When the Doctor is Away

 Jean-Louis Forain (French, 1852-1931); The Fisherman

Life is usually pretty cheery around here, what with residency over and with MH having more consistent and predictable hours.  But times can still be tough.  My heart goes out to those military wives who must endure their husbands being away for months on end, whereas I have to deal with a week at a time, tops.

He still takes overnight call several times a month, and lately on the weekends that he's not on call, he's traveling for ob/gyn conferences.  So for me, it just doesn't seem to be getting any easier.  I still feel lonely, melancholy even, when he's traveling or on call, especially when the children are sick and we are cooped up at home, quarantined from society.

Each call or travel day, I'm faced with internal questions like,
"What will we have for dinner...out, or in?"
"Do we keep tomorrow normal, or do we do special stuff?"
"Should the children stay up and watch a movie, or bedtime as usual?"

Often, I lean towards doing the special things, because I know those bring some sense of comfort when we all miss Daddy.  And life isn't normal without Daddy, anyway.  Of course, I have to strike a balance because I don't want my children to look forward to Daddy being away so we can do special stuff!  Agh, the dilemmas!

Even then, MH has purposed to do so many special things with the children in our normal life, that I don't feel too bad about doing special things when he's away.

Such is life as a Dr.'s wife...