I have been a single parent for six straight days. I kind of liked it. It’s not a situation I would want to become permanent. But there is something about claiming all parental controls for your very own for a few consecutive days that is rather appealing. I think I saved at least five hours of time that I would have spent coordinating with Dave by just talking to myself instead. Call it a little vacation from team work. And a chance to have the brothers all to myself.
On Saturday morning before Dave left for his teacher technology conference I went food shopping and stocked up on what Dave refers to lovingly as crap goodies. TastyCakes, Oreos, Reeses Puffs Cereal, Klondike Bars, Chocolate Chips, Frozen Lasagna, Cookie Dough. It was an impressive cart, I must say. Plenty of Vitamin H! For “Happy”. Here is some of the things we did these past five days:
- Went to see the Treehouse exhibit at the Tyler Arboretum
- Barbeque at Nanny’s House
- Camel Beach Water Park with Pop-Pop
- Chase and I made a meat loaf
- We all made our own chocolate dessert cups with melted chips
- Went to Hibachi grill and caught shrimp in our mouths
- Handel’s Ice Cream, Dairy Queen, Rita’s Water Ice, Seven Stones Cafe dessert runs
- Started reading them a Jerry Spinelli chapter book that I realized could be a little too “mature” for them in the middle of chapter 4. Oops. They now know exactly what puberty is.
- Went to the neighborhood where I grew up and walked around
- Noah went to karate
- Chase made a replica of the Empire State Building with foam squares
- Shopped at 10,000 Villages, a free trade store in our little town
PS. The dog is still alive. Chase says he likes my cooking better because I use the oven instead of the grill. (For those of you who know what a gourmet cook Dave is, you know this was the highlight of my week.) I did not have to use my karate on any intruders (I was totally prepared to do so). I slept diagonally. I only had three two glasses of red wine because I wanted to not because I HAD to. And there is still beer in our garage refrigerator despite the fact that I accidentally left the garage door open all night Monday night.
I travel a lot for work; Dave has the logistics around my absences down to a science. I have the luxury of throwing science to the wind and decreeing his absence a big ol’ recess! Though I’ll be glad today when the teacher comes back. We need a little order around here. And someone to rub my toes against at night. And maybe some vegetables.
