A dryer putting holes in a cheerleading shirt aren’t among the expected issues when a mama has to travel for work.
Have you ever had a couple of weeks where you are wondering what else can be thrown at you? Whew. That’s how it has been for me recently. For the first time since before the pandemic, I had to travel for work, and call it poor planning on my part or just not realizing it, I was scheduled to travel for a few days two weeks in a row.
Let’s just stop there and breathe that in. My girls have barely been without me for more than a night or two here or there in two and a half years. And here I was about to leave them for multiple nights two weeks in a row. Honestly, I am not sure who was more anxious about it, the girls or me.
Regardless, I fully prepared outfits and set the schedule for the week while I was away – clearly identifying who was going to be taking them to all their activities, packing their lunches, keeping them overnight, getting them on the bus and signing off on homework. Thankfully, I have an amazing sitter who happens to be the girls’ great aunt and loves on them like I do.
Unfortunately, on day two of my travels, my sitter called to tell me she had COVID-19. And, well, I was in Texas – talk about feeling helpless. Because she didn’t feel too bad, had already exposed my girls to it and I didn’t really have many other options at that point, she was fine with keeping the schedule of helping with the girls. After some long, busy days away, I was finally home long enough to snuggle my babies and catch up on laundry before I headed back out for a few days the next week.
Included in the laundry catch-up was washing my girls’ cheer uniforms for their game that weekend. But, when I started pulling clothes out of the dryer, there were black spots all over everything – and even worse, Maylie’s cheer top was caught between two parts in the dryer and had little holes burned into it. Wonderful. Just what I needed – destroyed cheer uniforms and a broken dryer in the middle of two weeks of work travel.
To make matters even worse, Reagan started feeling warm and was snoozing during the day on Saturday — and if you know Reagan, she typically does not stop for a second during the day. Sure enough, she had COVID-19 too.
You ever have one of those moments as a mom where you are like “seriously?!?!” I just cannot handle anything more. Yep, I was there last weekend. But, as a mom, you don’t get to be there very long. You get like a 30-second woe-is-me pity party, and then you hike up your Mom pants and get to problem-solving.
Thankfully, Reagan was only down for a few hours, then she was back to bouncing off the walls – pretty much literally. Since she had COVID-19, I kept both girls home from cheer – dodging the uniform bullet for a week. I had a friend pull through on some amazing laundry detergent and fix my dryer, and almost all of the spots came out. Plus, it is cooler now, and the girls received sweatshirts to wear over their uniform that hides the holes in the shirt that the dryer put in it.
Since she already had COVID-19, my sitter was fine with keeping Reagan at her house during the day until she returned to school. So, I set the week up with outfits, schedules and all the things I had done the week before and hit the road again for work.
Whew, we made it through another travel week, the last one planned as of now. And while I tried to enjoy the time away – and made some great work connections, I can honestly say that I am OK if I don’t travel for another two years or so.
It’s been a crazy couple of weeks, and I have missed my babies being under the same roof as me as well as the sleepy snuggles, homework struggles and five-minute descriptions of a 30-second video they watched on YouTube. We were handed some crazy cards, but we survived the chaos.
And I cannot tell you how happy I am to have that travel behind me and be back home with my girls. I know we can and will get through anything, and I know I will need to travel again in the future. However, I am certainly ok with hanging at home and not dealing with all the craziness of traveling for at least a little while.
Sarah (Pitson) Shrader was born and raised in Lima. She is a Lima Central Catholic and Tiffin University graduate. Sarah is a full-time working mama who enjoys writing about her somewhat crazy, always adventurous life as a mother. She lives in Bath Township with her daughters and writing inspirations, Maylie and Reagan.
