A brief overview: I returned from Texas on Tuesday afternoon. We spent a mostly normal Wednesday before Steph dropped off her kids so that they could spend a few days here (without their parents). The Klein kids got picked up Friday evening, at which point the Barhorsts left for Michigan to spend the weekend with my family. Texas, four kids, and Michigan. Is that a good excuse?
Now for details.
Texas was wonderful. It was warm and relaxing and mentally refreshing. Elesha, Carrie, and I drove down in (mostly) one day: we stayed in Indianapolis the night before and then left the cold, dark, snowy midwest behind as we drove 14 hours south and west. Elesha's van has a feature that tells the outside temperature, and we watched that eagerly as we drove, excited when we were greeted by a Texas evening of about 45 degrees. Ironically, we were the only ones in the area who thought that 45 was pleasant. Everyone in Fort Worth apologized for the cold spell and told us to put on warmer coats. :-P It did warm up during the days, getting up to 75 on Saturday, and the blue sky and shining sun were in and of themselves enough reason to make the trip.
Despite the testimony of the previous paragraph, we weren't actually in Texas for the weather. We made the trip for a two and a half day homeschooling convention. Not being as fully committed to homeschooling as my companions (mostly because my husband is adamantly against it right now), I just went to whatever talks sounded most interesting to me rather than feeling pressure to go to ones that perhaps would be more applicable to teaching young children. I heard a couple of fascinating talks on the inherent differences between boys and girls, some about liturgical music, a few on classical education, and one on teaching preschoolers science. In between talks we took walks outside and explored Fort Worth a bit.
On Monday, we left an overcast Texas wearing coats against the 32 degree weather. Their promised cold spell was finally coming and we didn't even have to be sad about heading back to Ohio. We can get 32 and overcast at home! We did suffer greatly on the drive through Oklahoma, feeling sorry for the sad Oklahomans and their lack of enlightenment about such elementary things as "snowplows." One inch of snow did them in, and we crawled along for hours, marveling at the ability of people to skid into the ditch at blazing speeds of 10 mph and chuckling at the plowing efforts of mini bobcats with tiny shovels attached to them. About ten miles before the Oklahoma/Missouri border, though, they have seen the light, and roads were magically plowed again. We made good time for the rest of the trip, though we didn't get nearly as far as we'd hoped due to Oklahoma's failures. On Tuesday we finished the trip, arriving back home around 3:00. The temperature in Ohio was the same as that in Oklahoma.
Fast forward about a day. The Kleins were getting the carpet in their house redone and needed somewhere to stash their kids for a couple of days. Steph dropped Eva and Eli off just after naptime on Wednesday afternoon before heading home to supervise. Due to spectacular timing on our part (she slipped out while all the kids were enjoying macaroni and cheese), her children didn't fully comprehend her absence for 24 hours. :-P Bryan was at church during dinner, but he came back to help with bedtime before heading to Sidney in preparation for a commute to Springfield the following day. Once we had four children in bed, he left and thus began my 45 hours alone with two three-year-olds and two almost-two-year-olds.
Thursday went smoothly. Eli woke up 45 minutes before anyone else, but I kept him shut in my room so that he wouldn't go wake up all the girls. Hooray for taller than average doorknobs. The girls finally woke up and we began our day. Bryan was supposed to be home from work by about 7, in time to help with bedtime again. The kids enjoyed playing with each other and discovering all the toys in our playroom. Lunch was leftover macaroni and cheese, so everyone was happy. Around 5, Bryan called. They wanted him to be in the office on Friday, too. He offered to come all the way home, but I told him it didn't make much sense for just a few hours. He stayed in Sidney overnight and the kids and I soldiered on. Lentils and cheese was (optimistically) on the menu for that night. By some miracle, all four children cleared their plates. Some (Olivia and Eva) required coaxing and one (Gretchen) cleared her plate more than once. Everyone ate, though, and all was well with the world. Bedtime again went relatively well, and I remembered to grab a box of cars for Eli to play with the next morning.
To be continued...
Did you notice that I managed to get a bonus post up this week? I suddenly realized that Hippo's ETA is only five weeks away and figured you might like to get your guesses in before it's too late. Head on over to Baby Guesses (Hippo Edition) to make some predictions. While you're there, you should probably also take a look at Olivia's guesses. :)
Pictures:
The girls hiding on the shelves in the shower:
Eli was sad, so all the girls gave him kisses to cheer him up:
Some pictures from Jillian:
There were three girls wedged inside this ottoman reading books:
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