Surviving

I'm now officially halfway through David's weeklong absence, and I'm....surviving. Until I went to work today, I would have told you it was going really well. Elizabeth and I had a great 3-day weekend together. We had fun, shopped, cooked, played, laughed, and did all sorts of other great mother-daughter things together. She really acted like an angel most of the time, and she even slept through the first 2 nights without waking me up. I was thinking we had it made.

Until...I had to work today. Elizabeth must have sensed it, because she was pretty much awake from 3am to 5am last night with "bad dreams" (aka "I can't sleep, but I'll tell you it's a bad dream so you won't get mad.") That meant I started the day exhausted, and she slept late this morning (at least for her), so we really had to rush around to get her to school on time. Then, I rushed to the office to work for a few hours, before it was time to pick her up from school and take her to Gran's house. Then, back home to work some more, until Gran brought her back over in the evening. Throw in a few annoying work issues, and it was a very stressful and not very productive day for me. Before I knew it, it was time to heat up something for dinner (yes, I only had energy for leftovers at that point), take the dog for a walk, play for a little while, then snack, bath, and bed. I also got 2 loads of laundry done somewhere in there. Whew. I'm exhausted! How on earth do people stay on top of everything and keep their sanity without one person home everyday? Hats off to all you single parents and dual working parent households out there!

I truly don't know how I would make it without David around to do everything he does for us on a daily basis. I am spoiled rotten. He cleans the house, does the laundry, runs the errands, takes care of the kids and the animals, cooks dinner, does the lawn...the list is endless. As I've said before, leaving for a week is the best thing he could do to truly make me appreciate him.

It really has made me appreciate having my mom around as well. Unfortunately for her (in some ways), she got laid off a few months ago. But, it has been such a blessing for us. This week, she's watching Elizabeth each of the 3 afternoons I'll be working. They had a great time this afternoon - making milkshakes, watching a movie, reading books, and playing games. Tomorrow, they're going to make jam together. I'm so thankful that Elizabeth gets to experience all of that with her. I know they are making wonderful memories that she'll cherish forever.

I'm also thankful that Gran is so terribly understanding of my little momma's girl. That when I came up from work tonight, she didn't take it personally when Elizabeth looked at her and told her she was ready for her to go. After all, she'd had Mommy non-stop, all to herself, for 3 days in a row before today, then I was gone for the entire day.

David and his team are having a wonderful week in Arizona. I'm so thankful that he's able to go and get the break he needs from his hectic life that centers around taking care of us. It's also awesome to see how God uses him and the other volunteers in the Apache community. But, I'm also thankful that he'll be home on Saturday. I can't keep doing it without him for long!