Oh Tuesday

This coming Tuesday is going to be the beginning of some new adventures. First of all our oldest, Isaiah, will be traveling with my folks to Pennsylvania to attend my cousin's wedding. My dad is a former minister and has preformed many marriage ceremonies on my mom's side of the family. This one is another that he will officiate and they will be gone for 10 days. I have mixed feelings about it of course...I am excited that Isaiah gets to go and know my folks will take good care of him, but I have those mama bird feelings watching my baby bird test his wings and do one more thing independent of me. I know I am supposed to be working myself out of a job - its just kind of hard to go through these little exercises knowing that it is strengthening me for the real thing that will come sooner than I would like.

I also am kind of bummed because selfishly, he is by far my biggest helper. He loves his siblings and does so much for them, which really keeps me for losing my mind some days. But on the other hand, Huston really needs this. Isaiah can bully Huston by trying to parent him and they always seem to think that they need to be doing the same activities at all times, which lately has caused a lot of conflict. Huston really steps up to the plate and becomes a lot more confident when Isaiah is not around - and really he and Avery seem to get along a bit better too. Who really believes in the concept of the three musketeers anyway? (in my opinion its not even that great a candy bar) - I find that three heads are just one too many most times. I am hoping that 10 days without older brother will be enough time to really plant some seeds of independence into my little middle man Huston. Heck, I might even get a little bit more quiet time because often times Huston skips a needed nap because he knows that Isaiah is not sleeping. So there may be opportunities ahead of getting all three children napping at the same time - one can dream...

Tuesday I will also slip over to my parents' emptier house (my grandma will still be there) and will sleep there that night and as late into the morning as I want to. Steven has taken Wednesday off of work so that I can attend a home schooling conference in St. Charles. I go just for the curriculum fair - I don't venture into the break out sessions. So I will have a whole day to think, plan Isaiah's school year (at least sketch it out) and decide what I need from the fair. So a quiet evening, a restful night of sleep, and a day of my own (with shopping no less) awaits me next week. I can't wait.

So this weekend I need to get Isaiah packed, figure out some fun things that I can do with the younger ones while he is gone, and kind of plan out my alone day. It should be fun.