My knee is feeling a lot better. It is still sore and I don’t particularly enjoy stairs, but I can function. Can’t ask for much more than that can I?

I just found out that Chris is going to be on twelve hour shifts for the bulk of April. He will also be working straight through the weekends. Gag. So. . .I must conjure Super Mommy and Ultra Devoted Wife to the rescue. When Chris is on schedules like this I have to be everything to everybody and it can be a pain in the neck. But if I get grouchy about it, Chris moves from grouchy to intolerable and the kids get cranky, the house falls apart and I just want to hit something. The old adage is true: If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

So I must make a conscious effort to be happy. Happiness really is a choice. Things and circumstances don’t make you happy- you make you happy. Circumstances make it easier to be happy, of course. If someone handed me several million dollars and told me to go have fun, I would probably be pretty happy, at least for a day or two. But, ultimately, you can have peace in your heart and a happy nature in even the worst of circumstances. It is all about attitude. I am going to need reminding of this in April.

I will also need to make a conscious effort to do the things that keep me happy. Social events will be planned and babysitters will be hired on occasion. It is easier to be happy when I am not suffering from total burnout.

This weekend is our last weekend to have any time together as a family or a couple. Chris has Friday off, so that will help matters. We are driving to my in-law’s house on Thursday because there is a class I want to take at the scrapbook store there. A very talented woman named Lilac Chang is teaching. I haven’t met her, but I have seen her work in several magazines. The class is on using dyes and bleach on your scrapbook pages. I am so stoked! I rarely take classes because I know most of the stuff they have to offer (and I HATE making insipid copycat pages that most classes offer. ) In this class we are going to be altering a children’s board book. I can’t wait!

So that takes care of some me time. Friday we are going to the beach and doing stuff as a family. I’m going to see if I can’t find a sitter for the kids for part of Saturday so Chris and I can get out together and do something as a couple. We need that couple time.