Maureen was away for seven days and usually the time the kids and I spend together in her absence is filled with waffles and ice cream or a double feature for movie night. None of that happened this weekend.
The week was filled with homework and soccer practice and was enjoyable and largely uneventful until Friday afternoon. We hit Home Depot for few things, including light bulbs. As we unpacked our items, child number three decided he could reach the counter from the door and threw the bag, including the light bulbs. The light bulbs didn’t make it.
Friday evening child number one got pizza out of the basement freezer and never shut the freezer door. Her error was discovered fifteen minutes before we were leaving for soccer game number one.
We lost the game. It was as if fate knew that’s how it should be.
Fast trip home between games to clean the house for two friends arriving this weekend for a visit only to find child number two and four sitting among their piles of messiness reading, not cleaning, just reading.
“Daddy never cries,” they told Mommy when she got home.
I don’t babysit my children. I parent them. Unlike some men, I am proud to say that I can manage when my wife has to travel.
Still, what a welcomed sight for all of us when she returned home Sunday afternoon.
One can be strong. Two, leaning on each other, are even stronger.
May your week be blessed.