Yeah, yeah, I know we all need our "space"!

Here is the pic of the kids in front of our WT Family Christmas tree that I promised, but could not get to post to my last entry...

So, here I am Saturday night before the Monday when it all starts again! The kids I babysit M,W, F will be back (ages 9 months and 3 yrs), my kids start school on Monday, (normally I would be thrilled but this just means that the home work arguements start, waking up to be a short order breakfast chef, packing lunches that nobody likes, etc.), I start back to teaching Playschool on Tuesday, and though I have been doing it during the "holidays" on top of it all I will still be doing the cleaning at the office twice a week.
This last week of "Holidays" was all about me and two outta three of my kids (huh, that theme sure resonates around here!), being sick with all kinds of infections that include symptoms of hacking like we've all smoked for thirty odd years. Which I swear none of us have. Maybe Justine is a closet smoker, but I have no actual proof yet. And my sweet husband picks this week to be his "I need space week'.
It comes around on a regular basis. He basically avoids home and all its luxuries, which automatically includes me. It always seems like circumstance, a hockey game to play, goes over to his mom and dad's to watch a game, watched a movie at home (but didn't say two words to me that night), then went to our old room mates to watch the Juniors (we won apparently), last night he played Ps2 directly after supper , even though I had rented us a movie (Batman returns, they were out of Wedding Crashers), so I gave up on the movie and went to bed at 11:30 (really late for me!), and first thing this morning he was packin' his stuff for yet another hockey game!
What I want to understand is this a reaction to forcing himself to spend time with me and its all he can stand, and he has to be break away? Or once he has had his "own" time he feels he can offer himself more freely. Either way it sucks and I am not sure how to deal with it! I thought I was the all or nothing person.