One Week Down, One Week To Go

Most of you know that Jonathan is away in England and I'm parenting our two boys solo. It's been a pretty good week considering. I've tried to keep Elijah as busy as possible, which seemed to work well at the begining of the week, but I needed some down time these last couple of days. We've been all over the place and seen many people. The first surprise was seeing my friend Shawna from University and her daughter Ally down in Cap Pele. I had a great visit with her. She's one of those people who just never change and we could catch up pretty fast. I did discover that 2 hours straight in the car is just a half hour too long for Elijah. Both on the way down and on the way back. (Note to self, take the drive to Halifax in hour and a half stretches).
Last Sunday was taken up by church stuff mostly. The summer evening service couldn't have been better. Rod and Lisa Brandtfrancis spoke (they have a ministry up in Wemindji in Northern Quebec...Cree country). I'm always fascinated and excited when I hear what they are doing. I just love their work. It was also a great time for Elijah as both the Smith kids and the Cox kids were there to play with.
Monday I got Elijah's 3 year old pictures taken and they turned out great. Jen Smith brought her kids over later for lunch and they all had a great time together.
Tuesday, we headed down to Moncton for the day. Both boys did really well for the drive and we really enjoyed the day together (see...Moncton is less than 2 hours away).
Wednesday, we were back in the photo studio. Jen and I thought it would be great to have the kids get their pictures done together. (and at 8 bucks for a whole whack of pictures why not? There's the plug for the Superstore)...well, we could have had the cutest shot ever, except Elijah was just not wanting to cooperate...by the time he was ready, Jeremy was not happy anymore...so the picture we got is quite a character shot...still cute, shows all of their personalities, just not calendar stuff. Oh well, that's kids. They had a great time later that night, Jen dropped by when we were out in the backyard. She took Jeremy for me, while the older ones played and I worked in the garden. We had a really nice visit. On a side note, my second garden patch that I'm removing and planting grass seed in is finished, and the first plot already has grass sprouting.
Thursday, I needed some down time so we took it and just enjoyed the sunshine at home. We filled Elijah's pool and he played while I gardened. Jeremy just enjoyed being in the sling.
Yesterday, it was still hot (I love it!)...and we did more of the same...enjoyed the sunshine...well, we did get some basics done too like groceries and some house cleaning. George and Coralee had us up to their place for BBQ. Elijah had a ball playing golf with George and I really enjoyed visiting with Coralee.
Then came today. It's like Elijah had been holding in all of his emotions about missing Dad and it all came out sideways. My day started at five to seven with the announcement that I needed to wake up and this is his house and no he did not want to come and cuddle with me...just before he crawled into my bed and cuddled me...this was foreshadowing of the rest of the day. The whole idea of Go Away, but stay with me repeated itself again and again. Poor little guy. He stormed through the house like a caged bear...so we went out to play...that didn't work either. I thought maybe after his nap he may feel better...didn't work. So I could hear echoes of Jonathan's voice telling me of all the people that had offered to help me and to take them up on it. I called Ruby. Bless her, she came over and played with Elijah for over an hour. I think he really needed that. He needed space from me and to have attention from another adult.
So both boys are now sleeping and I'm ready to hit the hay myself. *One thing I didn't mention is that it appears both boys are getting colds too, so we need all the sleep we can get!