I've forgotten how to be me.....

I'm having another one of those times when Connor is with my mom. He's been at her house since Monday afternoon.
You'd think I'd be doing cartwheels, but I'm not. Of course I miss the little guy, but that's not what my lack of enthusiasm is about. It's because I've forgotten how to be me.

Now what in the world does that mean, you're wondering. Well, let me explain.

For the last 3 years of my life, I have pretty much given up everything outside of the home to take care of my son. Even before I knew he had autism, I had made the decision to quit my full-time reporting job to stay home with him. I lost the freedom to do much of anything else, as well. That's just the nature of being a parent. When you're responsible for another little person, your needs have to fall by the wayside. So I stopped writing, I stopped going to the gym and I stopped worrying about whether I had "me" time.

Now that my son is older, I've been freelance writing more, and have had some newfound time out to myself. But when that happens, I have become dumbfounded as to what to do with myself. It's been so long since I really had no one to answer to but myself that I have forgotten what it is I used to do! As a result, I usually end up using my "free" time to do work, which isn't a great idea, because then I don't feel refreshed at all when my son returns home. It's a vicious cycle, because I just have no idea what to do to entertain myself. Anyone have any ideas? I'm open to suggestions at this point. :)