Busy Work

I am off today, kids are in school. I'm using my time wisely, getting through the mountain of laundry downstairs. My main goal for the day though is to... (god, this sounds bad) put JP away. All of his clothes, his shoes, his jacket...everything. I just hate finding his stuff and thinking

MY GOD, HE WAS JUST HERE!

It makes me sad, then I cry, and that has to stop. I had a good bawl last night, that should do for now.

Alex mentioned it this morning as he was getting ready for school "everything is back to normal, huh?" How sad is that for these kids? "Normal" is their dad GONE. I hate this, for the kids, and also for JP. I am doing better, maybe because I know that "normal" will help me get through the next seven months. I know that once he comes home, I can slide back into "family of 5" normal again without too much difficulty. But for now, I need to get back to the familiar way things run around here. The kids need to get back into it, too, and I will have to help them with that.

Emma went to bed early last night, 8:30. Her usual bedtime is 9. She woke up SO NICE this morning! I'm thinking of amending bedtime around here... usually she is the worst to get up. I have to go back in there repeatedly, to the point where I just start yelling... yeah, I know, hard to believe about me, right? hehe
But this morning was great. I think I will run that by her, maybe it's just her, cuz Eric is up til 9, and he is bright eyed every morning. I don't even have to wake him up, he hears my alarm, sees my light come on, and starts getting up. Alex is up til 10, and he is a typical teenager. Dead to the world under a mound of blankets, I ask "are you up?" and get a mumble in return. But without fail, within 10 minutes, he is upstairs, dressed and rummaging through the cupboards. So if I can just solve the Emma issue, then my mornings will get much better. I'm liking this plan, very much!

I also have to go grocery shopping today, and get work done on my homework. I'm having lunch with Mom today, and I have bowling tonight...ugh! I should get my blogging ass up, but the dryer still has 20 minutes left, and I am finally caught up with the folding, so I 'technically' do have a break coming to me. I've been up since 6:30 ya know!

JP is in Atlanta. They got in too late to catch the last flight out for Germany. So the military set them up in a hotel for the night, he leaves there today at 1pm. I hope it takes days and days, maybe even a week for him to get back to Hell. Even if he can't be with me, I would rather he not be there.

In hindsight, I should have pushed JP down the stairs when I had the chance....