A Different Kind of Weekend

I have had to work more than an hour on an evening or a weekend less
than a handful of times, which is lucky for me, because it's not at
all the norm among my co-workers and because my hands are full as it
is between personal and parental responsibilities. But this weekend
was a very big exception. Because of an impending deadline, I put in
about 15 hours of work between the time I left the office Friday
evening and when I returned Monday morning, or about as much as I
spent sleeping during that same time.

Most of that work time was logged on Saturday, which was of course by
far the most gorgeous weather day we've had in months. The work was
interesting enough and I was well-rested enough that I definitely gave
my usual 100 percent; nevertheless, these big chunks of work threw off
our usual weekend routine. Amy ended up taking the kids to her
parents' for a few hours, just to give them something to do and me
some free space. When they returned, our neighbors were firing up a
party on their front porch, so we joined in; but my whole sense of
timing was all thrown off, in terms of when the kids should eat and
when we should get them off to bed. After they went down, I put in
some more work time, a drastic break from the usual pre-bed
decompression activities like reading or crossword puzzles.

Sunday was a little more back to normal. I got the kids up and Aaron
fed and back down, and while Jada dilly-dallied in cleaning her room,
I squeezed another couple of hours of work in. Then we were all off
to church, and then back home for lunch. Aaron went back down for nap
number two, and Amy got her nap in, so Jada and I were off to the zoo
for two plus hours of running around and getting tired (me more than
her). We grilled in our backyard, did baths, got the kids down, and
then I went to my friend's house to pray (he usually comes to me
Saturday morning, but couldn't this weekend because he was away).

So we were able to salvage some typical weekend stuff in this most
unusual of weekends. Still, I'm glad that putting in these sorts of
work hours is the exception and not the norm for me; I work hard
during the week and do my best to be as productive as possible, but
when the weekend comes, my plate's plenty full with other stuff as it
is, and as routinized as my kids are, I think I'm much more so.