Single mom for a week

Hello Friends,

I did it! I was a single, full-time, working mom for a whole week! The house is still standing, the kids are healthy, well rested, clean and fed.  I am healthy, sort of rested, clean, fed and SANE.  The driveway got shoveled twice (thanks dad) we had people over for dinner twice and went to dinner once.  We had a small crisis and I figured it out.

I thought it would be harder.  I am sort of shocked....and sort of not. Husband and I do have a partnership, but lets be honest, I carry the lions share at home, especially with the boys.  Some by choice, some by stubbornness on my part, some cause no one else will do it in a timely manner.

The mornings were the hardest.  We do work well as a team there (we had a cometojesus conversation a year or so ago).  So doing the get everyone ready including lunches and milk for Z, get everyone and everything in the car, double daycare drop off, and get self to work in a timely manner was tough.  J helped as much as he could and did great.

Weekday evenings were relatively normal.  Double day care pick up and then the following:
Monday we braved the grocery store for a few necessities, had dinner, bedtime etc...
Tuesday drive-thru dinner (20% benefited J's school), my dad came over to help blow snow, we played outside for awhile, came in for baths and bedtime.
Wednesday was J's dance class night, came home made dinner, bedtime.
Thursday...well Thursday showed me that it does take a village to raise a child.  A friend of mine said, nope, it takes a FAMILY, she was right.  We had a pretty good snowstorm all day Thursday so I let my staff leave at 4:15 pm to get a jump on rush hour and get home safely.  I had to pick up J from daycare and go straight to school for his student led conference.  In the meantime,my mom picked up Z and went to our house for dinner.  Due to the snow, my dad also met them there (good thing as mom got stuck in my driveway and he had to push her out).  By the time I got home with J, dad had most of the driveway done, Mom had dinner cooking, and Z was happily playing.  J got suited up and went to "help" shovel.  They found our snow brick makers and started a fort.  (Z was super unhappy to not be included).  We all had dinner and all three "boys" went back out to play some more - they were all very happy and had a nice time.  Mom and dad left to go shovel themselves out and I bribed Z to come inside with a bath.   It was such a beautiful snowy night that if we didn't have school work etc the next day we could have stayed out for awhile!
Friday we ate dinner at my parents and came home to bed (it was a long work week and I was beat!)

On to the weekend.  Again, we did pretty well.
Saturday we were all lazy.  I snuggled with Z, then while the boys ate breakfast I cleaned out and organized my dresser drawers.  (you know you can fit more into your underwear drawer when you take out all the nursing bras..... ;) ) I folded some cloths, cleaned up the kitchen and then some friends came and took J for a fun day as his Xmas gift.  While they were gone, I fed Z and put him down for a nap.  I then hunted down all the frames I have bought over the last 2+ years, opened them all up, dusted them off, cleaned the glass and reassembled so they could dry before pics get inserted.  Then our friends came home with J and we had a lovely dinner, 2 bottles of wine, and great conversation.  J slept with me and life was good.
Sunday despite freezing rain and slippery roads, we were off to church, the congregational annual meeting, and then home for lunch and naps.  I tried to shovel some of the now icey slush off the driveway...no dice.  I started to put pics in frames....didn't get far. (but am started and feel good about that. I think mom is coming over on Sat this week to help me!)  Again braved Sa.m's  Club and the grocery store with they boys - it wasn't too bad.  Came home and was ready to chill and be done. But first, had a small crisis with the sump pump....due to some warm weather we have had, Husband had disconnected it to ensure it wasn't trying to run through a frozen hose so that it wouldn't back up into the basement.  WELLLLLL Sunday rained all day, and while it rained it got up to 40 degrees and melted the 7 inches of snow we had gotten on Thursday.    As I was unloading the car, I heard water discharge from the house and 30 seconds later I heard it again and then again.  I went and looked and it was discharging right next to the house.....down the foundation, and it was a big wet muddy mess.  I tried to reconnect the hose and (as he had thought) it was frozen so water couldn't go through it just sprayed everywhere.  I ran downstairs and looked in the sump area and there was some water trickling down the wall.  That is NOT something you want to see.  I grabbed a plastic cutter (I have it for the kids toys) and cut the hose, pushed it back in and the water immediately started running down the driveway and not down the foundation.  I called my dad to stop by to just check my handiwork so that I could sleep with out worrying about water in the basement and he did and said it was fine.  Gave the kids baths, put them to bed, tidied up the house and crashed.

Husband got home yesterday morning after taking the red eye. He said hi to some very excited boys and I (it was very nice to greet him NOT at the office), I dropped the boys at daycare, went back home to pick up a now showered but sleepy Husband and we arrived at work only 30 min late.  And the cycle of real life started again.

I slept great last night!  ;)