Workin’

That’s a song by “Bug Smo”. We made an old TikTok of Adam, with this song playing in the background, during the Covid madness. He was playing with our kids and their toy trucks, on a play mat of pretend highways. It was pretty cute! We teased that he missed his job 😆

Adam is transferring to the office near us, on Monday. I’m so excited he’ll be closer to home! He’s doing the exact same job, for the same company, just much closer to home now. Instead of getting home at 6-7pm, he’ll be walking in between 5-6pm. Instead of leaving home at 5am, he’ll be leaving closer to 6am. I love that he will be around a little more, now!

When we were first married, especially after the babies started coming, I would complain to Adam about being away from home so much. I hated the long hours. I got angry when he missed supper with us. Somewhere, somehow, my mindset changed. I realized that, he isn’t missing time with his family because he wants to! He’s working long hours, because he loves his family. I learned to appreciate the sacrifices he was making. I changed my mindset, so that I understood his better. I supported him in growing his business. I stuck it out. We made it work. With time, he’s been able to be in a position where he brings in a great income, and isn’t away quite as much. Adam has also come to appreciate the value in family time, because I stopped nagging him about it. I want home to be his happy place. I want him to feel love and appreciation from his family. I send him random texts, sometimes. I texted him, yesterday. I sent a screenshot of him leaving our house at 5am, and another of him coming home at 6:30pm, the night before. Our doorbell camera catches him coming and going. I put the two pictures together, and I told him, “This man who leaves before the sun is up, and gets home after it’s gone down, is the reason I’m standing here baking chocolate chip cookies, dancing with my babies, and listening to music in my kitchen, where we’re all warm and dry. I love you”.

Adam has come to know, if I call him, it’s important. I don’t call and bug him all day long, everyday. We text often, but I understand he will respond as soon as he’s able. He always replies as soon as he can. If I call his phone, during work hours, he answers. I only call when I need him now. I don’t nag him about making it home for every little thing. If I do mention something important to me, that he should be here for, he does his absolute best to be here. I’ve learned to “pick my battles”. We’ve come to a place in time, where Adam trusts that, when I tell him something matters, it matters. This arrangement works great, for us. I can’t even remember the last time we argued about him working too much, or missing something important to me.

I wanted to take my son in to see his doctor, yesterday. His elbow injury had started to bruise all down his arm. His PE coach wouldn’t allow him to skip out on any exercises that hurt his elbow, unless we had a doctor’s note. My poor kid couldn’t even do a push up and was getting chewed out by the PE teacher! I expected that we would get him looked at, get a note so he can rest his elbow, and go on our way. I tried to get an appointment yesterday, but couldn’t get him in with the doctor until today. They’d done x rays, last weekend, when the injury happened, but his doctor wanted to do their own. So, we got more x rays done. Imagine my shock, when the doctor came in and announced that “his elbow is busted”!! My son can bend his elbow. He hasn’t complained of pain, other than when he’s putting too much weight on it. He doesn’t screech when we touch him. I was absolutely not expecting to hear that!

We were then sent over to an orthopedic specialist. This office wasn’t able to read the x rays we had just gotten, so had to do their own. We were told that surgery was the most likely outcome, because my son is still growing. They explained a bunch of medical mumbo jumbo, but it sounded like he was going to end up having surgery. To my complete surprise, their x rays were read, and my son does not, in fact, have a broken elbow! Well, they’re almost certain he doesn’t. They believe that, what looked like a broken elbow, is actually just his growth plates. They are still not fused together, the way an adult elbow would be. Therefore, what looks like pieces of a broken elbow, is likely just his growth plates. They applied a fresh ace bandage to his elbow, and made an appointment for us to come back in two weeks. The doctor said, if something they aren’t seeing does happen to be broken, they will be able to see it starting to heal, when we come back. Needless to say, it was a hell of a day!