in awe

Yesterday, I met up with Doc and her three kids.

The mission: find a baptism dress for her youngest.

The place: various outlet shopping centers in and around Troyes.

The outcome: positive! After circling one whole outlet center, lunch at MacDo, a drive across town to another outlet center and a quick stop for a feeding and a last minute look around, a dress was found.

How I felt after spending an afternoon with three children under the age of four: Utterly exhausted.

Seriously y'all, I don't know how she does it, nor why she isn't bat shit crazy. Those children are among the most beautiful I have ever seen, but they are a handful. (Please don't misunderstand me - they're not bad at all, just... all under the age of four.) Granted, I did do a sprint through the grocery before I came home, and since school starts in a couple of weeks, you can imagine how packed it was, but by the time I got home I felt like I'd just run a marathon twice. Backwards. Up a very large mountain.

Doc and I have a running joke that whenever one of the kids has a "moment," she turns to me and says, "Are you sure you want to go through this?" But she knows I do, and she's right. The rewards obviously outweigh the difficulties, but there are no two ways about it - raising kids is a tiring business. My hat's off to you, Ms. Doc!