Single Mothers…. I Salute You.

Wednesday night… about 11:30…. Hot Stuff got a phone call. No, it wasn’t his girlfriend. It was his boss.

So. After a load of laundry, some rummaging to find his gear bag and travel toothpaste, a little good-lovin’ and a pot of coffee he left at 5:30 am to attend to his work order…. An off-area assignment to West Yellowstone.

And I begin my odyssey as a single parent for 14 days.

I was left with two directives….. make sure the kids survive and don’t forget to water the lawn. We’ll see how that goes.

Usually off-area dispatches are met with a mixture of sadness and glee. We will miss each other but Hot Stuff loves to fight fires and I love doing projects he wouldn’t approve of. So it works. But the kids are adding a new dynamic.

Sweet Boy is sad, sad, sad. He misses his daddy. It doesn’t help that the day before he left Hot Stuff gave him a “summer haircut” and he truly looks like a sad, sad, sad cancer survivor.

Being the Earnest Mommy that I am…. We’ve got lots of things Planned! ! ! Already I’ve resorted to the McD’s bribe and using Diego to buy me leg-shaving time. It doesn’t help when my normally charming daughter is doing… something. Teething? Illness? Sadness? She’s a cling-on.

To make SB happy…. I promise popcorn and fort-building behind the couch. The swimming pool/water slide and the new sand box. I will take you to places you are forbidden to go alone… the creek and the big rock pile behind the barn. Oreos on the porch and running through the sprinklers. Building a blanket-tent with the clothesline and playing “broken arm” with a REAL splint. Finger painting with pudding and chalk drawing in the shop. Pizza from Costco and movies from the library. Running around the yard with an old vacuum cleaner wand and a wrapping paper tube being “bad guys.” Picking daisies to put in old glass jars. Playing fire guys… even when you make me use the little chainsaw all the time. Sunscreen & bug repellent. Big beach towels and naps in the shade. All the summer fun you can imagine.