This week is March Break – and it is a March break where all the children are with their other parent. We alternate who takes the kids on March Break every year.

Zach and Josh are off to Florida with their Dad to see their Grandparents.

Gabe, Zandra and Sam were supposed to head away to Tremblant to ski, but they are staying in town with their Mom doing lots of activities.

Rob and I are off to Costa Rica! This kicks off the first of many celebrations for my upcoming 40th (I just use my 40th as the excuse for anything fun right now!)

As fun as it all is, it always is a little bittersweet – we miss the kids. But the homecoming is always SO awesome with everybody having missed everybody – so I just hold on to that – and I look up at the sky every night and do starlight starbright and tell the kids to do the same. We are always looking at the same stars no matter where we are:)

Of course, the time spent together as a couple is priceless as well. We feel very lucky to get this uninterrupted time.

So, we don’t really have a quote of the week changing on our board in the kitchen this week since no one is around, but I thought I’d share one that I have taped to my computer so I can read it frequently. Can’t remember where I got it, but I loved it when I read it.

“Mothers who know do less. They permit less of what will not bear good fruit eternally. They allow less media in their homes, less distractions, less activity that draws their children away from their home. Mothers who know are willing to live on less and consume less of the world’s goods in order to spend more time with their children – more time eating together, more time working together, more time talking, laughing, singing, and exemplifying. These mothers choose carefully and do not try to choose it all”.

May be a funny quote to put up – given I’m going away for a week without my children!!

But, that is my reality – I share my children and spend more time than I would like away from them. But it can’t be changed, so I must make the best of it.

So, I would add on to the quote for my personal circumstance:

“Mothers who know also realize the importance of children developing their bonds with their fathers, or other significant others (step parents and grandparents). Mothers who know make every second with their children count, as they know how their heart aches when they are apart. Mothers who know teach their children that whether together or apart, there are always the stars that unite them at the end of the day”.