So you had a wife...

I've been meaning to blog this post since last week.  Somehow, though, it kept getting lost in the deep recesses of my mind.... not intentionally... just got squeezed out several times.  So, here it is...


When I was preparing to travel to my sister's home to keep her five kids for five days, I realized that it would not be possible for Chad to go with me.  He was scheduled to work and because it was Memorial weekend, it is nearly impossible to trade shifts.  


Amazingly, I didn't freak out become concerned.  My nieces and  nephews are all really good kids and I figured we would just make it work.  Besides, the two oldest boys are 13 and could hold down the house, if I needed them to while I ran to the store or took kids to school.


Even though I didn't become concerned, that didn't stop me from thanking God when my mom called and asked if she could come too.   Of course, I was very diplomatic about the entire thing and instead of yelling "yes! yes! yes!", I calmly said "if you want to....".  So, Mom drove here early in the morning and jumped into my truck with the kids and I and we started our adventure.


The adventure was just that... a really fun adventure.  Often Mom and I commented on what a great tag-team we were.  Honestly, I could not have done it without her.  In fact, she asked me several times "what would you have done if I wouldn't have come?"  In hind-sight, I think I had three options.... a) lock everyone in individual rooms, slide their food under their doors and let them out for one hour a day for recreation... b) crawl under my nephew's bed and refuse to come out until my sister got home... c) allow them to have incredible fun and let my sister's house just deteriorate around me.   I would have chosen option C and I would have had to write a long letter to my sister apologizing for the mess in her house (as it was I had to apologize for the dead grass that the superslide left behind...).


Just yesterday, some friends were asking me how the trip went.  I think they were secretly hoping for some great survival stories of how I barely survived parenting eight children and escaped insanity by a slim thread.   Instead, all I could say was "It was great!  We had so much fun!!  The kids played all day every day and Mom did all the meals, dishes and trips to WalMart.  I did laundry and played with kids.  It was really an easy weekend."


To which my friend Rachelle said "Oh, so you had a wife for the weekend!" ... sure enough, I got to experience what it is like to have a wife in the house.  I highly recommend it for all moms!!