Mr. Mom Chronicles 2010

It's Friday morning at 10 a.m. and Eric and I are only about 12 hours away from being reunited with Kathy, if for only a little while. After frozen dinners, sleeping in later than we should on school days, probably a little too much junk food and throwing the football in the front yard even when it isn't exactly warm outside, tonight Kathy comes home to Twin Falls before taking Eric to Walla Walla, Washington early tomorrow morning.

Yes, she's been gone a week and will be home for all of maybe six hours before heading out again. This time, however, Eric and I will be joining her; but I will be only joining in for about two hours. You see, the plan was for her to fly into Boise tonight where our other car is and then Eric and Kathy would spend the night in Boise beofre heading out early Saturday to attend a family funeral in Walla Walla while I drove home on Friday night. But yesterday United robo-called to say that Kathy's flight from Denver to Boise had been cancelled.

So this morning, in Grand Rapids, Kathy got on the phone and rerouted her travel arrangements through Salt Lake and getting her to Twin Falls on the last flight tonight. So she'll get to sleep in her own bed for a bit and then we'll all head to Boise where I'll jump out and bring our second car home and have a day of preparation and rest before Holy Week begins on Sunday when Kathy and Eric will come home midday Sunday.

It has been a good, if sometimes stressful week. And even if it is a little bit much sometimes it is a good reminder of all that Kathy does that allows me some room to blow off steam when I need to. It has also been good for Eric and me to bond by playing football, getting special snacks and spending more time together than we sometimes do.

Mr. Mom Chronicles 2010

Today started with tears. To understand why started with a conversation last night. You see, the second and fourth Wednesdays of every months are "Men's Breakfast" in our church--a tradition going back a generation or so--where men of the church gather at seven a.m. at a local restaurant to talk about what's going on in the church and various issues of the day. Of course, with Kathy in Michigan, going to Men's Breakfast would mean that Eric and I would need to be up by no later than six a.m. to get us both ready and the dogs and cats taken care of if I was to bring Eric along and I didn't know whether he wanted to do that and miss the bus. So when I posed the question to him last night he gave me a firm "No."

Of course, by now you can guess, when my alarm went off at 6:40 a.m. he heard it, got out of bed, came in and confidently said, "I've changed my mind, I want to go to Men's Breakfast." By then it was 6:45 a.m. and there was no way that we could both get ready, get the dogs and cat taken care of and have gotten there to do anything more than order before they all got up and headed off on their day. I didn't explain all that to Eric and I'm not sure that he would have understood or believed any or all of it, so I simply said, "It's too late, there's not enough time." To which he marched out of my room and into his own and started wimpering and gradually dialed it up so that I could hear every sob and imagine his whole body shaking with disappointment.

I did not, however, change my mind. There was simply not enough time. And besides, it was a relatively harmless way for him to learn that sometimes you have to stick with your decisions. That being said, I did bend a little and told him that after his "Rocket Math" awards ceremony at school today we'd stop somewhere special and get a treat--I'm thinking Daisy's and Volcano Drinks; no doubt he's thinking Target and a toy. Time will tell and hopefully Kathy will weigh in throughout the day via text as to what the treat should be.

Mr. Mom Chronicles 2010

Today's parenting adventures in the world of single-parenting has been relatively easy thanks to many who helped make the day go smoothly.

Even as Eric and I are sitting here watching Discovery Channel's "Life" I am grateful to the life of our congregation which made Kathy's absence in Grand Rapids possible. Eric and I started the day early, at 7:30 a.m. when we left the church for my preparation time. After listening to me read through the sermon and watching me read through my Sunday School lesson, Eric headed off to the nursery with Margaret Harris who helped him let things out ahead of worship. By the time I was done with my 8:30 a.m. Sunday School Class Eric was taken to be with Wendy Neilsen, a most capable and gifted teacher who was preparing her class for Sunday School. And then in the afternoon Eric spent the day with Tina, Lawrence and Christopher Flournoy while I went off to afternoon Sunday School, a Premarital Counseling Lunch and then the Installation service or the new Lutheran Pastor in Twin Falls, Scott Berner.

All of this is to say, that if it weren't for Margaret, Wendy, and the Flournoy family, how would I have gotten through the day and how angry would Eric feel after going from event from event? Of course, he may well have persevered, but I'm glad I didn't have to find out thanks to the many caring people who made this day go so much more smoothly: Thank You!

Mr. Mom 2010

Well, Kathy is off to Grand Rapids Michagan and I am at home with Eric. It turned out to be a busy day, but very satisfying. We all slept in this morning and when I did finally get up Eric and Kathy allowed me to read a little before I was out of the house for a mid-morning appointment which ended up being cancelled. After that it was home for a little before off to lunch out with the family and then off to the church to meet with a local artist who is helping the church get ready for a new baptismal font.

Our meeting at the church with the artist was very informative and led to a nice afternoon of outdoor sports with Eric before Kathy headed off to Boise. He and I walked over to Doug and Judy Pollow's home for an hour and a half of basketball in their driveway before walking home to wish Kathy off well on her trip up to Boise.

Since then I've spent time out in the garage working on two stained glass projects while Eric played with neighborhood kids. He had a really good time form about four p.m. to just after seven when I finally had to tell him it was time to come in and get dinner. And now we are about to get ready for bed--a story for Eric and some more TV for me.