Love on a Thursday

In my world, yesterday was a slow, quiet day. Well, if you can call quiet being roused at 6:45 am by the kids and trying to burrow under the covers and pretend to sleep in. Needless to say, I pried myself out of bed to tend to breakfast and the mayhem that is my morning before they head off to school. The remainder of the morning was spent catching up on emails, procrastinating on homework, and trying to decide what to make for dinner. After much deliberation, I put on a big pot of chicken tortilla soup and enjoyed the tempting smells wafting from my kitchen.

Settling in at my computer I continued my search for places to stay in Chicago. This summer we are taking a family vacation that will cover Indiana, Michigan, Canada, Niagara Falls, and Illinois over a two week time period. We have over the past ten years with great success, stayed at various vacation rentals that I found online. Having already secured a rental in Toronto a few weeks ago, Chicago was next on the list. After many emails and hours of scouring the internet over the past few weeks - I finally found a rental in Roscoe Village . The area is lovely with wide tree lined streets in a family friendly neighborhood, within a few blocks of an area filled with shops and restaurants - a mile from Wrigley Field. Just the type of place we enjoy staying. There is something to be said about a vacation that allows you to ensconce yourself for a brief time in residential life of a place you will never live.

After baths and bedtime, I settled into bed with my husband, Craig. We have this nightly routine where we relax and talk about our day, discuss what lies ahead for the week, and in this case looked forward to our summer vacation. Last night, the conversation turned to us. I am deeply in love with my husband after 13 years of marriage - he is my best friend, he teases me mercilessly, is my sparring partner during many spirited discussions, he makes me laugh, and he is the best father I know. I feel incredibly lucky to have him in my life. We have been together since I was 20, married at 21, almost split up when I was 31. I won't go into details here - all I can say is that he is a loving, forgiving man who has never ever lost sight of our family or our love. When I doubted everything in my life, including myself - he held my hand and kicked me not so politely in the rear to help me find my way. Last night, I told him how amazed I am at how strong our love has grown - especially considering all we have been through with our kids and our marriage. It is the most amazing feeling to fall in love all over again with the same person - I have to say it means even more the second time around. I can not wait to grow old with this man - to see where the rest of our lives together take us. So far it has been pretty damn incredible, never a dull moment. I can't wait to share what happens next.