I miss this guy

Jim has been working a bit of a crazy shift the past few weeks over on Texada that has him spending every weeknight on the island. Usually he would have worked kind of one week days, one week afternoons, but lately he's been 6-2. He does get to come home a few hours earlier in the afternoon which is great for the kids and their baseball schedules, but I am missing our quiet few hours together after we finally get our monsters to bed. Our weekends have been busy too but we've tried to make the best of our time together by getting some crib games in, some family walks, and snuggles whenever we get the chance! Here's a couple of photos of my handsome hubby from the past few weeks.

A beautiful evening walk and bike ride last Saturday evening. The kids got new bikes and wanted to try them out so off we went. We are loving that the kids are old enough now that we can all get out together and explore our neighbourhood more. Yay for no more babies in our family!

Friday evening we stayed up super late watching our shows and snuggling on the couch. This was the only photo I took all day, which is super rare for me. I did work though 8:30-1:30 at VIU and then 3-9 at the Complex so it makes sense that I didn't even really see my kids so had no chance to take photos of them :) 

A few weekends ago we decided shortly before supper that we should go for a walk. None of the kids wanted to come with us so Jim suggested that we walk to Capone's to get him beer, so that's what we did. He was thrilled and it was a great walk where we just got to spend 45 minutes talking with no distractions. I am loving our lifestyle change that has us spending our time doing physical things, and without our kids sometimes too! It's been great for both of us!

It's not just me that misses him. Our sweet little lady is really missing Daddy these days too. Her evening time with him consists of books and snuggles when he tucks her in at night. Once baseball season is over she'll get more of his time, but for now she'll sneak in whatever snuggles she can get!

In the middle of James's birthday dessert time at Nana and Papa's she asked Daddy to read her a book so right there he dropped what he was doing and read her that book. He is such a wonderful daddy and all of the kids know how lucky they are to have him. 

The kids may realize how lucky they are, but no one realizes it more than I do. This man works hard every day, travels more than 2 hours each day, even if it's sometimes for just 2-3 hours of time with his kids. He is often totally exhausted but he gets up the next day and does it all again. I encourage him the best I can to take time for himself and in a normal year that would have been playing baseball, but this year that's not an option so instead he's jumped head on into helping coach the boys 4 nights a week instead. I hope he'll one day find something he wants to do that is just for him, so I can encourage him the way that he's encouraged me to take time for myself. It's been a game changer for my mental health, my life happiness and our marriage over all.