Day 2 ~ Daddy Deployed :: just another Friday

Today was nothing special really, just a normal Friday. School, errands, house work, you know...

Well, I guess there were a few good things...School is out till December. We get the whole week off for Thanksgiving plus we got ahead a day this week so we are taking the Monday after Thanksgiving off as well (we will be driving home from UT that day). Not only do we have some time off, but I got ahead in my prep and I am all ready for us to start back up. It feels good. I am also going to try to maintain a four day school week while Daddy is gone. I feel like I need a day to really get things done without school looming over my head.

Another great thing about today was that this afternoon both my boys were napping at the same time. This was a bit of a double edged sword. I got some quiet, but they both napped until after 4:30 ~ which means bed time got pushed back and I really cherish my evening time. While they were napping I was able to get some computer work done as well as address all my Christmas cards. They are prepped and ready to go out the day after we get home from our trip. My plan for after bed was to clean house and start putting up Christmas decor. I want to have that all up for when we get back. Well, that didn't happen with the munchkins awake. So instead they (I use this term loosely...Garrett watched while Eli roamed the house aimlessly leaving a trail of disaster behind him) watched Swiss Family Robinson. While the movie was on, I worked on cleaning up my piles in the kitchen. Sorting, filing, trashing and so forth. It feels good have NO piles. Now I feel like I can move forward in my organization.

We did have a fun dinner tonight. Before Halloween I picked up 3 small sugar pumpkins at the store with the intent of making our annual "Dinner in a Pumpkin" meal. Halloween came and went and I never got around to it. Then I was going to make it for our final meal with Daddy, but he decided to take us all to Olive Garden. No complaints from this gal! So here I had three pumpkins staring at me in the face saying, "please use me before November is over, there is no place for orange pumpkins amidst all the red and green of Christmas." So tonight I made them and they were so tasty and fun to eat. You can find the recipe here. The kiddos loved them.  I am pretty sure I could fill a pumpkin up with dog food and they would have eaten it because anything is fun to eat when it is served in a personal sized pumpkin :) I plan to use the, now cooked, pumpkin in a delicious pumpkin chipotle soup in the very near future, mmmm!

This evening, before bed, I also introduced Garrett to our deployment countdown and Daddy's jar of kisses. We will keep track of the days till Daddy comes home with our chalkboard plate, so I explained to him how it would work and how he could help me change the number everyday. We talked about how we are counting backwards and as the numbers get smaller the closer it will be. We gotta squeeze in math lessons where ever we can. I also told him about Daddy's jar of kisses and how if we are feeling really sad or upset and we can't talk to Daddy right then, one of the kisses he left us might make us feel better until we can talk to him. We are also going to get a kiss every night before bed so Daddy can still help to tuck us in. Garrett is very excited about the whole thing. I really want this to be a positive experience for him.

Well, it is almost tomorrow so I best be off to bed. This is the hardest part of the day for me. Marcus and I always go to bed together. Night, night...