Every Monday Morning
I wake up to the sound of Micah yelling, "Mommy can you wipe me!" Amelia is carefully tucked in the bed next to me since her current wake up time is 5:30am and she just falls back asleep in our bed. I can hear Mark and Julia making breakfast downstairs...and I realize I am alone, I am the only adult at home, and my better half is off to work.
Needing to get big kids off to school, pack lunches, brush little ones teeth, get breakfast out and put away, dress the littles, get juice, make coffee, find coats, gloves, hats, shoes, make sure back packs are at the front door...it is a busy fast-paced routine but there's no one else to lead it but me.
Often I am thinking about the fun we had the past 2 days as a family. Weekends are sacred and we use every bit of our time to spend with each other, all the while getting things like housework, meals, and oil changes done. Somehow there's no schedule on the weekends but the time feels longer and knowing John is home is such a comfort to me always because once he's at work I don't have any one's hand to hold, no one to make me laugh, and no one to be my right hand the way that he is.
There is so much to be said for routine, work and schedules...some of my favorite words, but when you have 4 kids and very little time to your self or miss being around adults for some reason the start of the work week is the hardest for us. I find that John texts me the most at the beginning of the week and most of the texts start out with, "I miss you."
Our life is not quiet, it's not without moments of chaos, crying or craziness, but when everyone is under one roof it is comforting, it's everything that makes home, home. And when even one of us is missing the void is felt. Micah and Amelia constantly ask me, "Where are Mark and Julia?" "Where is Daddy?" Even though I have told them a million times that the big kids are at school and Daddy is at work so mommy can stay home with them, I think they feel the emptiness and the absence and just can't seem to understand why they need to leave.
And let's just say the moment when 3:00 hits and Julia and Mark come bursting through the front doors to tell us all about their day, Micah and sometimes Mia if she is awake are ALL smiles and ALL ears. It's almost as awesome as it is when John comes home at night. It's that collective scream of "DADDY!" And you can't help but feel the joy.
To every parent that leaves Monday morning...you are dearly missed whether we remember to tell you so or not. Life is better with you.
Here's to another Monday...!
There is so much to be said for routine, work and schedules...some of my favorite words, but when you have 4 kids and very little time to your self or miss being around adults for some reason the start of the work week is the hardest for us. I find that John texts me the most at the beginning of the week and most of the texts start out with, "I miss you."
Our life is not quiet, it's not without moments of chaos, crying or craziness, but when everyone is under one roof it is comforting, it's everything that makes home, home. And when even one of us is missing the void is felt. Micah and Amelia constantly ask me, "Where are Mark and Julia?" "Where is Daddy?" Even though I have told them a million times that the big kids are at school and Daddy is at work so mommy can stay home with them, I think they feel the emptiness and the absence and just can't seem to understand why they need to leave.
And let's just say the moment when 3:00 hits and Julia and Mark come bursting through the front doors to tell us all about their day, Micah and sometimes Mia if she is awake are ALL smiles and ALL ears. It's almost as awesome as it is when John comes home at night. It's that collective scream of "DADDY!" And you can't help but feel the joy.
To every parent that leaves Monday morning...you are dearly missed whether we remember to tell you so or not. Life is better with you.
Here's to another Monday...!
