My Pilot and Me (and Kiddies, too!)

We’re back from our lovely vacation down south.  It was wonderful to go to the beach everyday.  Except that one day where we were all throwing up.  And the rental car got smashed while unoccupied in the parking lot.  Which one of the kiddies threw up in on the way back to the rental car place (to get a new car).  The other kiddie waited until being behind the counter of the rental car company to throw up- twice.  Back to the hotel and had to call housekeeping 4 times to change the beds due to soiled lines (there were 4 more throw-ups from the 4 year old!).  Ah, what fun! At least 9 days were lovely!

Now we’re home and re-settled back into our routine.  And after 8 years of marriage, I’ve finally figured something out about my pilot.  Working a total of 9 days this month (4 of those days are commuting days) leaves a whole lot of time at home.  A bit too much, maybe.  Yesterday I had enough.  I never wanted to do it, but I had to.  Over breakfast I gave him a list of things I wanted him to do that day.  Not ‘I’d like you to do’-things.  The ‘Have these done by the end of today’- things.  It’s all about the phrasing.  And these things were actually all on his own to do list.  I didn’t get into the things I wanted done (that will come).  Well, it worked like a charm. Kind of reminds me of my 4 year old.  Give him a ‘job’ and he’ll ‘work’ for an hour.  Give my pilot a ‘job’ and he’ll work for 4 hours!

At lunchtime I noticed how good his mood was and couldn’t resist asking,  “So you enjoy being told what to do, eh?” He ensured me that keeping occupied was important to him., however he thought that doing his things would take away from ‘us’ time.   Seems that he thought I wanted him to hang out with me all day.  Maybe when I’m back to work and our time together is limited, but not when we are together 24 hours a day for, uummmm 21 days this month!!

So now I think we’ve finally found some sort of balance between us.  I go about my day as if he wasn’t home and he works on his projects around the house.  The kiddies watch (help) dad do his work, so I get a bit of free time to work on my projects (which are never as interesting as dad’s).

Best part of it all- I finally have my basketball net up over our garage!  That’s my mommy-zen time.  Speaking of basketball, NCAA- I had Memphis and Kansas in my bracket with Memphis winning.  In one of the best final games in a longtime, Kansas won in OT. I didn’t mind one bit losing my bracket when the game was that exciting!

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