Happy Mr. Mothers Day.


Day 3 of doing the single parent thing and a bit of weariness has set in. I almost gave in to a nap at 4:50, but took a bike ride instead. It did my body gooder than a nap would have. What a great word.


Seriously, it's not bad. It's just there's no one to "tag off" to. Parenting is a lot like tag team wrestling, without the head smashes into the turnbuckle. Though that sounds like a good solution for when the kids are nitpicking at each other, at times. (Am I a bad Dad for thinking that? Probably...)


The kids have actually been good. Sarah is becoming SUCH a teenager. It's going to be a long 5 years, let me tell you. She's suddenly got a 10 year old moron brother and two parents who seem to be getting dumber by the day, so hey, she's here to save the day! I'll let her tell you about that.


What's with the stupid cats wanting attention for nothing more than their next meal? Why we got two of these ungrateful creatures I may never understand. I like them much better when they are only 1/2 my responsibility.


So here's a typical Sunday with Mr. Mom. Wake up to alarm at 7:15. Feed self. Brew Coffee. Read 3 sections of newspaper. Wake and feed Ben. Wake Sarah first time. Iron Church Clothes. Wake Sarah second time. Shower, shave, brush teeth. Dress self. Threaten Sarah with abandonment and certain orphan status if she doesn't wake up and feed herself right now. Set dog free from dog jail (kennel). Feed cats. Feed dog. Remind kids that of all rules regarding dental hygiene, and especially how relevant they are in church. Drive to church. Worship God. Give Ben updates of how much longer he has to sit...every five minutes. Shake strangers' hands. (Pass the swine flu). Drive to Paneras only to find that they're out of "plain" bagels (Sarah) AND very chocolate brownies (Ben). Order for myself and goof with the kids for an hour. ('scuse me I just had to go break up a fight). Drive home. Cut the grass. Weed Eat. Load the dishwasher. Take Ben to Downtown Waukesha where yes, EVERYTHING is closed. Take Kids and Dog to Dog Park. Watch Dog make idiot of himself for 45 min. Go to DQ. Drive home. Read rest of paper. Contemplate a nap. Take 10 mi. bike ride instead. (Life is good!) Get home. Call Wife. Sweep kitchen floor and back stairs. Take out recycling and trash. Kick Ben off computer. Do facebook for 5 min. Take picture with kids for blog. Blog. And here I am. Is it bedtime yet? Somewhere in here I think I've got to get dinner in. Hey, I'd better go. A Mother/Father's work is never done, eh?


So, it's been a great weekend. I'm not even looking forward to Mon. like I might have expected. I do however, still hate to cook. Tonight might be a cheerios night. Hey, it lowers your cholesterol, you know and Kids really need to watch that, right?


To all the single parents out there, (my mom having been one of them) I have nothing but pure, unadulterated respect for you. Hang in there. It's all worth it.


Blogging off for now...

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

National Poetry Month: Issue 18

In a rush, a poem from Richard Brautigan from,  The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster. A Good-Talking Candle                    by Richard Brautigan I had a good-talking candle last night in my bedroom. I was very tired but I wanted somebody to be with me,    so I lit a candle. and listened to its comfortable voice of light until I was asleep. Blogging off...
Read more

New Chapters

Image
 As many of you know I retired last week after almost 27 years at Waukesha County. It was a bit of a shock to some, in part because I am only 61. Nevertheless I'd given it much thought and talked it through with my family and determined it was time. I wanted to get out while I am healthy and perhaps more specifically just do something different. I am lucky enough to say I've loved my work over the past 37 years. GIS and mapping has been my passion since college and I was fortunate enough to get paid to do something I loved.  I'll be honest, while I looked forward to the date of retirement, I was not looking forward to the celebration. Like my daughter, who is more like me than not, I do not like being in the spotlight. While I've become more comfortable being in front of people in part because of my writing and its related promotion and readings, deep down I'm still an introvert with extrovert flares, as they say. But dreading it as I did, it turned out to be a spec...
Read more

Local Level Need

Image
A week and a half into retirement and I'm here to report that life is good on the other side. I've kept fairly busy so far, in fact when my wife was questioned by friends on "how Jim's retirement is going," she said, "He hasn't sat down." I think I'm still in the manic, must-get-stuff-done mode that happens when people get a week off of work. Gotta cram it all in. Well, I am starting to adjust to the fact that it will all be there tomorrow and next week, and if I don't get to all of it today, it's really okay. It's been a strange adjustment for sure, but one that I am beginning to appreciate more and more.  Before I decided to retire, one of the things I wanted to commit to was a regular stint of volunteer work. When I mentioned it to a friend who works for Frieden's Food Pantry, he suggested I look into helping in one of their four locations. They vary in the number of families that they serve, but they turn over a huge amount o...
Read more