Back to Normal

Yesterday morning at church Nadia's Sunday School teacher asked me where Nadia was, and the King's Kids' choir director asked me if Nadia would be singing with the kids in church. There were more kids up there than there usually are because they were singing two songs they learned in VBS last week, but Ian opted to stay with me. It felt so strange to only have one child with me during the worship service. If Nadia had been with us, I know she would have been up there singing with the other kids. After being separated for 74 hours, I was reunited with my precious princess yesterday.

The past three weeks have been anything but normal. First we spent a week in Maryland, and then we had a couple of days at home with 6 house guests before we began our trip to Florida. That trip was 12 days long for Nadia and Paul's parents. I need to get back in gear in terms of my chores around the house, as not many of those were done the past 3 weeks. The kids still had fruit most days, but they have hardly

eaten any vegetables the past 3 weeks. I'm guessing there will be some battles with reinstating that habit. I actually ate more vegetables than usual on vacation as I ordered a salad for a meal several times. I also think we'll also have some "issues" with transitioning back to them not being able to choose what they eat for dinner every day. Nadia needs a break from macaroni and cheese, for example! Oliver is waking up at the usual time (6:30), but his naps have been 45 minutes long the past 3 days, which is much shorter than usual. Hopefully his naps will get back to normal asap! I brought books along for Nadia to read aloud, but that only happened a few times (she read a couple of Mr. Putter and Tabby books in Florida). I am not going to go into full school mode yet, but I do at least want her to get back to reading more, and I also want to get back to reading from a chapter book to the kids every day in addition to reading them picture books. Three things on the agenda this week for Nadia are private swimming lessons, working on learning to ride her new bike (without training wheels), and writing thank you notes for the birthday gifts she received!

Water balloon toss

This little black duckling was by far his favorite!

My Jacuzzi buddy! Ian asked me multiple times a day to join him in the Jacuzzi, and I almost always said "YES!".