. . .

I am in a funk and I'm not quite sure how to break out of it. The first week and a half or so of Joe being gone went pretty smoothly. These last couple of days--not as well. I have not been very patient. The girls haven't quite been on their best behavior. For one thing, Natalie has now had 4 accidents in a little over 24 hours. I have no idea what is going on with her. I thought we were done with all of this. She's also developing quite the little attitude lately. She is just getting to that age. You know--hitting or throwing things on the way to her room when she's been sent to have a time out. Stuff like that.

Elizabeth has just been blatantly disobedient. Sneaking around doing things I've specifically told her not to do, or trying to convince someone else to do those things. Lying, pretty frequently. Hopefully this is all a phase, too.

So... life is hard right now. Life is hard for everybody. Still, I have noticed blessings along the way and I would be really ungrateful if I didn't acknowledge them. First off, I have good friends, who have been great supports to me, bringing me meals and helping with the kids (thank you!!).

Yesterday, I was pretty humbled. My garbage cans were still on the curb (this was Wednesday, and pick up was on Monday--I know, I'm lazy). I looked out the window to see my elderly neighbor, who lives in the other half of the duplex, pulling them up to the house for me. He has a pretty severe limp which almost makes me think he may have had a stroke but I've never asked about it. He is always out every morning walking down the path. Anyway, I was touched by his willingness to help in that way, even though it was clearly difficult for him.

The kids have their cute moments as well. Now I'll move on to some more positive things I wanted to post about...

Here is a cute picture Natalie drew of our family:

I especially love how she drew Joe with his glasses

Elizabeth has a love of learning that honestly amazes me. She frequently says she wants to be a teacher when she grows up and I could totally see that. She literally jumped up and down in excitement one time when I told her I would print off some math worksheets for her. She is always asking me to give her word problems. Needless to say, she is ready for school.

Yesterday, she was kind of sitting by herself writing on a paper and I later learned that she was making her own worksheet:

I thought that was hilarious and pretty cool, too. She even did the first one wrong on purpose, she said, so she could correct it. A lot of her numbers are backwards but you get the picture. The down side of her always wanting to play teacher is that it can get annoying to those who are being taught. If she could just scale back the bossy, know-it-all aspect of her teaching style, it would be perfect. :)

We've had some crazy weather lately. Rain at the end of May! That's unheard of here. It did give the girls a chance to play in it, though:

OK, this has been therapeutic. This is why I love blogging. It helps me to remember all of the good in my life.


P.S. Joe is doing well. We talk pretty much every day. He is busy and I don't think getting very much sleep but seems to be loving it. He mentioned sending me some pictures. I will post some if he does.