Staying At Home

Summers are always hard for me. I completely envy the patience of the stay-at-home parent--it's not for everyone. I only work part time but staying home day after day with my kids is beyond difficult. I find myself being not as patient as I am during the school year, zoning out when they are telling me some "important" story, and counting down, as soon as they wake up at 6 am, to their 8:30 bedtime. To make matters worse, I normally have my hubbie home for 3 days (his schedule is a 3 on, 3 off which is LOVELLLLLY!) but because due to him knowing me so well, he has worked overtime as much as possible so that I can have a spend frenzy in Maui and not come home in the red. It is so sweet of him because he works really hard and on nights he's gone way too much and misses us but I don't think it could possibly compare to how much I miss him. I have been a single mother for 4-5 days a week since summer began and this is NOT pretty on top of my needing to work outside the home. I have taken the boys to the movies twice, take them to the gym and swimming lessons daily, gone to my mother's to "slip and slide" on more than one occasion, my mother-in-law took them overnight last week, and of course the junk food movie days we have planned with one another. I still feel overwhelmed and depression sets in because I feel bad about not liking being home with my kids. Days like today do make it better though:
When I picked my boys up from the play center at the gym today every one of the ladies went on and on about how cute my kids are, how they are so helpful, and how polite they are (even my 3 year old), then I talk to another mother at swimming and she tells me how "neat" my oldest is because he is so caring and helpful to his fellow swim mates/friends. The other mothers of the 3-4 year olds were telling me how good my youngest is; he listens and tries everything the instructor asks, he has no fear of the water and even tries to use "big arms" (freestyle) while passing off the floating part of his class.
So even though I pretend to enjoy the obnoxious stories of the various fiction characters my son's tell me about and I will volunteer but roll my eyes when asked to be Lea or Padme they must know that I care about them and they put as much, if not more, stock into what I say as I do in what they say. To them and me each day is a learned lesson and I wouldn't give it up for all the nannies in the world. But yes, I'm looking forward to my vacay and then the beginning of the new school year because I feel I give them much more quality in my time than in the summer---FO SHO!!!