Survivor: The Week Without Dad - Day 1

My man was out of town last week. Why? For WORK! Yes, for work, praise be to GOD! A real-life project with a real-life pay-check coming after it's finished.

You wanna know where he went? Here's a picture and I'll let you guess...



Friends that really know me and know where he went... give other people a chance to guess please.

Now, I didn't say anything here on the blog about it because, well, you never know what kind of weird-o might be reading and I didn't really want to advertise being at home alone with two kids. But he's back now, all safe and sound, so all is well in the WayMoreHomemade household once again.

I don't know how interesting it's going to be for all of you, but I decided that this week I would chronicle mine and the kids' week last week without dad around. Thought you might want a peek at how a family survives without a parent & spouse around that they are normally very dependent on.

After having a family night of watching the movie "The Incredibles," he left on Saturday very early in the morning. Like his flight left at 6:30 am, so he was gone from the house by 5:00 am.

And this is how that first day went...

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Day 1 - Saturday

We had a really good day on this rainy Saturday. I’d had plans for a while about how I thought this day would go, but those plans got quickly changed with all the rainy weather we had.

Our school’s family picnic was supposed to have been on Saturday. But, with wise discernment, the administration was keeping a watchful eye on the weather forecast and cancelled the picnic on Friday. Plan “A” down the drain.

Then I began hearing about how great, fun and kid friendly Zest Fest was. So, I began to think the kids and I would go wander around for a while. Until I found out about the $10 per person admission. Um, no. There goes plan “B.”

So THEN, the kids and I decided that we would do some running around in the morning and then that they would each be allowed to invite a friend over for the afternoon as a reward for good behavior and good grades over the last couple of weeks. We went to the library and checked out some books and a movie. Nathan, of course, wanted airplane books. Sarah got a couple of American Girl books and we also checked out “Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo.” Then on we went to the grocery store and then to the airport to pick up daddy’s car so that we didn’t have to pay for parking all week long.

All along we were trying to get in touch with some friends to come and play after lunch. We called, and called and called some more. And finally we found one friend that was available to come over to play with Sarah. Nathan just had to defer his friend coming over until another time.

They watched The Incredibles (again), played “Indians” (inspired by the current American Girl novel that Sarah is reading) in the play room, and later, while having pizza for dinner, we watched Herbie as we picnicked on the TV room floor.

I have to admit that I am surprised. They didn’t really get on my nerves - which they usually do on days like this. They weren’t whiny about the rain - which they're kids, so that's not out of the realm of possibility either. We generally just had a good day hanging out together and doing a whole lot of not much.

Bed-time came and Sarah was really missing her Daddy because he usually does the bed-time routine with them. Nathan surprisingly handled the change of routine okay, but Sarah got upset. We talked about it some and when she asked me if I missed him also, I said yes, of course I did.

"But," I said, "do you know what makes it o-kay for me? He is gone because he has to go for this project. Him being gone means that he has work to do and that he'll get paid for it. That also reinforces for me that he is exactly where he needs to be... where God wants him. So if he has to be gone for a week to be doing what God wants him to do, I'm okay with that and we'll make it just fine."

So as I tucked her in, I asked if she wanted to read for a little bit to help her settle in. She said yes and immediately reached for her Bible.

We agreed that there was nothing better or more reassuring that she could read than her Bible and I told her that just as I prayed over her, I believed the Holy Spirit would calm her spirit.

And He did.

Amen.