Things to do while your spouse is traveling

As of December 14, we're on day 16 of McLeod being out of town, and I have to say, we are ready for him to come home to us! Not that we've had a bad time. It's just time to move out of my "hold down the fort" routine and into the more balanced family life we love. I am beyond blessed to have a network of fellow moms who know the ins and outs of life as an expat gal. They understand those crazy weeks when hubby travels to the far flung reaches of the galaxy or has to work extremely weird, late hours because the US is just waking up while everyone in Taipei is calling it a day. When the grump-inducing exhaustion kicks in, there is nothing like having a friend that will kick you in the pants if needed, remind you of how good life really is, and then meet you at Chili's for some comfort food with your squirrely, sleep-deprived, daddy-missing kids. I did, in fact, have just such a meal with friends last night, a meal during which my daughter spent most of the time either climbing on me, hanging upside down over the bench, or crawling under the table. Barret, meanwhile, hand-cuffed himself to his friend Aiden and devoured half a grill cheese and half a hamburger.

Of course, I haven't spent all my time eating at Chili's and being consoled by friends. I have also taken the kids to McDonalds for "Liang ge Happy Meal" - that's how I order two Happy Meals using Chinglish and gesturing toward pictures of french fries, burgers and yogurt drinks. We also made the trek to Jake's Country Kitchen, which is styled after a U.S. truck stop/hole-in-the-wall. Here the wait staff serves up pancakes, bacon, eggs and burritos but secretly eats rice noodles and dumplings behind the counter. And there have been multiple visits to the American Club for mac and cheese or grill cheese sandwiches, bowls of applesauce, and ice cream for dessert. When we aren't eating out, we consume peanut butter sandwiches, hot dogs or pizza with random side dishes of broccoli and carrot sticks. Since the dining table has been covered by craft projects, Christmas goodies, soccer paraphenalia and library books for the last three weeks, we have eaten most of the "home meals" at the coffee table in front of various Disney movies. Yes, nutrition and wholesome family conversation have taken a back seat to surviving the spiraling-out-of-control hours between 5pm and bedtime.

One would think that just getting kids out the door in the morning, getting them home again, feeding, bathing and putting to bed would be enough of a job while on my own. Yet, somehow, though I always vow to keep life simple while McLeod is out of town, I have once again managed to do a lot of stuff anyway. So if you are looking for ideas to keep busy while your spouse is traveling for weeks at a time, feel free to use a few from my list:

• Take your child to his first modeling shoot - 3 hours of outfit changes, hair and face touch-ups, posing, and bribing with candy. American and European kids get tagged for all sorts of ads here from clothes to cars. More on that in another entry.
• Rehearse and sing at two Christmas events, during one of which a teary-eyed daughter should come on-stage and stand there holding your hand and sniffling because she needs her smelly pullup changed in the middle of Silent Night and you can't exactly help her right then. I had to laugh (later) at this reminder of the first Christmas. You know, the one where another child shows up at an inopportune moment (think, "there was no room for them in the inn")?
• Run a Coloring Contest and Letter to Santa booth at the elementary school Winter Wonderland. Now, this was truly eye-opening for me. There were a lot of standard "Dear-Santa-I'd-like-a-bike-please" letters but there were also quite a few "Please-give-me-good-grades-so-I-can-get-into-Harvard" letters in there, too. Did I mention these were K-5th grade kids?
• Plan a class party. Thank the Lord that this was quite easy since Barret's teacher, Mrs. Winter, is like the fairy godmother of fun, easy crafts and party ideas, and she is blessed with a great teacher's assistant who does a lot of the prep work ahead of our get-togethers. We had tons of parents pitch in, so I basically mananged the train of confirmation emails and showed up with the teachers' gifts. We had a fun time of activities, cookies, ice-cream ("snow") and a great music performance by the kids. Since I was busy with Barret's party, I opted NOT to volunteer to do anything for Caroline's Christmas party other than show up with a bowl of popcorn and my camera. She was a doll singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"!
• Find extra time for standard Christmas shopping/holiday gatherings/card and stocking-stuffer exchanges/stuffing your face with your kids' candy late at night after they go to bed. One of Caroline's gift bags from school had really high-end dark chocolate in it. Wasted on a three-year old, I say. Much more appreciated by three-year-old's mother, which was no doubt the giver's intent!! I definitely believe chocolate should be a staple of any mom's survival kit.

McLeod gets home on Dec. 15, and then it won't be long before we are having a little beach bum time in sunny Guam. (Yikes, gotta pack for that!) I think I'm good for one more round of Easy Mac and carrot sticks until then...