. And we'll hope the inner critic goes on vacation soon. Very soon.

Friday morning.
I knew I didn't have to go into the office so decided to sneak in 15 extra minutes of sleep - it wound up being 35 minutes and the morning was off to a rushed start. The young man was already up and greeted me with, "Mom - I learned a lot of stuff watching the news this morning!" How long had he been up? "Did you know you can live to 100 if you do Tai Chi?" Great. Milk. Waffles. Syrup. "Boy! Girl! Breakfast is ready!"

Everyone made it out the door to school and now it was time to relax. My first morning off with no husband, no kids, no responsibilities in weeks. Ahhh. Hot cup of tea. Morning Newspaper. Bliss. Phone call from a friend. Catching up on my favorite blogs. Watching the fluffy part of the news. Rachel Ray and her quirky show all about a guy's birthday. A quick trip to the church to drop off some photos and then lunch at my favorite salad and chowder joint. A great morning!

Saturday morning.
Sleepy - rising early after a late night visiting with my nephew and niece-in-law. They came for a quick overnight visit to spend a little time with us and the kids. They are my favorite houseguests! They are so helpful and love spending time with the kids and talking. Breakfast was yummy pancakes made by the Mr. with my favorite - crushed pecans in them. We were off early for soggy, windy, cold soccer games where I got to watch my kiddos shine as they both worked with their teams to push to victory. Both sets of grandparents, their favorite cousin and his fantastic wife cheering them on from the sidelines. The kids literally glowed with the praise and attention. It was an awesome site to see. A real morning of memories for us all.

Sunday morning.
A restless morning. The dog paced around early but didn't want to go out in the rain for a potty break. I was up early but still tired. Fell back asleep on the couch and dreamed high-stress dreams. The back in college, missing homework, looking for centerpieces for 75 tables for church event, scrambling to finish major writing project kind of dream. Woke up feeling mentally exhausted. Needed to be at the church to help set up and take pictures for a retirement celebration. A rushed morning and my daughter decided to act every bit of her "tween" self and flip me attitude about leaving them at home alone. I drove away in my car wishing for a relaxing morning where I could sip my tea, read the newspaper and watch the pouring rain from my living room instead of driving down the highway with knots in my stomach. Deciding that a cup of tea could be at least enjoyed on the road, I stopped at a grocery store with its own Starbucks inside. My $1.30 cup of tea was rung up at $1.75. Wrong morning to do this to Mama G. I gritted my teeth and in the kindest voice I could muster, I explained to the grocery store, Starbucks barista wanna-be I would NOT be paying $1.75 for one tea bag and some hot water. I think she recognized that look in my eyes that said, "Really - you don't want to mess with me over $.45 or someone's gonna have to face the wrath of one very cranky gal who's walkin' on the edge of control here!" She quietly looked down at the register and then timidly pointed to the sign which showed that a "tall" tea was $1.35. I figured the safest thing for everyone involved was to pay it and hightail it to the car, so the immediate threat of meltdown was averted.

It was on to the retirement gig where I was just off all morning. Only about half of my pictures turned out and I feel like a giant goofball walking around with a camera around my neck snapping pictures like I know what I'm doing and seeing the end result and thinking, my 9-year old probably could have done better. Grrrr. This was not a morning I'd want to do over again.

It seems in the phenomena known as "mornings" they are either really good or really bad. Why is that? Is there really no in between? Would I trade the good and bad in for a guaranteed "ho-hum" every day? Probably not. Because when a morning is bad, you at least have the hope that the rest of the day can get better. And when a morning is really good, the whole day is golden.