This has been an unusual Sunday. None of us went to church this morning. Paul was at work. Ian threw up last night; so I didn't think I should take him to church this morning. Nadia is doing much better. Oliver is on the mend, but he's definitely not over his respiratory bug yet. One look at his face and you know he's been blowing his nose a lot because his nose and upper lip are very red and chapped. I feel like I've been trying to fight off the bug. I have had mild symptoms. I've been getting a lot of sleep at night to try to help my body fight it off. Last night I slept for almost 11 hours! Growing up if we were not up to going to church we said we were attending "Bedside Baptist" at home. Saying that makes me think of the Sunday mornings I spent with my mom at home in 2016. Often she and I would watch a worship service on TV (such as Charles Stanley) or my church service or their church service online. Attending "Bedside Baptist" with my Mom and Wendy two days before she passed is certainly etched in my memory. I had planned for the kids and I to read Acts 10-20 this week, but when I realized we weren't going to church this morning, I changed the plan to studying Ephesians this week. We read and discussed Ephesians 1 and half of chapter 2 this morning. Reconciliation was a new concept for Nadia and Ian. We watched 4 short episodes of What is God's Plan (each episode is about 9 minutes long) on Right Now Media to go along with our study.
Paul has been working really long hours. The kids and I left for Maryland on December 28, and up until today we had almost no contact with him since we got home. For example, yesterday (Saturday) he left for work at 4AM and got home around 8PM, just as I was putting Ian and Oliver to bed. He came home earlier today (12:15) so he could take Nadia ice skating this afternoon. Oliver joined them, and Ian and I stayed home with me. The upside of me staying home was I was able to keep plugging away at my course preparation. Sometimes I feel a sense of panic that I won't get it all done by January 21, but all I can do is keep working on it every chance I get. I'm already much farther along than I was when the fall semester started. The downside of me not going with them was that no pictures were taken. If the boys' basketball practices hadn't been on Thursday nights, they'd be taking ice skating lessons right now, and Oliver would be learning how to skate independently. Hopefully it will work out for the three of them to take ice skating lessons next year. Paul is going back to work this evening, and we won't see him again until Friday evening as he'll be in Baltimore. If he hadn't come home early today, the kids would have pretty much gone 16 days without seeing their dad aside from a couple of minutes here or there on a few of the days. He's worked 13 days in a row thus far, and that total will reach 18 days in a row on Friday.
Having a job where a lot of it can be done from home is a huge blessing, but it has its challenges as well. When I am at the university, I am 100% focused on that job. When I am at home, obviously some of my attention goes toward my three precious kids as well as a myriad of other tasks that vie for my attention (ex. yesterday I was boxing up the Christmas decorations that had just been placed haphazardly in the basement and today I cleaned the bathrooms and made lasagna). We have been enjoying listening to books via Audible. Yesterday Nadia asked me if I could find some more; I only get them when they're really inexpensive. So at one point today I took a break from my course preparation to find some Audible bargains. I got Black Beauty, Little Women, and Alice in Wonderland for $2 each. We started listening to Black Beauty while eating our dinner this evening. When we go to the library tomorrow we're getting the sequel to Crispin: The cross of lead, a Newberry Award book I had never read before and really enjoyed reading to the kids.
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