Mommy Solo Weekend

A long, long time ago Zach played in a golf tournament and won some free golf rounds at some Arnold Palmer courses in Alabama. He has been wanting to do another Father/Son trip with his dad for a long time now and it was the perfect opportunity! 

I’m not ashamed to admit that it’s hard for me to have a  happy heart about Zach going and doing things on the weekends. I love our weekend family time and he feels guilt when he’s away for that, and I struggle to not get resentful that I’m doing “solo parent duty” when I do that all day while he’s working during the week. It’s something I’m working on getting better about but I have found that the better I do about carving out time for myself and Zach gets that “solo parent duty” the better I handle it when it’s my turn. It really worked out so great that Keeli invited me on the beach trip because I wasn’t the least bit bitter when Zach was gone the following weekend (and the kids got two weekends in a row of spoiling haha!).

Zach left first thing on Friday morning but our “mommy weekend fun” didn’t really get rolling until that evening since Kye was at school all day 🙂 We kicked things off with a movie night. It’s pretty much our new family favorite thing: we pop popcorn, I make a Walgreens run for our favorite candies, and we cuddle up and watch a movie together. We started it a little bit before Tess went to bed. That way she could participate (we saved the goodies until she was asleep) and that way the movie wouldn’t keep the big kids up too late!

I picked! A classic, of course 🙂 

Facetiming with Daddy and Big Papa!

Even though they weren’t up that late the kids were so silly and sleepy the next morning! We had CHILL TIME which I didn’t complain about. I love me some cuddles 🙂

It was officially the last use of the pool for this season! We had a couple colder days and it just did the pool in. It never could get back fully warm enough to swim. I had planned to swim with the kids but WHEW too cold for my liking! They were brave and faced the chill, but we didn’t last too long in it! I feel like usually it lasts longer than the 3rd weekend in Sept?

Our adventure for the morning: getting the snake out of the pool haha

Just our toes 🙂

Kye pretending to be Mrs Margie and teaching Britt to “swim”

While I was gone the weekend prior Zach turned around Britt’s car seat to forward facing! She’s over 40 inches now and her seat isn’t safe rear facing past 40 inches tall. I was cool with the move but I was so mad at him for turning her around when I wasn’t there! I told him I wanted to see her face when she sat forward for the first time! Haha! It may sound dumb but the child has been facing backwards in the car for her entire life so I was excited to see what she thought. 

I know a lot of people say their kids “hate being backwards” but guys, Britt misses it. Being backwards gave her a place for her feet to go so they weren’t dangling all the time (or kicking my seat) and it allowed her to easily hold her toys without them falling!

I got brave and we hit up Hobby Lobby to get supplies for a project I wanted to do with the kids (we’re making their own “Disney Scrapbooks”)

Then G-Mama met us for dinner at our fav weekend spot: Steak and Shake (can’t beat Kids Eat FREE!)

I do not sleep well when my husband is away. I miss him in our bed so much and just struggle to fall asleep at night. So whenever he is gone I end up staying awake WAY too long! On the way to church the next morning I totally pulled a Keeli and picked up an iced coffee 🙂 

Sweet cousin Meghan LOVES baby Tess 🙂 

Not only did I have the kids solo for the weekend and managed them all through church, we even stayed after to eat and fellowship. I didn’t cook anything fancy, but hey I made it there! I LOVE spending time with our church family and it’s nice that Tess is finally reaching that age where she’s flexible enough that we can be more involved. It’s one of the things that will def be a blessing when we are done having babies! We will be able to attend a LOT more church activities! 

When we got home from church I was feeling like garbage. I figured I was just tired from being up late, but man it was rough. I didn’t want to complain to Zach b/c I didn’t want him to worry about me while he was gone so I toughed through it but ended up going to a walkin clinic the next morning and had freaking STREP. Ugh! It was aaaaawwwfullll! I’m super thankful for the timing of it though as I was able to recover before my next big weekend coming up! Zach had a great time with his dad and the kids and I had a fun weekend together too 🙂 

I’m SO thankful for our playroom. Not only is it awesome that I can send the big kids up there to play on a regular basis and not have to supervise them, but it’s a safe area for Tess to play too so I was able to just LAY THERE and let them have fun while I was miserable haha!

Emily Parker

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