New normal

Let's pick up from where we left off: last weekend. 

So, this happened last Sunday:

That's Müller chasing Götze after scoring the winning goal for Germany in the 113th minute of the World Cup finale. And then Pete came over after the game for lasagna. It was awesome.

Then the rest of the week kind of flew by with Dylan's getting several calls for meetings (!!), organizing more of his firm arrangements, and the kids' and my running around as usual, trying to find a good balance between doing our thing and Papa working mostly from home. And then the early mornings. Whyyy must there be so many early mornings. We used to think 8am was normal, somewhere along the line, Paul pushed that up to 7:30, where it stayed for months. And now? We hope to make it passed 6am. This morning was 5:45. 5:45am. The garbage truck passed by -- who needs their trash taken away so early on a Friday, the second day of the week that they come 'round -- and then we hear a quiet, "Müllwagen" (garbage truck). Then, "Müllwageeeeeeeen!" OK, we're up!

And now for the week in photos:

Madeline (7 wks) and Adeline (5 months) 

PS - Dylan saw how I began this post and asked, "Is that all you're gonna say about it? Not that Deutsches Haus was insaaaaane?" So here we go, a little more about the WM (Weltmeisterschaft). We watched at the Deutsches Haus, and it was insane. When Germany finally scored one, anyway, in extra time. It was packed, the kids were great, and Paul ran around a lot - even got up in front of the screen =), like so:

All the people up front said he was cute, though, and encouraged us in making a little soccer fan out of him. Way to go, Deutschland!

"Normal" week

Normal just means that we didn't have anything fancy on: no family over, no meals out, nothing planned. We grocery shopped, post-officed, and otherwise kept busy with the usual cleaning, playing, bathing, and chasing each other around.

Two things stick out from this week in particular. One was an exchange on Thursday between Mom, Ginny, & me, and the other is a lesson that needs learning as long as Dylan is working from home.

So, the first: Thursday became a "Day in the Life" via picture text messages between Momma, Ginny, & me. Our days are all so different, we thought it'd be neat to see. Ginny was at work, as was I, and Miss Franny was down at the beach with a friend on Padre Island, well la di da. Needless to say, her hour-by-hour pictures were all achingly similar: mom on the beach, mom with a pelican, mom on the pier, mom with a drink on the beach ... you get the drift. Ginny showed us her day at work via her office view, her ideas board, her snacks and breaks (ha), and her keys-in-hand-at-5pm entitled "Freedom". And these were mine:

Hr 1:

 Hr 2:

 Hr 3: one naps, one plays

Hr 4:

Hr 5:

 Hr 6:

 Hr 7:

 Hr 8, post-nap snack & bubbles:

 Hr 9, hard to please:

 Hr 10:

 Hr 11, calm after the chaos that is dinner hour:

 Hr 12:

 Hr 13, beeeeedtime!

I learned something through all of this - yes about Momma & Ginny - but also about myself. And it reminded me of this quote from Padre Pio, "One day the Eternal Judge shall call each of us and ask us to give an account of our deeds and how we made use of our time. We shall have to give a most strict account of every minute." Or Romans 14:12, "So then each of us shall give an account of himself to God." Now, I'm not saying that showing my mother and sister that I went to the park with Paul is the same as my accountability to God, but what I am saying is that being held accountable hour by hour last Thursday really helped me embrace my time with Paul & Ada and left me wanting to be good for them all day. I didn't do anything extraordinary just so that I could take a picture of it to send, but I either kept on top of engaging them (silliness between lunch/nap) or relished the normalcy before us (morning smiles).

Apparently it takes me a day or two to figure stuff like that out, though, because Friday was lame. It's like I hadn't made any connection whatsoever between what I did the the day prior and was doing in the moment. Now in hindsight I wonder if it weren't just the disappointment after such engagement. In any case, I carted the kids off to run errands with me, and somehow managed to make everything Dylan's fault for the rest of the day. We ended up having a chat about our expectations when he's home/nothomebutworking and should do better in the future. There's likely to be an adjustment period, but I think it'll be good for us all.

Now lookit these - Ada likes books! And Paul likes making funny faces:

Last week with family from Down Under

After 3 all-over-the-place weeks, Susan & Gerry - as well as Dylan & I! - hoped for a more chilled last week for their visit. We stayed around here, mostly, and sightsaw. Sight-saw? Is is sight-see-ed? Did some sightseeing. There.

They got to see the Causeway, the longest bridge in the world at 24miles.

 They got to take Paul on the train in City Park.

They got to visit the sculpture garden & museum in City Park.

The trip to City Park included, of course, some play on the playground and beignets at Morning Call.

They treated us to a swamp boat tour, and Paul (and everyone...) got to hold a baby alligator.

And, finally, they got to celebrate the 4th of July in the USA, complete with hot dogs, mac-n-cheese, fried chicken & watermelon ... and a fireworks display with the best view!

Our last half-day together was spent having breakfast at the corner café, Tout de Suite, before heading out to the airport ... & more beignets. (Which were surprisingly delicious! West Café near the Delta check-in counter. Seriously.) And so ends another wonderful few weeks spent together, each visit more special than the last now that Paul is so aware of people, his people, and things happening around him.

Since good-bye-ing at the airport, we've kind of stared vacantly around, wondering where to begin / what to do now? And I've, wait, what was it? - COOKED! I've got to get into cooking 7+ square meals a week again. It feels like it's been since before Adeline was born since I've done so, really, what with 10 weeks of meal help after her birth, freezer meals previously cooked, then the move, and now 4 weeks of vacationing. I took a cue from Carrots for Michaelmas and celebrated the feast day of St. Maria Goretti, and I plan to catch up on all of the saints' feast days we missed during our whirlwind. I knew there was a reason I bought the book.