The big sigh of relief

Well this last week was certainly an adventure. Once a year my darling husband leaves us for a few days to go hunting with his brother and buddies. Leaving me a single parent. While this will never compare to the actual years that I was a single parent, they are nonetheless, lonely and tough days. Days where I feel like I am losing my mind. It's not all bad, though, I can watch whatever rubbish I want on netflix, I don't really make "real dinner" (Hello, mac and cheese and pizza!)and I can spread all out in bed, BUT.....

Weird things happen, gross spiders, strange sounds in the nights, alarms going off...I will get to that.

I never realized that these things probably happen when Brien is here too, but they just don't seem as scary or weird when I have my partner in crime here with me.

For example the day Brien left, our smoke alarm started chirping in the middle of the day. No big deal, I tested it and it stopped. I even went to the store to get another battery just in case it really was going dead and needed replaced (check me out, adulting) With the new battery safely installed, I thought, "I am running this show!". Much to my disappointment the fire alarm was running the show and decided to pick up where it had left off on Thursday. Only it was 4 AM, on Sunday morning. The only thing to do was cover my head with a pillow and pray the children slept through it. Needless to say, they did not. I later, had my tall and smart father disconnect the alarm, to be dealt with at another date and time.

Finally, we could rest easy, right? Nope. The answer is no. On Monday night, after a long day teaching, an even longer "bed time" with trying to put Kellen to sleep 27 times between 7 and 9 PM, I heard THE most horrifying sound at about midnight. I seriously thought it was a dream. Not a dream, a nightmare, just the carbon monoxide detector going off. I pried it off the wall and stuffed it under my covers. No kids were going to wake on account of this alarm. So I did what an panicked single mother would do if her CM detector was going off in the night. I googled it.

(This kid parties all day, AND all night, I am SO thankful that I usually have someone to share the burden with!)

After breathing some deep night air out of the bathroom window (you know just in case we were being poisoned ) I composed myself and found that it too, was the battery. I changed it and kept it wrapped in a blanket under the bed, just in case we had a repeat of the smoke alarm. Oh yeah, I also checked to see if my children were still breathing, They were.

I didn't realize how much husbands have to be on high alert. I was on the other hand became a crazy hermit!...lock the door! Don't leave the windows open, bring my keys in from the car at night, don't let the kids play out front without supervision. I was THAT mom this week! How stressful it must be for fathers and husbands!! I truly had a whole new understanding of the worry they go through!

After the looonnnnggggest 6 days ever, my mister was home. I breathed the biggest sigh of relief. I was off duty. I had the best night's sleep knowing that if something weird happened, at least we could tackle it together. While those days are hard, it gives me a whole 'nother round of appreciation for team work, marriage and parenting together.

So here's to hunting, single parents, devices that prevent disasters and batteries that work!