You know, you'd think the longer I do this mom thing, the better I'd get at it...

But, in my case, apparently not.

I know I've mentioned in the past that Man-Child and I are travel buddies.  That we have spent just about every Spring Break doing something together - just the two of us.  (I could go look for a post as proof - but I just don't have it in me right now, so you'll have to trust me).

The last time MC was home, which I believe was when we were in the midst of moving, he mentioned doing something this Spring Break...the last Spring Break he would ever have as a student.  I readily agreed.  And then promptly put it on the back burner because Spring Break was eons away, or so I thought.

The Husband informed me last Saturday that MC would be home on Sunday for Spring Break.  It STILL didn't register.  Until on Monday, when he said, "I guess we aren't doing anything for Spring Break then?"

And my heart stopped.  I had totally forgotten.

And then I may have murmured something along the lines of probably not.

Now to be fair, I have had other things going on.  Like MOVING.  And trying to settle in.  And work. And I was thinking of all the expenses we had just laid out for the said move.  And the ones coming up, like our Easter trip up North to visit my mother in law.  All valid reasons to dismiss this trip.

But still...his LAST.SPRING.BREAK.EVER.

This lay very heavy on my heart.

While at work on Tuesday, I began to look around online.  Then I shot The Husband an email asking what he thought - thinking would surely shoot this idea down.  But he didn't.  He knew how important our Spring Break trips have been and this was probably the last official one.

So I sent MC a text...

And just like that, I'd saved the tradition.

It may not be a leisurely trip as we leave tomorrow at a ridiculously early hour and have to return early enough on Sunday for him to make the two hour trip back up the mountain to get to school.

Because of my slackness, we weren't able to get a hotel exactly where I wanted and I may be paying a bit more since I waited until the last minute but we are headed out for our last "Spring Break" trip tomorrow.

And I'm going to enjoy every single minute of it with my boy.  And he is gonna love Charleston.

And?  I'm making note of any other "lasts" that may come up this year; so that I don't miss the boat on any of those.

New Routines...and coming full circle.

Currently I am sitting on my new-to-me back porch in the dark tapping away on the neglected notebook.

The past few days have been gorgeous weather-wise, but I keep forgetting that I have a back porch to retreat to as needed.

The townhouse/condo/cluster house (whatever it was that we were renting) had an teeny tiny outdoor space that looked out onto the main road that ran in front of our place...with a side view to the crossing street.  As a result, I never sat out there as I felt I was on display for the whole neighborhood to see.  This back porch looks out over our back yard which abuts up to land covered in trees.  If I get up and look over I can see the neighbor's houses - which come spring will barely be visible.  I'm loving it...now that I remember I have an outdoor retreat.

One of the concerns about moving back out here was my commute.  I reminded The Husband that I did that commute for ten years without complaint.  And it still isn't terrible.  I could probably be in town in about 30 minutes flat...except I'm famous for stopping here and there before I actually get to where I'm going.  Which, when compared to the commute I had when living in the Houston area is nothing really.

Although, I have changed my work hours to miss some of the traffic.  It has increased quite a bit since we last lived out here.  And it has made a huge difference but...

It has necessitated a new routine.  Back in the day, when we first lived out here, I would wake up super, super early to wash and dry my hair, read the paper and have my coffee, somehow miraculously getting the boy to school and myself to work on time.  After living closer to town for the last few years, I've been able to sleep in a bit more.  I've discovered that I really don't want to get up super, super early anymore.  So to still have my paper/coffee routine I must wash/dry the hair the night before.  I have a feeling before all is said and done, I will give up on the drying part and just live with the crazy curls...I'm beginning to think that life is far too short to be spent drying my hair.

We still haven't gotten around to "finishing" the house, so no pictures yet.  I've discovered that a good bit of my decor doesn't quite work in this house for some reason.  I can't decide if it's the light, the paint or if I'm just in need of something different, which well may be the case as I went with gray paint and not my usual earth tones.  But no matter the reason, I've decided that I'm going to take it slow and add in only things that I absolutely love;which I will share as it comes together.

So here I am...back to where we started (almost) when we moved to North Carolina all those years ago...and here I am back to where this blog pretty much started...on the back porch.

And I'm happy about both of those things.

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I'm also remembering why I stopped using the notebook to craft posts...crazy slow.  I'm sensing another new routine in the very near future...