Hey, Where's Mama?

Well, last weekend was a first in the Lewis household. For the first time, Daddy took sole possession of the children (sort of...) for the weekend while Jessica took a much deserved Girl's Weekend Out in Pigeon Forge, TN, with nine other women from our Sunday School class. I say "sort of" because it turns out I brought in reinforcements in the form of my father and brother. Ostensibly they were there to watch Calen's marathon soccer weekend (two games in 16 hours), but they were certainly a big help.



The afternoon began with Jessica departing on Friday afternoon at 2PM. My father and brother arrived about 4PM, with a soccer game beginning at 5:30. For the most part, things went well, other than having to round up three children happy to see their "Papa Carlie" and "Unca Johnny" (Jax's version) and get them ready for a soccer game. We made it- only three minutes late. Of course, the game didn't start until 15 min after the scheduled start time, so we were ok. I did think to put the White Chicken Chili (that Jessica had pre-prepared and left for us) in the crockpot before I left-- maybe this won't be so bad after all!



Calen's game went well, ending in a tie, and we only had minor difficulties keeping up with Jax and Riley during the game- more difficulty with Riley's shoes, it seems. We made it home and managed to feed the kids some of the delicious White Chicken Chili, and send them all off to bed. Calen did well, because he slept with Papaw. The other two? Not so much. It normally takes Jax a while to fall asleep and stay in bed, but, with all the excitement of the day, this drug on for two hours. Since he shares a room with Riley, he kept her up as well- although, I have to say, she sometimes would be the instigator, standing and saying "Hey..." I would have pulled some hair out- if I had any to spare.



Saturday provided another soccer game (a win by the Rangers with Calen playing an excellent Defender role), hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, and a birthday present for me from my Dad- a very handy air compressor! Thanks Dad! We even managed to watch the UT-Vandy game on Saturday night, with Calen picking up several pointers from my brother about the finer parts of the game. Again, the great thing about homeschooling as Jessica has pointed out- you can fit it in anywhere! Calen practiced subtraction by telling us how far the teams had to go after a play (four yards on 1st and 10 leaves 6 yards to go!). I managed to short circuit the bedtime blues- by sending Jax up with my Dad, leaving Riley in her own crib, and bringing Calen to bed with me (Shush- don't tell Jessica).



Sunday morning involved getting the kids ready for church, along with sad goodbyes to Papaw and Uncle. I managed to get all the kids to their classes and back without any major catastrophes. We then had some lunch, and the younger kids took a nap while Calen and I continued our Dad's weekend while watching Dallas pull out a squeker over the Redskins. Thankfully, around 4PM- Mommy arrived! Yeah!



We managed to survive the weekend, with a very helpful assist from my family. Jessica says she had a wonderful time, and I'm very thankful she got to go! I don't think I always appreciate just how much she does every day to keep this house up and running. She certainly deserved such a break, and I hope she gets to go again soon- as soon as I can build up the nerve to try it again. Next time Riley might actually have enough hair for bows- I don't think I can handle that...