The Aftermath

I'm going to start this post by saying - in no uncertain terms, that I loved going out of town; I had a great time, I got a lot done, I appreciate my husband for taking over while I was gone. That said, it is exhausting to be home!

Bryan tried to hold everything together and took time off from work to be here when the kids came home from school on Thursday and Friday. I talked to him on Saturday night and asked how his day went. "It was so busy - we did not go anywhere, but it was busy the entire day. I am so TIRED!" He played lots of games, listened to every crazy invention Max wants to make and watched lots of Star Trek and Star Wars with the kids.

I supposed it should make me feel essential and not weary to come home to this:

• Calvin practiced writing his name on the walls going up the stairs. He's getting pretty good at it, and he uses very LARGE letters.
• The same two pans I did not have time to wash before I left were still in the sink and they had invited lots of friends over.
  
• No one in my family made it to church. It was Bryan's Sunday to teach.
• Max decided to try and climb my closet to get to a game and tore the whole thing out of the wall - and it still looks like this. That's right, every piece of clothing I own (including everything that had previously been ironed) is on the floor of my closet covered in sheet rock and shelving - oh, my shoes are all under there too.

This is the note Max wrote for me after the closet incident. You should read it. Max is currently prone to the dramatics (I want to diiiiiieeeeeee!) and I may have to frame this letter to remember this stage.


The kids are all out of school this week and Susan's husband is now bringing the daycare kids over in the morning somewhere between 7:45 and 11:00am. The kids have been getting up around 9:00 - except Calvin who still loves that early morning snuggle. We are completely off schedule which does bad things to my brain and my weight. We did go to the zoo yesterday, but stayed home and worked today.
The house is now clean again despite angry cramps, I am almost caught up on the laundry (another 4 loads?), the scrap booking supplies are put away, I hosted book club last night, the wall has been cleaned of Calvin's writings, but my poor closet still looks the same. Oh, and I have had pumpkin cheesecake for both breakfast and lunch - and an afternoon snack.

I have been chanting in my head "sixty lay-outs, so much accomplished, worth it, sixty lay-outs, worth it . . . . "