The perks of being married

No, I'm not referring to the mythical "sex on demand" perk. I'm talking about having someone who will gently remove your wide-awake infant from the bed at 5-something in the morning, just so both of you don't have to stay awake. Having someone who will bring you a spare set of keys when you lock yours in the car and have to be somewhere in 20 minutes. And a bunch of other things that were completely obvious to me earlier today when I thought about writing this post, but I've long since forgotten. The feeling of gratitude for someone to just *be* in this life with me is never far from the surface. I even felt this way before I got married -- I remember a (married) boss complaining once about some stupid aspect of being married. I lit into him about how at least he has someone to make him chicken soup when he's sick, and give him a ride when his car's in the shop. I was very single at the time and surely had a cold and a broken-down vehicle.

Another perk of being married is not having to raise your kids alone. This comes to mind because Steve has been busting his butt preparing for and running our second store at the festivals for several weeks. Yesterday and today were particularly horrendous schedule-wise: 8am to midnight. The kids miss him. I miss him. I had several "Calgon take me away!" moments today, mostly two kids hollor-crying at once. But they both went to bed on time and soon I'll have my wonderful house husband back and I'm just so very glad this is not my everyday life.