On Tuesday evening, at seven p.m., in a moment of complete frustration and exhaustion

I walked into my bedroom, shut the door behind me, laid down on my bed and curled up with my Nook to read.

The purpose?

To take ten minutes to myself because I deserved ten minutes of solitude to do whatever I wanted.

At 7:03pm, Zack came in to ask me where to put away a pillow.

I started my 10 minutes over.

At 7:05pm Zack came in to put something else in my room.

At 7:09pm Alexander came barreling in asking me why I was in bed and if I needed a ‘nuggle’.  He then proceeded to jump on the bed, play with stuff on my dresser and then exited the room at 7:14pm.

At 7:19pm Alexander returned to tell me he loved me, and then he left.

He returned again at 7:25, 7:33, and at 7:39pm.

He finally left my room at 7:40pm.

I went back to reading my book.

I glanced at the clock and could not believe my eyes, here it was 7:49pm.

I was finally one minute away from actually having spent 10 minutes in solitude.

And then.

Alex walked in the bedroom with the baby and Alexander was right behind him.

I explained to him what I was doing in our room and why I had not come back out.

All I wanted was 10 uninterrupted minutes to myself.

After explaining this to him, he scooped up Ellie and escorted Alexander out the door, barked a few things at the older kids and then…

I spent the next 26 minutes alone.

Reading and then daydreaming.

It was the BEST 26 minutes I have had in a very, very, VERY long time.

10 minutes of solitude shouldn’t be so hard to find!