Matt is home!

My "single mothering" days are over. :-) I think overall things went well. I took one day at a time and I stayed busy, which wasn't hard! The kids had their moments, but I think they were well behaved and helpful most of the time.

Having Matt away for so long reminded me of how much he does when he is home. He is a very helpful husband and we work as a team during the evenings. One of us will clean up the kitchen after dinner, while the other one gets the kids ready for bed. Matt is home most evenings, which is such a blessing! I had very little free time during the evenings while Matt was gone. The kids went to bed later and by the time the kitchen was clean, it was time for me to go to bed.

I've been doing well getting 7 hours of sleep every night. 7 hours is enough for me to not feel tired and grumpy during the day. I'm in a routine of being in bed by 10:25pm and I'm up at 5:25am. I even stick to this schedule on the weekends. The consistency has been great for my body, mood, and overall health. I think this habit is helping my success with my "no yelling" habit, which is going great, too. In the last 8 weeks, I have yelled at my kids once. That happened when they were outside and they were about to spray each other with the hose when they were all dressed and it was cold outside. I was inside yelling at them through the window. They really didn't see anything wrong with their plan, but I knew the work they were about to produce for me!

My Mom was super helpful while Matt was gone. She took Friday and Monday off from work, so I was able to spend those days with her. That helped the days to go by faster and it gave me a break from my routine. Kate and Noah loved being at "Grammie's house" and the older kids loved going there after school on Friday. On Monday, we picked the kids up from school and then we went to Friendly's. That was a nice treat because when we got home, everyone was full and ready for Family Home Evening.

My Mom watched the kids Wednesday night, while I took Zoe and Emily to Activity Days. The girls briefly worked on another Christmas gift to give away and then we talked about President Monson's talk about gratitude. I came away from the activity motivated to be more thankful and to focus more on what I have than on what I don't have. I have much to be thankful for!

My Mom came over Thursday evening to play a game of Phase 10 and then I went to pick up Matt from the airport. Yay! Then my Mom came over last night, so Matt and I could go out on datenight. We went to Pizzeria Uno. We used to go to Pizzeria Uno so much that the workers knew us, but we don't go there very often anymore. It was funny to have the hostess ask us last night if we've ever been to Pizzeria Uno before. We really haven't been there for awhile because I discovered last night that they don't have my favorite strawberry cheesecake anymore! That is just wrong.

The kids had a half day at school yesterday. Eleanor was the only one who had a party where she could dress up in her costume. She dressed up as a witch. They had an orange party where all the food and drinks were orange. Emily's class made a witch's brew. Each child brought in a dry ingredient to add to the brew. They had to come up with a name for their ingredient. Emily brought in bat droppings (craisins). Zach had a special snack. Usually, the kids are not allowed to share snacks, so Zach thought it was so neat that everyone was bringing snacks to share. They had a mix of Halloween goodies and healthy food. Zach brought in grapes in his Halloween bucket. Zoe had a purple and gold assembly. She has not outgrown the Halloween fun yet, so she would have preferred a Halloween party to the assembly, but she still had fun.

Emily and Eleanor went over to Daisy's and Anna's Grandma's house after school yesterday. I brought Zoe, Zach, Kate, and Noah to the park. There were a bunch of teenagers at the park who made me so thankful that my children are being brought up with standards, morals, and values!

Noah made it into our local paper this week. He is the very cute Dalmatian.



I hope everyone has a fun Halloween weekend!