Regular Week

This week was a regular week at this stage of life.
Monday: Prepping for our first week back to CC, which includes getting backpacks and presentations ready for the next day.  We also needed to "get ready for Marianne" by dealing with the piles of clean and dirty laundry all over the place, picking up crafts, school, cups, shoes, toys....  Luke and I packed his bag for his trip to Indianapolis.  I went to the store to buy acid meds for him while he took Noelle to her basketball practice, where he is coach.  (I forgot my wallet, and a joyful man with a wallet full of 50's paid for my things!)  Luke always has cute stories about his team.  Noelle, Sarah, and Evelyn are the only girls on the team.  And they are all white.  Most of the rest of the team is black boys.  One of the boys cannot come to grips with the fact that all 3 girls do not belong to Luke.  If one is gone, he asks Luke, "Where is your other girl?" He also points out to Luke if he is sweaty.  Luke's such a great coach.  I know he is feeling generally over committed this semester between teaching, Passage, chairing a hiring committee, taking part in other committees, teaching Wed night church, managing other Alpine responsibilities and being a husband/dad/friend.  But, I'm still glad he has time and energy to coach.  He's the best.
Tuesday:  Luke was out the door at 5.  I was up going over my CC lessons for the day, cutting out some things we needed for our Rembrandt project and packing up some wine glasses for our science.  The kids got up, we ate, took care of the dog (hoping she could manage 6 hours in the crate), made 1 more cup of coffee and headed out.  CC was lovely, encouraging, fun, and awesome as usual.  I feel enormously privileged to be part of this community and to tutor such fabulous kids!  I got a text while we were there that Noelle's dance class was canceled, which was a bit of a relief, since Luke wasn't going to be home to divide and conquer with kid activities.  So, we ate taco salad then took Isaiah to basketball.  I was so tired!  Between Violet getting up a few times and Lucy needing a few blanket adjustments and Luke getting out the door at 5, I was ready for bed.  The girls played on me and Lucy played with princesses and we headed home.  Once the girls were in bed, Isaiah and I continued watching Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix.
Wednesday: I had been invited to speak to a class of student teachers at LeTourneau about homeschooling.  We also had Marianne coming to clean.  We got the house ready and made it to LeTu in time for them to do their math in the student center before meeting the Moughons for the presentation.  As always, I loved speaking about something I love and I'm pretty sure we walked away without offending them or being personally offended.  We couldn't go home yet, so I took the kids to Panda Express where Lucy ate her weight in chowmein.  After rest time at home and a little more school, the Caldwell girls came over.  Ben is prepping for his second round of chemo, and we got the girls out for some fresh air and play.  Finally, we were off to Lucy's dance class, a trip to a new grocery store to pick up some sugar-free, grain-free granola bars, then to church.  Bed felt good that night (after some more Netflix w/ Isaiah)
Thursday: Staff meeting at church, kids working in Melissa's office, lunch with Melissa @ McAlisters.  Typical every-other-Thursday schedule.  Piano for big kids, nap for Lucy, then the Longs/Frees over to play in the yard.  We drove out to Kilogore skateland to skate with the Moughons in the evening.  It was a lot busier and faster than we expected, which really bothered Isaiah, but it was a good finale to the 3 days of Luke being gone.  He got home about 10, and I was glad to have him back!
Friday: Home day!  Yay!  We schooled, made grain-free, sugar-free granola, made carnitas for the Coppingers to come over for dinner tonight, and that's about it.  Looking forward to having Luke home from work, and eating some good dinner.
Thankful for these full weeks with lots of opportunities to grow, love, and serve.