My Husband’s Voluntary IKEA Trip (or The Best Week of My Life)

I always record our really bad weeks here, but today, I’m excited to tell you about our family’s good week. For a bunch of reasons (M volunteering to go to IKEA was the biggest one), this has been a wow week.
First, Nate is potty-trained. More about this later next week, but he did it in one day. So, that big, scary problem I’ve worried about all summer? The problem of Nate getting kicked out of PreK for “insufficient potty skills?” It’s all taken care of. I’m more surprised than you can imagine at his skillz. I am here to proclaim that our God is the God of Easter…and potty-training miracles.
Second, we are in our summer groove…and it is wonderful. Don’t get me wrong, most days I’m kind of surprised the kids are so around all the time. So, even though I’m a little like, “Wow. Another day with nothing on the schedule? Are you sure you kids don’t have someplace to be?” it is so nice to not have someplace to be. The kids spend large chunks of time living in their alternative universe, where they pretend to be very poor and homeless. They are parents to several kids who need to take lots of baths in the sink. The Hergenrader kids much prefer pretend-life to real life, which I’m proud to say they learned from their mother.
Third, M has had a light work week. And my parents and brother are visiting. Most weeks the kids and I are alone here all day. Most weeks I’m lonely, wondering if I’m doing this parenting thing right. But this week has been filled with shoulder-to-shoulder child-rearing. It’s been a week of M saying, “I’ll meet you for lunch!” and my brother saying, “I’ll help you make dinner!” and my parents saying, “We’ll read books to Nate!”
Fourth, and this is the big one, M voluntarily went to IKEA. As you may remember, he’s not an IKEA fan. So ridiculous.
Usually, I have to convince him we need new furniture from IKEA se we can FEEL GOOD, WE CAN CONTINUE TO BREATHE, WE CAN LIVE LIFE. I only say these things because I believe them. Once I get an IKEA vision in my head, completing it is my oxygen. The vision this time was for these desks.
I’ve been thinking it would be a good idea for our kids to have a place to do their homework. Our plan of past years, “We’ll Try The Kitchen Table And See How It Goes” hasn’t worked well. By “hasn’t worked well,” I mean, the kids wander around the house, using random Sharpies to do their math homework. They can never find the book or supplies they need. Somehow chocolate is always on our kids’ papers.
The way I see it, each kid having a desk could only improve the homework situation. I had pitched all this to M, who (wisely) pointed out we don’t really have free space for four extra desks. Also, IKEA gives him a splitting headache. So, I kind of dropped the idea and figured we would slug it out another year with the failing kitchen-table option.
And then, THEN, on Monday night, he said, “We could go to IKEA tonight to get those desks. We could even eat dinner there.”I did what any wise wife would do: I held my breath the whole drive there, waiting for him to say, “Just kidding. I’m not going to IKEA. It’s a confusing maze of 300-square-foot homes that I hate.”
BUT HE DIDN’T. Now each kid has his/her own desk, which I’m hoping turns every one of them into highly organized, fluent readers and lovers of math facts.
I’ll keep you posted.
Right now, we’re taking what we can get.
And a wonderful week is what we got.