5 days without Rachelle

Last week, Rachelle went on a trip to Utah for the BYU Women's conference and to visit some family and friends. Because of that, I got to stay home with the kids. This was a good experience for me because it helped me appreciate what she does just a little bit more and help me realize that she is much more cut out for it than I am.

Fortunately, we have a good friend from church named Virginia that came over ever day. She is like an extra grandma to the kids and really helped out a ton. In fact, about half way through, I realized that I was acting more as back up for her. She came every morning at 6:00 AM, went home for a 2 hour lunch and then came back until the babies were asleep at about 7:20 PM. Without that help, I would have really struggled. As you might guess, it is really hard to watch 5 walking babies at once. Speaking of that, I wonder how much longer I will be able to call them "the 5 babies". I mean, Kassidy tried to dress herself the other day and they are all starting to say a few words so I don't know if they are really babies at this point.

Well, the 5 days went by without any major incidents and I got to go back to work. Rachelle had a great time and even got to sleep in one day. For her sake, I wish she could have stayed longer and slept in a few more days. For my sake, I am glad she is back.

I really wonder how long it is going to be before we can sleep past 6:00 AM. I remember that with the other two kids, it was nice because on the weekends, we could switch off with one of us going out and taking care of the kids while the other one got to sleep in a little. That doesn't happen anymore and I miss it. It is really a lot like a farm I guess. These babies just aren't going to feed themselves... at least not for another 6 months or so.

Something else I realized is that my work is a lot less draining than taking care of those kids. Mothers really do have a very rough job and deserve a whole lot more respect than our society gives them. I heard a woman the other day on TV say something like, "Some woman are more than just mothers." It made me kind of sad because many people seem to think that being a mom (especially a stay-at-home mom) is a path for those that were too lazy or unintelligent to do something better. That is pretty sad and something that scares me about our society. I can definitely say that some of the most intelligent and hard working women I know are stay-at-home moms. Rachelle is no exception. She graduated with a Master's degree in Statistics and had a whole lot more job offers than I did when we started looking. She was also making about 20 percent more than I was when we started working. When she chose to be a stay-at-home mom, it was a big sacrifice for her. Gone was the additional income, gone was the recognition for her talents, and gone was the adult conversation. However, I know our kids are benefiting from that decision and will continue to benefit from it for the rest of their lives. Besides, at this point, daycare would be so expensive that it wouldn't even be worth considering.

Anyway, I just want to say how awesome it is to have great mothers like her in the world. Rachelle, my own mother and mother-in-law are all great mothers and we are lucky to have them. Daddies are definitely necessary but I realize now that I could never do as good a job as Rachelle does. Those are my thoughts after a week without Rachelle. She is simply awesome.