When Reality Hits Like A Ton of Bricks

I've heard countless comments about how lucky we are and how jealous people are that I thought I would take a moment to shed light on some of the not-so-glamorous realities of my life right now in hopes of making the rest of you feel better.

We've barely left the house at all because David has to work and the kids don't want to leave their physical and emotional "comfort zone" of the house. Consequently, the children and I are starting to get cabin fever and I will be forcing the three of us to go SOMEWHERE tomorrow. I don't care how much they want to stay home!

Because we have guests right now, I am getting up to an alarm (something I haven't done in a VERY long time). I wouldn't need the alarm but for the fact that try as we may, we cannot seem to get the kids or ourselves to bed on time. In fact, we are close to two hours late most nights, so most of us are experiencing some mild, but chronic sleep deprivation at this point.

I spend the mornings preparing food and cleaning. After lunch, if I am lucky, someone from home is on Skype and I get to chat with them. Otherwise I am on the computer or playing with the children, or more often than not playing referee between the children.

Whenever the phone rings I have a mild panic attack, take a deep breath and pray the caller speaks English before answering, "allo?" This happens about once a day.

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So here I am, smack dab in the middle of the most amazingly beautiful, history and wine -rich environment ever seen on earth and I can't go enjoy it because it seems rather inappropriate to drag my children along from wine cave to wine cave and castle to castle while my husband works! Thus, I am twiddling my thumbs and vacillating between laughing and crying over the irony.

Talk about a time when a girl could really, really use her non-nursing, non-pregnant, wine-loving girlfriends. Gosh. Now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure that rules out a large majority of my girlfriends currently. Well, those of you who fit this category, GET OVER HERE!!! I NEED YOU!!!

orrrrr... maybe I need to find myself some french girlfriends. Odds are good even if they are pregnant or nursing, they would still love and enjoy touring wine caves with me!