Life Lately

It’s been way too long since I’ve posted.  June was a complete whirlwind, really.  Kevin was away for the whole month, training for his job in the National Guard, so my main goal was survival {I’ve got a while post swirling in my head about what I learned during his absence}.

Now that he’s home and is not teaching summer school, I’m hoping the rest of the summer will be filled with family time and a little more blogging.

The first week of June was our first week without Daddy, so it was our “adjustment” week.  I quickly threw out any ideas of accomplishing anything other than keeping my children alive and keeping myself sane – HA!  We enjoyed some play dates with friends, but later in the week, I discovered a roof leak {water was dripping through my light above my sink!}.  I was pretty impressed that I didn’t totally freak out, but calmly tried to problem solve.  Luckily, a large bucket in the attic helped get us by for a while until I could get a roofer out.

Bedtime boot camp continued {and maybe even got a little worse} with a certain toddler and it WORE ME OUT.  Most nights during this week, I collapsed into bed around 10pm and was lucky if I could chat with Kevin for maybe 5 minutes before drifting off to sleep.

I spent the second week of June in Baltimore visiting with my family.  I figured it would give us something to look forward to and help break up the month a little bit.  I also was looking forward to some extra hands to help with the kiddos.

The week was pretty simple, but it was exactly what we needed.  I think I went to Wegmans three separate times with different family members.  I did get to attend a wedding, went on a date night with Savannah, and met up with a friend from high school and another from college.  It was a lot of fun catching up with people!

The third week of June was spent back home getting roof estimates and dealing with sore throats.  It’s always a little crazy getting back into a routine when you’ve been away for a while.  Thankfully, bedtime boot camp was slowing down and our middle man was learning that bedtime was not going to be something that was negotiated.

The kids didn’t get to enjoy a Father’s Day with their Daddy, but we did get to enjoy it with my father.  We met up half way and had a nice lunch together {along with the rest of the families in America}.  🙂

At that lunch meeting, my niece hopped in my car and came back home with us.  She was my “mother’s helper” for most of that week, which turned out to be an enormous help.  We had some fun outings to the Children’s Museum, the play area at the mall, and to feed the docks around the lake at my alma mater.

I also really enjoyed introducing her to the Love Comes Softly* movies in the evenings once the kids were in bed.  The girl time with my niece was very special.  

Kev arrived home at the end of the 4th week and I could not have been more happy to see him.  I completely crashed the days after he arrived home.  I think my body had been running on adrenaline for the entire month and it was finally able to relax once he pulled up to the house.

I’d like to sit here and say that it wasn’t as bad as I had thought, but I’m not sure that would be completely honest.  It was really hard {I applaud single moms and widows with young children – you are my heroes!}.  There were moments when I had to “self talk” to keep myself from loosing it.  But, at the same time, there were also really great moments with the children.  We were in it together.

I was also really blessed and loved on my our neighbors and friends.  I had friends babysit my children so I could run errands alone, invite us over to eat for dinner {and then send us home with food for another separate meal}, mow the yard while I was away, and stop in to hang out with me so I could have some adult interaction.  I felt loved by many people and I know it was God’s way of taking good care of me.