After a very unique day (rescuing a baby chipmunk- seriusly), I found myself at 10:30pm finally getting the mental energy to try and put the house back in order. A bomb had exploded in every room I was never going to get it all cleaned up. I was tired. I wanted to ignore it all and curl up with a good book or watch a mindless tv show. Finally I convinced myself that I'd spend 15 minutes going as fast as I could, and see how I felt. Usually I find that after the timer goes off at 15 min I keep going.

Anyway, I set the timer, told myself how lucky I am to have such a great family to clean up after, and started in the kitchen. 2 minutes later Cal gets home from studying on campus. We hug. Man I miss him. Then he immediately sets his books down and starts his 'whirlwind' clean up of the living room. I had not said a thing about my goal and did not ask for a thing. Maybe it was painfully obvious from the state of the house. But really he just knew when he walked in that his extra hands would make my work so much lighter and that it was the ultimate gift to me. We worked super fast. The timer went off. It had been 15 minutes since I had started. It looked like a different house! Cal's extra set of hands for 12 minutes saved me hours.

There are some definite advantages to being 'older' going back to school. We've already been through the defining years where you hash out what works and what you each really need. It was a perfect example tonight. We got to spend a great few minutes working hard together side by side (because it was what needed to be done), and talking and being together made the work fly by. I guess I'm grateful for all those years of 'figuring out' couples have to go through. It is hard to be back in school, but it is soooo much easier that we are in sync.

This is my best friend and I love his guts.