Single Motherhood

I got my first "single motherhood" experience yesterday. BTW let me reiterate how this was going to be our weekend alone. Well it would have been alone all right...Me alone by myself with four children.

Kurt and I spent a productive Saturday morning working in the garage. I liberated 5 (albeit small) rubbermaids and Kurt threw out 3 boxes of papers. I'm glad the weather is warm enough for us to start pitching stuff again. We had a quick lunch and left enough food for the one child that had to go to market with the PP. We have to pick up the kids by 1 pm.

Kurt called me part way to pick up the kids. His boss called. One of their clients (the same one that kept him out past midnight two nights in a row) was having problems. We had a graduation party to attend in the afternoon but now he had to work. We decided I would get the kids showered and presentable then the 5 of us would meet him at the party. Phone call #1. A few minutes pass and I get phone call #2. "The kids haven't eaten". NONE of them. Great. We are at the end of the groceries. Ok, I'll make lunch. I'll shower while they eat and then start getting them thru the shower. I go out to the garage to get some more accomplished. What's that ringing noise? The neighbors sure have a loud phone...ooop nope wait that would be......Phone call #3. I don't even remember, but he keeps calling me on the house phone. I'm getting annoyed. I have a cell phone!

By the time the kids get home it's 2:30. They haven't had any food since supper the night before. I made a pound of spaghetti and a pot of broccoli. It got devoured. Jelly sandwiches for some of them as well. Ridiculous. It takes more to be a parent that to give birth.

I made 2 of 4 kids change clothes once they put on their clean outfits. Clean also would need to mean NOT stained and they don't have a lot of that. Fred put on khakis as a preemptive strike. He knew I'd make him change too. I hear screaming in the basement. Christy has soap in her eyes. I try to help. She's crying. The shower curtain is half open because she keeps sticking her head out and wiping her eyes. There is water everywhere. Nicky is irritated because I make him change clothes. Christy proclaims "well at least my eye is clean". I ask if we need to get her a shower visor, baby shampoo, or if she'd like to shower with her swim goggles on. She replies, "No, I just won't open my eyes again."

Finally at 4:30 we start to load. The party is an hour away and started at 4 pm. Nick is going to navigate. He did pretty good, but he's usually a mile too late. We zipped down to the party in no time. Kurt said he was 10 -12 minutes away. Yeah right. I let the kids play on the cool playground equipment admonishing them not to get dirty, rip anything, or run over smaller children. I just stood there with the card hoping I was at the right party since I knew no one. Finally the host recognized me from the pictures in Kurt's cube and came over. Kurt arrived shortly there after.

The party was very nice. Met lots of Kurt's co workers. A couple of the kids need to work on their public behavior, but they are never in social situations so I'm impressed they did as well as they did. While at the party the client called back. The system still wasn't working. So the kids and I loaded up and headed for home via a different route. We got some money from Kurt and got the Lemony Snickets movie. Of course watching a movie entails snacks, then someone needs to use the bathroom, and then of course drinks are needed. It was 8:30 before we even got the movie started. It was a late night for us. Kurt finally got home around 1230 am. I'm glad we had this holiday weekend to be alone together!