a weekend away

I am off to North Carolina today with Will and Timmy to find a rental house. We are going to stay with my father, zoom through 5 houses and just pick one. Tim is going to stay home with the other ones and take them to a birthday party Sat. and CCD and Mass on Sunday. He has been a real brick the past month taking over the evening routine so I could go visit Mother in the hospital. It takes a lot of energy and efficiency to get 5 children bathed and in bed and sometimes he has been overwhelmed. I walked in after a run the other day to find him scrubbing the baby, "Why is he getting a bath at 5:30?" "Because he ate cat poop from the litter box," was the matter of fact reply, "he gets into everything and I can't watch him every minute."

Welcome to my life, dear. This is what I do all day, every day. Toddlers smash playdough into the carpet, no matter how many times you tell them to only use it in the kitchen. Older kids dump their bikes and junk on the lawn and forget about it, despite the fact that you have made them clean it all up every afternoon for the past 5 years. Babies speed toward the cat food dish or the stairs despite our best efforts to distract them with toy cars and balls. Being in charge of a household with 5 little children is messy, chaotic, and involves having a lot of situational awareness. Knowing what they are likely to do and heading them off is preferable to being blindsided and having to clean up afterwards.

Tim is a great father and will do a fantastic job this weekend feeding, bathing, ferrying them around, and reading stories. I am so blessed in his being such a involved parent and have no fears about the state of things while I am gone. However, when I return and see clean floors, changed sheets, and scrubbed faces I might feel a little outdone.