Staycation

Last weekend I got away from my kids. I didn't go anywhere, but they did.

On Friday night I dropped my kids off at my friend Debbie's house. She has teenage daughters who were thrilled to babysit. Then Debbie, Kristi, and Susan took me out to dinner. It was WONDERFUL!

Then on Saturday morning I took David and Mary to Grammy's house. And left them. For a long time.

I shopped and ate and sat quietly by myself. Then that evening I went with my parents to the TCU-BYU basketball game.

There were lots of BYU fans.

And not too many TCU fans. (The fans up top are BYU fans. The TCU "crowd" is in the seats closer to the court--where all the empty seats are.)

It was fun to watch the Cougars. They have a great team!

The game wasn't very suspenseful. But that's the way I like it.

The final score was 107 to 77.

After the game, my parents took me to dinner at Cristina's, one of our favorites.

Then I went home and went to bed. Guess how many times I had to get up that night. ZERO! Guess how many little people crawled into my bed at five in the morning. ZERO! It was pretty nice, I admit. Though, of course, I was missing my babies.

Meanwhile, David and Mary were enjoying a special sleepover at Grammy's house, which included a carousel ride and watching a zamboni.

I drove up and retrieved my little ones first thing Sunday morning. They'd had a perfectly wonderful time. (Me too.)

It's nice to have breaks from the kids. The problem is...well, actually, there are two problems:

First, it's NEVER ENOUGH. I feel like I am never away from them enough to really recover from my motherhood madness. No matter how much time away from them that I have, I always WANT MORE. How do I know this? Because three minutes after I am reunited with them, I'm already pulling out my hair again.

Second, it's always TOO MUCH. I miss them when I'm not with them. There's always a piece of me that's worried about them. There's always a piece of me that's sad that it's someone else who is enjoying them. David and Mary have captured my heart. So I can't ever put my whole heart into anything else.

The thing is that breaks from motherhood aren't possible. I am always a mom now. I always will be. David and Mary are my children, whether I am with them or not. Truly having a break from David and Mary is impossible...

...but I will take them anyway!