Wednesday, October 26, 2011

preparing for armageddon


i recently went away for the weekend to attend an amazing blogging conference, bloggy boot camp. while i have tons i could share from the conference itself, i find i am drawn to the experience of actually getting out the door for such a weekend with the hubby in charge...and the fun involved in returning after three days.

when my husband leaves for a business trip, he literally packs ten minutes from departure time. he tells everyone goodbye and heads out...not a care in the world. when preparing to leave for the weekend, i'm pretty sure we would have been prepared for any sort of natural or supernatural disaster and the fam would have survived. i spent hours schlepping through the grocery store, buying non-perishables that my husband could cook. our pantry was stocked with cans of soup, pancake mix, cereal, macaroni-n-cheese and other five minute prep/fail proof foods. the cats were stocked with food, there were diapers a plenty and the laundry bins were miraculously empty. i decided to prepare for success in the hopes that these times away can become more of a regular occurrence. little was i prepared for how easy he would have it.

for some reason, when my husband is left alone with the kids, lovely people feel sympathy and offer to help him out. too much work to take your son to a birthday party? no problem, we'll just pick him up on our way. need to lay down for a rest with your youngest? no problem...just send the older kids over to play for a while. what? you have to cook meals on your own for three days? why don't we bring by a lasagna? are you kidding me? when i'm on my own, the best i usually do is to coordinate pizza with another mom who is on her own. what is it about a man staying home that encourages such outpourings of help?

still, i managed to come home to more loads of laundry, pretty much the entire sandbox on my kitchen floor and a few ruined shirts thanks to a painting expedition gone wrong. i'm not sure i get it but i'm going to be grateful for what i was given...three days of hot meals, sitting for more than five minutes at a time, and an escape from the work that seems to endlessly surround me. i'll be thankful for the small things...and maybe prepare a little less the next trip. something about the idea of seeing my husband trying to make it through the grocery store with four kids brings a twisted smile to my face.

what about you? how do you prepare for a moment away?

3 comments:

  1. Exactly how it happens I'm my house! As a flight attendant I leave for several days at a time. I spend hours prepping casseroles that can be easily heated, stock the fridge, and finish all the laundry. Everything must be easy to find at a glance. If only I could maintain such organization when I'm home to enjoy it!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, I so get it!!! I went away for two days a few years back, and my little one went to stay with my inlaws. My husband even went there for dinner every night! Even going away for the day makes me feel guilty. Why is that?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was determined this was NOT how it would be - I was away for 8 days in total in Atlanta (on business as well as bloggy boot camp. My husband too a whole week of work to be "me" while I was away.

    I warned my friends and family to not swoop in to assist with pickups and meals - I knew he didn't need it, and I didn't want to make it TOO easy for him, so he knew what it was really like to "live in my world".

    I came home to a cleaner less cluttered house than I left! Laundry all up to date. In fact I should go away more often! The only thing I do which he didn't manage to do was to make more jewelry!!!

    It has given him a new appreciation of what I actually do all day, and says he knows our kids better too :)

    So win, win all round.

    ReplyDelete