Mother's Daybook - August 5

Waiting - For Craig to come home! He's been away on a business trip since Sunday but by the time you are reading this, he should be a on a plane. I told the kids that they probably wouldn't see him until the morning because I don't trust flights to be on time when little hearts are depending on them but secretly I'm hoping he will make it in time to tuck them in. It's been a good but looonnngg week. We've all missed him. Lucy's been super emotional, Jonah just gets crazy and with the heat and bugs, we've had to stay inside so by bedtime with no outlet and no dad to even climb on in the evenings, his energy has been exploded out of him. My biggest worry about this week is how Norah is used to daddy walking her to sleep and highly preferred him to me at bedtime. That part has actually gone pretty well. But I'm still ready for him to come home.

Excited - For the Olympics! I dragged up the tv from the basement yesterday. The afternoon ended up being a bit of a "If you give a mouse a cookie" situation with me rearranging things and decluttering and going crazy. But in the end, only a few stuffed animals paid the price (Seriously. A pox on your house if you try and give us another stuffed animal!) and now the tv is here and ready for all the sports to begin. And completely coincidentally we read The Beginning of the Armadillo today from The Just So Stories and the accompanying poem "Roll down to Rio" so we looked up Brazil and Rio and the Amazon River on our map. I also grabbed The Barefoot Book of Animal Tales from Around the World from our library's free giveaway shelf a few months ago and noticed it had a Brazilian story so we'll read that during our tea time in preparation for the opening ceremony tonight. We had a small miscommunication that led a certain child to think we were actually attending the Olympics so today's tea time might be a little more elaborate than normal in order to appease those disappointments but nothing a few coconut energy balls can't fix.

Drinking - All the tea, all the time. Yes, I know. August is a weird time to increase your hot beverage intake but my mil gave us a keurig while we were visiting (or maybe Craig found one in the basement and begged for it. Same difference :-). He's not an everyday coffee drinker but he does like it occasionally. I think coffee is gross so I was kinda meh about it thinking it would just take up space on our counter. But I actually really like the hot water feature. It shouldn't make that much of a difference because it's not really hard to put my kettle on the stove and turn on the burner but this is easier and new and fun so it's been happening a lot. And after braving Target back to school shopping with all three, I treated myself to a box of chai lattes. Once Craig's home I'll start saving them for when I have a special mommy pick-me up but I've been savoring one a day while Craig's gone. Because any day that I'm on mommy duty from 5am to 8pm with a couple night nursings added in is a special mommy moment kinda day. (Oh, didn't I mention. Norah's new daddy-less bedtime routine is working great and she's going to bed really easily at a early time and sleeping pretty well - she's just getting up at 5am all rested and energetic and ready to play with me! It's delightful!).

Preparing - For back to school! Now, we did't really take the summer off, just the month of May and a few weeks here and there while we traveled. And we are smack dab in the middle of a term. I was planning on waiting until we finished that term and took a few weeks off for local adventures (nature center trips! Botanical garden! Art museum if I'm really brave? Uhm, we shall see) and then move kids up to their new grades and have a fun back to school day when we restarted. But that probably won't be until the end of September and this is the first year that Lucy has noticed that everyone else is getting ready to go to "real building school" so we might have our first day earlier. It will be at the beginning of a random week of school but that's okay I guess. Pictures and new school supplies are fun no matter when they happen. The majority of Lucy's friends are homeschooled too and I don't think she thinks she's missing out but every once in a while she'll stop and ask me "If I was in real building school, would I still be working? Or would I be home playing yet?" which always makes me laugh. It's like she's just checking in to make sure this homeschool thing is still working for her.

Organizing - As I said above, all I had to do was bring the tv up. But once I got out the duster to dust it off, I dusted everything and then suddenly I was crazy mommy. I guess Lucy isn't the only one having those the back to school, start everything fresh desires. I loved the Konmari book but the one part I have to laugh at is her idea that "tidying" is a one time thing. Not if you have kids. I'm like the little boy with his finger in the dam. Maintence isn't throwing away socks when they get holes and calling it good. Maintence is taking all the puzzles out of the puzzle cabinet and spending over an hour putting them back where they go and getting rid of the ones that have lost pieces and putting up the ones that the big kids have outgrown but the littlest isn't ready for so that Jonah doesn't melt into a pile of preschool joy when he tries to get a puzzle out and they all fall on him. It's a big process. And it never stops. I I did stop, I'm pretty sure my house would explode within the year. Yesterday I gathered all the sticks and rocks from the places Jonah likes to store them and had him take a whole bin outside. I should have counted but it was probably close to 50 items - and that doesn't even count the "extra special pretty ones" that are still on our nature table. At least he has a good supply for the pretend restaurant they have out back now.

But this time is a bit different. I seem to be more into visually decluttering. The baskets and decor items on the piano weren't really in the way or bothering anyone but now that they are gone, my eyes feel better. Same with the large plant in the corner of the kitchen (also, it's now in a place where the baby can't play in it's dirt as easily). And I feel better. I just realized I did a bit decluttering last year when Craig was gone. Perhaps it isn't the nesting instinct that spurs this on, maybe it's just Craig being gone. I don't know but he's probably happy he missed it.

Watching - Bible shows. Well, what did you think the kids were doing while I was decluttering? Actually, it was the other way around. I bribed encouraged the kids to play with Norah while I exercised by saying that afterwards they could watch a show. I recently remembered that I have access to RightNow Media and it has tons of veggie tales and other bible shows. We tried both What's in the Bible and VeggieTales last year and neither kid was a fan. Which made me sad because I am. But I thought we could try again and this time Lucy got it and thought it was hilarious (and Jonah likes whatever she likes) and having them occupied meant I was free to get things accomplished. She liked What's in the Bible best and has already asked to watch the second and both kids thought Josh and the Big Wall was delightful.

They also know that when Daddy is gone that if they are ready for bed when I came back from putting Norah to sleep, we can watch a show together and we are working our way through Edwardian Farm. It's a different kind of excitement than Bible stories told with vegetables and slushies but nevertheless we were all quite on the edge of our seats that first episode to see if Peter and Alex's attempt to turn limestone into quick lime for their fields was going to work or if their 18 hours of shoveling was for not - and I'm not gonna tell you what happened. If you want to know, you're just gonna have to watch it yourself.