I cooked a full meal tonight. Pecan crusted chicken with yogurt sauce, homemade mac-n-cheese to make the kids happy, a nice salad. I spent an hour in the kitchen without interruption.
In the other room I could hear laughter during a very competitive round of Apples to Apples Junior. Papa was trying to convince the judge that ‘salt’ was the best match for the word ‘rich’ while Esther thought that ‘hot tub’ was a given. Astrid sat on Grammy’s lap and just kept yelling ‘I want a green card next’ while Eloise made sure that everyone was playing fair.
I could hear Jed upstairs moving furniture as he prepared to finish the painting in the girl’s redecorated rooms.(pictures coming..)
My mom and step-dad surprised us with a visit last night. After our Skype chat on Christmas they said that they could not believe how the girls have changed since their last visit in July and didn’t think they could go another six months before seeing them again so they got in their car and drove the 11 hours because they wanted some hugs.
Watching how Astrid immediately hugged and kissed them when they walked in showed me the power of Skype.
Watching Esther randomly just hug my mom during the day and then not wanting to let her go brings me to tears.
Eloise is having a hard time trying not to hug. She’s not my affectionate one.
And my phone sits in the other room. I’m checking email maybe twice a day. I’m not on twitter. Facebook?
I’m thankful to all of you for not writing blogposts this week. And if you are…stop it. 
I’m loving this downtime and the comfort of family and the time to reflect on what’s really important and why I write.
And remembering that it’s been really hard to cook with a phone in my hand.
And making my children laugh is better than any witty blogpost I will ever write.
