Time is NOT on our side...

Yuck. Work. It's no fun. We have all been working hard getting used to being back to reality with back to school. It's not easy. For any of us. How many more days until next summer??

We have been trying hard to spend quality time with Caroline on the weekends because the weeks are just a blur of work at work, work at home, and a never-ending stream of guilt about not having enough time to devote to family. Why doesn't anyone warn you of that? Sure, they tell you about the lack of sleep, but how come no one tells you that your mind will constantly be at war with your feelings, when you're at work you think about all you could be doing at home, when you're at home, you think about all you have to do at work. It's very hard to block it all out and just "be" a mom. Or a dad. Yes, I know we are not the first to face this dilemma, but we are OLD, folks. All this new stuff does not come easy to us! There, that's my whine for the day.

Last week I got a new revelation about how very different men and women are. Caroline and I get home about half an hour before Kevin during football season. I'm a blur of lightning during that half hour, sometimes I amaze myself at how many things I can do at once, all while holding Caroline on my hip because (you guessed it) I feel guilty that I haven't seen her or held her in eight hours. The other night I asked Kevin to put the pillow cases in the dryer and he asked me, "When in the heck did you have time to wash the pillow cases." So I, taking advantage of the opportunity to inspire awe in my supreme domestication, rattle off a list of things to him that I did before he got home, somehow expecting his jaw to drop and him to just proclaim what a wonderful wife and mother I am. You know what his response was...

"Why?"

Yes, he asked why. "Why would you do all of that? Why not just sit and play with Caroline? She misses you all day."

I feel really sure that every woman reading this is saying to themselves (however quietly) "Who's going to get supper started, put a load of laundry in, open and sort the mail.." (You get the idea, here.)

I had to fight the urge to go there myself. Because when I do go there, I get the old "just ask me to do it" to which I always reply "why do I have to ASK you, can't you see it needs to be done" Blah, Blah, Blah. I know that this argument is not unique to our home. In fact, that argument has been done so many times in this house, even the dogs get up and leave the room when it starts.

So, I let it go and I was quiet for the fraction of a second in which I would usually "go there".



It was then that a little tiny light went off in my head (must have been the quiet moment) and I said, "You know, I think when moms get home and have thirty minutes, their minds are always wondering how many things they can get done and how many other things need to be done, and when can those things be done. What would you think as a dad if you got home first?" His response, "Thank God I have thirty minutes to relax." Marriage is God's way of showing his sense of humor.

I don't have any new pictures of the princess to post, we just haven't been very photographically productive lately. But, I do have a picture just for the Begnauds that were over at our house last Friday.

Hope this makes you all happy! See, we do shop.