A typical day

Life has returned to its' normal level of busy-ness now, and for that I am grateful. The kids and I are really enjoying ourselves. On a typical day, I wake up about two hours before they do. I try to squeeze in 30 minutes for a work out, have a small breakfast, get caught up on e-mail and shower.

When the kids wake up, we spend some time easing into the day. Mira likes to sit on the couch staring into space for a few minutes, and Ryan likes to sit on his bedroom floor staring at his LEGO bricks. They usually have a small breakfast, then we like to read/do experiments/research things/write in our journals before lunch.

Most afternoons we have activities outside the house. Every other Monday we have park day with our Little Elm homeschooler's group. Every other Tuesday our friends Cheryl, Jackie and Robbisean come over. Wednesday is park day with the new Denton group we joined, Tuesday and Thursday Mira has drama class, and Friday is Girl Scouts day.

In the evenings we play outside, take the dog for a walk, cook dinner and eat it, and play games together. Our current game obsessions are Blokus
and Sleeping Queens. Typically the kids watch about an hour of TV at some point (usually Myth Busters) while I catch up on laundry, phone calls, and e-mail. Somewhere in there we squeeze in some reading, a couple of snacks, and some home maintenance. We all head to bed around midnight, happy, peaceful and tired. Ryan tells stories to Mira and we talk about what made today the best day ever.

My telling of it makes it sound boring, but our days are full of laughter and joy. Both kids are very funny and lively, and they make a great team.

Oh, what about time with their dad? The "plan" as it stands now is for the kids to be with their dad on Wednesday evenings and all day Saturday, but that hasn't really been happening. They're with him for a couple of hours one evening a week (whichever one he can manage) and usually three or four hours every other weekend. He also set up a web-cam so they can have a video chat every evening, but that's happened only once. He calls them at bedtime (his, not theirs) about once every week or two. They don't seem to have any anxiety or sadness over the amount of time he spends with them, and Mira is usually relieved to hear he's cancelled for a day. I hope they continue to be OK with things as they are and don't feel any kind of pain or rejection over all the postponed and cancelled visits. I think it helps a lot that they weren't used to him being around much or being involved in their lives at all even before he left. We're all very happy that he continues to honor his financial commitments to us.