[veonik]

As a counterpoint, I'd say that my kids have brought a return novelty for a lot of things. Doing stuff with them that I've done before but they haven't is completely new again for me, too.

edit: to be clear, though, I'm not suggesting OP has kids to bring excitement back to life ;)

[wallawe]

Yeah I totally agree - I wasn't clear originally. What I meant by "kids takes this feeling away" was the monotony OP experienced. My favorite time of the day is between 6pm when I stop working for a bit, and our daughter's 7:30 bedtime. Still, it's the same routine day to day, even if she has made it a much better routine :)