Best Week? Work, School and Dairy

I'm pretty sure that last week was one of our best weeks in a very, very long time.

The highlight was that I actually saw my husband every day during a work week. He was home at 8 or 8:15 every night and that was amazing. Can you believe that 8 or 8:15 is something to be excited about? I have not written about his work schedule because it has been too bad to write about. That bad, really. Since we moved here one year, one month and twelve days ago (but who is counting?), he has worked like a dog. Seeing him everyday was an absolute first. For the first five months, he left the house at 5:45am and returned anywhere between 10:30 and midnight, 5 days a week. Then, for the last seven months, he left the house at 6:30am and returned between 9:30-10:30pm, Monday to Friday. I'm not joking. So, for Dec 07 and all of 2008 we have been Euge deprived and he deprived of us. The girls didn't see their father, I didn't see my husband and got on average a four minute a day phone conversation. As you can imagine, it has been hard on us all. It made dinner, homework, bedtime with the kids challenging. Plus, in the 16 (almost 17) years we've been together, it was the hardest on our relationship. I missed him. Here I was in a foreign country, without a single friend and no husband to see, let alone talk to the majority of my week. And then the weekends - there was always the need to re-acquaint to myself, the kids and us to him. Anyway, this week of course he's in NYC so we don't see him at all but I'm confident that we will see him in 2009!

Last week the girls went back to school, and as you can expect, getting the two out the door by 8:25 plus myself and baby Libby ready, it was going to be a challenge. I was upset by the idea of stressful mornings, so I talked about this with the girls in advance. We would still set out their clothes the night before (thanks again mom) but we would also have a new reward in place. If they are done with breakfast, hair done, teeth brushed, dressed and ready to go, they can watch TV until we need to go!!! It has worked beautifully, even when we don't have time for TV. I have not yelled yet, nor has there been a bad morning so far! Long may it last.

Finally, cooking is so much easier now that we are free from dairy free! We'd been monitoring Chloe and her reaction (or not) to dairy and have decided she has outgrown it. You have NO IDEA how much easier this makes our lives. Cooking, menu planning, eating out, and her general happiness at being able to eat whatever she wants is bliss.

So happiness all around last week.