In the Still of the Night

As I'm sitting here, Captain Chaos is tucked into his big boy bed yet again (although nap time was a bust!), Tiny Princess is snoring in her crib (that girl has a serious issue already), and BB is upstairs preparing to go to bed as he has an all day training session 2 hours from home tomorrow and has to be on the road by 6:30 am...

All is still, it is dark, the sound of the air conditioner is the only accompaniment to my typing...

I am looking forward to an entire day tomorrow without BB calling me to ask me to do things...perhaps I can finally get around to actually cleaning up my office. For real folks...that man cannot go more than 3 hours without thinking of something for me to do for him...I asked him once if he thought I had nothing else to do during the day but be his errand girl...he was dumbfounded as to what I actually do, and I was reminded of a story our minister told one Sunday...

One evening, a man arrived home from work to find his front lawn strewn with bikes, water guns, newspaper scraps, and the dog's leash...he was worried and hurried to pull into the garage, trying not to run over rollerblades, helmets, tennis rackets and the like. He walked into the house to find the kids, still in their pajamas, covered in food and dirt, screaming and yelling at one another, the table littered with dirty dishes, spilled milk, sticky cereal, and the dog licking up that which was on the floor. The television was blaring, the stereo was playing, the phone was ringing, there was a roll of toilet paper strung across the couch, leading to the bathroom, in which, the toilet was plugged, having been stopped up by a large part of a box of instant mashed potatoes. There was nothing in the oven for dinner, and no sign of his wife. Panicked, the man rushed up the stairs to find his 3 year old daughter, running through the hallway naked, yelling about how she had gone potty on her bed and not in her potty...truly frightened, he dashed down the hall to the master bedroom, opened the door, thinking that his wife must be severely sick, wounded, or even dead for these things to have happened...

He found her, lying in bed, still in her pajamas with a box of chocolates, a bottle of wine, and a stack of novels on the bed beside her.

Absolutely astonished, he stammered "What is going on? Are you ok?!?!?!" She simply smiled sweetly at him and replied "You asked what I do all day long..."


After having heard that story, I am reminded each and every day that BB has no earthly idea just what it takes to be at home all day. Certainly, I don't have to do the laundry, or run the vacuum, or sweep the floors, or feed the animals, or interact with my children, or any of the 101 other things I do all day long...but what would happen if I didn't?

And so, as I sit tonight, enjoying my alone time, knowing that upstairs my husband is waiting, reading his book in the hopes that I'll come upstairs prior to his falling asleep, in the hopes that I will "be intimate" with him, I am feeling more and more inclined to sit in the dark, listening to the whir of the air conditioner, and the ticking of the clock...