The Plans

I make a lot of plans for our family.  I make plans for the season, for the month, for the week, and for the day.  Sometimes our plan is to stay home and relax... but there is still a plan for the day.  I know what time I'm expecting the kids to wake up -- I plan what time I'm awakening so I can plan what I want to get done before they wake.  I like to think our house runs as smoothly as it does because of my plans.

Well, we had a plan for this weekend.  We had a great plan.

I was supposed to go to Denver for a two-day professional development workshop Friday and Saturday.  I was supposed to leave Thursday afternoon and get back Satuday evening.

The kids didn't have school on Friday due to conferences, but we had a baby-sitter booked and Hubby planned to come back mid-day and take everyone to Carbondale for soccer practice, lunch, and to play in the park with the sitter while he attended conferences.

He was excited to take everyone to breakfast Saturday and then come home for a lazy day at home with Daddy until Mama got home around bedtime.

Oh the beautiful plans.

I should have known that the plans were in trouble when we kept all four kids home on Thursday due to vomiting.  Lee Lee had thrown up Wednesday evening, and Caroline woke us up during the night on Thursday.  Tracey was over the stomach bug she had over Easter... but was coughing to beat the band.  So we made the call to keep everyone home on Thursday.

By the time I was supposed to leave for Denver Thursday afternoon, both twins were vomiting every 30 minutes or so and Lee Lee was having an upset tummy with some very messy diapers.  I just thought if the twins could get over the actual vomiting, they would be exhausted and wanting to sleep and cuddle, and Chris could handle everything while I was gone.  This is an annual conference and some years I cannot attend -- this year I could.

I left our house around 7pm and arrived at my hotel around 10:00pm.

Up at 5:00am, I checked on the cameras to see how everyone's night went... and it was awful.  Both twins were up multiple times the entire night vomit.  And, I could see on the nursery camera that Lee Lee was awake and crying (probably from a messy diaper) and Hubby wasn't waking up to check on her.   I had to call our house phone to wake up Chris.

That's when I made the call... I needed to be home.

I like to think I keep a pretty good finger on the pulse of how our home is running, and I think I know what Hubby is capable of handling in my absence.

This was a two-parent situation.

I emailed the event organizer, took a shower, grabbed continental breakfast with a few colleagues also staying at the same hotel for the conference, checked out and headed home.

I walked through the door at 11:00am with jello, applesauce, bananas, ginger ale, and bread and Hubby was shocked... and then incredibly grateful.

I was gone a total of sixteen hours, six of which were spent on the road.

He was even more grateful when both twins and Lee Lee were vomiting again within 30 minutes of my getting home.

So... new plans for the weekend, which include lots of baths, lots of cuddles, lots of laundry. 

I felt so guilty for taking a spot in the conference registration... but this is the reality of being a working mother, and living away from family.  The truth is our family comes first, especially with our children as young as they are, and I needed to be at home.

Plans change.