When Jim is away

Jim is currently off on a 18 day trip (for work), with time in South Africa, DRC [Congo], one night in Kenya, and Cameroon. I'll let him write more about it in a forthcoming post. Though we aren't able to get a hold of him on the phone whenever we like or know with regularity when he will contact us (because some of these locations do not have consistent electricity), he has been able to phone us once, email three or four times, and we even got to Skype this morning. Timo was very excited to see Daddy on the screen, and immediately said, "Daddy play Timo? Daddy read books Timo?" Every day that Jim has been gone Timo has asked three or four times, "Daddy home now?"

While Daddy has been away, Timo has taken to wearing his "sunshine hat" most of the days, inside and outside. It's a wool cap that Jim got in Nepal on a trip in 2013. Here he is having a snack - an especially exciting snack because I let him get out a spreader and eat bites of peanut butter straight from the jar.

We got about a foot of snow right before Jim left, and another few inches in the days immediately following. So during Mats's morning nap, I got my daily exercise shoveling and sweeping snow, while Timo would stomp around and explore and try to shoot hoops in the backyard. It was between 10-20 degrees all last week, but Timo never complained while outside (except to cry when I told him we couldn't take the sled and go for a walk, leaving Mattias inside by himself!).

"Ohhh, huge snowball, Mommy. Timo throw!"

Suffice to say, we have spent most of our days so far hanging around home. We did get out of the house once to the library and once to the grocery store, and to church on Sunday morning - wow! I talked to other adults! ...on Jim's previous trips, I discovered that being a single parent is really tiring because there's no break, and no one to come in and relieve the troops. Troop, that is. By the end of the day, I've finally got both boys in bed and then... walk in the kitchen to wash a big pile of dishes and then into the living room to fold a pile of laundry. Let's just say that I give myself a lot of positive reinforcement in the form of dark chocolate to get through those tasks.

This time around I knew what to expect and I made sure the fridge was fully stocked and I had plenty of pre-made meals in the freezer. It has helped SO much to not spend a lot of time cooking and doing meal prep. And it helps that Timo is a great eater - tonight for supper we had black beans & rice, and salad. He ate a bowl of rice & beans, and then chowed down on salad. I'm pretty sure he ate as much as I did. (What do you think of that, Auntie Rachel?!) It may be a twisted mothering thing, but when my children are sleeping well and eating well, I feel so proud and happy.

Enough for now, I need to finish folding the laundry and have my nightly cup of rooibos tea!!