Sabbatical

Sabbatical as defined by Webster's is: "A period of rest that occurs in regular cycles." Originally referencing the seven year interval of rest in which Hebrew law required land to go unplanted and the forgiveness of unpaid debts, sabbatical as we think of it now, often means a year long break from professional duties.* Well, this mommy can't take a year off, but I did allow myself to let some thing go untended for the last month....this blog, my running schedule, library story time, and to some extent, the endless housework.

A combination of flying solo the first two weeks in June while Kiel was in Fairbanks and the return of dad into our 24/7 life spurred this mini-vacay from our routine. I put out the ultimatum this week though, that things had to get back on course for the sanity of all involved-particularly, me.

Flying solo went well this year. The boys and I had fun on play dates, going to the zoo, and biking to our local parks. Oh, and we played a lot of Frisbee golf. David, I am proud to say vastly improved his throw during the 2 weeks dad was gone. He now says that, "Frisbee golf is one of my favorite places to go!" I was able to improve enough to play two of my best games ever when Kiel came back, scoring my first 3 over par on our local course, which is 2-3 strokes off of my average. The women's record is 2 under par, so I have a ways to go. I figure if I can par it, then I'll enter competitive play.

Kiel's return from Fairbanks was met with delight all around. The boys missed him a lot this year, and I did too towards the end. I like my quiet time in the evenings to be sure, but it is nice to have someone to share that with too. After a week of daily home life, Kiel looked across the dinner table and declared this profound revelation, "It's really hard to plan activities when Lucas takes two naps a day." The welcome-to-my-life look he received prompted this follow up response, "Oh. You probably already knew that. I feel a blog coming on about this already." His second revelation came yesterday after lunch:

"So, what's on the schedule for the rest of the day. We already went to the library, what should we do next?"

"Well, Honey, sometimes we do this thing called clean-up-the-house. Once Lucas is down, I play a game with David, then I clean something afterwards. There is laundry, dishes, bathrooms, garage..."

"Oh. Yeah. Okay."

Oh, the joys of having someone else experience your life for awhile.

It's all good, and by the end of summer, I predict he'll be glad to get back to work. Right now though, we are really enjoying watching our boys grow.

David is reading well enough to pick up new books and read them outright, as well as real world reading when we are out and about. He is also getting better at using manners unprompted, trying new things, and exploring his social side at the playground. Lucas is running and climbing and trying to do everything his brother does. He is sleeping better, learning to self feed, and acquiring new skills all the time. Lucas has already entered the tantrum stage-so we are dealing with that a little earlier than expected. He's always been an opinionated kid and I fully expected to be having some battles, just not quite this early. We'll get through.

My good friend Karen was up to visit her family and stayed a night with us early last month. Tekle and Ikenna will be coming in the next two weeks, and Liz and her girls will be here at the same time. (It's nice to have friends whose parents still live here!) It will be great to see them all and have the kids get re-acquainted. The yard looks great, the flowers are finally blooming a bit and if we could eek out a bit more sun, we might get strawberries and look a little less pasty in another two weeks. Sweet!

* Websters New World Dictionary, Second Edition, 1986, pg. 1250