Bang Bang Wednesday

I'm more than a little sad that I haven't been documenting life like I'd like.  But, if there's one thing I have learned in the last month or two, it's that I am constantly reevaluating my priorities and figuring out what works best for my family.

It's no secret that I went back to school.  Most days I'm ecstatic that I'm entering a field I'm passionate about.  Other days I'm overwhelmed.  I wake up at 5:00 (or 4:30 on clinical days), get myself and the boys ready.  I take off for an hour-long commute while Hubs takes the kiddos to daycare.  I'm in class all morning (or at the hospital for clinical all day long) and then head home for lunch, errands, and perhaps some homework.  I pick the kids up around 4:30 and come right home to start them on supper.  Then Hubs and I eat.  I get the kitchen picked up and we take the boys up for baths and bedtime.  By then it's close to 8:00pm and I'm back downstairs to finish some homework or studying.  I try to get in bed by 10.

Then it's wash, rinse, repeat.

My nursing program is pretty intense.  It's 12 months.  That's it.  A ton of information in twelve. months.  We have tests on the weekends.  Hard tests.  The kind that, even though they're open-book and open-note, they're so hard to could still easily fail them.  

I haven't really had a break since I started at the end of August.  This past week, starting last Wednesday, involved tests, quizzes, papers, labs, charting exercises, and more.  It was intense and I was pretty frazzled most of the time.  But the last test was yesterday, and last night I did something I've needed to do for several years.

I left my husband at home.  With two small children.  One was not finished with supper.  Neither had had a bath.  Yep, I left my husband, about 30 minutes after he arrived home from work, with the better part of the evening routine to tackle on his own.  Both kids.  both baths.  Both bedtimes.

I went out for dinner with my neighbors.  We went to Bonefish Grill for Bang Bang Wednesday.  If you haven't had their Bang Bang Shrimp, you need to.  Trust me.  Go on Wednesday when it's $5.  Treat yourself to a Pomegranate Martini to go with it.  Then enjoy Chilean Sea Bass with Mango Salsa.  And treat yourself to a Coconut Pie with Rum Sauce for dessert.  It's Ladies Night, after all, and Ladies Night should always end with dessert.

Readers, I needed this.  I deserved this.  So I enjoyed this!

And when I got home, I discovered that I didn't have my keys.  Hubs was in bed and the front door was locked (and we have a hotel lock on the front door to keep Buddy Man from running outside when we aren't looking!).  I tried to lift the garage door manually, with no luck.  I tried to call Hubs but he clearly didn't have his phone upstairs.  I was forced into ringing the doorbell.  Thankfully the only one who woke up was Hubs!

So, after I thanked my husband profusely for taking care of our precious angels and giving me a night off, I suggested to my ladies that we make this a regular event.  And I made a pact with myself that I wouldn't ignore myself anymore.  Hubs has been offering to give me a night off since Buddy Man was an infant, but for a number of reasons, it didn't work out.  But now I see that I need to take care of myself.  And sometimes that means leaving my family at home.