Single Parenting Log, Day 1: early morning

Paul left early this morning to visit his childhood best friend at his new farm in North Carolina. He'll be back late Tuesday. This is the longest we've been apart in many years, and my first time alone with both kids overnight and for multiple days.

Right now, PJ is still asleep in her bed, and Max is asleep in my bed beside me. I have a very full day planned for us, starting with breakfast at our favorite nearby diner, then a play date with church friends, then home for nap time while I make dinner. Then other friends and Mimi are coming over for an early dinner before we all go to the WITF Wild Kratts Pajama Party!

I hope the long, exciting day will make for an easy bed time at least for PJ. Overnight worries me the most, because PJ has been coming to our room to get Paul almost every night again lately, and that plus Max still nursing twice overnight, and Max's sleep potentially further disrupted by teething...I'm nervous. But with my bed empty, I figure I'll just have PJ join me if she wakes up, and I'll deal with Max as it comes, and we'll survive.

I don't expect to get any more life editing, or even any more laundry, done in the next few days, but that's ok. It'll be empowering to do it all for 4 days...right? Not that I'm really doing it alone...grandparents will be helping a ton, as usual!

Just please give me the patience to avoid too many battles of will with PJ while there's no one here to tag off with.

Instagram November 18, 2015 at 12:45PM

What has two teeth and dresses like a Lev? #MightyMax via Instagram http://ift.tt/1YgD8tb

Mind My Own Business & Do Something Real Instead

It shouldn't bother me so much to read mistrust, vitriol, and hate speech masquerading as patriotism on facebook. I know these opinions not only still exist but are still widespread, but when it's someone I know, it just brings it home in a way that boils in the pit of my stomach for hours.

I think I want to look into what it would take to sponsor a refugee family, and then head that up as a project at church. We sponsored one of the Lost Boys of Sudan years ago; I think it's again time to do something real and concrete to make foreign conflict real to us here in insulated Central PA.

The solution to my bad feelings is to mind my own business where local haters are concerned, and instead DO something REAL to offset the hate with love.

November 16, 2015 at 08:59PM

Because I just wrote two letters in as many weeks, which is two more than I've written in the previous two years; and because I want to test out my new IFTTT recipe (if it works, this will auto-post to my blog!). via Instagram http://ift.tt/1l0ZIHH

Laundry is not my favorite

Tonight, I caught up folding laundry for the first time in months, while listening to as podcast all about my favorite kind of math. Podcasts make folding laundry bearable, but only just.

I will attempt now to do one load each day AND FOLD IT until I'm actually caught up on laundry too (meaning no overflowing hampers; it's simply not possible to ever be truly caught up on all laundry).

This is my resolution for the week, a la Gretchen Rubin's book The Happiness Project, which I'm currently reading. AND my second resolution is to go to sleep earlier, which I've failed to do every night forever and so I will now stop blogging and turn out my light! Good night!