A Mommy Time-Out

Well, here I am at the end of another insane day, and I just need a bit of space. Yesterday DH had to stay late in work for a "team building" dinner (and you know how fond I am of those) and after dealing with the kids all day by myself, I really needed a break THEN. However, that was not possible, obviously, so I am doing the next best thing, which is a break now. I have given myself permission to have a cocktail, to put my feet up on my bed, surf the net, watch an egregiously 'chick' flick ("Emma", if you must know), and pretend to fold some laundry but not really crank it out, just fold enough so that we can actually sleep in our bed tonight.

I might even have dinner in here. Considering that all I want to eat is a salad, this is quite appealing. There are positives here for everyone, except perhaps DH, who is tired after working all day. Of course, as he well appreciates, I have been working all day too. The end of the day is a tiring time for everyone--moms, dads, and kids. Let us hope we can all get through it with gracious aplomb and not a sea of moaning and irritation.

Part of today's chaos was holiday-related, naturally. I had set myself a semi-serious deadline of TODAY to mail off the IL's Christmas gifts, after having the panic of postal delays in previous years. I did my small grocery shop this morning with two somewhat cranky kids in tow, and of course I had forgotten entirely about my mail-in ballot for today's elections. Since I was determined to vote, that meant we had to go out again this afternoon, and thus I was unable to come up with a good excuse to delay further on boxing up all the IL's gifts and sending them on their way.

Naturally, I forgot until the last second the little souvenirs we bought for everybody from our Yellowstone vacation, which granted me another small bounty of gifts that needed to be agonized over, slowly deciding who should get what jam or tea towels to be wrapped. DD was of great help with the tags, lovingly embellishing with her script or jazzy happy faces. She was also most insistent on putting on the tape by herself, thank you very much Mommy! And DS was bemused by the flurry and somewhat annoyed that he was confined away from the action. When I finally freed DS from his confinement in his exersaucer, he happily surprised me and entertained himself with the wrapping paper (fine) instead of the packing peanuts (choking hazard).

Then, having found the one box sans egregious moving company labels (unacceptable on international packages), I laboriously patched the couple of weak points with packaging tape, and sealed it all up...to turn around and find a lone gift, removed by DD--"I was helping you, Mommy!" Er, thanks! Luckily, I already have to mail another smaller box, due to some items that are on order, so I can just toss that one in too. *phew*

The kids were (mostly) behaved at the post office, I choked at the price of international postage for the (large) box and sweated bullets while the postal clerk consulted his enormous book to make sure my box wasn't too big for An Post. I squeaked under the limits on that one, and got my ballot mailed off. Mission accomplished. I even managed to do a craft with DD this morning, which was quite spur of the moment and quite a hit.

So it really was a good day, even with the insanity of holiday parcels and post offices and shopping. That being said, I still find it necessary to recuperate from yesterday's irritations, including a very irritable DS and an annoyed DD, who was quite peeved when Daddy wasn't home at the appointed time. And it's good for the kids to get some one-on-one time with Daddy when I'm not in the same room. I just hope the kids continue being SO GOOD, for DH's sake. I know he's tired too...I just need a bit of a mommy time-out. And thankfully, DH is a BRILLIANT MAN and understands this need. Thank the good LORD for good husbands!