Almost made it...

Husband D. gets home tonight from a whirlwind 11 day tour of Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Every time he goes away on a long trip, something goes wrong. An appliance breaks. A kid gets sick. One time, my car died and I had to buy a new car, solo. (Test drives with two kids and two car seats - more fun than you could ever imagine!) Another time, in our old house, the entire basement flooded after a huge storm - up to your ankles in water kind of flooding.

So, this morning, I should NOT have said to a friend, "Well, we did it. We made it through this trip without anything bad happening."

The phone rang 14 minutes later. School nurse. Pink Eye.

In the grand scheme of things, pink eye is no disaster. But it's another day missed of work, another 2 hours spent at pharmacies and trying to reach doctors. After 11 days of single-parenting, you'd be surprised how little it takes to push one over the edge.

But only 5 more hours. I can make it.

You just never do realize what an amazingly wonderful and helpful spouse you have until he disappears for 11 days.

I've been matched with my new "little sister" for almost 3 months now. At first, I noticed myself getting a bit self-congratulatory in comparing myself to her mother. "I don't let my kids watch that much TV." or "I wouldn't let my kids drink that much juice" and so on, and so on.

But by this weekend, I was begging her mother for single-parenting tips. (She is the single parent of 5 kids under the age of 9.) She showed me some of their systems for getting everyone in bed on time and out the door in the morning. She is so organized, she puts me to shame. She is kind with her kids. She is patient with the kids. She's amazing. A little too much TV? Who cares!

Funny how you sometimes learn the most from those whom you misunderstand.