Batteries: Charged

This morning I woke up a little more sure that I can make it through the rest of this winter and pregnancy with a smile on my face. Living in Minnesota during January, February and March is tough. The cold and the snow just go on and on and on. Combine that with a stir-crazy two-year-old and one big baby belly and I find myself with white knuckles at the end of most weekdays.

But this weekend I found out it's not really the cold weather at all. It's about taking time for myself and my marriage and the husband who is so incredibly generous with his fatherly and husbandly responsibilities that I sometimes swipe his needs under the rug and instead rant on and on about how long my own day has been.

We moms don't need much. Just the simplicity of getting in and out of the car without having to strap someone else in a carseat. Or the comfort of reading a good book in front of the fireplace right in the middle of the day without anyone pulling you down to their level to ask you one million and one questions about what you're doing and why you're doing it. Or the thrill of playing a 3-hour game of Scrabble without once worrying that at any moment someone might come out of nowhere and scatter those tiles into every corner of the room.

And then, when you've been away for just enough time, you'll realize that you really do miss that carseat in the back of the car. And that curious voice of endless questions isn't so bad. In fact, it's pretty precious. And Scrabble's got nothing on a wrestling/snuggling match in the middle of my own living room.

More on our trip later. It was wonderful! (Thank, God for Grandmas.) But for now I'm just enjoying being back in the comfort of my own home with my favorite two-year-old.