I know people are said to do the single parenthood thing every day and they do just fine. My hat is off to them where ever they may be. today there will be no more dorky attempts at being witty, so I'm ditching the whole captain's log stuff. Yesterday's post reflects the amount of spare time I had at the end of yesterday. I literally collapsed last night at around 10:30 and slept like a baby until the alarm went off. The only reason I have time to write tonight is because I have to do something to keep myself awake while the laundry is finishing the kids socks for tomorrow. Amy made sure that the kids had enough socks to last for the trip, but apparently, one of our kids wears like six pairs a day or something and can't find any socks for tomorrow. I had a hard time getting to sleep the night before without Amy being there with me, but I'm sorry Amy, last night: not a problem. Although everything went off without a hitch yesterday, I sorely missed having the organizational effect that Amy has in our house. The funny thing is, Amy so doesn't consider herself organized. I was a little late getting home from work yesterday but was able to catch our kids before they had to go to the neighbors house. After that everything went pretty smoothly (I hope) for the kids. We even had family home evening. Daddy did the tired lesson where you make sugar cookies and explain to the kids how every part of our family is like an ingredient in the cookie. If you leave one out you don't have good cookies and every part is important no matter how small one may think it is. Mostly they just liked the dough. After daddy explained about cookie dough we had a long discussion about the importance of mommies and how much we take them for granted and afterward ate the cookies and talked about mommy and the surprise party for her that we are going to give her. Poor kids. I don't think they realize that mommy will be getting home around midnight and I'm not sure anybody's going to feel like a party then, but I've made the mistake of underestimating their ability to stay awake before and I'm going to just go along with the flow. That was how yesterday went. Not bad at all even if I do say so myself.
Today however seems to be a little different somehow. You know how in the movies when someone is dangling from a cliff and hanging desperately to a piece of rope? Suddenly and imexplicably, the rope begins to start fraying and you can see the strands begin to strain and break one at a time. One by one the little strands begin to fray and the hanger-on begins to worry a little bit more. Today is that rope. I really miss my wife today. Not just for the obvious reasons either. I have really started to appreciate the things she does for our family. She called last night while we were eating the family cookies and she sounded like she was having such a good time. We all got to talk to her including the 17 month-old who alternated between looking at the phone and putting it up to her ear to hear mommy's voice. Well that's probably all I have time for today, it sounds like the dryer is done. Hopefully the kids will have all the socks they need tomorrow and I will get a little rest tonight because tomorrow there will definitely be . . . more to follow
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Sunday, January 29, 2006
My wife has left me . . .
. . . OK, its just for a few days while she is away "working" at CHA. what is CHA one might ask? Its a trade show for craft companies. Amy has recently been hired on as a product designer for one of the many scrapbook companies. Its a really sweet gig and I'm excited for her . . . really. It means however that she gets to go to the trade show in Las Vegas. It also means I am a scrapbook widow for the next few days. What it boils down to is that I get to be a single dad of five kids for a while. I should say here that I have never been one to say or think that what my wife does is "easy" I do however look forward to the opportunity to see how my better half lives. So I am going to make a blog entry every day for the next few about my single fatherhood experience.
I'll start with today as day one.
Captains log date 1.29.2006
We woke up at 0530 this morning to get the cadets up and ready to take the admiral to the airport. Did you know there is a 5:30 in the morning? We proceeded with the established plan that mom worked out the day the admiral knew she was "goin' to Vegas, Baby!" cadets were awoken, fed, dressed, and packed into the transport van which had already been started and defrosted by the captain. The drive was uneventful as the cadets listened to music and the admiral slept (did I mention that we got up at 5:30? . . . A.M.? ) We dropped her off at the airport by 0730 and drove home again. We got home at 0830 just in time to get the cadets dressed and ready for church that starts at 0900. We actually got there a little early. Again because of careful logistical planning by the admiral. Church has rarely been as interesting. Its one thing to try to keep five cadets quiet and reverent for an hour and ten minutes. Its quite another to do that and sing in the choir, write a talk for my eleven year old for primary (that I totally forgot about until halfway into the meeting), as well as keep a constant stream of froot loops going into a16 month- old mouth. By the way, she didn't want me to leave her to go sing with the choir, so . . . I held her and sang. Then I proceeded to teach not one, but two lessons while holding her while she led a completely normal day of eating sleeping and stretching the captain's face as far as the skin would go without ripping. Then it was home again. (the captain decided to not attend choir practice today, does that make him a bad person?) Everbody napped but the captain who needed some me time where it was real quiet. The cadets were well behaved so they got lunch in the mess hall at around 1400 and spaghetti for dinner at1800. They watched movies, ate popcorn, and enjoyed some ice cream before going off to bed at 2000. At this point the captain read the cadets a story, helped them say their prayers, and tucked them in. We didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but we didn't sink the ship. Its still sailing although there is . . . more to follow.
I'll start with today as day one.
Captains log date 1.29.2006
We woke up at 0530 this morning to get the cadets up and ready to take the admiral to the airport. Did you know there is a 5:30 in the morning? We proceeded with the established plan that mom worked out the day the admiral knew she was "goin' to Vegas, Baby!" cadets were awoken, fed, dressed, and packed into the transport van which had already been started and defrosted by the captain. The drive was uneventful as the cadets listened to music and the admiral slept (did I mention that we got up at 5:30? . . . A.M.? ) We dropped her off at the airport by 0730 and drove home again. We got home at 0830 just in time to get the cadets dressed and ready for church that starts at 0900. We actually got there a little early. Again because of careful logistical planning by the admiral. Church has rarely been as interesting. Its one thing to try to keep five cadets quiet and reverent for an hour and ten minutes. Its quite another to do that and sing in the choir, write a talk for my eleven year old for primary (that I totally forgot about until halfway into the meeting), as well as keep a constant stream of froot loops going into a16 month- old mouth. By the way, she didn't want me to leave her to go sing with the choir, so . . . I held her and sang. Then I proceeded to teach not one, but two lessons while holding her while she led a completely normal day of eating sleeping and stretching the captain's face as far as the skin would go without ripping. Then it was home again. (the captain decided to not attend choir practice today, does that make him a bad person?) Everbody napped but the captain who needed some me time where it was real quiet. The cadets were well behaved so they got lunch in the mess hall at around 1400 and spaghetti for dinner at1800. They watched movies, ate popcorn, and enjoyed some ice cream before going off to bed at 2000. At this point the captain read the cadets a story, helped them say their prayers, and tucked them in. We didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but we didn't sink the ship. Its still sailing although there is . . . more to follow.
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