My husband and I live in a school district that give the kids two weeks for March/Spring break. TWO WEEKS. When I was a kids, we only got ONE week. We also had to walk to school in waist-deep snow, uphill both ways. Kids these days, man. They have it so easy.

I work in an accounting firm, which means that I am entrenched in TAX SEASON. It’s the season that ranks right up there with winter, but with extra fatigue and grumpy temperaments. My husband (thankfully) has a job that is flexible enough (he’s the children and families guy at our church) and the kids can come with him and play in the gym or one of the other rooms with toys. A lot of his work he can do from home, too, and he’ll work in the evenings when I’m home.

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My husband is a bit of an anomaly among many of his friends in that he’s not really into video games. He never has been. He’d much rather play basketball or work out or go hunting/fishing/hiking/skiing/snomobiling/anything OUTSIDE. As for me, I didn’t grow up as much of a gamer, either. I did hop on the Angry Birds train when it first came out, but if I have a few spare moments I’d rather play Scrabble/Words With Friends/Lexulous.

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My husband is out of town at a conference for three nights and I’m solo parenting our three kids. It’s going pretty smoothly, partly because the kids are in school all day while I’m at work, partly because they get to talk to their Dad on Skype before bed, and partly because they are just pretty great kids. I like hanging out with them. They’re kooky, hilarious, and completely awesome.

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I was minding my own business at work on Wednesday when the coworker from the office next to mine knocked and my door and asked me to open the email she had just sent me. It was an email with a photo attachment. I opened it up and then sat there, head down, shaking with The Giggles.

Once she left, I threw it up on Twitter, with this description:

A coworker just emailed me this photo. I’ll let it speak for itself.

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…the mice hole up in Mommy’s bedroom and lock all of the doors.

My husband went on an overnight fishing/camping trip with his brother on Sunday night. He’s earned it, for sure. He balances full-time work with Daddy Daycare, which means that he often heads into the office after dinner and works into the night. He also has a wife that goes off to events like BlogHer and leaves him at home to run the ship.

While I am more than happy for him to go away and have a break, there’s something about being alone on an acreage that strikes fear into my heart. I can walk the streets of New York with friends late at night but being the only adult in charge of three smalls, while situated in the buttpoke of nowhere freaks me the heck out. We have two dogs, one large, one with a large bark, so that helps, but. I am a woman and as much as I work out, I would be no match for a strong man or anyone with a weapon.

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A will is one of those things that my husband and I knew we should get but never got around to drawing up until we planned our first kid-free trip…eight years after we we were married. Not the smartest plan, I know, especially because we have kids. And, the law in the province we live in is such that if we were to both die without a will, everything goes to the youngest spouse’s family. My husband is two years younger than I am and while I love his family, I love mine too, and there are three little people we created that need to be taken care of, first and foremost.

I
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I’m not talking about the Moms reading this. I mean, I sure hope that you aren’t in charge of organizing your Mother’s Day, unless you like it that way. We don’t make a HUGE deal about it, but I love the presents that the kids make at school and the cards and the “bigger” present my husband always gets for me. He always asks for my input but it’s up to him to make any arrangements. This year he asked if I wanted to go out for dinner and I suggested that we go to a Mother’s Day brunch instead. In over eight years of being a Mom we’ve yet to go to a traditional Mother’s Day brunch and I’m a little bit excited about it.

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It was my birthday yesterday (but you knew that) and, so. Celebrating was in order. I took the day off from my office job and actually got to hang out with my kids before (and after) school. I spent their school hours playing with my new camera lens and catching up on incidentals.

My husband and I went out for a nice dinner at a restaurant on the lake.

We’ve (I’ve) planned a party for this weekend where we’ll get to hang out with our friends and eat appetizers and drink some wine and laugh. We always laugh.

What do you do to celebrate your birthday?

My husband and I are currently in Anaheim, California with our family. Why Anaheim? Because DISNEYLAND is here, that’s why. (I know that you know that Disneyland is in Anaheim and that I know that Disneyland is in Anaheim but I needed an intro to this topic, so here we are.)

We scored the deal of all deals and booked six nights in Anaheim, including five days at Disneyland (for the price of three!) and one day at Universal Studios. The days have been long and by the end of the day we are done. Done, done, DONE. Walking for twelve or more hours a day in the fresh air will do that to a person. Or five people, as it were.

Despite our utter exhaustion at the end of the day, once the kids have gone to sleep we stay up to have some grown-up time. During the day we’re constantly bombarded by, “Mom!” and “Dad!” followed by random statements/questions/facts. We’re balancing out pairing up with kids on rides and figuring out meals and who takes who to the restroom and figuring out what comes next.

We don’t get any uninterrupted time to talk. At all. Ever.

When the kids are passed out (approximately three seconds after we tuck them in) we talk about our day, discuss what our plans are for the next day and then curl up and watch mindless TV. (The Bachelor, anyone?)

We’re looking forward to having a proper Date Night once we get back home but as we don’t have regular household chores and responsibilities to tend to, the few hours we grab each night to hang out sans children has been pretty great.

How do you find alone time while on a family vacation?

It seems that the moment a couple gets married, or even starts dating seriously/moves in together/gets engaged people from all aspects of their lives feel that they have the right to ask the question, “So when are you guys going to have kids?” It seems to be assumed that as soon as you are a part of a couple, the next step will be to make little variations of you to form a “complete” family.

I always knew that I wanted to be a Mom and my husband always knew that he wanted to be a Dad and thankfully, we have been able to become parents to three of the coolest kids that this planet has ever seen. Because we both knew that kids were in our (hopeful) future, I didn’t get to upset with the questions about when kids were going to happen for us. I still found it intrusive at times, yes, but chalked it up to insensitivity on the parts of others.

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