Some nights I lay in bed wondering why I ever thought having 1 kid, let alone 2, was a smart idea.  It usually happens on one of those nights where I feel like I spent the 3 hours I have with the kids after work but before bed correcting them. Nights where they can’t stop touching, hitting, pushing, pulling, prodding, snarking and just being mean to each other for 2 minutes.  Nights when my mantra is “pick your battles”- but there are no battles to pick because hitting your sister in the throat is dangerous and calling your brother stupid is unacceptable.  Night when I wonder if I’m raising crazy people. Nights where I feel like I’ve spent my whole evening yelling, threading and generally being the bad guy.

And I don’t like being the bad guy. I love being a mom and I adore my kids, so sometimes I make sure we have nights like we had today.

A night where we hop in the car 10 mins after I’m done working (just enough time to stuff dinner in a cooler & put on our swim suits) and head to our local beach.  A night when PB&J, pretzels and watermelon is considered a gourmet dinner because it’s eaten on a picnic table over looking the lake. A night when I encourage the kids to chase each other and to get each other as we play Shark in the water for an hour.  A night when the times we laugh far, far outweigh the times we annoy each other or the time I have reprimand a kid.  A night where we simply enjoy each others company and concentrate on having fun, not on making dinner, doing dishes and folding the laundry.  A night we have to repeat as many times as possible this summer.