What would you do with 24 hours alone?

The days seem to collide together like the snow that is falling every other day here where I live. So I ask you, what would you do if you were presented with 24 hours alone? I’m a Mom I’m not supposed to get 24 hours to myself. When my husband and I decided to start our family 5 years ago we new that life was going to forever change but like many things in life, you really don’t “get it” until your “in it.” At least that’s my way of thinking these days.

My husband and I more often than not sit down after putting our youngest to bed, look at each other and without even having to say a word, know what the other one is thinking. “Who knew this was going to be so hard.” Then I hear my youngest from his crib, “mah, mah, mah!!” That’s my 20 month blowing us kisses from his crib. I smile and already forget about the exhaustion that has set in. I curl up on the couch with a blanket, a glass of wine and the remote control. Ahhhh……3 glorious hours to myself! My favorite part of the day.

It’s funny how all of my life I waited for this beautiful family that I have. It’s all I ever wanted. I even get to stay at home and raise my babies. I never felt the need to curl up on the couch after the end of they day and zone out to drama on television to slow my brain down before kids, OK well maybe I did a little but not like I do now. I let the guilt of loving this time of night eat me alive some nights. Asking my husband “Why do I “need” this time so badly. Shouldn’t my favorite part of the day be when my kids wake me (out of a dead sleep) ready to wake for the day! A beautiful new day where I get to see my youngest discover the world, aka walk around the corner to see him standing on top of his music table holding a knife at the counter. Isn’t the best part of my day supposed to be seeing my four and a half year recognize letters and write her name? Not the time of the day when she walks by her little brother and pushes him down all out of jealousy because I gave him his juice before her.

Come to find out after having 24 hours to myself I realized…..all of those times of the day were favorite time of the day. It’s amazing what you can realize after having 24 uninterrupted hours to yourself. Twenty-four straight hours of worrying about no one but myself. Nine hours of straight sleep with no interruptions. Eight straight hours of working with no one demanding things from me (unless you call needing to refill my wine glass). A lunch, dinner and breakfast where everything I ate was HOT and amazing.

I think if every parent had 24 hours to themselves every now and again we could refresh and realize just how amazing our lives truly are. Even when they consist of sticky floors and yogurt covered counches, crying babies and smelly stained yoga pants. You see, I wouldn’t want my life any other way (hair in a pony tail like every day kind of way) but when we go go go, and forget about ourselves in the process, we can get in a rut. We’ve had six feet of snow in the past 17 days and you can add another foot by the time you read this. My kids only go to school two days a week, but in the past month they’ve had at least one snow day a week consisting of me having to jam 10 hours of work into 4 hours, meaning working on weekends and at night. Winter is tough, their is lack of sun and vitamin D, no outdoor activities to relieve some of that pent up energy-resulting in the kids bouncing on couches and at least 10 time out a day.

As a busy Mom of two I know I always put myself last so when the opportunity of spending 24 consecutive hours to myself arouse with my Mother-in-law. I had only one answer. HELL YES. My MIL has a cute condo in the town my husband and I first owned our first home. She goes to her boyfriends house a lot on weekends so after not exiting the house once in two full weeks, not showering for 48 hours straight and the my level of sanity seriously reaching a whole new level I had a brilliant idea. Why not ask my MIL if I could stay at her house one night while she was at her boyfriends. My husband is amazing why wouldn’t he take the kids so I could have a little me time to sleep, relax and write. However his first reaction was not what I had expected. “What do you mean you wouldn’t come home?!” Then the guilt set in. I doubted my brilliant solution right away. Why do I need a break from my own family? I even reached out to my local Momma group and asked them what they would do. Every last one of them said GO!!!! GO! GO! GO! So once I sat down and talked to my husband again about it he was way more pleasant and said YES, you should go. Why not? You deserve it. So after a few pushes from him, my mother and my mother-in-law I figured heck my mom and my MIL knew more than me how important a break is since they both have already raised their family. So the plans were made. I was to leave at 11 am on a Saturday for a hair appointment. I would then go and have lunch at my favorite place my husband and I used to go to before we had kids. Alone. I ordered a salad to go and I then checked into Casa de Sylvie! Can I just brag for a minute and tell you how sweet it was to walk into my MIL’s house and see this.

She left me notes on how to run her TV, towels for a shower the next day, chocolates, a new book for inspiration and of course a wine opener!!