3 Days Down

And then there was that time when the twins were two and we moved across the country and like two weeks later, DF had to leave town for a month and a half...

At least, that how I assume this story will be told decades from now.

Hurricane Harvey, I'm sure you've heard, left a giant swath of destruction in its wake. The cleanup and recovery efforts required will be massive. DF works for the federal government, and he's part of a team of employees who have volunteered to be deployed to assist in these situations. Well, last week he got word to stand by for orders. He flew out over the weekend to a central assembly area where he's meeting up with his team to be sent out to help. 

We aren't sure exactly when he'll be back. His presence was requested for "up to 45 days." I don't know if that means they'll need him for the full amount of time, or he'll be back sooner, or they might ask if he can stay longer. For now, I'm just going to assume it's approximately 6 weeks. And I can't help but recall that's the same amount of time the boys were in the NICU. 

On the one hand, I'm really proud of him for his dedication to serving his country, which started during his military days and continues on in his civilian career. He's calm and level headed in times of crisis, and he's a strategic thinker. He'll be a great asset to his team!

On the other hand, I wish this storm hadn't been so horrible and affected so many people. I wish DF didn't have to go at all. And I really wish this wasn't all happening right after we relocated to a new place where we hardly know anyone.

So far, the boys and I have survived three days of being alone together. I know that I'm not a "single parent." I'm grateful not to have the added pressure of financially providing for my family. But the longest I've ever had to be the solo parent is one week, and that was back in Memphis where we had lots of friends to visit and activities to occupy our time. It's a whole new ballgame here.

<As I write this, I'm intermittently hopping up to comfort Gus and convince him to go to sleep. He's had a rough time sleeping lately. Maybe it's because Daddy is gone...?>

Here's what we have been up to:

Day 1: Sunday

• DF departed at an ungodly hour
• The kids and I attended a church that we have visited before. I didn't have it in me to try a Sunday School class by myself, so I just went to the service. Then during coffee hour (outside, 90 degrees at 10 am) I sat under a tree and tried to enjoy a few peaceful moments to myself (the nearby freeway traffic notwithstanding).
• While the boys napped, I read a parenting article that basically said, "I like being needed as a mom because my kids need ME and only ME and that makes me feel special." I found this strangely encouraging and did my best to savor my time with my children for the rest of the day, reminding myself that they'll never be this young again.
• Got brave and walked with the boys to Whole Foods, just a couple blocks away. It was not a total disaster, but also could've been better. I made mental notes for next time as I stuffed cookies in their mouths to keep them from hopping out of the wagon on the walk home. Later realized I forgot to check out their whole bean coffee selection, which had been one of my main goals of the trip. 

Day 2: Monday

• Let's just call this, the day when reality hit and none of us coped very well. 
• Got out of the house briefly to visit the park across the street but we were all overheating by 9:30am
• Made a grocery store run in the afternoon
• Otherwise, the kids were alternating between watching videos, fighting with each other, eating snacks, and getting in to everything that is a no-no. 
• I read them stories, played pretend games, intervened in fights, ignored fights, tried but failed not to yell at them, ate too much junk food, and generally wished the day was over. 
• Bath time went better than usual - the end of bath tends to elicit much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Day 3: Tuesday

• I decided to make more of an effort today. They aren't going to MDO anymore, so I should probably try to stimulate their brains a bit...
• Since the heat wave finally seems to have lifted, I thought maybe we'd hang out at a different park and I'd pack a picnic lunch. Well, I asked the boys and they said they didn't want to go to the park ("no!"), so then I decided not to try too hard and instead just took them to the neighborhood park. They lasted nearly an hour! I brought their dump trucks and toy dustpans so they could play with the bark chips. That was a hit. 
• I tried to do a craft project I heard about, making "instruments" out of plastic containers and household items. I used dry rice, lentils, and pasta. Lately the kids won't eat any of these items cooked, but apparently in their raw form, they are desirable snacks. So that led to some screaming when I wouldn't let them choke themselves on the craft. But, they did still sort of have fun making noise.
• We made grandparents' day cards, although Gibson did most of the coloring. Gus was more into hoarding all the crayons.
• Ran errands including a stop at Walgreens that for some reason had no regular sized carts for kids to ride in! :-O I managed to keep them from destroying the store and feel that I deserve several pats on the back for that! I grabbed two containers of dental floss and put them both in charge of holding one :)
• Went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Technically, we played in the play area then picked up food from the drive through on our way home because the inside line was just too long for us to wait.

Ok, that's the log so far. Obviously, I have no one to talk to about the minutiae of my daily life, so thank you all for reading along, ha ha. I'll try to make some more California observations next time.