is it my night??

a snapshot into an hour of our day...7-8 pm each night...

pat typically gets home around 7 pm...on a good night he's home a few minutes earlier...but generally around 7.
he gets home after close to an hour commute...and after a long day of work.
he walks in the door to a scene that is part comical/part insanity...a tired mom and 4 tired kids.
sometimes we're all laughing...sometimes we're all crying...sometimes we're all dancing...:-)

sawyer goes to bed at 7.
i try to keep him up for pat to at least see him for a minute. but some nights i just can't take him one more minute and pat has to go in and see him asleep {which isn't all bad...that's just about the best part of a day, huh??}

pat's dinner is waiting in the microwave for him.
depending on how hungry he is, he'll eat it right then, or wait til the kids are in bed.
after he changes his clothes, he takes over.
he is AMAZING.
he sits the kids down and does the candle.
then he put them to bed.
he used to lay and talk to each one of them.
but that was getting to be a 30+ minute ordeal...he really wanted to connect with them and not rush through it...but we needed OUR time...and he needed some down time...and so began "is it my night?"

pat read somewhere about Jonathan Edwards.
he had 14 {i think} children.
he focused on 1 child each day.
sounds a little weird, but for that one day out of 2 weeks, that child was his focus.
i'm sure he didn't completely IGNORE the other 13 children...just focused on that one.

pat had that in mind when he started "their night" with the kids.
if it's "your night"...you get to pick what you are going to do with daddy...
rebekah will pick: coloring a picture, or reading a book...last night they went for a walk {when i took the above picture}
joshua will pick: practicing hitting baseball in the yard, doing a puzzle, or building lego's
bailey will pick: having a party :-), reading books, or coloring a picture

they think about and talk about what they are going to do "tonight" all day long...
and some nights it ends up taking 30 minutes.
but it's more QUALITY time than just rushing through all 3 of them.

my children are beyond blessed in the daddy that they have.

and then, after giving all day at work...and then giving to his kids...he comes and sits with me on the couch and lets me talk or cry or vent about my day. :-)
i am incredibly blessed also!