Life's simple pleasures

One thing about being a Mamma Italiana is that your whole life revolves around the bambini....all you mothers out there know what I'm talking about. After all, motherhood is one of the most selfless jobs there is.

Now, I'm not taking anything away from the job of a father, because that, too, is very selfless (or should be, anyway). The men go to work and support the family and deal with all that stress and then are expected to come home and erase it all from their mind in order to begin their other job - being Dad.

That's a lot of mental exhaustion. I think of my poor husband and the agony he deals with in his less-than-enjoyable, not-worth-the-hours career. It's almost like - is there ever a way out? Will it ever end? I know there's retirement but I can't even see that far down the road at this point. It's almost out of reach right now.

And then I think to myself, WHY am I looking forward to that time in our lives? Aren't the golden years really right NOW, when the kids are so innocent, and still young and cute.....when my husband and I are still young and cute (kinda).

I mean, when we get older, the kids are leaving us, so that's a negative right there. I guess the positive is that I will be quite READY for them to leave by that point, I'm sure. But still - how am I going to handle that? Then we will be old...we won't be able to do all the fun things we enjoy now (but can't do cuz of the kiddos)...our bodies will be a wreck (just thinking of what runs through our Italian blood brings on the feeling of heart failure). My husband and I have already planned our weekend outings - scooting around in our matching 'Rascalls' through Walmart.

Yep, those are the golden years...

Honestly, it's a LOT of work right now trying to find the balance in life. We have four kids. We love them...we would even have more if we could! But boy, do they keep us on our toes!

Sure, things are busy between school and bottles and little league, but I LOVE that kind of busy.

Sure, there's not a lot of time for writing and I would really like to focus on getting a portfolio together...starting my own freelance side job, maybe even write a cookbook one day....

Sure, my husband would rather start his own business instead of work for somebody...he'd like to make his own hours and actually make it on time to the little league games that HE is supposed to be coaching (thank God for the other understanding fathers that fill in).

These things can wait. They will work themselves out.

For now, we have learned to accept (very happily, of course) that things are just a bit busier at this stage. We can't just pick up and go out to dinner without tying three kids' shoes and loading up the diaper bag (of course, we'd also have to win the lottery simply to afford the dinner for six - just another thing on our to-do list)....

We can't start the car and go when we're late for something, cuz we still have to buckle four kids (after the potty breaks, of course). Needless to say, we're late for a lot of things.

But - thank God for good babysitters, because every once in a blue moon, it's nice to get away without the baggage ---literally.

I mean it, not having to lug a diaper bag around on a night out is quite exciting for me! Last weekend my husband and I were lucky enough to go out for our son's school auction dinner. It was so much fun just to get a night out with my hubby. As you might have guessed, I carried the smallest, most lightweight purse I had! What was in it? lipstick! That's it! No diapers, no bottles, no wipes, no neosporin or band-aids - just lipstick!

Thank God for the simple pleasures in life :)

This photo is of me and my husband out on the town! And even without the kids in tow, we were still late! I guess one of the things about getting older is learning that you cannot blame anyone else for your faults...even the kids (darn)