Mom Survivor: Day 1

I'm being completely melodramatic, and I know very well that there are millions of people that lead far more stressful, difficult lives and manage to do that very well with way less than we have. We know families struggling with cancer, with loss, with serious financial difficulties, with marital problems, with fertility problems. Let's be truthful...our lives are "easy", and we are grateful for our challenges and our opportunities to work through them together. With that disclaimer out of the way, this week is quite a change of pace for our family.

I've mentioned before that Patrick made a career change over the summer. He's very happy with the change, and we're happy to have him happy...I had only one reservation about this change...the travel. Again, I know there are families that handle SO much more (military families are truly an especially tough breed), but our little family thrives on being together as much as possible. Add in the fact that we both have demanding jobs, plus the kids' busy schedules, plus the obvious autism difficulties...well it takes both of us to make it work well and even then things fall through the cracks.

So this week marks Patrick's first overseas trip...for an entire week...as in a full 7 days. A week where I have too many meetings and deadlines, where Larkin has a dermatologist appt, where I have parent training at Kellen's school, where I'm in my 3rd week of marathon training, and where I just got back from a trip myself the day before.

Patrick's pretty calm about things, I'm the neurotic one (shocker!), but he did seem to be very intent on getting 2 things in line before he left 1) my new IPhone and 2) a home security system. Both of those eventually were successful but not without some stress on the way lol!

Day 1 was a bit of a whirlwind. Larkin had an early soccer game so we left the boys at home so Patrick could pack. I was supposed to run 9 miles that day, too, but I didn't get out the door until almost 10am...it was brutal, so freaking hot and humid! We debated dropping him off at the airport as a family, but he knew all 3 of us would probably end up crying so he spared us that drama and called a cab. At least that way the kids were happy and I was the only one who cried.

I wandered the house aimlessly after he left, then proceeded to make Snickerdoodle chex mix, which makes a mess...and then I remembered my "dishwasher" was on his way across the ocean...crap! The kids were great all evening, although they seemed to be craving extra attention. I realized later in the afternoon we were out of laundry detergent! This is a HUGE problem because 1) I thought I'd stocked us up on all we needed the day before 2) Sunday is the kids' laundry day and they seemed to have worn everything in their closets this week and 3) I'll direct you to why taking Kellen to the grocery store slightly terrifies me, see this post That Mom.

The night was uneventful, kids were great and went to bed with no problem. I found myself staring at the little plane on the flight tracker willing it safely across the ocean. I also manged to successfully arm the security system so that was a bonus for me! Once I heard Patrick had landed safely, I managed a decent night's sleep (on his side of the bed of course).

Stay posted for Day 2 antics!