Our first years of marriage my husband and I both traveled a lot for work; when it was just us it was fun, we both had interesting stories to tell and places we wanted to ‘go back to together’. Then my daughter was born. Like all things that changed with having children, traveling for work (for me) became a gut wrenching hardship. Breast feeding was a nightmare; I hated having to leave my 3 month old baby in daycare during the week and then deserting her colicky self with my poor mother on the weekends. I transitioned into 2 new jobs in her first 2 years yet couldn’t seem to escape the travel requirements. When I found out I was pregnant with my son (surprise!) I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. When he was born I transitioned into yet another job that (thank the Lord) was a normal full time position (it is funny that I feel like I work part time now because I actually have 2 days off in a row!). During my dramatic struggle my hubs was slowly increasing his time on the road. It seemed to creep up on us and before I knew it, I was a full time working mother of a new born and a 2 year old whose life partner was gone 80% of the time (just to put a little perspective on that- he was gone 42 of 57 weeks last year). 

Now, I have always been the type to figure things out, and I believed (like the previous 4 years of our relationship) the separation wouldn’t be a big deal- “I can do this” was my mantra. Honestly, there are really great things about being the head of the household sometimes. I get to spend my evenings watching The Help and drinking Pinot Noir and Pinning for as long as I wantJ And while the vacation from marital responsibility is refreshing some times, most of the last few years have been absolutely exhausting.