Piles, Kids and Friends

I’ve spent the last two days surrounded by piles.  Piles of things I need to take with me to Nashville, piles of to-do lists, piles of school work that I need to leave behind for the kids.

It has been harder to prepare to leave them than if I were taking them with me.  One would think the lack of a crib, diapers and 24 hours worth of kid friendly DVDs would lighten my load.  But it’s really the same because I have to be sure there are enough diapers, meals, toilet paper and schoolwork at home while I am off traveling the world.  Because let’s face it….James is not going to the grocery store.  That’s not his area of expertise.

I wanted to leave something special, something little, for each of the kids so they know how much I will miss them.  I carefully chose some books off of my shelf to loan each of the girls.  For Patience, “Little Women.”  Faith gets “Beautiful Girlhood” and Hope will be getting one of my all time favorites, “The Mitford Series.”  I got candy for Noah, Adam and ‘Lijah.  I’m leaving a textbook that my friend gave us for Grace and Jacob to read, “Systematic Theology.”  (thanks Autumn!)

I wrote them each a simple note to go with their book/candy.

I hope you don’t mind my saying….my kids are so great!  No whining, no arguing, they are respectful and loving.  It’s a joy to be their mother and I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving for 9 days without telling them so.

Little Levi gets something wonderful.  Blissdom sent us a package and in it was a recordable storybook book from Hallmark.  There was a note that said that they knew we might be leaving our children and this book would be a way they could hear our voice while we are gone.  Waaahhhh!  Sniff, snort, HONK!

I can picture him carrying it around under his arm and saying, “This is my Mommy book.”   He can open it up and hear, “I love you Levi,” in my voice.

As I load up my van the piles are dwindling.  My to-do lists are getting shorter.  My etsy orders are finished and ready to ship.

I am really excited that I get to meet so many of YOU!  Some of you will be at the conference, two of you I get to share a room with (can’t wait to see you Cha Cha and Kellie!) and some of you are meeting me along the way to and from home.  That’s the best part, meeting new friends.

Now I just need to figure out how to get these piles from my van into the hotel room without a fork lift.

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