A Great Week

This week I got to experience how the other half lives, or maybe it is closer to the other 1/3? This week I had my husband HOME at normal times. His usual shift is 12-8 (pm, not am) which has him leaving home around 11:15 am and returning about 8:45 at night. This is a very convenient time for him to get home, considering that by this point I have entertained the children, cleaned up messes, served dinner, helped with homework, refereed squabbles, given tubs, read bedtime stories, delivered water, chased monsters out from under beds and yelled "nothing more to eat, it's time for bed now get back in there!" about a dozen times. Most nights he comes home to a quiet peaceful house, two sleeping quiet peaceful children, and a wife who is not peaceful, sometimes quiet but always TIRED. This has been his shift for most of our married existence and for the entire time we have had children, so I should be used to it, but I never will, never I tell you! But this week, ahhhh, this week he had Fios school. 8 am - 4 pm. He left in the morning like a normal person. Returned home before 5! 5! Played with the children, we had dinners together. He helped clean up, gave tubs, took Jack to Cub Scouts, and I even got to go out 2 nights of the week amidst the world of adults. I was still primarily in charge of bedtime because he kind of stinks at it, but I wasn't so spent from doing everything else that bedtime seemed like a chore. Happy mommy, happy children, but tired husband. A man that is used to having a quiet empty house each morning and being able to sleep until 10 had to actually rise with the sun and schlump out into the world with the rest of the nine to fivers. But he survived. Next week we go back to our normal routine, back to the single mother routine. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted, I just wish it could have lasted a little bit longer.