Thursdays are my day "off"

We signed "the baby" up for creche (daycare) when I was 3 months pregnant. I was very hesitant to sign up my unborn baby for any daycare at all before the first year; after all, we did not leave Andrew with a "babysitter" until the age of 16 months (with exception to the week I went back to work when Andrew was 6 weeks to assist with the year-end audit). But Robert convinced me and in the end, as usual, he was right. He said I would need some time off. After all, we have no family here to help us out, and Robert travels often. Very often. It's only Feb. 25th and he has already had a 2 week trip to the US, a 3 day trip to Madrid and on Saturday he is leaving for a 10 day trip to Australia. And of course whenever he travels, he gets behind on the current in-office stuff and inevitably ends up working long hours to catch up.... I had visions of long soaks in the bath tub, catching up on personal phone calls, tv shows, down time, sleep. Personal doctor's appointments, haircuts, long gym workouts, good books, etc. Ha! Ryan started creche at the beginning of December. I am SO thankful for this place, Les Petits Chaperons Rouges, where Andrew went twice a week from its opening in January 2009 until he started school. The caregivers are just fantastic and I have such great peace of mind when I leave my boy there. But by choice, I started him slowly, leaving him there late and picking him up early. Then he was sick on a Thursday so he stayed home. Then Andrew was sick on a Thursday so he stayed home. Then we had two weeks of holidays where the creche was closed and both boys were home. Then Ryan was sick again and stayed home. Then Andrew had a fall and had to go to ER on a Thursday. Then another two weeks of school holidays with Andrew at home. Finally...Andrew back to school...and Ryan healthy...and I get a day "off". The problem is, I have SO much to do on my day "off" that I need a day off from my day off. Cleaning, ironing, laundry, administrative stuff and mail and bills and such that pile up. French phone calls to make that I cannot possibly do with a baby in the background. Packing away Ryan's clothes that he has (again) outgrown and pulling out the bigger stuff, making and freezing baby food. Not to mention having to pump every 3 hours to ensure there will be enough milk in the freezer to sustain him for the following week's creche day. If I happen to get to the grocery store on a Thursday, it is truly a 4-hour event. For obvious reasons, I do a BIG shop when I'm on my own and therefore buy more than a shopping cart full of stuff. So, I have to do the shop in two phases and empty the groceries into the car twice. The grocery carts are tiny here. Even at the biggest supermarket in the south of France...all of my groceries do not fit in one cart. People from Europe laugh at me when I tell them this, they think it is plenty big. Obviously, they have never shopped at Costco. But the concept of stocking up and buying in bulk just doesn't really exist here. I will say though, that I LOVE the fact that we can stock up on milk since it is non-refrigerated until it is opened. When it goes on sale, it is approximately 50 cents a liter (cheap) and we usually buy 48 litres at a crack. (I think that equates to about 12 gallons...which does not even last us a month!!!) Anyway, was off on a tangent again, back to my original point, I know I shouldn't complain because at least I can get all of the above done without a baby in one arm. But it's really not a day "off". As a mother of two little ones, I have come to realize that a day off just doesn't exist! Not now anyway. I even find it hard to recall what it was like now, before kids, having a day off with NOTHING to do. Robert and I have vowed to make some Thursdays "date" days. Where he will take a vacation day and neither one of us is allowed to do a single chore. We will make it happen because we need to. I believe that time alone together as a couple is essential for a happy and healthy marriage. When the weather is nice, we will take some Thursdays off, exploring new beaches, renting out lounge chairs for the day and eating lunch at the restaurants that are right on the sand. As another mom-friend pointed out, this is even better than a real "date" at night. She recently hired a babysitter to have a dinner out with her husband and they both found they were so exhausted that they would have preferred an early night at home! We're the same. I'm pretty useless after 8PM. Since Ryan's birth, we have yet to complete a single movie in one shot, without one or both of us falling asleep somewhere in the middle. I've been working on the same book that I started before Christmas. That said, I have a girls night out planned for tomorrow evening in celebration of my good friend, Steph's birthday and I know I can muster more than enough energy for that!!!