Is Daddy Home Yet?

"I can't wait until Dad retires!!" - Kyle

"Is Daddy home yet?" - Bella

These are the things the kids say to me on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis.  Jim's work schedule has been insane lately.  He has been leaving the house at 8:30A and, with the exception of sometimes stopping home for a 20 minute lunch break, he doesn't return until Midnight.

Things are going great for him at Nestle.  He likes his job & enjoys working with his friend/co-worker, too.  He doesn't care much for the 45 minute commute between here and Norton, but he is making good pay and has excellent benefits.

Vargas & Son exploded last year and job opportunities continue to come in on a weekly basis.  The money Jim makes from those side jobs go directly towards paying the van.  If you recall, we bought the van brand new last year, with a new baby on the way.  A few months later I became unemployed.  Life threw a curve ball at us.  What can ya do?  We took a huge chunk of our income tax refund & split it between the mortgage & the van, which helped to lower the payments.  We've made some pretty big cut backs and sacrifices, but as a result we're able to sometimes make double payments on the van.  It should be paid off sometime in April '13.  Not too shabby.

But even bigger than the price of the van comes the price that we, as a family, have to pay when Jim is working so much.  Afterall, you can't buy time.

Jim leaves the house at 8:30A and, with the exception of sometimes coming home for a 20 minute lunch break, he is gone until Midnight.  The girls see him for maybe 15-20 minutes in the morning.  They're napping during his lunch break.  Kyle gets to see him the most, as he often accompanies him on his side jobs, but there's not a whole lot of "quality one-on-one" time to be had when work is involved.  And let me tell you, a whole lot of work is going on.  Hard, physical labor.  He's building staircases, painting houses, sanding floors, gutting kitchens, installing cabinets, cutting down trees; you name it, he's either done it or is in the process of doing it.  It's exhausting work and, because he's such a perfectionist, it's time consuming work.

Every morning when Bella wakes up she asks "Is Daddy still home?".  Every afternoon when she wakes up from her nap she asks "Is Daddy home now?" and again, at night before she goes to bed, she asks "Is Daddy Home Yet?".
Every morning when Savannah hears Jim gets out of bed she gets so excited; she squeals with delight, claps her hands & all but trips over her feet trying to get to Jim with the quickness of a rabbit!
And then there's Kyle, who said to me just this morning "I can't wait for Dad to retire!".  Well, at 36 years of age Jim has a long way to go before he's able to retire!  haha!

It's getting to be too much, for all of us.  We're all suffering, in different ways.  Jim doesn't get to see me or the girls.  He's physically exhausted & is working at a fast, unhealthy pace.  He hardly has time to shower, much less sit down to a full meal.  The kids are starving for his attention.  During the short time that he is home they're (understandably) demanding his undivided attention.  And I miss my husband.  Everything he does is for us; all of the long hours he works, all of the money he makes.  He's trying to (financially) better our lives, but because of that he's missing out on life in general...and not only his, but mine & the kids as well.  And that saddens me greatly.

I wish that I could financially contribute to my family, but in order to do that I need to find a job that enables me to work from home...and I'm finding that to be near impossible.   With the economy being as poor as it is, home daycare doesn't seem to be an option anymore because most people can't afford the cost of childcare.  And I'm at a loss for what else I can do. 

So for now all we can do is ride this out & continue to hope that the economy improves enough to where Jim doesn't have to work constant double shifts all the time!