Catching Up

It seems the week got away from me without my faithful picture taking and blogging. Here is my attempt to catch you all up on our ever-exciting life (yes, I know, that is quite the over-statement, but I never promised you excitement, only little details from our little life).

Hmm, where to begin? Jon was gone for the week. That usually means I try to simplify life and enjoy the little moments with my kids. It sounds nice, but it is the only way I won't go crazy being locked up in the house with them for a week with little adult contact. We did quite a bit over the week, but the pace was noticeably more relaxed. When Jon is gone, we eat simply. We get going a little more slowly in the morning--we're still up early, but we may not be showered and dressed, and for me anyway, have our morning walk done right away. We don't usually make big plans for our day, and we are all happy to stay home and play when we get sick of going places. It's strange that those things are different just because Jon is gone, but life is a little more structured when we are all coordinating schedules and figuring out who needs the vehicle and when we will eat, etc.

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Our slower pace meant we did a lot of reading this week. Basia took the above picture of Brishen and I. She wanted to ride her bike out front, so Brishen and I took our reading from the couch to the front yard for a while. We finished Witch of Blackbird Pond and both really enjoyed it. I don't think Brishen realized that it had some romantic elements. Brishen also finished his full eight hours of reading for the library summer reading program and earned his new book bag. Basia finished her first four hours of listening to stories and chose a little puppy out of the treasure chest.

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It was about 10 minutes before gymnastics time on Friday when I actually remembered that we did, in fact, have places to go and things to do. Brishen is practicing for a gymnastics recital, so we quickly got ready and made it in time. I watched Brishen's class for a while and then went upstairs to watch Basia. I noticed that Basia had talked her coach into calling her "Mr. Tim." Since her new dog from the library looked like a dog named "Charlie" from a book we own, she decided that she would be the owner "Tim." She spent the rest of the day insisting that Tim was her name. Luckily she seems to have forgotten, and will now answer to the name we gave her.

Within an hour or so of Jon being home on Friday evening, he was wondering what our schedule would be like on Saturday. He had been even more scheduled than usual at Annual Conference all week, but we all looked at him like he was crazy when he tried to find out if and exactly when we were going to the farmer's market on Saturday. I told him we would let him know what we felt like when we got up and got going on Saturday morning. Poor Jon has a hard time unwinding and getting off a schedule, and we weren't quite ready to be scheduled again.

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It turns out that what I felt like doing was getting up early for my walk (I also took one on Friday night--I HATE going so many days without one when he is gone). I stopped at a garage sale in the neighborhood on my way home. They had the above-pictured Rescue Heroes set that I knew Basia would love (she's all about fire fighters and other rescue folks), so I called the family to hurry into their clothes and join me at the sale. After that purchase and a couple others (both kids spent a few of their quarters on some little goodies), the kids had no desire to leave the house again.

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That left Jon to go to the farmer's market on his own. He was gone quite some time, so we thought he would come home with arm loads of yummy produce. We were surprised when he came bearing only a small bag of tomatoes. It turns out that he ran into several people he knew and spent most of his time talking. We weren't so surprised by that news.

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We are all glad to have Jon home again this week, and I am even glad to get back to more of a schedule. Brishen will have Space Camp all week, and Basia and I will do some school. We will also manage to get to the pool a few times, eat a lunch or two at the park, read some more books, and go to the free summer movie. We have another great hike all set for Saturday. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures and blog along the way.