I had to work the last two weekends straight through. Every once in a while it gets a bit wild at work, same as everybody else! Even in the arts.
That said, we wanted to spend every minute we weren’t working with the kids. Per our last post, conferences went really well. So what better way to reward them then a trip to a pumpkin patch for the city kids? Sassy jumped in, in the most major way. She helped with haircuts and kid wrangling on Saturday, joined us for the pumpkin patch (which also turned into apple picking), and then took all of the kids for naptime and cooked us dinner. SPOILED – we have been spoiled.
As we rambled around in the sunshine in the dirt, I felt all of us take a deep breath and enjoy a break from our regularly scheduled activities. And frankly, following good reports from teachers and so little fam time, Dave and I were pretty much going to say yes to anything. So limited pumpkin selection led us to apple picking. And rather than carve mediocre pumpkins, we stopped at the Garden Center to get the good ones. Sassy handled nap time while I went to a master class and Dave got his first hour to himself in weeks. And we all gathered for a low key and awesome dinner. When the kids found out it was Sassy, Poppi, Dave and I, they cheered.
The mom guilt never ends – and the only remedy I have found is living in the moment, acknowledging that we miss the kids as much as they miss us when we are this busy, and reveling and anything we can do together in the meantime. as we snuggled the kids down tonight, I kept thinking how lucky we are for every night we get to sing them to sleep, read them a story, and tell them repeatedly how much we love them. No matter what, however much time we get together is glorious and well spent if it reinforces how epically loved they are.
Also, jack o lanterns. We did that. Turns out Dave is also a command pumpkin sculptor. So there’s that. AND we had a glorious, sunshine-filled Halloween that all of the kids raved about, from Nightmare before Christmas to family trick or treat. I may love this holiday after all…
