Friday, December 6, 2013

A moment of nothingness in a sea of crazy

Right now, I am having the guilty pleasure of sitting in my house in silence, aside from the little ding from the cat's bell, and enjoying the cappuccino that Husband made me before he went to work.

This week was a tough one. Husband had to travel for three days and I was left minding the store and I never sleep well while he is away.  He used to travel quite often and I've been able to roll with things, but recently, I started working again. And by "working" I mean, one massage client and two yoga classes. Not enough to pay the mortgage, but enough to keep the essentials like coffee and vodka in stock. 

With him away, I had to find someone to watch the kids while I went to work. If we had the wonderful babysitting group we had while we lived in NJ, it would've been easy.  However, since we moved to Baltimore three years ago, we still have not been able to establish one steady person, let alone a core group.  I did the mad scramble and was able to find coverage.

What made it even more difficult, was that #1's field trip to Philadelphia was also that week, and I had to go with him. Great, Just freaking great. I had to be at school at 7:30 am, and we were scheduled to return by 4:30pm. That meant, that  I had to have someone watch the girls during the day, watch the boys an hour before and after school and them to and from school. I was twitching at the thought of hoops I'd have to jump through to accomplish that. 

I asked my neighbor, who is a retired teacher, to help with the morning. I dropped the kids off at her house and she delivered the boys to our friend, Becky's house and she took the boys to school and kept them after school. My friend Shanae picked the girls up from my neighbor and kept them until I returned home.

The plan was set and in motion. I pushed the list of all the possible things that could go wrong, out of my head and went on the field trip. I had my phone and if there was an issue, I would deal with it then. 

In the end, there were no issues, no behaviors and everything worked out well. Though after that field trip, I had a new appreciation for vodka. I am glad I had my little village to help me out. It's the people who say "yes" and "how can I help?" in a time of need, that let you know who has your back.

 I have enough vodka for all of us.


A Tribute to Will, my Son's BFF

"Knowing that Isaac had a friend like him was everything to me. Isaac wasn't very social, but Will got him and that was magic."...