Single Parenting is not easy!

So Frankie has been traveling for work lately, not something that has been normal for him in the past but looks like it might be more common in our future.  In a 31 day span (from Dec into Jan) he was in Seattle for 16 days.  It was hard.  It was hard to not have someone else available to assist in parenting issues, bedtime routines, preparing dinner, homework, morning drop offs at school and daycare (Frankie always drops off the boys) and just comforting and loving our boys!  The first trip was 10 days long and by the end of the trip I was wondering how anyone does the single parenting thing without losing their minds.  It is hard to be the sole person responsible for two little kids as well as hard to not have a companion to talk to once the boys are in bed.  I survived the first 10 days and was happy to have him back home in time for the Holidays and get back to our normal way of life.  Well shortly after Christmas we found out he was heading back to Seattle right after the New Year, ugg I wasn't ready for business trip number two that fast but we didn't have much of  a choice.  This time the trip was only 6 days so I figured it wouldn't be as bad but I was so very wrong.  He left on Wednesday.  Thursday morning Colton woke up in pretty rough shape, he had been fighting a nasty cough that just wouldn't go away for 5 days.   I made some early morning phones calls and decided to let Colton spend the day with my dad because I knew he couldn't go to school. That night I took Colton in the clinic - verdict, Strep throat!  So I made plans for him to spend the next day at home with my dad as well being as he was contagious and couldn't go to school.  Friday morning I woke Mason up only to find out he had a fever - you have got to be kidding me!  I took him to daycare (she was willing to take him even though he had a fever) and then on my way to work made some calls and my mom came to the rescue saying that she would go pick up Mason from daycare and take him back to hang out with Colton and PopPop.  I got to work and immediately called our doctor and made an afternoon appointment for Mason - verdict: Fever of 102 and doctor decided we were not even gonna waste time on a Strep test, just gonna treat him for it being as big brother has it.  Great, two kids on meds - fun times.  I went to my parents and enjoyed dinner with them and then took my sick boys home.  This was what my Saturday looked like: 

By Sunday the boys were on the mend... slowly but surely and I was just hoping that I was going to be lucky enough to not come down with it myself.  We picked Frankie up from the airport Monday night - happy to say we survived another week of single parenting!

Now throughout all of this I have learned a couple things:

1.  I am not cut out for single parenting and also not sure I could be a stay at home mom.  One full day of being stuck in the house with both kids and no adult interaction was enough for me for a while!

2.  I couldn't have survived those 16 days without the help of family... mostly the Grandparents!  My mother in law, mom and dad were so much more than helpful - they were there to simply make sure I was okay (sometimes just talking to someone else can be comforting).  They fed us meals, helped care for the boys and like I said just checked in on us daily to be sure we were surviving.  

3.  I am incredibly proud of Frankie and the career he has established for himself. If you had asked us 5 years ago where his career would take him I don't think either of us would have said traveling and doing training for a catering company.  He has put in many long days, weeks, months and missed many of family events but it has gotten him to the place he is today as a Corporate Area Chef.  And now after proving what he can do with his accounts/sites here in Minnesota they company has asked him to do the same with the sites in Seattle, WA.  I guess they realize what a valuable employee he is which is awesome, hard work pays off and I am very proud of him and completely support him as he takes on this new challenge in his career.  And I am sure that as we settle into a routine the weeks when he is gone will become less overwhelming and more of a normal way of life!

4.  My boys are so versatile.  They adjust quickly to Daddy being gone and Mommy being in charge.  To having to get up over an hour and half earlier than normal in the morning (we were out of the house by 6:20 every morning).  They did awesome with spending nights at Grandma and Grandpa's on Sunday nights so that my dad could bring Colton to school and my mom could watch Mason as Monday is usually Frankie's day off so we don't have daycare for him that day!  And as soon as Daddy is back home they jump right back into their old routine as if it had never changed.