Mr Mom

As I have done all week, I was up ten minutes early. My initial thoughts turned to the prior week when Thursday was really my Friday and the joy I felt knowing that I had a three day weekend ahead. This week, however, not only was Thursday, Thursday but I had an on-call weekend to look forward to as well. I knew that if I allowed it, I could get rather gray thinking in those terms. I quickly banished such thoughts from my mind and instead focused my attention on the here and now. As I pushed through my morning exercise routine things got cheerier.

I was finished with my pre-run routine by 6:20am and found myself outside on the front porch stretching my hammies. The temperature hovered near freezing making ear covers a necessity. It was a good run – like most others. I found myself home by 7:00am more than ready to dig into some eggs.

Mindy packed leftover tuna fish in my lunch. For this I was pleased. Before she left she reminded me that she wouldn’t be home immediately after work. Instead, she’d be at school completing parent conferences that could last until 8:30pm or so. That meant that I’d be intercepting the kids from Jimaken sometime after 7pm and responsible for baths and jammies. UGH!

After Mindy left I talked with Jacob about his obnoxious behavior the night before. He used being sleepy as his excuse. Interesting but of little consequence, I thought. I made sure he knew that I was disappointed despite the extenuating circumstances. We moved on quickly. I was showered and ready by 7:50am. We headed for the bus stop at 7:55am.

I arrived to work at 8:20am. I was extremely busy all day long. Consequently, I had little opportunity to take a lunch hour. I left for home around 5:30pm. I looked forward to my alone time at home. Once there, I hurried through the usual set of chores like walking Ykraps, prepping coffee, and tidying the kitchen. Not entirely sure what to do with the rest of my free time I decided to play catch-up with my blog. The hour plus went quickly. Jimaken’s headlights alerted me to the kids return home. The drop was short and sweet. It was barely after 7pm. I allowed the kids time to play before ushering them upstairs for baths. At 7:25pm we began the baths. Bella willingly went first. Jacob wouldn’t come up until the clock struck 7:30pm on the nose. The entire process went much smoother than I had anticipated. I had them in their beds at 8pm. Both complained about their mother not being home, and Bella ultimately began to cry. Jacob was too tired and asked that I shut his door. Bella almost cried herself to sleep, and would’ve had I not popped corn.

The smell of fresh popcorn brought both children to the railing of the family room. They asked if they could sample some. I allowed them to join me all the while we watched the Thursday Night college football game. Mindy arrived home just after 9pm. She looked a little surprised that the kids were still up, but think that she understood. There are some battles just not worth fighting. This, I knew, was one of them.

After a greeting Mindy rushed the kids off to bed. Soon she was back downstairs with me. We chatted briefly before she headed off to bed after her extra long school day. I watched as much of the football game as I could. I headed to bed shortly after 10pm.