Saturday Mornings

It is a typical Saturday morning at our house. It begins, for me, as it always does.  I open my eyes at a respectable 8am-ish, and thoughts of getting to my favourite bakery immediately start racing through my mind. If I don’t get there early enough, I miss out on getting some of our family favourites – namely sugar buns that are only baked on Saturday mornings.  The list for what I need from the butcher and at the market then creeps in. It is an inner battle I face every Saturday morning – get up and get going or just lie here until the last possible moment. The get up and get going always wins. Sundays are really my morning to lounge.

I leave Eric in bed; some of our children are up by now playing video games and/or watching TV.  It is technically Eric’s day to sleep in and by leaving I am sort of (totally) sabotaging his day but I figure any time after eight is fair game when you have three kids. He doesn’t really agree with me as sleeping in to him could mean mid-morning if left unchecked.  Secretly, I think that he likes that he doesn’t get to waste his morning away in bed. You know, get up and enjoy the day. That’s what I tell myself anyway.

When I arrive home after my Saturday morning errands, the kids meet me at the door to grab the loot.  Within ten minutes they have eaten sugar buns, cinnamon buns and at least a couple of ginger snaps each. I love that on Saturday morning I don’t care that they have just consumed a week’s worth of sugar in one sitting. I love that I don’t care that they have eaten these treats everywhere between the front door and the TV room with a loop around the dining room and a trail of granulated sugar and crumbs to prove it. 

I then make up a pan of scrambled eggs (that is our egg of choice right now) and put on the kettle.  Eric gets his muffin and I devour my croissant. We leave the dishes on the table (this is unheard of any other day) and retreat to the dining room with our tea to pour over our Saturday subscription to The Globe and Mail. I read interesting parts of articles from the section I am reading to Eric, even though he hates when I do this. 

The children that have been left unattended have wreaked havoc on the house. Forts have been made on potentially all three levels of our home.  The TV in the basement and in our bedroom (yes, we have a TV in our room) is on even though no one is watching either of them. Crafts have been pulled out, stepped on and walked away from.  Exhausted by a morning of unstructured time, this morning the kids settled into watching Never Say Never which lured Eric away from our paper reading.

By Saturday afternoon the house will be pulled back together and we will anticipate our evening plans which could be as exciting as trying to watch a movie without falling asleep.  I love Saturday mornings because they are the perfect combination of routine and recklessness.  The best part is, I still have Sunday to look forward to when I get my turn to sleep in.