My Life Is Happier ...

... with Grant around (You'd hope so, huh, since he's my husband and all!). But if there's one thing I've realized after three long years of law school and one LONG summer of Bar preparation, it is that my world is just a lot happier when Grant isn't gone all the time. When he is around consistently, I'm a lot less lonely (obviously!), I laugh more, I'm a nicer mommy, and life is just better. I need him to balance me out, to relieve me from parenting duty when days get long with a three-year-old (and they often do). I need to be able to laugh with him at the end of the day as we watch nonsense television, I need him around to crack me up (and so I can occasionally I crack him up, too). I need his smile, his friendliness, his way of making a dumb, frustrating, or awkward situation not a big deal or maybe even funny.

People talk about their spouse being their "better half," and I have to say, as cheesy as it may sound, Grant truly is mine. He smooths out my rough edges, helps me not take myself too seriously, and reminds me through his patient, quiet example that there are less uptight ways of handling things. He's helping this Type-A girl to relax a little, and I really appreciate that.

After Grant finished the Bar, Eliot and I were able to pick him up. He was amazingly calm and cheerful, but that shouldn't have surprised me -- that's just Grant. With rare exception, he is able to "turn off" the most stressful of days when he comes home and rarely takes out his stress or frustration on his family. After the Bar, we were able to enjoy a few days of heaven at his boss's condo in Park City. It was amazing to physically feel the burden of the "summer of stress" lift from our shoulders as we were able to relax and spend some much needed R&R time together. I loved being able to go grocery shopping with Grant, to go for walks as a family, to cook meals together and have absolutely nothing to do. In the weeks since, it has felt so blissful to have lazy Saturday mornings together, to have Grant's help with chores around the house, to not have to spend weeknights by myself (how is it that simply not having to do bath/bedtime by yourself night after night makes such a difference?). Eliot is back to his normal, happy self, and I wake up smiling these days ... I think a big reason for that is that we have Grant back. Our world is just a better place with him around.

My cousin's wife wrote the sweetest thing on her blog the other day: "so bring on the craziness of juggling school, working, and the bebe. we'll be trading shifts with the little man, and i just hope that in it all there will be pockets of time i will get to share with both of them at the same time. that is a bit of my version of heaven." Isn't Megan golden? And isn't that everyone's version of heaven? Those pockets of time when we have our husbands and children together and we get to spend those blissful moments together, relating to one another, laughing together, loving each other and that precious time that's ours and only ours? I think so.

Enjoy your bits of heaven this week. I will.