Welcome back, kids



My two youngest children were gone this past week, visiting relatives in Killeen . The house felt way too quiet. It’s funny, I fuss about how much noise they make when they are here (especially when I’m working nights and trying to sleep during the day), but the truth is I slept better once they got back home.

Now, I missed both of them the same, and neither one more than the other. However, it never occurred to me how much my son helped out around the house until he was on “relative leave”.

He usually takes out the trash in the evenings. In fact, it turns out that he must take the trash out a couple of times a day. When he was gone I couldn’t believe how much trash we go through as a family- and that was with two of us gone. The average American creates 1600 pounds of garbage per year. I think we had half of our numbers in one week.

He usually cleans the pool, too. I mean, all three have “clean the pool” on their list of chores once a week, but he by far does it the most and the best. Two days without him being there, the pool was like swimming in a pasture tank. I swear I felt a catfish nibbling on my toes at one point.

My son is in charge of feeding the dog every morning also. And I think somewhere around Wednesday I caught my dog on the corner up the street holding a “will bark for food” sign.

Speaking of the dog, he looked lost the whole week as much as I did. He’s used to playing and running around the house with the kids for a little while every day. That is, until he’s had enough and starts growling and snapping at them to leave him alone.

Of course, I had to mow the lawn by myself this week, too. It turns out that the push mower is a little heavier than I remember it being. I’m so used to riding on my mower and watching him push his. I started off speed walking behind that thing, and by the time I made it to the front yard I was using it more for a walker than a lawn mower.

The morning papers? It’s my son’s job to grab those every morning, too. Do you understand the effort I had to put out, walking all the way outside every morning just to grab a couple of newspapers? I should’ve had people lined up along the sidewalk there and back holding out water cups, like they do in the marathons.

And as I said before, it wasn’t just my son that I missed. Jenna, my youngest daughter, also gives a great shoulder massage while we’re watching t.v. in the evenings. I had to pay some lady in the mall $20 to do what Jenna does a couple of times a week for a simple trip to the piggy bank.

And most of all, I depend on those kids to provide their mom with plenty of hugs and kisses every day. She has to reach a certain quota every day, or the next day she’s going to need even more. Without them here, guess who had to feel in all week?

Hey, now that I think about it… Anybody out there need a couple of kids for a week or so?