It's good to be home!

Have you missed me? I have been out of pocket for a few days--I was a delegate to the national meeting of the American Angus Association and drove to Louisville, Kentucky to attend and represent Kansas. Before I left, I did all the normal things a mom does to make things easy on the family while I'm gone: did extra grocery shopping, made up some casseroles and put them in the refrigerator, explained to the kids which crockpot to take to the school concession stand on Friday.  In addition, I picked up protein supplement for the cows, moved the new calves into the main pen where they could be more easily fed, and made sure we had plenty of hay ground to last until I got back.

After the meetings, I'm on my way home with friends. I'm relaxing in the back seat of the pickup with my college daughter who also attended meetings with me; one of my friends is driving. I decided to text the family to let them know I'm nearly home. My husband immediately responds with a text "Good. You might want to go to the store, we are out of milk, bread and cheese." I text back, "awwwwwww....you missed me! I love you too!" He responds, "Yep, we are hungry and have dishpan hands."

The hungry statement I understand. With four teenagers living at home, we drink around 9 gallons of milk a week and I never cook in a pan smaller than gallon size! But to say they have dishpan hands is too funny! With seven people in the family, we each have a day that we are each responsible for the dishes. My day is Wednesday, and I was not gone over Wednesday! I guess he was just trying to make a point...and in his sensitive, sweet way (yeah, right) he was saying he missed me.

It reminded me of a time years ago when the kids were little and I went to a livestock convention for three days in December, to return one evening to find two kids outside in their jammies playing baseball, and the other three in their rooms. Hubby was cooking their favorite meal for supper: mac & cheese and little smokies. As I came in the door, looking for hugs & kisses, he had five plastic plates lined up cafeteria style, slapping huge helpings of food on them. He hollered up the stairs and out the door, "Kids! Supper!" They all came running and screamed when they saw me, but when they saw what was for supper they said, "oh not that AGAIN!"

I love that story. Dad can handle the troops and things will be fine...but Mom is needed! So I ran by the store, loaded up on 6 gallons of milk, a couple packages of cheese and three loaves of bread. I also snagged some chicken breasts, wild rice and sugar snap peas. I got home before any of them returned from school or work, and had a nutritious meal waiting. They were thrilled and couldn't tell me enough times how great it was! I got a few hugs from the teens--but not with the same abandon that they once gave when they were little and I returned from a 3-day trip. I guess you just have to read between the lines these days....they missed me and I am glad to be home!