1. This is the 5th day since my return from California about midnight Sunday and the children have expressed their joy at my safe return in rather peculiar ways. Miranda was very difficult on Monday and went to bed crying and Alex had a bad night Tuesday-Wednesday in that he woke up at 1 am Wednesday and never went back to sleep. Miranda was particularly difficult for Marshall during the last few days before I came home; we think this was her way of expressing her displeasure at my absence without having the emotional maturity to say, "I miss Mommy."
I was gone for 8 days and nights, a much longer separation than ever before. This was also an experiment for August, when Marshall and I were supposed to leave the children with my parents for a week. What we will probably do now is have my parents bring the children to join us on Wednesday afternoon of that week in hopes of avoiding Miranda-meltdowns.
2. Alex has no summer school sessions on Fridays (he's gone 8 am - 12 noon Monday - Thursday) so I'm trying to plan fun things to do together on Fridays. For example, this morning we went to the zoo. I probably should have checked the weather forecast before I promised a zoo trip since it was steaming hot and humid and we were all tired and sweaty after only an hour. And even though I had packed extra drinks, I had left them in the car, forgetting to bring the backpack with us into the zoo. As we were making out way back to the car, I broke down and bought Miranda a lemonade; I hope it doesn't make her sick (her tummy gets a little funny sometimes with the sugar in drinks).
3. Tomorrow should be Day # 14 of being dry overnight for Alex and should he make his goal, he will get another trip to the bookstore for a book of his choice. He's pretty excited. So are we. It's the longest stretch he's ever made. Next week, I think we'll start counting to 21 days.
4. The house is in it's general state of clutteredness, although it wouldn't take too much effort to get things completely put away. I'm keeping up with the laundry and dishes, and yesterday I finally got a large amount of groceries to replace much of the food the family ate while I was away, but I don't seem to have my usual big bursts of energy to race around and get things done. I have even been going to bed early and have hardly done any stitching since I got home. I think I'm still adjusting emotionally to being home. My vacation was wonderful--a week without many responsibilities, spending most of my time talking with other adults and sleeping A LOT--so it's always a bit of a let down to resume my usual responsibilities.
5. Hopefully, my cleaning lady will call early next week which should initiate in me a flurry of activity to get everything picked up so she can clean. Yes, I clean before she cleans because while she is willing to pick up all of our clutter, I prefer to do it myself so I know where it all is. It also gives me a chance to return toys to their correct rooms and sort through Alex's piles of papers to move most of those to the recycling bins.
6. The heat wave in my absence was not good for my plants. Even though Marshall faithfully ran the drip system in my front flower bed, my hydrangeas look peaked and the dogwood, which looked sickly before I left, is covered in brown leaves. Dang.
7. And instead of sticking around tonight to help Marshall with his projects to fix our internet connection, find a new cell phone for me, or find a place to stash the huge pile of wood that will be our new shed when he and my father put it together in August, I'm going to run off and see a movie by myself after the children go to bed. The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Nice, happy, fluffy fun. I love summer movie season.
And here's Jen. After you read her 7 Quick Takes, read her next post about Yaya and St. Anthony. It's hilarious!
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