A Lone Man

Well, she did it. Maleen left me.

Now before I get you all worried, she's only gone to Washington to visit family, and she'll be back on Sunday night. She left Thursday night.

Life is hard.

I specifically left the single life in pursuit of a couple life, which would be tough to beat. Maleen and I make a pretty good pair. Now, I find myself pulling double duty. I have to get up in the morning, get the kids up, feed kids, dress kids, do hair(!), and change diapers! Now before you start thinking my posh, cushy, normal life is devoid of these things, let me assure you: it ain't! These are all things that I have done and continue to do regularly, but it helps to have someone to fall back on when the schedule gets tight. Maleen and I tag team pretty well, but when you're a solo wrestler...we'll I get tag teamed.

Today, I also took on some Tyler-does-these-less-often chores: ensuring buses get caught at the right time, in the right place, by the right child; ferrying children to preschool, running errands, etc. But the great thing is that I actually survived. Hmm, nice work, Cazier. *Pats self on back.*

With all of my runnings around from potential catastrophe to impending chaos, I have to give a deep and heart-felt thank you to Jeneca Jett. She came over and prevented my children from burning the house down (among other things) and managed to keep all my children alive throughout the day, while I was at work. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

We also attended the Neighborhood Christmas Potluck tonight. It was a lot of fun to see people. This year we had entertainment by the children. They performed the traditional Luke 2 saga. It was heart touching. Trying to manage five kids without the backup set of hands...well that was not as easy as some moms make it look!

Maleen left the camera behind in the calculated, ambitious hope that I might photo-document the offspring while she is away. Ha! How does she ever find time to snap photos? It's insanity. If I put any of the children down for a moment, they'll destroy something before I can say, "Now smile for Daddy..." I must admit, it's an interesting sensation to watch something get destroyed through the viewfinder instead of in person. I think this is because you have that subconscious inkling that you could have prevented mentioned destruction, had you only put the camera down. But then, isn't that what cameras are for: to document the things that you [may want to] forget later?

Anyway, here are the clutches of sanity I managed to capture today:

Ivory's hair—at least my attempt at doing dual pig tails.

The girls thought the toilets needed cleaning.

Not one to disagree with the thought of cleaning,

I grabbed the toilet brush, the Lysol, and the camera.

(Seriously, no one would believe this

if I didn't photograph it.)

June and Daisy getting ready for bed--the bath before bed.

Robyn and Ivory working on the bath.

Dad getting Pearl ready for bed. Notice the bear. 

You can't see the bear's hand, but it's snuggled 

into Pearl's fist right next to her nose.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. It was hectic, but it was great. June and Robyn were my big helpers today. They recognized that Dad may as well be sporting a handicapped sticker when Mom's gone, and they stepped up to the need. They helped with Pearl and Daisy throughout the day. I couldn't have done it without them.

Oh, yes, and thank heavens for bedtime.

That's about all I got done today. How about you?