My Baby's Back!

photo by Tara Whitney

Matt is home after being gone a week doing the USMC reserves gig. Im so thankful he's home. Ive missed him.

I do not do the single parent thing well. The first week Matt was gone (which was the beginning of the month) went much better than this week. I think the kids being off for the summer and us being together 24/7 made the last eight days a serious endurance test. We did fine, but its not fun. The days are long and the nights are short. My patience, which is in abundance most days, was having a difficult time rounding out the weekend. But we made it and we didnt have any blow ups or huge melt downs. That is a huge accomplishment and Id say about 75% of that credit goes to the boys. They were pretty good to me.

In the shower this morning I was thinking to myself that in our marriage I have done the "single parent thing" pretty close to a solid year when you count up all the time Matt's given to the USMC. I was feeling pretty good about myself - of my strength and ability. Logging in that many "single parent" hours while actually being married is something I can feel pretty resentful about, but I do feel it is an accomplishment too. Odd. I was feeling strangely good about myself for about 15 seconds and then I thought of my cousin Christine. She has three young daughters and her husband has been to Iraq twice (each time for a year) and now is in Afghanistan. It kind of puts things in perspective.

Anyhoo, he's home. We're going to put the kids to sleep in the next 10 minutes and watch a double feature of True Blood tonight. Couple time... gotta love it.