The 1 hour look

Mothers go out. We grocery shop, we shop for shoes, clothes and house apparels. We go to places like Stylesense, HomeSense, and Michaels. We go to these places because we have to. There is a reason we go and get what we need. Some of the times we actually go without our kids. We feel a certain freedom when we shop without them.

During the holidays we sometimes have no choice not to take our kids because we have to shop for gifts, some being “Santa” gifts. We want our kids to know that little elves made their gift, not Costco. So we go alone. While we are shopping we see other mothers without their kids doing the same thing we are doing. They are looking at their lists, and checking it off.

When you see mothers shopping at these places, we most always have a coffee in our hands, and we are enjoying every sip of it. We know we don’t have to share it, drop it or down it. We do however, all have the same look of our face. It is a look of “I better hurry up because the house may be falling apart “look””..lol. When a mother leaves the house without her kids, she knows that when she gets back, the house will NOT be in the same condition she left it.

Men go out, and when they do, they just go out. They don’t have to warn us a few days in advance, in fact they don’t have to warn us at all. They basically wake up, shower, come down and say, “I am going to Home Depot.” That’s it, that’s all. They grab their keys, and they leave. They don’t have to fight kids off their legs, or pretend they are taking the garbage out, they are leaving and the kids just wave goodbye. Mothers on the other hand, have to make preparations for our 1 hour away time. We leave instructions detail by detail. We leave our cell phones on, and then there is a race for time.

When we are doing our errands we feel a stress come over us. Even when we go out with our girlfriends, we constantly look at our watch. We call home, make sure our cell phone is on and charged and that we are available to run home, if we have too. Before we leave, we make sure the kids are in their pj’s, teeth brushed and the little ones..tucked in bed. Not only do we have to prepare before we go out, we also have to prepare for it the whole day. We make sure they don’t nap too late because it will ruin their bedtime for our husbands, and we make sure they eat well because we know that junk will be in the diet with their daddies.

I love going out. I love to hang out with my friends, and I love to go grocery shopping with my coffee in hand and nothing else. It is just the freedom that we don’t always get to experience. We may be a little stressed, on our toes, and waiting for a call at any moment and hearing, “When are you coming home?” but it all seems worth it at the time.

We have full time jobs as mothers and we knew that we signed up for it. We are not men, we never will be. We will never be able to shower and just leave the house, that is not the way it works. We will never be able to just pick up and go anywhere; it just comes with the territory. We don’t really mind though, as long as we can occasionally escape from the chaos, grab a nice cup of coffee and stroll around town, even if we have the noticeably obvious “I escaped from my home for 1 hour “look””, at least we made it out...even if it’s just for a bit
That’s my peace today!

Fresh Pesto Sauce
2 cups basil
1/2 cup romano grated cheese
3 cloves garlic
1/3 cup pine nuts
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup olive oil

In a food processor put basil, pine nuts and pulse. Add garlic and pulse again. Stream in the oil pulsing each time. Add cheese, salt and pepper and pulse again.

You can serve with pasta or add on chicken or pizza.

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