A Sigh of Relief

Last Saturday Abe and Clark left early in the morning and drove up to Spokane Washington for a HUGE Boy Scout Encampment that Abe's dad was heading up.  Several of Abe's brothers and a couple of Clark's cousins participated as well.  They had a great time and I'll post more pictures from the Encampment later.  

When they left I didn't really think too much of it.  Clark has gone away for several different week-long outings this summer and I've missed him and the house isn't nearly as exciting when he's gone, but it wasn't really that big of a deal.  Abe too has gone away for a night or two here and there so I wasn't too concerned about his absence.  Please don't think me heartless, it's just that I figured I'd be so busy taking care of kids and house that I wouldn't have much time to miss him.  And truth be told, I figured I was the one usually home taking care of things here at the house, so no big deal.

I have a different perspective now that they are home.  Rather than smooth sailing we had several mishaps this week that ruined my peace of mind.  Here was the least of things--

George got stung by a bee in his mouth and his lip really swelled up.

On another day he tipped his kitchen chair over while in his booster seat and conked his head pretty good.  

The worst of things was my accidentally killing Clark's pet snake, Ledge, that he caught in the wild three years ago.  It involved my moving the stinky cage into the backyard and the sprinklers going off during the night and it's a very unfortunate story from there.  You want to talk about mom guilt?  Oh, I know mom guilt.

Our English friend Naomi has come to visit this month and that has been very nice, and I did enjoy the Olympics, but that's about all that I can say went well this week.  And even the Olympics are a two edged sword because I love them so much that I kind of lose my mind when they are on.  I don't want to do anything else.  I got a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle to do while I watched.  That compounded my problem because puzzles really have a mind numbing effect on me.  Even when I'm not working on the puzzle my mind starts to see puzzle shapes in the grass and in the carpet.  Put the Olympics and a puzzle together and I'm completely useless.

But I found that I was really missing Abe and Clark.  I realized that while it is true that I do a lot of the day to day work around the house, Abe takes care of a lot of things that I never have to think about or worry about.  He locks up and secures the house at night.  He takes care of sprinklers and watering the lawn.  He regularly and happily picks up a few things at the grocery store on his way home from work.  He backs me up when the kiddos whine or complain.  He does a little more than I realized and those things he does take a great deal of weight off my mind.  When he was gone and I had to do my work plus carry the mental weight of all the things he usually thinks about-- it was no fun! 

 

Last night when going to bed I felt I could relax for the first time in a week.  It was lovely and there was a HUGE sigh of relief.

And I missed Clark because he has such fantastic ideas that entertain the girls to no end.  When he's gone they pester and hound me for ideas of what they can do. Even as I write this he is entertaining them with a D&D type adventure so that I have some time to think and write.  Ahhh... welcome home, Clark! 

And I would like to publicly thank Clark for his very quick and generous forgiveness when he found out what I'd done to his snake.  He's a good boy.