Monday Morning Chit Chat - Returning To Temporary Normal Edition

Good morning, everyone. How was your weekend? Shane came home around 2:30 on Friday afternoon, so we spent the weekend trying to adjust to things being back to normal. I think we'll probably get it all figured out by the time he has to leave again in two or three weeks.

That's making it sound like a horrible adjustment, and that's not what I mean to say. Kat and I are glad that Shane is home.  I'm just observing that it takes a little getting used to, having another adult around.

Kat was wound up all weekend and started misbehaving just a few hours after Shane got home. The weather was cold and gray, so we stayed inside all weekend, which didn't give Kat a chance to burn off any energy, either. We did a lot of work cleaning her room and sorting through her toys (in preps for getting the carpet installed soon -- everything will have to be moved out, so it's a good time to sort and purge, too). By the end of the weekend, she was overwhelmed, over-stimulated and had had enough. I understood, but at the same time, we were 3/4 of the way through and there was no way I was going to quit at that point, so we forged ahead and finished the job.

Also, it seems Shane and I are a little out of sync. In the past eight weeks, I've grown used to doing a little more work around here than usual, while he has gotten into the habit of not doing anything after work but sitting around and watching TV or playing on the computer (because, after all, what else is there to do after work in a small town when you live in a motel room?). I admit that there were a couple of times when I thought he should get up and do something, but didn't say it, because that would be selfish of me. I'm not the only one who needs time to adjust.

Anyway, we will find our "normal" soon enough and it will all be good again. It's just a little...um...different...right now.

In addition to cleaning Kat's room, Shane unpacked his things, went through some junk drawers in his dresser and purged some things, moved some things to better homes elsewhere in the house, called his parents and bought the router and other things we needed to make our laptop wireless in our house.

I did some cooking and cleaning, but mostly I helped Kat this weekend and spent some time messing around with our new laptop. This is our first laptop. I like the idea of having it, but I guess I just must be getting old because I'm having trouble getting used to the little differences between it and our desktop. It's no big deal, really, I just need to learn how to do things (keyboard shortcuts, etc.) that I do without thinking when I'm using the desktop. Just because they don't work when I try them on the laptop doesn't mean they can't be done. I just need to re-learn how to do them. I fully expect to love this laptop once I get used to it.

Shane is back at work today. Ironically, he has gone from working a job that was the farthest he's worked from our house to one that might just be the nearest he's ever worked to our home. I think we all appreciate that.

While he's gone today, and Kat is at school, I'll be making calls to see if we can reschedule the carpet installation sooner, and depending on how that goes, I'll be ordering a roll-off dumpster to put our old carpeting and some other junk in for disposal. I'll be ordering a new copy of Shane's birth certificate from the state because we have misplaced his original and need it for insurance purposes. I'll also be cancelling the camping reservations we have for Memorial Day weekend. We'd love to go, but there just isn't going to be time to do all we need and want to do during his short time home, so something had to give. Not that it will be ALL work around here while he's home. We have a couple of fun outings planned, but nothing that will take more than a day at a time.

If I have time later this afternoon, I may get a start on the mowing. If not, Shane said he'll do it. Either way, I really need to get outside and do some gardening. Our lettuce is going wild, and in fact, I've been giving some of it away to friends and neighbors. Our radishes were getting huge, so I went ahead and pulled all of them while they were still crisp and tasty and not split open too badly. I tried a radish au gratin last night and we all liked it, even Kat. The spinach will soon be more than we can keep up with raw, so I'll probably freeze a little of it, and the Swiss chard is just about ready for it's first visit to our table. Also, our berries are starting to set on our blueberry bushes. I hope to get some pictures for Garden Tuesday tomorrow.

I think that's about it for right now. It's just another busy day (and week) in paradise. What's going on with you this week?