Category Archives: Super Dad

A Traveling Working Mom’s Rant – Some things never change

Back when I blogged regularly, and while I was also contributing to a blog all about being a working mom – you know, back when I had two kids not three. And my now 5 and a half-year-old middle child was my 3-month-old youngest child – I wrote a blog post all about how maddening it is to be a working mom and get the comments about “how hard it must be” and “who is taking care of the kids.”

Well, fast-forward five years. We’ve added another kid to the mix and I now have a job where I work remote and travel fairly often. That blog has been long-since shut down, but I just stumbled upon the original post I wrote, and I have to say that I am unpleasantly surprised and how much things have not changed.

Since I took my very first work trip away as a mother, when my now almost 10-year-old was 3 months old, and literally every single trip since, at some point before, during or after my trip, I’m asked, “so who’s watching your kid(s) while you’re away?”

It’s come from women. It’s come from men. It’s come from executives. It’s come from fellow parents.

Then when I tell them that the kids at home with their dad, their jaws drop. Disbelief written all over their faces. Every time.

It boggles my mind that people assume that just because I’m the mom and I’m traveling that I must have left the kids with my mother or my sister or my mother in law or some other capable woman. That my husband can’t handle parenting the kids by himself or be bothered to leave work in time to pick our kids up before daycare closes.

My most recent trip was the worst I’ve heard it in a while. I was gone for back-to-back trade shows for a total of 15 days. It was brutal. For all of us. Two days in Vegas is too long, let alone two weeks. I had never been away from the kids or him for that long. I was exhausted. He was exhausted. We all missed each other.

People were unrelenting. The moment they heard how long I was going to be gone they immediately asked a) Do you have kids? followed quickly by b) Who is taking care of them while you are away?

Why is it so hard to believe that my husband, my childrens’ FATHER, is taking care of his kids while I’m out of town. It not only pisses me off, I take offense to it on his behalf.

I get that he’s not the norm when it comes to things like this. I remember one time, after returning home from a trip I took when Reese was a few months old, he told me (“no offense”) it was kind of nice to have me gone because it meant he got to do more with the baby.

My job is just as important as his job. And likewise, our children are just as important to him as they are to me. We are in this parenting gig together. That means we both juggle schedules, make sacrifices accordingly. As a team. When he has to work late, that means I’m on pick up and dinner duty and sometimes even bedtime duty solo. And when I travel, he jumps in and does the same. No hesitation.

Dads can be active parents too. Why is that so hard for people to understand/believe/accept!?

End rant.

The State of the State

Within the last 20 minutes, I just finished up my first post car accident 90-minute massage. I’ve got a little bit of time before I need to go get the girls, but not enough time to head back to the office so I’ve found myself sitting in Starbucks sipping on my beloved iced coffee and water…lots and lots of water.

I’ve been somewhat slacking in the blog department lately and have plans to get back into it {broken record, I know} but I feel like we’ve missed some things along the way, so I figured I’d fill the 20-30 minutes of free time I have here with a general life overview. A “state of the state” if you will.

Reese
Whoa buddy, this girl. She is…fierce. That is the best word to describe her. She lives life…big. She has big ideas and big curiosity and big opinions and a big set of lungs. And a big stomach…homegirl is always hungry. She is in to everything she shouldn’t be. She loves to “help”. She’s starting to “talk” more and more. Her latest word is “cracker” and her latest phrase is “bless you”. She’s a little stinker, but she continues to bring so much joy to our family and I love her so.

Rylee
Kindergarten has been good to this girl so far. She’s reading more and more. She’s continually blowing my mind with things she knows and how easily she’s picking up new concepts. She’s learning to tell time. She gets “optional” homework sent home in her Tuesday folder every week. {for the record, it’s not optional in our house} Just last week her teacher included extra “challenge homework”…with things like greater than/less than as well as “which digit is in the ones place”. I thought, no way this is going to end well. Ry? NAILED IT. She is smart beyond smart. We’re talking about starting gymnastics. She’s getting into the stage of girlhood where she wants to listen to the same song over and over and over again and learn every single word. Then of course sing and dance along. Currently her song is Taylor Swift’s “I knew you were trouble”. Not gonna lie, I am totally loving this stage so far.

Andy
Ha, not much to report here. The beginning of the school year crazyness seems to be easing up a bit {knock on wood}. He’s still working on wrapping up some of the big outside projects on the property in time for winter. Last weekend he and my dad did their first wood cutting trip of the season.

Katherine
Yep…I’m still plugging away. Work is work. My back/neck have been jacked since the car accident so the massage I just had was heavenly. I’m apparently at a point in my life where playdates at Target are totally my idea of fun…and I’m 1 million percent ok with that. I’m also at a point in my life where I’ve come to terms with the fact that I don’t have time for everything. I didn’t can a single thing this year. Didn’t even pick a single pear off of our pear tree. On one hand, I hate the fact that I’m not making the time for those things, but on the other hand, I have my sanity about me and I’m not trying to squeeze in a bajillion things into two days off while wrangling a couple of kids. Life is life and my priorities have been set and I’m not wasting energy on peripheral things.

The Blog
I wish it wasn’t so neglected, it’s true, but there are so many other things that need to take priority these days. I’ve recently stopped blogging over at Liberating Working Moms. It was a bittersweet decision, but definitely the right one for me. I’ve also taken the blog off of the “Top Baby Blogs” directory. I don’t know that I ever thought this blog would “make it big” {whatever that means} but I’m super happy with where it’s at, I don’t know the last time I checked my stats. I do love blogging, I do it for fun and I do it for my kids to look back at someday and don’t see myself stopping anytime soon.

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Fall is always a funny time of year for me. It starts out hectic with the beginning of a new school year then always seems to settle nicely into a season of evenings spent by the fire and reflection and relaxation.

Life is life. Kids are kids. Work is work. Love is love.

And that, my friends, is the state of the state.

This weekend rocked so hard.

Oh man, last week drained me. I was ready for the weekend. And the weekend? Did not disappoint.

Saturday morning was pretty laid back…Andy worked outside for a bit while I hung out with the girls. While Reese napped Rylee & I had a tea part picnic then packed up a real picnic lunch. The whole family piled in the car and headed into town. While I got my hair cut, Andy took the girls to a nearby park where they played. After I was done, they picked me up and we ate lunch out of the back of the car.

After lunch, we headed down to the fairgrounds for the big home & garden show. It was packed! We strolled the aisles looking at ideas for a chicken coop and for our back patio we’ll be putting in this summer. {side note: Can I just point out that this will be the first year that we’re able to spend money on Our OWN house instead of dumping money into our rental! Holy crap we’re excited.}

Apparently the home show was just too much excitement for the girls because they both passed out while we were walking around. I had Reese in the ergo and Andy was carrying Ry. He got the short end of the stick on that deal!

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On our way home from the home & garden show, Rylee was chattering away, then out of the blue said, “I’m so glad we’ve had a family day today.”

Back at home Andy went back to work outside while Ry played in the SUN! I tried to pick up the house a bit. After Reese woke up from her afternoon nap, I fed her, then Ry and I loaded back up and hit the road. We picked up my dad then went up to Corvallis for the OSU women’s gymnastics meet. For the first 20 minutes or so, every time the gymnasts did something {anything} she’d stare in amazement and half-whiper “whoaaaa”.

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Ry did pretty well, only asking to go home just before the very end. It was about an hour past her bedtime and she was beat. But apparently on the walk out to the car she got a second wind because she was awake the entire 45 minute drive home asking my dad to tell her stories about when he was little. It was just as heart-warming as it sounds.

Yesterday was spent working around the house trying to catch up on everything that didn’t get done on Saturday. Andy worked outside all day {country living folks, the work never ends!} while I took the girls grocery shopping, then came home and busted out 6 loads of laundry, cleaned out the fridge, cleaned the kitchen, made some baby food for the week and a bunch of other random stuff.

We topped off the weekend with enchiladas for dinner and fresh brownies for dessert!

My soul needed the weekend is a serious way…sunshine, family fun mixed with just the right amount of work.

How was your weekend?

On the mend?

Believe me when I tell you that I’m knocking on wood as I say type this…I think we are finally on the mend.

Last week I caught what was going around the office and was down and out through the weekend. Rylee ended up with some version of whatever it was I was fighting on Sunday. Reese ended up having a less than ideal reaction to her immunization a from Monday. Today is the first day all week that all four of us have been at our “assigned locations” (i.e. school & work.)

Friday while I struggled through my work day Andy had the girls. He did all the laundry. Then when I got home that night, he handled making dinner and he put rylee to bed.

Saturday I barely left the couch. Andy took care of the girls, finished the laundry, went grocery shopping and handled bedtime again.

Sunday I bummed around yet again while Andy took care of the girls. During naps that day we got some quiet time to just sit on the couch together and veg. That never happens. It’s amazing what just a couple hours of quiet time together can do for your soul, ammiright!?

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I stayed home with the girls on Tuesday. It was one of those days where so many things don’t go right that it’s almost comical…

Neither of the girls had a decent nap. In fact, Ry didn’t nap at all…what child stays home actually sick from school and doesn’t nap!? Reese napped, but only for about 20-25 minutes at a time. I didn’t shower. We watched movies and/or tv all day long and I don’t feel the least bit guilty about it. At one point I actually watched Reese poop so bad I saw it bubble up out the top of her diaper, down the back of her pants and puddle on the carpet.

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Then Andy worked late because being the awesome dad/husband he is, he stayed home with the girls on Wednesday so he had plan for a sub.

It was a helluva day and I was thankful that Andy took care of things yesterday because I’m not sure I would have been able to handle another day like that. I got home last night, the kids had napped, he had showered and they were all hanging out and happy. Which always leads me to wonder how does he do it!? That man is amazing and I swear he is a better mother than I am.

Tonight we have to drop the suburban off at the mechanics. So instead of trying to do that and come home and make dinner, we’re going to eat out. We rarely eat out. Especially on a weeknight and definitely not since Reese has started eating dinner at the same time we do. I’m almost getting anxiety just thinking about it. Haha. Kidding.

Kind of.

I am so happy today is Thursday! That means tomorrow is Friday!

Here’s to a weekend where no one is sick!

Ok that whole thing was really random, but really…how does Andy make it all look so easy!?

Another Quickie

Mind out of the gutter people!

I’m only in the office 3 days this week so my to-do list is packed.

Andy was working down at the rental pretty much all weekend {new renters moving in this weekend! yay?} so it was just the girls and me for the majority of the time. Which, by the way, was fine by me since I’ll be gone this coming weekend and he’ll get them all to himself.

Saturday was a pretty normal weekend day for us. I did my meal planning and made a grocery list then the girls & I hit the grocery store. Got home, had lunch, put the girls down for nap. I washed/folded/put away a lot of laundry this weekend. A friend had come over to help Andy trim the crap out of the apple tree down at the rental so we grabbed pizza for dinner. I freaking love pizza.

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Sunday the girls & I met my cousin for coffee and a walk along the river. It was great to get out and enjoy some of the last few days of sun before Oregon weather really sets in and it was really great to spend some time with my cousin! Even though she only lives a few minutes away, life tends to get in the way. {that seems to be the case with most things, right!?} Reese was clearly not impressed with our coffee stop and I’m pretty sure that blueberry muffin went straight to the crazy part of my kid’s brain!

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Ry had a blast switching between riding her bike and walking. {country girl still needs some work on her bike path etiquette.} Reese slept the entire time, of course.

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When we got back to the Jeep Ry munched on a snack and we continued to visit. Then I fed Reese in the car while Rylee picked all the m&m’s out of her trail mix. {mom of the year right here folks!} After Reese was done, Rylee snapped a few pics with my phone.

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Last night I went to town scrubbing down the kitchen sink and counters. Such a rewarding feeling! {holy crap, I’m a boring adult.}

It was nearly long enough, but all in all, a great weekend. Happy Monday!