Lack of Motivation

I have had these pictures sitting on an untitled post for about a week now. I've been meaning to hop on and type something up about last week, but I've been having a lack of blogging motivation. Even Alan has commented how I haven't posted in over a week. Not sure when the last time that happened...

So here we go. Trying to get back on the blogging horse.

Alan had his first business trip last week. I probably could have talked more about it while it was happening; it was a little bit of a rough week and I could have used an outlet. But I didn't really want to advertise the fact that I was home alone with my girls to who ever might be lurking on my blog, so... yeah.

I sometimes feel very weak admitting that I had a hard time being alone with the kids for a few days. My respect has grown for those who do it on a regular basis. There are plenty of women in my ward who's husbands are gone a lot more than Alan. They have got to be made out of stronger stuff that I am...

"Choo Choo!" says the train at the zoo

We mostly just stayed really busy. We left the house every morning after eating breakfast, came home for a nap, then went out again until dinner time. By the time dinner was over, it was time to start getting ready for bed. I put Alice down while Elsie watched an episode or two of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, then Elsie went to bed. I usually crawled in bed with a book until I fell asleep an hour or so later.

It was a tiring routine, but it made the time pass. Elsie loved getting out and going places. Every time she woke up (in the morning and from her nap) she came out and asked "where us going tonight, Mommy?" We went to the zoo (twice), played with friends, went to the library, the store, Costco (love their double seat shopping carts...) and anywhere else we could think of. Once we even we to the store, not because we actually needed to buy anything, but because Elsie loves pushing the little kid shopping carts. We walked laps around the store with Elsie leading the way for a good hour or so.

We all missed Alan a lot. My plan was to wear the kids out enough during the day so they would crash at bedtime. It worked a few times, but a couple nights it just made things worse. Elsie didn't really understand why we weren't just picking Daddy up from work. Alan normally does the bed time routine. One night she was so distraught that he wasn't there... having me get her ready for bed was the last straw. She threw a tantrum like I've never seen from her before. It took an hour to calm her down and she eventually was so exhausted that she fell asleep in my arms.

I'm glad that Alan is home. I'm glad that his job only requires him to travel a few times a year. As exhausting as it was to have him gone, it is exhilaration to know that I was able to handle the challenge. It feels good to know that I can do hard things.