The New (Temporary) Norm...

A lot of things have changed recently ( but only temporarily). As of 2/21/2023, we're on our own! AHH!!! What the heck am I talking about you may ask..... well my mom went on a month-long trip... to another country... on the other side of the world!!! Did I mention it was for a whole month?

She's going to New Zealand and Australia with a girlfriend of hers (I think they went to high school together). This is the first time she's been on a trip like this and out of the country (aside from cruises). While I'm super excited for her getting to travel (she's always wanted to)

this is the longest we will have ever gone without seeing each other (aside from a 5-year span where she lived in Chicago and I lived in Kansas).

My mom and I are super close, she's like one of my best friends. She's been my constant. My parents were divorced when I was super young (in fact I don't really have memories of them together) and sure I went to visit him on holidays or summertime and I had a stepdad growing up, but my mom has ALWAYS been there. Why does this matter and what does this change? Well, everything.

Some of you may not know that my mom helps a CRAZY amount with the kids. Especially when we travel and in the evenings... especially with my son.

So as I mentioned before, I work two jobs. I have a full-time and a part-time, so I'm gone Monday through Friday from 6:30-4:00, and then on mon-wed, when I get off work at my day job, I go to my evening job and am there from 4:30-9. On top of that, my husband works evenings. So she helps out a lot with my son in the evenings, making sure he gets his shower, eats dinner, and is in bed on time... and just being someone for him to be around so he's not alone and he has someone to chat too and talk about how his day went. I swear, if someone wasn't around him, he'd forget to eat... he gets so lost in his own world that sometimes he forgets he is hungry lol.

She also helps with some of our basic tasks like laundry.. when your hardly ever home, it's hard to keep up with things like that. She's also the one that is home with him on Sunday nights (and weekends) when I am traveling with my daughter and don't get home until midnight Sunday nights and my husband is at work. (**What I might also mention is we are headed into our busiest season, not only for my daughter but for my son as well.)

Every weekend from February 11 to March 25 we have something where we are traveling.. some of those both kids have things going on in different locations. This is where dividing and conquering will become essential. Ahh!!! In fact, as I type this, we are packing and planning for our trip this weekend, my daughter and I will be in Tulsa at a competition and my son and husband will be in Paragould at a competition. I will miss his competition so my husband just records it so I can watch it (I hate missing it) and then he typically watches our daughter on live streams. Luckily this weekend, ill be able to get home at a decent time on Sunday to do some laundry and meal-prepping for the week.

Not only does my mom help with our son and daughter, but she also helps with our (high-maintenance) cat. Yes, that's right. We have a high-maintenance cat lol. He's basically my third child but has some medications he has to take daily (some twice daily). I do the morning pills and she does the twice-a-day liquid medicine. He also hates to be alone. He's pretty spoiled rotten, but he's oh-so-cute! I mean, look at him in his holiday sweater (which he loved btw)!

So, I need to figure out what we are going to do with him on these weekends that we travel and are both gone all weekend. I'd love to hear about anyone's experience with pet-friendly hotels or traveling with their pet. I have considered bringing him with us. He's pretty well behaved and as long as he has a window to look out, he's good to go. I've considered attempting to travel with him. I guess if do, ill dedicate a post to it about what I learned. Thoughts?

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Anyways, back to being mom/grandma-less hahaha. On our first day after she left, I ended up in urgent care with my son (shhh, no one tells grandma). He rolled his ankle at school and was supposed to have a gym meet this coming up weekend. I figured id better take him and have it checked out as soon as possible just in case. I don't mess around with rolled ankles. I rolled my ankle a few years ago, could hardly walk for a year, and then ended up needing surgery after PT didn't help... Luckily his was not near as bad. He ended up with a very minor sprain. Nothing that some ice and ibuprofen and some KT tape couldn't handle. Fingers crossed it won't affect him much at comp this weekend. His coach said he would help tape his ankle up for some stability. He's planning on throwing some bonuses into this routine this weekend so I want him to feel in tip-top shape.

On day two of grandma being gone my daughter loses her medication. For those of you who do not know her... she NEEDS this medication, for her sanity and ability to function...and for OUR sanity. Her dad spent the morning tearing up her (already super messy) bedroom looking for it, with no luck. So today, she's going to be looking for that. The competition this weekend without medication will be a tough one that's for sure. Boy, are we on a roll!!

Fingers crossed that nothing else crazy happened for the rest of the next four weeks. If they do, I will be telling you for sure! I'm going to wrap this blog up for now but will include any more fun details in my February/march recap blog, where I recap all our travels, competitions, and more! Thanks for reading!!!

-Rothrock Mom