Making the Best of It

Six days after Matt came home from France, his boss told him they needed him to go to China... three days later. I knew they felt bad for him when they even tossed around the idea of buying a ticket for me and Nathan to go with him. In the end though, it worked out best for him to go by himself, and they limited his trip to two weeks. It took us all some time to process the news and deal with the reality that he was leaving again.

By the time Monday came around, I had accepted the situation and was determined to make the most of the time while Matt was away. Shortly after he left, I sat down and came up with several ideas for me and Nathan to do for the two weeks he was away. I made two columns in my planner- a "to do column" that included all the daily chores and errands that needed done as well as some organization and deep cleaning projects I've been trying to get done this summer. I also made a "fun" column and came up with at least one "fun" thing each day that we could look forward to doing while Matt was away.

Here's a little recap of the fun things we've been doing to stay busy. (There's really no need to remember the time spent washing blinds and cleaning base boards).

We had to drop Matt off really early Monday morning, and driving home from the airport alone before the sun even rises is no fun at all, so I decided to stop for a treat to cheer us up on the way home. Nathan had his first donut breakfast. I think it's safe to say, it's one of his favorite breakfasts :).

A lot of our "fun" activities were things that we usually do anyway. It was just nice to see them written down and be able to look forward to them each day.

- Our Sunday school class started a book study on Monday evenings, and that's been a nice time of fellowship and discussion. I'm looking forward to Matt being able to join though.

- We've gone to Storytime at the library

- We've been swimming on Tuesday mornings which usually leads to long afternoon naps (sometimes for both of us).

- My mom has come over a couple of times in the mornings so I can go running. I debated writing running on my fun list, because I don't think I would always call it fun, but it is nice to have some time strictly to myself doing something for me.

- I had a couple of lunch dates with friends during the week.

- We've made some fun trips to some of our favorite stores- Target, Hobby Lobby, and Bed, Bath and Beyond. I always splurge a little more on things when Matt is working out of town.


- We went to the zoo one morning with Andrea and Chloe. We only stayed a couple of hours because of the heat, but we saw most of the animals. First thing in the morning is definitely the ideal time to go to the zoo.

All four of us had such a fun time. Our zoo membership has certainly paid off!

- We shared a snow cone one day.


- My mom and I went to dinner one night.

- I've been watching a lot of the Olympic trials on TV this week. I'm an Olympics junkie. They had six hours of Gymnastics Olympic trials last weekend.  Any guesses what I did after Nathan went to bed?

- I've also read a couple of books and watched a few TV shows that aren't Matt's favorites in the evenings after Nathan is in bed.

- On Sunday afternoon, Nathan and I went with a few girls from church to Porter, OK to a peach orchard.

Nathan and Chloe were super cute in the little red wagon.

They took over pushing the wagon for awhile to give the adults a break. Thanks kids :)

 

We came back to my house afterwards and baked a peach crisp with the fresh peaches. Yum.

 

Nathan and I have been eating peaches with every meal since Sunday, and Daddy will get some special peach sorbet when he comes home!

-I went to a birthday dinner for a friend earlier this week. I wish Matt could have gone, but I still had a good time. My mom kept Nathan for me, which was a nice break for me. Single parenting is hard work!

- We had a pretty low key 4th of July. We usually don't have big plans and with it being on a Wednesday this year, there wasn't much to do. I spent the day with my parents, because I knew it would be a rough day with Matt gone and I didn't want to be alone. We ate, fell asleep to a movie, played a game of Settlers, and did a little shopping. It was a nice day, but didn't really feel like the 4th of July.

We just have a couple of days left before Matt gets home and we are ready! Looking back though, we have fared pretty well with him being gone. Outside of a couple of rough days, the time has gone pretty quickly. Taking care of Nathan by myself does wear me out especially in the evenings when I'm used to having help. There have been a few days when I've napped with Nathan. I always justify it by saying, "My husband is in China. I'm allowed to take a nap." I might use that justification for a few other things too :).

We're thankful that Matt has a good job, and his company has been really good to him this past year assigning him projects that wouldn't require much traveling as we've adjusted to parenthood. Until this summer, it had been over a year since he has had to do any significant traveling. And when he comes home on Sunday, he should be sticking around for several months.