Single Parenthood Is Hard

What a LOOOONNNNGG month March has been--along with most of February. This semester has been unlike any other for Kalen. At long last, he is on a sabbatical from teaching. I have loved it. He still goes to work but doesn't have to deal with all the meetings and the correcting of papers and the teaching and counseling of students plus all of his duties as department chair. This semester is for him. The idea is that he will focus on research and publishing and rejuvenating himself so that when he goes back to teaching and being department chair in the fall, he will be ready for a fresh start and with lots of new energy and drive. Hopefully. The thing that has been the nicest for me is that even though he goes to work, he is also able to come home from work should the need arise. He is able to take the kids to appointments and do some of the grocery shopping and errands.

That is, he was able to do all these things until he abandoned his family and went gallivanting off to Spain to live it up for a huge chunk of his sabbatical. (Okay, he may not phrase his experience quite like that...) However, it was a major shock to my system to have him here and so helpful one day and then leaving me to handle EVERYTHING in his absence. I have the utmost admiration and respect for single mothers both the "permanent" ones who are widowed or divorced and the "temporary" single parents whose husbands are gone on deployments or frequent business travel.

The first week was fine. Someone asked me at church how it was going so far. "Great!" I said. "Things are actually going really smoothly so far." Then a couple of days later, as I was realizing that I needed to be in 3 different places one particular evening, it began to be not so great. A couple of days after that, when I was dealing with fighting kids and homework and Kaya getting sick, it hit me that we weren't even nearly to the halfway point yet. By the time Spencer got the flu--yes, the actual flu, there wasn't enough Calgon on the planet that could have come to my rescue. It was just hard.

The good thing though was that I had my mom in town to help out. She was invaluable and filled in on many of the occasions where there needed to be two or more of me. The kids just love having her here, and while I am so glad that she and my dad are back together again, it does make it so we don't see her as often as we'd like anymore. (C'mon Dad, you would love living in Michigan!!!) Kaya especially loves her Nana. She just lights up when Nana walks in the door and going over to Nana's house is a major treat.

The other good thing is Skype. We were able to borrow some webcams from the college so that we were able to talk to each other every few days. The kids got a kick out of those visits and it was so good to actually see each other. Not to mention saving possibly hundreds on overseas calling.

So we all survived. Kalen had some really amazing experiences. I'll have to post a few of the hundreds of photos he took while there. I won't be posting photos of the month from here since he took my camera with him. Not that I would have remembered to take any pictures with all the busy-ness going on, but anyway, I didn't even really have the option.

However, if I had a camera, I would have liked to post a few pictures of the following:

Lynnsey's reading poster that won the poster contest for the entire third grade.

Spencer's face when he won a free book at his book fair.

Taylor and the high school band performing AMAZINGLY at the district band festival and earning an overall 1 for their performances.

Kendall taking over 2 nights of cooking per week and creating some fabulous dishes for us to enjoy--he is becoming quite a talented cook! (And a huge helper!)

And Kaya enjoying a surprise "MommyKaya" day when the little boy I babysit caught Spencer's flu (I warned his mom, but she was in a jam and decided to take the risk by sending him anyway...) and we were able to meet Nana at the playground on a beautiful spring day.

And speaking of spring, I would have posted some pictures of the absolutely gorgeous weather we had. Shortly after Kalen left, we were still in the throes of winter and even had a snowstorm. By the time he came back, the temps had risen so much that it felt like early summer. Flowers were blooming, trees were budding, and the grass had turned a beautiful deep green. (Of course it was only a passing thing--now it has cooled off again back to the more typical Michigan March weather.)

Anyway, as crazy and busy as it was for us, I'm glad that Kalen was able to go. He has been struggling lately to even find any inspiration for projects and articles, and now he is getting excited about some things again. He really needed this trip and this sabbatical. And I can say that wholeheartedly now. Because he is home.