Today, I am celebrating! Lou made it home safe and sound from his 9 day jaunt to Wyoming. Single-momming it for those 9 days was extremely exhausting. One adult...four kids. I was outnumbered, to say the least. And while Benjamin did spend six of those days in Lubbock with Nana and Papa, I did have an extra kid during the day since I keep another girl, who is Benjamin's age, while her parents work.
I had been dreading these 9 days for months! And I mean MONTHS!!!! Lou has travelled many times before, but this was the longest he has been away. So when he left at 6 a.m. last Saturday morning, I started counting down the hours. Some days went by very quickly, while others seemed to drag. But, we made it! Daddy made it home...Mommy survived the "masses" alone.
I do have to say that I'm pretty proud of myself. The house was cleaned, yard was mowed, dinner cooked EVERY single night (and not just chicken nuggets or fish sticks...but we're talking healthy cooking here), kitchen sink managed to stay dish-free, kids were fed, bathed, and clothed everyday, laundry was.....well, at least, some of it got done. And I did it all by myself. I did my best to keep the kids entertained...we went out to breakfast one morning, went to a friend's house to have dinner with some friends, went to Movie Night at the church, went to the movies one morning, went to Story Hour at the Library, went to McDonald's to play with some friends one evening, and, of course, visited Sonic for a Raspberry Tea a couple of times in there, too. We, also, had a trip to the swimming pool planned and a picnic lunch at the park planned, but the weather caused us to cancel those plans. But that's ok...we still managed to have fun. And, best of all....we all SURVIVED! I didn't kill any kids (although I did put Jacob out on the back porch...in the rain...a few times for arguing with me) and my kids didn't suffer too bad from my lack of patience and my sheer exhaustion.
And after all is said and done, and Lou made it home safely, I just have one thing to say.....Thank you, Jesus, for a husband who does all he does to help out around here!!! Not only does he work hard at work, he works hard at home. And, this Mommy, is so grateful for all he does. Because he is so very missed when he is gone.
I can remember my dad travelling some when I was growing up. And I know it was often stressful for my mom when he was gone. I remember one time in particular, he got back in town one evening as we were eating our weekly dinner at church before youth and Bible study started. So he just met us at the church. I remember him walking in and giving us all hugs and kisses and my mom crying. When asked why she was crying, she replied with something like, "I am NOT cut out to do this all by myself." I know exactly what she meant. Four kids are hard to handle day in and day out with NO break (might have been a little easier if it had been during school time). And trying to manage the household on top of handling kids. So needless to say, we felt it was important to celebrate Daddy coming home.
So Benjamin and Madilyn took it upon themselves to make Daddy "Welcome Home, Daddy" banners and hang them in a couple of doorways in the house. They, also, wanted to bake him a cake. So they helped me make Daddy a strawberry cake. All day they kept talking about our "celebration".
And celebrate, we did!!!!! I am so very glad to have Benjamin home (he was greatly missed, too!) and so very glad to have Lou home. Our family seems "whole" again. We are soaking up as much of Daddy as we can and are so glad he had a good time on his trip, but are even more glad he's back with us!
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