It’s a strange sensation to be stuck between two homes, but that’s where we are. We spent this weekend at the new house, getting home this evening just in time to get the kids to bed. Tomorrow we start a new week.

We took the kids to the new church and they all seemed to like it. It is much smaller, I counted about thirty five other people in the service, but by the time we left the kids had made a new friend. The little girl chased after C as we left so that she could give her a hug. We are used to a congregation in the hundreds, so the intimacy of such a small group will take a little getting used to. When C and I slipped out of the service to find a bathroom, we snuck past the children’s church and there were about 8 kids in there.

It’s a nice feeling to know we have settled on a church. It feels like another big piece just fell into place!

My sister and I snuck away from the new house a little while today to run some errands and get groceries. We stopped by Target to pick up some big boy underwear for Baby E. As we were leaving, I stopped short when I saw a familiar face in the crowd. The face I knew was from a woman I have known since childhood. We went to elementary school together. She had been to my house for sleepovers. Her parents go to our church. Besides passing each other at holidays, however, we haven’t seen each other much in years. And here she was, 15 minutes from the new house. We stopped and talked for a bit, only to learn that she now lives only minutes from the new house. Her kids are the same age as C and Baby E.

What an amazing moment to realize that when we finally move to our new town, there will be a familiar face waiting there, and children my kids can quickly become friends with!

I’m praising God for that special moment, the memory of which left me smiling all day!

We had a late start to get to the new house this evening, mainly because it was an impulse decision made this afternoon. When we got home we had to eat dinner and pack before heading out. On the way, Baby E kept asking about things he could do at home, and it took me a few minutes to realize he was referring to the new house when he said home. The kids begged all week to come this weekend, so now we are here!

I had been stretched across my bed, contemplating the virtues of going to sleep last night when I heard a horrible groan coming from the living room. I went in to find Big E asleep in the rocker, decidedly sweaty. His hair stuck up in strange patches and his face contorted as he murmured to himself, still fast asleep. I touched his forehead and for the first time in days, it was cool- cold to the touch really. The fever had finally broken. He slept the rest of the night quite soundly and the fever was still gone this morning.

Since it had only been a few hours, though, he still needed to stay home. While I spent a little time with him before work, he asked if he could work on his sight words with me and pulled out a list of words they have been learning in school. He’s in kindergarten, so naturally the words are pretty simple- yes, no, has, etc. We worked on sounding out each word, or just memorizing the ones that couldn’t be sounded out (i.e.- have), when we got to the word “he.” For some reason, every time he went to pronounce it, he would exchange the ‘e’ for ‘it.’ So instead of saying ‘he’ he would say ‘hit.’ I corrected him several times until he finally said it right.

And then we moved on to ‘she.’

You can see where this is going, right?!?

I took great care to explain what sound the ‘sh’ combination made. When he was ready to try it himself he started timidly… Sh… sh… sh…

“SH!@” he shouted in glorious victory!

I burst out laughing, but quieted myself quickly, not wanting to explain why his error was so comical, and focused on the task of correcting the mistake. But, he kept doing it, honestly making the same mistake again and again and it was all I could do to hold it together. Finally we cleared that up, which relieved me to no end, as I was already imagining the embarrassing and awkward moments that could happen in his kindergarten classroom if any of the other kids knew and understood the word he was using. By the time were were finished I felt confident that we had worked the mistake away, but this evening, as he worked on his sight words from across the room, I heard the profane word once again.

Hopefully he clears it up soon, but if you hear him cursing like sailor, just quietly remind him that the word is SHE. 🙂

High fives to all you single mamas out there… seriously. I’m pretty much single-momming it 4-5 days a week at the moment, and if you ask me how I’m doing, I’ll answer honestly.

Go on…

Ok, since you asked… I’m at the “I just gave all three of my kids melatonin and now I’m sipping on year-expired Theraflu because mama’s got a cold, and by goodness you children just need to sleep through the night because I’m the walking dead!!” Yup, that’s where I am.

Big E still has a fever this evening, which means he can’t go to school tomorrow…. sooooooo… there’s that. I think I finally convinced Baby E he can’t crawl into bed with me tonight because he might catch all the bad mommy germs, and Big E is sleeping on a recliner in the living room, so we’ll see how we fare tonight. 🙂

Now, it’s not all bad. We read lots of books in the evenings. We play some games. We eat dinner together. They get baths (ahem) as often as I can give them to them. And we still manage to hit our 7:30 bedtime most evenings. I’d say we aren’t doing too shabby.

We knew going into these next few months that things would be rough, with Tim spending more time away from home, and it is. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and we are holding the course. 🙂

I’m really not complaining about my situation (I know, that’s a weak argument) but I really am blessed by where we are. I’m thankful for my incredible hubby for going the extra mile to help secure our future plans- he’s a good man, one of the best I have ever met, and each day is made better by his being in it. So tonight I will drift off to my Theraflu dreams, confident that I love that man more each day. 🙂

Big E woke up with a fever this morning. I took the day off so I could get him into the pediatrician’s office. The flu has been going around, as well as a few other nasty bugs, and I wanted to be on top of whatever he had come down with. His symptoms were all pretty mild- a low grade fever, a slight headache, a slight tummy ache, and a little bit of coughing. I got him an appointment for 1:30 and we lazed around the house until it was time to leave.

When we got there, we were left waiting in the exam room for awhile. We had been placed in a “Disney Princess” themed room, and the walls were covered with the various princesses. We got bored quickly, so I came up with a game to test Big E’s colorblindness. These are the results…

1. I asked him what color dresses these girls were wearing. Without a hesitation, he said they were pink. Both of them. Identical colors. (Interestingly enough, there was another picture of Cinderella in a slightly darker blue dress, and he nailed the color on that one.)
2. With Tiana he informed me that her dress was tan. 
3. This apple- Green and Yellow
4. And as for this picture, he told me that Ariel’s hair and the fish next to her were the exact same color- Red. 

Guys, his colorblindness is for real! We’ve known about his situation since last spring, but this was the best test I have been able to do with him so far. At the beginning of the school year I informed his teacher about the colorblindness, and she has been wonderful. She always pairs him with another student if they are doing an activity that requires colors, so I feel like they are taking my concerns seriously. I’m definitely happy with how they have been handling it in the classroom.

As for our sick visit, that was good news. No flu- just a virus that has to run its course, and so it will. When he has tylenol or ibuprofen, you would never know he was sick, so that is wonderful. I’m hoping that he will get a full night’s rest tonight and feel better in the morning, even if he will be staying home.

Oh, and today he informed me that he really likes sick days because I let him watch TV all day. Hey, if it keeps him resting, that’s fine by me. 🙂

I woke up with a start last night. The room was dark, save for the flicker of light from the fireplace in the next room. I was shivering, but not from the cold. It took me a moment to realize where I was, but as the shadows of the room began to reveal the familiar edges of furniture and windows, I began to breathe easier. The nightmare was over.

When I was a child, I used to dream quite often and many of my dreams were dramatic, to say the least. With an overactive imagination, my subconscious had plenty of fodder with which to amuse itself. Once I was chased by a large drum turned murderous potato. I also explored ancient ruins. And for the months following September 11th, I had dreams of planes slamming into shopping malls and grocery stores, scores of people dying.

But nothing compared to last night’s nightmare. No, last night’s was alarmingly realistic and tragically painful and in the moments after my eyes opened, while my mind was still foggy, grief and fear flooded me. The relief that washed over me as my surroundings came into focus, dampened those emotions and I laid in bed, listening to my rapid breathing, waiting for my heart to calm. After several long minutes it finally did. I vowed in that moment to never speak that dream, and so I never will.

This morning when I woke, the world looked a little different.

My children were more precious. My husband, more cherished. And as for me, I was thankful for a new day- especially one that bore no resemblance to that nightmare.

Baby E has been excessively sleepy this weekend. I’m not sure if it is a growth spurt or if his little body is fighting something, but this morning he just wasn’t interested in doing anything but crawling back into bed. Since we were at the new house, we were going to take the kids to the church we had tried out to see how they liked it, but we decided against taking Baby E. Our brother-in-law was going to meet us at the church, but in the end only Tim and he went. I stayed back with the kids to let Baby E sleep, and sleep he did.

While he was down, the kids asked to play “Jurassic Park.” No, my children have never seen that movie. Nor will they see it for a long, long time. However, they had been playing the Lego Jurassic Park video game, so they decided to re-enact it with legos and play dinosaurs. It was great!

By the time Baby E woke up, he had much more energy and bounded around the rest of the day. On the drive home this evening he got pretty sleepy again. We will see how he is doing in the morning.

More important to me than having a nice kitchen or a nice living room, is definitely having a nice bathroom. One of my favorite things in the world is to grab a book, draw a nice hot bath, and relax in the water at the end of a long day. I’ve dreamt of a nice, large bathtub for years and while I loved our townhouse, there was nothing special about the bathrooms.

The bathtub in our new house is big. It’s huge really. It’s the kind of bathtub I have always dreamed of having- the kind you can fill deep, lean back in, and read a book. On my drive out last night I got excited at the thought of giving it a try. Even though we’ve made several visits, I’ve never gotten the chance to.

I waited until the kids were in bed so that I wouldn’t be disturbed. I got my book ready. I filled the tub extra deep with lots of bubbles. When I finally sank down into the water, it was everything I imagined it would be. It was perfect.

I leaned back to let my shoulders get under the water, to wash away the tension of the day and close my eyes. But that’s when I discovered the problem with my bathtub.

I am a short woman. And my bathtub is large. So, as I leaned back to rest my head and back against the slant of the tub, my feet had no place to prop against and I slid right down into the water. It was a dramatic slide, accompanied by a shout of exclamation that brought Tim running to make sure I hadn’t drowned myself. Thankfully I caught myself before going all the way under, but the effect on my peaceful, relaxing soak was the opposite I had been going for. I tried again and again and kept slipping down.

I didn’t get much of my book read, nor did I do much relaxing, but I’ll figure out a solution soon and the world will be right once again. 🙂

Friends, it wouldn’t do. Tim and the kids weren’t ten minutes from home this evening when I felt a sinking feeling. I was sitting on the end of my bed, setting up my new phone (yay!) when I got an overwhelming sadness that I wasn’t with them. I have been longing for an evening alone for weeks and weeks, and here was my opportunity and in that moment I realized that I didn’t want it. I wanted to be with my husband and babies.

So I called Tim, hastily packed a duffel bag (I have no idea what’s in there), and hopped in the car to meet up with him and the kids. I followed behind them, soaking in the hour and a half of quiet that I could get before our destination, and marveled at how happy I was to be near them.

So we are at the new house for the weekend- all five of us. And they have promised to let me sleep in, so we’ll see if that happens. 😉