Surviving 10 Days Without Dad
For the last 10 days I caught just a glimpse of what life is like for single mothers as my husband went out of town to take the last class for his doctoral program. I am such a proud wife, but I knew a week and a half with our four girls and none of his help would be interesting to say the least. Here we are, 10 days later. It wasn't easy, but I survived!
Day 1:
This morning we said goodbye as we dropped my husband off at the airport. As soon as he stepped out of the car, the four girls immediately began to scream cry. You know, the cry that isn't so adorable. We began our hour journey home. Five minutes after we got onto the highway....POP....our tire blew out. The girls freaked out. I mean it was only like 5 degrees outside and I have no idea how to change a tire. Luckily, a kind couple who knew how to fix the problem was right behind us and pulled over right away to help. You could say we didn't get the best start to our 10 days without dad.
Day 2:
Today is the start to the school week. The girls and I may have possibly woken up a bit late. We get ready fast! A basic ponytail will have to do today. We run to the school. I got the two girls to school just seconds before the bell rang. Not bad! At least they aren't late. We go home and I get ready to cook myself some eggs. Put the eggs on the counter, turn around and....splat....eggs fell to the floor. I turn to grab paper towels, turn back around and you guessed it, the baby is full on bathing in the raw eggs. The upside to today? My dad came out to get new tires on my car!
Day 3:
My oldest has a mandatory choir concert. My sweet parents came out to come help manage the kids, or watch the concert, whatever you wanna call it. The girls were not having it needing to sit still and be quiet for the concert. It's a form of torture to them, and me. The level of anxiety a parent feels when their kid is on the edge of a meltdown in public is very high. After the concert, we head home and I get the girls to bed, late of course. I feel like "late" might continue to be the motto for this next week and a half.
Day 4:
Running low on energy already. The girls are supposed to be sleeping on the bed I made them on the floor in my room. They have somehow managed to make it into my bed every night, leaving me with little to no room. Not to mention arms and legs all up in my face. Thank goodness for amazing friends coming over! I got to actually have a conversation about something other than toys and boogers.
Day 5:
I have to keep the house put together and clean for small group tonight. How is it that the kids manage to destroy the house more than normal when you need to keep it clean? As I am cleaning up all the toys that my baby dumped out all over the floor, she runs into the bathroom and unrolls an entire roll of toilet paper.
Day 6:
Gotta cook and clean today for leaders coming over, and manage to do the grocery shopping. I say to myself "I got this" as I run around like a crazy person. I try making clean up a game. Kids didn't like that. Bribery? They didn't go for that either. I did however break a personal record for the time in and out of the grocery store. Under 30 minutes for a weeks worth of groceries. Turns out when kids are screaming, you can go really fast!
Day 7:
It's snowing and freezing. Ain't driving in that. Video sermon for church is happening. Since it's single digits outside, we are stuck indoors all day. Indoors with four young kids creates for lots of chaos. Can it be summer already? They need to get their energy out.
Day 8:
Snowing even more. Another day indoors. Lord, help keep me sane today. Our friends come over again to surprise us, bringing me coffee and shoveling our driveway. I've said this before and I'll say it again, a friend who brings coffee or wine is the best! Friends are gold! They kept both me and my kids happy!
Day 9:
My husband comes home tomorrow night. I'm counting down the hours as my children instruct Alexa to play wheels on the bus for the 100th time today.
Day 10:
Our mommy daughter time is coming to an end tonight. It was pretty insane and tiring, but that's not what I was thinking about as I reflected on the past 10 days. All I thought about was our extra cuddles in bed, the late night dance parties, "sneaking" breakfast for dinner, and all the extra love that I got from my girls.
We are so glad to have daddy home again, but I am grateful for my solo time with them. These girls are growing up incredibly fast so I'll take advantage of all the time I can get!
