Saturday & Sunday

Yesterday after our donut breakfast (so very healthy!), we had a pretty busy day. We visited the young widow I've written about, hugged on her and loved on her for a little while. It's so sad, there just aren't any words. On our way there, I wanted to warn my big girl not to say anything that would be upsetting, and I told her that our friend's husband died, and that she may be very sad when we visit her. And my profound little girl said in a very sad voice, "That means she will live all alone in her house." I'm glad she said that in the car and not to the bereaved young woman. And that's exactly why we had our conversation in the car. It was a good visit. My girls and her dogs diverted attention comfortably from the uncomfortable truth for a little while.

After that we came back home, ate a quick lunch and then went to my parents' house. All summer my mother has been working on sewing drapes for her bedroom, and they were ready to be hung. She made swags for each window and pleated end pieces that all had to be staple-gunned to a board, and the board mounted to the wall just above the window. She wanted me to do the stapling and assist Dad with the mounting. Everything turned out beautifully, and I got to do another project, taking my time and attention away from pining after my husband. The end result is pictured. There was another skinny window on the other side of the bed from this set of windows too, so there were 4 swags to staple, and 4 ends too.

When I got home from all that, it was time to put the girls to bed, and I shot my husband a quick e-mail to call me when he got in from the Royals/Tigers game he was attending. (Apparently he has this goal to visit as many major league parks as he can, which he mostly does when he's away on business trips. He went to a Toronto Blue Jays game, and now a KC Royals game that way. Fine with me. That means I don't have to go!)

I was pretty tired, and turned in early, and was just about to really go to sleep when he called. It was really fine. I wanted to tell him all the fun things I've been doing. I was such a sad sap the last time I had talked to him, and he needed to know I had turned the corner. Talking about all that stuff, the IKEA day, the table and then the drapes, got me so keyed up that I couldn't sleep when I got off the phone. I laid there in bed thinking about the dishes in the sink, and couldn't stand it, so I got up and cleaned my kitchen from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM, and also started reorganizing some things. I put all the things I need to make my big girl's lunches in the same place, things like that. (Hubby won't know where things are anymore! And although he's an internet junkie, he doesn't read this blog much, so it will still be a surprise to him when he comes home!) When I went to bed for the second time, I was exhausted, and went right to dreamland with no problems! It felt so good this morning to come in to the cleaned kitchen to make the kids' breakfast.

Then today was promotion Sunday for the kids' ministry at our church, and my big girl graduated out of the pre-school department. For kids at our church, that means LOTS of changes. For one, they go to class in an entirely different building. And for two, they come to "big church" for the opening half of worship, and then go "Pied-Piper"-style to Children's Church. I wasn't sure how my mildly autistic child would take to all these changes at once, so today I went with her throughout the morning. It was also a good way to give all the adults working with her a head's up about her special needs so they won't be surprised if she has a problem.

During Children's Church, the children are divided into groups and go to several different rooms and rotate to the different stations. While in the Prayer Room, the children were encouraged to bring up different prayer concerns that they would pray over at the end of the group time. It was then that my daughter blurted out, "Cookie Monster is voracious," in a very loud voice. It was all I could do to not crack up laughing at the back of the room. That's my kid! That was a great example of what my kid does! She loves big, fancy words, and knows how to use them. And she's very indirect about stating what she thinks and needs. That was her way of dropping a hint that she was hungry and she wanted a snack.

After church today we went to my mom & dad's again where I took a fantastic nap on the couch for a couple hours. That's what Sunday afternoons were made for!

In my crazy busyness last night, I started making a list of things I needed to buy today to be ready for the week. One of those things was a new radio alarm clock for Big Girl. She has an alarm clock, but it only wakes up to the "beep-beeps" which scare her (my husband doesn't like them either, and will ony set his clock to the radio). Since she's going to have to be getting up at 6:30, I figure she needs a softer wake-up call so that she'll actually use it. I've informed her that she gets a reward each day for being dressed before 7:00, so that she'll be on time for school. (She earns pennies on a chart- I'll show it to you one of these days.) Anyway, where was I... oh yeah, we went shopping after we got back from Mom & Dad's late this afternoon, and picked up some odds and ends like her new clock. We also stopped off at the grocery store and she got to pick out what she will eat for snack in Kindergarten.

I've really enjoyed my children these last couple days. Today hanging out with my big girl all morning was really neat. She really is one of my favorite people. She knows quite a bit of sign language, and I've been signing to her, "You're my favorite girl," as often as I think of it. Of course I say the same thing to my little girl. They really are both my favorites. It's been a "stop and smell the roses" kind of weekend with them. I'm trying to make the most of these moments, even out running errands, when I let them make choices (like Big Girl's snack), and just "hang out" with them. We ate a fast-food dinner out in the midst of our shopping tonight, and that was so fun, sitting at the table with my two favorite girls. They looked pretty cute today in matching dresses, matching hair bows and matching sandals. (I love doing that, and I know the day will come when Little Girl won't let me anymore, so I enjoy it now while I can!) And it's fun to see the looks on the faces of other patrons, seeing us three sitting there, obviously enjoying each other's company.

Tomorrow the girls and I will do a trial run, to practice getting to school on time. Hopefully getting up that early will make them tired enough to go to bed early tomorrow night. We'll go to the school (aiming to get there at 7:30), go in and meet one more person who will be working with Big Girl whom she hasn't had a chance to meet yet. After that, the plan is for us to take our kids' meal toys (sand diggers) that we just got tonight over to the sand volleyball courts at the park next to the school and play in the sand. That will be fun for the girls. Then afterward we'll need to go back home, get cleaned up, and then shop for the last couple things I wasn't able to find when we were out tonight.

I'm getting less sad about Kindergarten, at least for the moment. That's a good thing, right?

As we've been driving around these last couple days, I've been introducing the girls (mainly Big Girl) to The Beatles. She thinks it's great that they spell it wrong! Today we listened to Help! twice, skipping some songs like "Act Naturally." I just can't stand that one. I really like others on that album like "Help!," "I've Just Seen a Face," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away." Big Girl really liked "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", and that's the song in my head now. She was trying to sing it as we were setting up her new alarm clock this evening. She's such a doll! I love that kid so much!!