Ever since the company Ishi works for decided to arbitrarily force a totally different work schedule on its employees, we have felt like we were not so much running our lives as our lives were running us. Into the ground. For a few years, we had been enjoying the amazing feeling of having real Saturday/Sunday weekends like everyone else, with a fairly respectable shift from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. This was a dream shift, especially compared to some of the shifts he’s had to work – the worst one being from 4:00 AM to 12:00 PM. You try having any kind of life whatsoever when your husband (and therefore you, really) have to be in bed by 7:00 in the evening!

So we loved our shift and then it got changed; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday he works from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday he is off. This wreaked utter havoc with our schedules and it really felt like we were constantly trying to catch up with things. The days Ishi works, he doesn’t get home until about 9:30 or 10:00, which is too late to be eating supper, but I would always still try to have supper when he came home – it was not working well and we ended up always just grabbing fast food on the way home. Then he’s off for three days in a row, which alternately felt like he was ALWAYS home, and yet we still couldn’t catch two minutes together because of school, work and volunteer commitments. I didn’t even realize how crazy unhappy we were until the last two weeks, when we finally, finally got some things to click.

Now, for the third Monday in a row, we’ve had a fantastic day. We slept until noon… noon! We got up and Ishi cooked brunch; an awesome omelette with some diced chili-rubbed pork chops left over from supper last night. Cooking on a regular basis has done wonders for our moods, thanks to stable blood-sugar levels and happy tummies!

We needed to try and find some things from our insanely out-of-control storage locker, a trip to which always makes us fairly apprehensive. It’s stressful having such a huge mess that never seems to move towards being finished, no matter how many hours we spend there. We’ve fought terribly there so many times that we even get snippy in the car on the way there! Talk about Pavlov’s dogs!

Well, I don’t know what was in that omelette, but we got there and got to work without a single cross word. We really need to do some serious purging and decision-making regarding the sheer amount of STUFF that is being stored in that huge locker but we avoid it like the plague for the reasons I just mentioned. Today, we did just that. We got there around three-thirty and just went on a purging bender. This locker is filled with boxes of clutter and junk (interspersed with genuine belongings and family treasures) from the last four times we have moved. It’s heartbreaking and frankly, a little terrifying to confront the evidence of just how much difficulty I’ve had with just the normal tasks associated with daily life. I counted something like fourteen unopened bank statements and maybe twenty or thirty bills. Who doesn’t open their bills? Me, apparently, just a few short years ago. The entire locker at one point was strewn down the length of the hall. Stuffs. We has it!

The storage place locks down at 9:00 PM, and at 8:24 Ishi declared us done for the day. My butt was in hearty agreement, so we kicked into high gear and repacked everything that was left (most of it, *sob*), put aside the 60L construction-quality garbage bag we’d filled, and ran the boxes of “keepers” down to the car, and vacuumed the incredibly dusty and littered hall floor with the Shop-Vac I keep in the storage locker, making it to the keypad to punch out at exactly 8:57 PM. I’m telling ya, we live life on the edge.

We were both so hungry we were actually lightheaded. I hadn’t planned to be there any longer than a couple of hours, but we got into such an amazing groove that Ishi really didn’t want to stop. Visions of cheeseburgers were literally dancing in front of my eyes, but we are desperately trying to get back to our healthy lifestyle, so Ishi was reminding me of the fish fillets he’d put in the fridge with a marinade before we left. But even he was admitting that they didn’t sound very satisfying. All of a sudden I remembered that I had frozen some Rio Grande^[1] a few weeks back and we still hadn’t had it! I know I sound way too excited about something as simple as supper after a long day, but please understand where I’m coming from. For most of my marriage years, something as simple as supper was often beyond me. We ate out almost constantly and it was killing our bodies and our budget. For me, it’s a tremendous victory to A) have the food available in the freezer in the first place (because it means I cooked something within the last few months), B) have the discipline to pass up a fast food meal in order to eat this meal I cooked and C) have the energy and non-resentful attitude necessary to put it together!

We got home and I popped the Rio Grande into the microwave to defrost, threw some pasta on to boil, and went to change my clothes. When I came back, Ishi had cleared the table, grated some cheese and drained the pasta. We were like some family out of a Norman Rockwell painting! It was excellent and I calculate we saved about 500 calories each.

We’d picked up a movie on the way home. My choice was Smother, but it was out. Ishi’s choice was Role Models and I prepared myself for a bit of a lame deal, but oh my goodness… I laughed so hard I cried! We snuggled on the couch and snickered like kids and we honestly, honestly haven’t enjoyed each other as much as this since last summer. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think the winter is truly over for now. I’m pinching my arms and wiggling my toes and checking to make sure nothing is missing or broken, and I think we’re going to be okay.

Now our work is done for the day and we’re up way too late (again!), but it’s been such a great day we just can’t be bothered to care. Tomorrow is another full day but for the first time in moons and moons, I feel adequate to the tasks in front of me.

Please Lord, let that feeling stay with me for a while!

1. Rio Grande is awesomeness. Ground beef, burrito seasoning, salsa and black beans. Serve over brown rice or whole grain pasta, a small dollop of sour cream and guacamole, and enjoy. [↩]