Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Always

This time for the past, oh, eight years, I’ve gone away for a weekend. Away is in, alone, leaving the kids home with Tom. I’ve been to places like Houston, DC, Orlando, Atlanta, Phoenix and this year, I’m heading back to DC for three days and two nights.

I leave on Friday morning and will get home Sunday evening.

So yes, one weekend out of each year, I leave my family.

Yesterday morning as I walked into the kitchen, I heard Olivia ask Tom, “Why does Mom always have to go away?”

Always…ALWAYS!?!

Obviously, this amuses me. I mean, 1/52 is not always. But when you’re nine years old and your mom is kind of your whole world, it feels like she’s always gone because that one weekend feels like it lasts forever and it blocks out all those other 51 weekends when Mom is home.

But it’ll be okay. They’ll be fine and next weekend they’ll probably have forgotten that I was ever even away…until next year, when Olivia laments again, “Why does Mom always have to go away?”

Never fear, I am leaving them well stocked. There is plenty of soup (never again will I leave them with the possibility of running out of soup!), I made oatmeal raisin cookies (Tom’s favorite) last weekend. This evening I’m making triple chocolate chip cookie (Olivia’s favorite) and sugar cookies (Alyssa’s favorite). The girls and I are going to the grocery store tomorrow after Lyss’s orthodontist appointment to get any other staples needed for the 64 hours I will be gone.

And, get this, there is a grocery store a mere ten miles away from our house. And even better, this grocery store allows men to shop there. I know!! So even if they do find that I’ve somehow failed them, Tom and the girls can get in his car, drive to the store and BUY anything their little hearts desire.

And because she’s a freaking hero, my mom is picking the girls up on Sunday around noon and taking them with her to a baby shower for my cousin. So they won’t actually be stuck in the house all weekend as they both feared.

Seriously, it’s going to be fine.

And best of all? I get to hang with some of the most awesome women I’ve had the honor of meeting and we’re all going to try and come up with more ways of supporting families who have lost babies, have babies in the NICU or bring home babies with birth defects.

This whole always leaving my family thing? It’s for a good cause.

1 comment:

Julie said...

I love you!! It was wonderful hanging out and the only thing helping my broken heart is knowing I will see you on Saturday!