Pros and Cons

So V. left this morning for Riyadh (many weeks before expected) so I'm struggling to keep perspective. Here's the pros of V. not being here: a lot less laundry, I can watch my TIVO'd shows without heckling, I don't have to make his coffee, no alarms going off during my prime-time sleeping (3-6am), covering my grays without worrying how this is affecting dinner prep, my elaborate dinners will cover more days, and no snorts/snoring or flipping/flopping.

Here's the cons: I'm back on bathtime duty, I have to make my own coffee, there's no one to fix dinner for or eat dinner with, no one to laugh or conversate with from 5:30-10:30, no one who gets my foul, sick comments and actually laughs at them, I have to feed all the animals and scoop all their stinky crap in the morning before getting Isabella up, and I have to suffer through potty training of a belligerent, opionated girl on my own. Really, did I sign up for this????!!!!

On the positive side though, V. and I are as strong as ever - a divison of labor (him on the work front, me on the home front), a team bonded by history, pain, humor, need, like, and love. We've been in the trenches with each other and have learned the importance of bonding together to fight against all that threatens to pull us apart. Whether that enemy is work, life, friends, stress, sickness, children - we are determined to put our relationship first because without that foundation, all family life will fall. I'm not trying to be on my high horse at all, just reflecting after watching Jon and Kate Plus 8 how their dissolving marriage is irreversibly affecting them and their kids. I've seen how it's affected V.'s kids and I'm so thankful that I never felt stable enough to bring kids into the world during my first marriage. I may have been extremely young but I thank God that I had the sense to follow my gut feeling that things were just not right for a child to be brought about. I am really thankful for that.

So I need to keep perspective for another month until V. is back and driving me crazy with all his laundry and takes control of the remote control. I'm sure I'll have something to post before then though. Until then...