"Wait!" you say. "It's only 4pm and you're already writing about Day 4?! Don't you know a lot can happen between now and the end of the day?!""Yes," I reply, "but Jen will be a part of it, so it'll all be good!"
Okay, enough of the sappiness. Jen is already on her plane and probably over Vegas right now. We're all loading up in the sweet minivan in about half an hour to be her welcoming party at the airport.
Today has been great. The weather was fantastic (again) so we've spent lots of time outside. Leah had play group at 10:30am (another hair appointment for me) for an hour, then we had to take Abby to preschool at noon for 2.5 hours. So I've had other people babysit my kids for 3.5 hours today.
While Abby was at preschool, the rest of us went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few groceries and burn some time. We dug up the remaining sprinkler heads, did some other yard work, and enjoyed the weather.
Things have gone well during Jen's vacation, but life is so much easier when there are two of us. This does give me some good perspective to the business trips I go on. In the 5 years I've worked professionally after college, I've been on 24 business trips that took me away from my family for over 40 nights. A lot of those are 1-night trips, but at least 5 of them have been 4 nights or longer. Jen's a trooper for putting up with that.
I don't know how single parents do this every day, all while adding the stress of actually going to work.
One thing I didn't do that Jen usually does while I'm gone: sleep with a baseball bat to ward off intruders.
2 comments:
I hope Jen made it home safe and everyone is having a great time with her being back.
I echo your feeling that things are easier with two of you. When Michelle is out of town for business, I tend to get a bit more stressed than normal. It is just easier to spread the work between two than to shoulder it yourself. We have a friend who just got divorced and has six children. I don't know how she does it. We have tried to help by taking her kids at times (twelve children under the age of 15 running around our house is crazy - it reminds me of home) so that she can get away but it is the day to day grind that is the killer. I am glad that Jen got home safely. Tell her Happy Mother's day from Michelle and I.
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