While the cats away the mice will play...

Last week (actually it has been almost four now by the time I finished writing this) Jonathan flew off to Chicago to teach his actuarial seminar (which was very successful). In the meantime I was left with four kids for 5 days.

Tuesday - Miriam's first day of preschool. She was thrilled, especially since it was the same preschool she went to last year and her best friend, Ethan, was in her class this year. When I dropped her off the teachers invited David in the play as well. I was chatting in the hall with my friend, keeping an eye on the door to the outside out of habit (to make sure no kids escaped me), and when I picked up Emily in her carseat to leave, I thought to myself, "Wait a minute. This is much too easy. I can't have just one kid with me. What is wrong with this picture? Oh, oops, David is still in the classroom." So I went in to get him and the teachers said they thought I had forgotten him, but they didn't mind since he was sitting next to Miriam, happily doing the craft. He blended right in. Needless to say, he wasn't thrilled when I told him he had to come with me. Huge tantrum. Cried all of the way to the store. Luckily, he likes going to the store so he calmed down as soon as he saw we weren't just going home.

Since Jonathan was leaving me, I went to Sam's Club and stocked up on yummy, easy foods. I said yes to the corn dogs. Yes to the taquitos! Yes to the Chex Mix! It was a glorious moment of throwing away my usual frugal attitude. When Isabelle got home from school we skipped up the driveway hand in hand as I guessed what the pig wanted in the book she had checked out of the library (If You Give a Pig a Party). I was being a fun Mom and proud of it (note: this isn't normal for me). For dinner we ate Golden-Rod Eggs (a family meal that the kids love).

Here is Isabelle reading to her brother & sister.

After the kids went to bed, my friend Telma came over and we canned pear compote (sort of jam, but closer to a spread). Although, after a mix-up on my part between a teaspoon and a tablespoon, we canned a lot more jars than I had originally intended. Oops, hehehe. :) Luckily, that tired me out so I went right to sleep (at 12:30am).

Wednesday - pretty normal day. After school the weather was so beautiful that we went outside to play. We ended up staying outside for about 4 hours. While the kids were playing, I started doing a kakuro puzzle. Isabelle brought me her puzzle book (it started off as a word search book that she could do herself, but now it is into more difficult stuff that she wants my help with all of the time). So we spent an hour or so doing a "Places, please."

The kids had a lot of fun with the sidewalk chalk. They drew up and done the ballisters, and completely covered the two boards that Tom had replaced while he was here.

We ate hot dogs on the deck and I didn't stress about whether they stayed in their seats, or stood on them, or any of a number of things I normally would have been anal about. Instead, we just enjoyed being together.

Even Emily had fun.

After the kids are in bed it is peaceful, but I can't sleep because I don't have my hubby to snuggle up to.

Thursday - I'm developing confidence by this point in time that I can handle kids by myself and I can even have fun doing it.

The morning is chilly so I tell Miriam she needs a long sleeve shirt or sweater and socks. This is Miriam's version.

The sweater didn't last long, but at least the socks stayed on. Miriam and David are running in circles around Emily who is loving it. Dinner... taquitos, chicken nuggets, and a fruit/protein shake. The taquitos ended up being too spicy for them, so I ate them all. Hehe.

Friday - More of the same but by this time I'm getting tired. Dinner... corn dogs and canned peaches. Called my sister for help on my Relief Society lesson since I didn't have Jonathan home to discuss it.

Saturday - Pajama Day! We stayed in our pajamas all day, except David, who I changed before I came up with the idea of having a pajama day and eventually Miriam switched to the dress she loves so much. If you look at all of the pictures, Miriam is wearing the same dress every day. No matter what clothes she starts out in each day, she always ends up back in her favorite dress.

We had "lunchables" for lunch. I cut up slices of cheese, turkey lunchmeat and apples, then added different crackers and toast with homemade pear compote. The kids and I had great fun trying out all different combinations. My favorite was the white swiss/american cheese with apple.

Later, we cleaned up the house in preparation for Jonathan's return home, although it hadn't really been that bad. In the past, I have always thought I kept the house fairly clean in part because I knew Jonathan liked it that way, but I discovered while he was gone, that I just can't stand a mess either. The more messy the house, the more I feel like chaos reigns, and the more I feel like I can't handle life. So poor Jonathan always got blamed for my chores although it was really about me all along. Oops. ;) I made a second discovery while he was gone. In my attempt to keep kids happy, I had planned out ahead of time all of the meals for the week so it wasn't a big deal making dinner each night. Of course, the easy meals I chose helped with that. But suddenly, the next week, dinners became a big deal and a chore for me again. So after a few days of that, I started planning my week in advance and suddenly making dinner was more enjoyable. I wasn't wasting the half hour I had available to cook (because I procrastinated deciding what to make) going through recipes and trying to decide what sounded good when nothing really did anyway. I know, probably nothing new to you, but it was a reminder to me of something that I know in my brain, but have trouble translating into changed behavior.

Saturday night after the kids were in bed and I was relaxing thinking that Jonathan was going to be home in a couple of hours when I got a phone call from him. "Honey, I missed my plane." What????? He had called me from the airport hours before his plane was to leave, how could he have missed it??? Yes, well, now I know that the Chicago airport is notorious for changing the gate without informing anyone. So Jonathan, having arrived hours early was sitting off in a corner , keeping his ears open for announcements, but none came. So about the time he thought the plane was getting ready to board he wandered over to the gate and his flight wasn't posted there anymore. Upon checking, he saw that they had changed the flight to a different gate across the terminal and the boarding gate was already shut. And it was the last flight of the night. Aaarrggggg... So they rescheduled him for Sunday morning and he prepared to sleep at the airport all night. He later told me of his miserable attempt to sleep before deciding to give it up. So he set out in search of the perfect wall with outlets nearby. Since he was coming back from teaching his seminar, he had all of his electronic gear with him... his laptop, LCD Projector, etc. So he set it all up and watched Man vs. Wild for hours (he didn't have any movies loaded onto his laptop since he never thought he would have time to watch them). He got quite a few admiring looks. I mean, hey, if you're going to be stuck at an airport all night, you can at least do it in style, right? The next morning he went to his gate early and again almost missed his plane since they changed the gate again. Luckily this time it was just down the way a little, but he still had to run to get there in time. And then it sat on the tarmac for an extra hour.

Meanwhile, I'm at home, thinking my husband will be home soon and help me get kids ready for church so I can get a few extra minutes in last minute prep for my lesson. I check the computer for flight status. Oh no, the plane's late. Well, there goes choir practice, as well as any visual aids I might have made. Um, is he even going to be home by the time we have to leave? Hooray! He makes it home (barely). And out the door we go with him wearing the same clothes he wore the day before and with him falling asleep in the pew. He took Emily home after sacrament (she was a touch on the sick side anyway) and he crashed. I taught my lesson. It went okay, but not as well as I know I could have done. It was one of those times when I prayed heavily that the Lord would make up for my inadequacies.

So that was my week without Jonathan. The kids and I had a blast together and I was more than happy to have my hubby back home in the end.