Conquering the "Divide & Conquer"

We are no different from every other family we know with kids.  There are more things on our to-do list than there are hours in the day.  We get one crossed off and add three.

Which brings me to the divide and conquer approach.  Saturday morning Tom and I generally start our negotiations:

Me:
         I need to run to the grocery store and I have some gardening to do.  The shelf we bought P for his birthday in May still needs hung, and the window in our guest room needs the storm window down before the stink bugs decided to hibernate there.  I would like to get the basement wall prepped so we can finish painting (then paint the floor, then finally finish the basement).

Tom:
         I have 3 legal briefs to finish and need to mow the grass.  Then I will tackle the 20 million repairs or projects required by our house.  If you watch  the kids until lunch, I'll get the grass and legal work done, then I'll take P while Tommy naps and you get the weeding done and run to the grocery store. 

So we divide up the kid watching duty into shifts and have what we feel is a pretty productive weekend.  Except for the fact that we end up spending nearly no time together with the exception of church and dinner. And until we get some more house projects wrapped up, I don't see a way around our current approach. 

Sometimes I do worry that we are developing a routine that we won't be able to break away from down the road, but in the meantime, we have promised to be better about squeezing in date nights and time together.  In fact, Tom and I are now in possession of two (yes, only two- sorry kids!) plane tickets to a fantastic destination.  Sorry, you won't find out the where or when until after we return.  I'll leave you in suspense when I am absent from my blogs for several days.  Am in knee deep in laundry and sick kids, or sipping a glass of wine in a kid free zone?