One Day at a Time

Well, we're now in full-on tax season madness. That basically means that Jon is at work 95% of the time he is awake. And he seems to be sleeping less and less each night. I am so thankful for how hard he works to support our family. He doesn't really complain. He loves his work. But he comes home with red eyes and can hardly even have basic conversations with me. It's really hard to know how to help him and be supportive. Fortunately, his firm is really good about bringing in food and whatever they need to keep going.

I am so thankful that Jon has this job.... and I'm so thankful that this is not our year-round schedule. I bow down in awe to single parents. It's really challenging to be the one doing everything with the children and the house.... meals, laundry, school, cleaning, mowing, driving to activities and practices,.... and then bath and bedtime. It's not  impossible, but it's really challenging. The most difficult thing at this point, though, is just missing him. Just feeling so disconnected. So out of our regular routines. The days seem really, really long.... and when I get the kids to bed I do not feel like doing the projects I normally would do.

So I'm just trying to let it all be OK.... to not feel too stressed out... to not pressure myself to make things perfect or keep going when I'm too tired. To enjoy each day and face the challenges as they come.

This week is Holy Week of course. The boys and I have been working on our Jesus Tree and reading and discussing all of the events of Holy Week. It's so awesome to see how they are understanding and entering into our stories and traditions more and more each year. Yesterday we attended a beautiful Living Stations Prayer Service put on by the eighth graders at our parish school. Today we read the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet at the Last Supper. I was touched by how much they loved washing each other's feet. We all three had quite clean feet by the time we were finished!

Although I've tried to put off the "Easter stuff" as we continue to observe Lent, we did have a great time with a "Money Egg" activity yesterday. The boys each had to find 12 eggs and count and record the money inside. They loved this so much that we had to do a modified version of it today and I had to promise that we'd do it again tomorrow!

This has also been a week filled with evening activities! Karate. Soccer Practice. Cub Scouts.... Last night Adam and I got to accompany Ray to his Tiger Scouts den meeting --- a first for both of us! It was really fun. The boys made pinecone bird feeders, had an M + M hunt, and played outside. I had to laugh, though, at how different it is to be in a room full of dads. I'm so used to running programs with (mostly type-A) homeschool moms. The dads just do things so much differently. I'm glad Ray and Jon have the experience to be part of Cub Scouts. Adam's really looking forward to jumping into it next year as well.

Wow! Jon just came home... and it's only 11:00! Maybe I can actually spend a few minutes with him before he falls asleep!