Four miles pre-call.

Four hours rounding in the ICU. Four exhausted but VERY hard working residents. Four AMAZING NPs. Four surgeons in-house.

Four traumas in quick succession.

Twenty-four admissions.

Four hours of sleep.

Four cups of coffee.

Four miles post-call.

Four telemarketer calls. (No, I am not Sanjay. I don’t know who Sanjay is. I am not Sanjay’s wife/girlfriend/sister/mother/cousin. Yes, I know you are Sallie Mae. You sound very legitimate ma’am. As you did the first time you called me…four hours ago. I am sure Sanjay owes you plenty of money for his student loans, but I don’t know where Sanjay is.)

Four sandwiches for the kids for dinner.

And planning for a four day weekend with my husband.

Because while we absolutely love our four children, we need our time. We need deliberate, intentional, focused, protected us time. After nearly 18 years of marriage, we have learned that we need more than the passing “Love ya” and a kiss here and there. We must fiercely protect #investinginthemarriage. We spent several years working, going to school, parenting, maintaining a household. We fiercely loved our four, but somehow lost some of us. 

So we made it a priority. No excuses. Tired, angry, bored, “not feeling it”…not an excuse. Be together. Be engaged. Hold hands.  Go on a date. Even if the “date” is opening a cheap bottle of wine and sitting on the couch together. That counts. And I can genuinely say that the return on the investment is even more than we expected.

We are planning an impromptu four day ski weekend with some old friends. We were told that “crazy hats” are a must for the ski lodge hot tub. So I stole Sam’s monkey hat. Scott’s wearing an old ROTC gem. And knowing the other couple we are going with…well, we will have a world class collection of four “crazy hats”.

Oh, and by the way, thanks to our four parents for supporting our silly adventures. The kids enjoy the special time with you, and we appreciate your investment in us. 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer: My viewpoints are not necessarily reflective of my employer, or any local, regional or national organization that I belong to. As a matter of fact, I pretty much just speak for myself. Please keep that in mind.