This Moment

A moment from our week I want to share and remember. Have a great weekend!

Date Day

Romance and fun private time is hard to come by when you're married with three kids, and working, and generally busy and exhausted. But it's important. The few times a year Chris and I manage to be alone together, away from the kids, having dinner or hanging out with friends, we have such a nice time.

It's a very pleasant feeling to be reminded how much you love the person you married, how much fun you have together, when you can be together.

I see a lot of 'date night' talk on Facebook - weekly escapades enjoyed by my married friends with kids. I love the idea, but we have never been successful at maintaining this. Why? The city is crowded. It's expensive. There's so much pressure to have fun, to have drinks, to spend money, to dress nice. A lovely idea, but man - we are super tired.

And so we've let years go by without a regular you and me time of the week. Until it recently struck me - why does it have to be date night? I am my best between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm, after all.

And so, I gladly and giddily introduce you to: Date Day.

Not novel, I'm sure. But oh so exciting.

We have a young babysitter who will come now on Sundays, either 3 hours in the morning or 3 in the afternoon. We plan to alternate between hitting some fun breakfast spots and going out for lunch, maybe some time at the lake, a ride on the scooter when the weather gets nicer, a visit to stores and other places we never get to see.

Last Sunday was our maiden voyage out on the city. We sat at this hip little coffee/brunch place in Logan Square and felt, well, a wee bit younger. A wee bit freer. And for under $30 we had a meal out for which we needed no reservations. No cute outfit. No snobby snobbishness. We ran some errands, got a Hatch Show Print (that we've had since our trip) framed.

And got to hold hands.

BMG

Hey Family,

So, if you'll look up to the top of this blog page, you'll notice a new tab! It's called 'The BelaMaeGillian Project'. Go ahead, open it up. You'll see I've come up with a fantastic new way to keep my house cleaner and my kids educated and entertained at the same time! I'm a genius!

Genius idea: Each and every birthday or Christmas celebration, when you find yourself in front of a Barbie display, or coloring books, or stickers... think instead PAY PAL.

These girls have so much STUFF! It's proven that the over-accumulation of toys and child paraphernalia leads directly to the emotional breakdown of certain mothers, involving tears, usually in front of over-worked husbands and sometimes innocent babes, which may or may not involve stuffing prized possessions strewn across the floor into hefty garbage bags and hiding them in the attic. Right before work on a morning when everyone is running late anyway.

 They actively play with about 6% of their toys, and we are always trying to scrape together money for the exciting classes they want to take (ok, the exciting classes I convince them they want to take.) 

Just send a small amount of money their way, and I PROMISE I will put it toward their wish list of classes (and not toward pedicures). 

Or don't! It's up to you. I'll keep a running list of the classes on their to-do lists just in case you're interested.

What do you think?