Abandoned – with seven kids and two dogs

By Allan Olson

For the second time in just over two months, my wife left me. (Is this becoming a pattern?) This time, she left me not just with our four children, but also with our new puppy plus two nieces, a nephew and their dog, too.

So there I was, abandoned again – seven kids and two dogs against one adult. Not very good odds, from where I look at it.

She left me to wander off with her mom and her sister – maybe I really am second fiddle in this band.

Their departure date was Wednesday night, and I had to handle all these children by myself! (Do I hear any sympathy yet?)

Alright, it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I mean, they did have a return date; it wasn’t a permanent abandonment.

The extra company was my two nieces, ages 11 and 14, and nephew, age nine, so it wasn’t as if I was being left with a bunch of little kids. I had some perfectly good babysitters for my youngest ones; I could go and party, if I knew how or so desired.

Instead, I was the responsible adult and made sure my kids who had school made it home each day, and made sure that the others weren’t fighting while I was working.

Instructions

We were left instructions to follow: Don’t forget to feed the kids, and don’t mess the house up.

Since my wife had the house in order prior to leaving, we would have been in big trouble if it was trashed when she got back.

•Day One – Thursday was the first evening I was home with everyone. I came home and the house wasn’t a mess and the dishes were done. I didn’t need to get crabby at anyone for making the house a mess. The weather was excellent, so we played outside as much as possible.

During the day, Michael played Pay Day and other games with Alivia, which apparently she was really good at, and he had the patience to play these “older” games with his cousin five years younger.

Supper (the evening meal) was a breeze – pizza.

After supper, it was shower time, and Abigail insisted that Makaylah (the oldest of the “kids”) give her the shower. Fine by me, I said. She did it, and went a step further and braided her hair so it was all curly in the morning for her. Abigail loved it.

Since it was still a school night for the kids, it meant an early bedtime. Again everything went like clockwork. They went to bed with nary a complaint.

•Day Two – Friday I was dragging my feet and slept in an extra 30 minutes. That resulted in me feeling late leaving for school and getting irritated with the children because they weren’t moving fast enough. We made it to school with time to spare, so all was good.

Back home again that evening, the older kids weren’t quite as ambitious – they “forgot” about the dishes. A request from me to get them done and they quickly went to work on them.

I tried to spread out the workload, with all the kids (and myself) helping out. It seemed to go smooth.

The evening meal – once again a rather simple feast of noodles, sausage and alfredo sauce. Apparently the kids were hungry – there was barely enough left for one serving after the meal was over.

Dishes taken care of again, and it was time to start on the next project – caramel rolls. My kids and my nieces have helped me with this endeavor enough times that it wasn’t even an issue. Angela rolled the bread out with the help of Marcus, Abigail and Alivia, while I did the caramel and got them in and out of the oven. They turned out excellent.

Day Three – Saturday morning’s meal consisted of French toast, sausage and bacon. Again the food disappeared rather quickly.

The majority of the day was spent on outside activities – kickball, dodgeball, going for a walk and riding bike. A few of the neighbors came over, and we had more kids playing out in the yard. All fun and no fighting.

In the afternoon, Makaylah and the younger three made more caramel rolls (also done to perfection), with me doing the baking and the caramel.

Saturday evening I fired up the portable propane grill and we enjoyed hotdogs and brats – delicious.

Then it was time to get down to business. The house was looking a little worse for wear, due to muddy shoes and just plain old everyday use.

My nieces and I came up with a list of what needed to be done, and we divided the tasks up so everybody was working, and everyone had someone to “help” them.

The only real complaint came from Abigail, when Angela wasn’t going to let her mop. A compromise was reached, and all was good.

Between the eight of us we got everything swept, mopped and vacuumed. The dishes were done and the laundry was started. The house was looking great again, in less than an hour, thanks to our teamwork.

As a reward: homemade blizzards.

•Day Four – More of the same as the previous day. Fun in the sun (and a nap for a few of us). Again we played with the baseball/softball, and just made good use of the unusually warm weather.

Later in the afternoon there was a mud bath for Makaylah and Alivia – I’m not sure who had more fun – and we took another walk.

Supper was again fit for a king. I dug a pork roast out of the freezer earlier and put it on in the crock pot; all that was left of the whole meal was some gravy.

That evening there were dishes to wash, more vacuuming (darn mud), and sweeping, laundry and packing for the cousins. Again, everyone pitched in, and the work was done fast. The house was looking good.

For our reward this time it was chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies (thanks to Angela) and root beer floats.

Bedtime. The kids said their goodbyes, since we didn’t know exactly when the travelers would be returning and subsequently leaving for home.

Overall, I would rate this weekend a perfect 10, due to the weather, the fun we had and the hard work by everyone to keep the house clean.

I hope everyone is enjoying this weather – while it lasts.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week. Remember – watch out for school buses on the road. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, the kids and I weren’t the only ones exhausted from the fun – the dogs were as well, especially the puppy named BOB!