Mom & Pop Home School

In a few weeks Pop and I will be celebrating our twelve year anniversary. It’s hard to believe it has been that long already! And at the same time, it’s hard to imagine life without being married to Pop. Today, though, really convinces me that we’ve been living, and working, and thinking together for a good long time now.

This morning I rolled over in bed when the alarm rang and confirmed that Pop had, in fact, actually crawled into bed at some point in the wee hours before dawn. He had a much needed night out with “the guys” and had not yet finished the card game tournament before I went to bed (after puttering around until much too late, hoping he’d wander in and I wouldn’t have to crawl between the chilly sheets without my personal foot-warmer). The alarm had woken him up sufficiently for me to remind him that this was the day that I was going to an autism parenting seminar (DIR–good stuff!!) and he needed to be conscious in time to take our roguish offspring to a children’s activity at the church. Then I got showered and dressed and put breakfast on the table, and he was up in time to eat so I went off to my seminar with high confidence that everyone would get where they needed to be.

After the seminar I hung around and chatted with moms and helped put stuff away and whatnot, and  by the time I left it was well past lunch time. Instead of going home and poking around for something to eat (I need to head out to the grocery sometime soon, I’m running out of perishables) I decided to take the new Winter Promise lesson manual that had come in the mail and go to an actual restaurant and sit down and have a good long look at it without anyone needing me to find this, or fix that, or proofread the other thing. So I went to IHOP and had some lovely crepes and a nice leisurely look at the guidebook. Aaaaaahhhh.

As I waited in line to pay I was looking at the Beanie Baby display shelves they have near the register, and my eye was caught by two adorable little fuzzy sheep, one pink and one white. Oh! I thought. Those are adorable. Cricket and Sunshine would LOVE those. I even picked them up and debated with myself for a while before putting them back. I decided that I’d already spent way too much money recently, and here I was eating out already and I didn’t need to be nickel and diming the bank account away any worse than I already was.

So I put them back and paid my bill and went home. As soon as I walked in the door, two very excited children dashed up and threw their arms around me, chattering away simultaneously at a rather alarming volume and speed. (It’s always nice to be missed!) When they calmed down enough to take turns, it went something like this:

“MOM! Guess WHAT!”

” Dad took us out to lunch after the Primary activity!”

“We went to IHOP!”

“And Dad bought us SHEEP!”

“Look! Mine is PINK…”

“And mine is white. His name is Woolsey.”

“It was SO FUN!!”

I tell ya, this “one flesh” thing is getting a little scary. Evidently we’re sharing the two remaining brain cells equally by both using them at the same time.