Mother’s Day weekend was a mother alright.

My weekends have been busier than usual lately. And this past weekend was no exception. Saturday was filled with Scouts, birthdays and work. My son and I attended a boating safety expo but it turned out to be much more than that. The local Cost Guard Auxiliary hosted the event and we say lots of exciting things. An open water rescue via helicopter (my favorite), fire extinguisher training and my son even got to try on a full fire fighter’s uniform. We also got to tour a small (40 feet) boat that the Coast Guard uses to patrol the local waters. This was another local gem that I’ve never heard of that we’ll be sure to attend next year.

After a stop at out local pizza spot, we went on to my nephew’s 9th birthday party. We only stayed a little because I had to go to work in the evening. The kids played in the bounce house and enjoyed the pinata.

Unfortunately there was no getting out of work that evening. Lately my weekends have turned unto second Friday and pre-Monday. I stayed as long as I could handle so I didn’t have to go back on Sunday (Mother’s Day). It was just me and the security guards. This was by no means the first time I’ve done something like this. Time keeping is pretty lax at my job as long as you get your stuff done. Going in at off hours and being on call get rewarded with being able to leave whenever you want if you have something else to do. The drive home from work (11:30pm) was a long one because I had to talk myself out of stopping at every one of my favorite fast food spots. Late night and boredom are a bad combination when you’re trying to watch what you’re eating.

I told myself before I went to bed that I was going to get up early and get stuff you my wife…that didn’t happen. When I got up around 7:30am, my daughter was already busy prepping breakfast for mom. She’s 10 and addicted to Pinterest. She made some awesome strawberry roses that actually looked like the picture she saw online.

I made it to the store to and was accompanied by all the other men there getting gifts for their wives and mothers. Flowers and chocolates in hand (85% cacao because my wife is also watching what she’s eating), I rushed back to my house.

My wife was surprised by her gifts and enjoyed the strawberry roses. She like them so much that we weren’t able to get a picture of them.

The rest of the day was spent visiting with my mom and mother-in-law. It was all a blur.

The big take away from all this is that I have to stop thinking of days in terms of weekdays and weekends. Life doesn’t know the difference. It just knows that you have stuff to do and time is ticking. I make it point not to complain about stuff like this. I hear lots of people now complaining and/or bragging about how busy they are and how hard they work. Most of the time this is far from the truth. We really have it easy. We should be happy that our days are filled with Boy Scout outings and Mother’s Day brunches. This is just a fantasy for most people.