Today is a holiday for federal employees and schoolchildren everywhere but not, alas, for most working parents. I'm torn; I love my days off as much as anyone, but I understand the negative impact on productivity and cost to employers. Still; we're celebrating a man who espoused freedom and equality. Give me freedom - from work, and equality - with the REST of the people who didn't have to commute 45 miles today. Ha.
The kids are spending the day with their dad today, since I already had meetings on the calendar and couldn't take the day to work at home or use vacation time. So they spent the night with him last night. I miss them when they're gone, I always do.
But this morning..OH THIS MORNING. This was the first workday morning in about a year and a half where I did not have to have them fed, dressed and out the door with me at 6:30 in the morning all by myself. The first commuting morning in a year and a half A YEAR AND A HALF where I could get up, make coffee, check email, feed animals, feed myself and get ready for work without anyone having a tantrum about their breakfast or their clothes or because their sister's head is in the line of sight of the television. It was HEAVEN. The silence of my morning today was so absoutely divinely magical that I wanted to roll around in it like a dog in a fresh pile of cow crap. I can't remember the last time a non-holiday Monday was this calm.
Reality, when it sets back in tomorrow, will suck. And I will hug my children and tell them I love them and then lose my mind while the tornado that is us gets out the door.
