Baby Come Home!

Right after lunch on Wednesday, I took Brooke to the airport. She left for Kansas City for a children's leader conference Thursday-Saturday. My wife would claim it is because God loves her, but she has a friend who lives in KC that she was able to visit Saturday night through Monday. I say that because her friend was also able to get the tickets to the opening home game of the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. To hear Brooke talk, this was almost a religious experience!

So Brooke is coming home tomorrow. She caught a flight that would bring her home after Amanda gets out of school because she knew Amanda would want to go with me to pick her up. I'm glad Brooke enjoyed the conference and got to visit "heaven", but I am so very glad she is coming home tomorrow. I don't think I could make it much longer.

Whenever Mommy is going to be out of town (or at least gone for a night), it is always time to plan a Daddy/Daughter date night. We had one of those Saturday night, and it was fun. But I think when Mommy is gone, Amanda unwraps that string she has wrapped around her little finger (her Daddy), grabs both ends and gives it a tug just to see how loudly she can make it sing. Amanda hasn't been bad, but this weekend she seems to have been operating under the mistaken impression that the world revolves around her. I've tried to bring a little balance to her world view and I think we have come to an understanding.

Boy, the whole single parent thing is much more complicated than it looks from the outside! Every time I have several days alone with Amanda, I gain a new respect for single parents I know. No matter how well I organize my time, it seems I do not have time for everything that has to be done. Just the cooking alone is killing me! I hate to come right home from work and cook, but if I don't, the time just gets away from me and then it's late. And then today. There was nothing that felt easy to fix for lunch after Church, and I didn't want to take Amanda to McDonalds again. We had to run by the store to get milk anyway, so I grabbed some Chicken Helper to make Chicken Alfredo because Amanda thought that sounded good (if McDonalds was out). By the time we got home and I fixed it, it was after 2pm. I took Amanda over to a friend's at 5pm for dinner.

Between the little bit of cooking I have been doing, the one load of clothes I have done, the little bit of keeping up with Amanda's school work and running Amanda back and forth to spend-the-night parties, birthday shopping, etc, I am spent. OK, I'll admit it, I'm a wimp. It hasn't even been a week and I can't wait for Brooke to get back.

So these past few days have confirmed what I already knew...I need my wife! I'm glad she could get away, go to a good conference and then relax this weekend, but I'm counting the hours until I pick her up tomorrow night.

Baby, come home!