tuesday.

We are halfway into Week 4, and life is slowly returning to normal.

Our new normal, that is.

A few firsts for the boys last week: first library visit, first zoo trip. I did the library by myself! With all four kids! It went great and I felt ready to take on the world. However. There is no way I could possibly do the zoo on my own, so Mum Mum came along, which was much more fun anyway.

David came home from work at 4 p.m. his first week back and was home every evening, but by now we have transitioned back into his normal work schedule. He comes home early whenever he can, and has meetings at least a couple of evenings during the week. I don’t know how he does it after a long day of work, but when he’s home he’s home. He’s chasing four little people around the house, wrestling, washing dishes, bathing, watering the garden, laughing, hugging, and kissing. What a guy.

We had a great date night last week, and our weekends have begun to settle into a rhythm. For now I’ll do some focused school work with the big kids Friday mornings (Friday is David’s day off). We made a weekend goal of a few hours alone for me (Friday afternoon), a few hours alone for David (Saturday morning), then something fun together as a family. Since we have that plan, it helps us both have realistic expectations about the weekend and let’s us each have time on our own to look forward to and plan for.

Sunday was amazing. I somehow got all four kids fed, dressed, and out the door for church by 8:45 a.m. without feeling stressed (with a little help from Netflix, I’ll admit), and Gabe and Noah stayed in the 2-and-3-year-old nursery without me! They love it so much that they were asking to go, and I barely got a second glance when I dropped them off.

Our volunteers are always fantastic, but still it helped my peace of mind that Mum Mum was down there working in the nursery too. I can’t tell you how restful it felt to sit in the church service with Judah, sipping coffee from my travel mug, worshiping with my church family, listening to my husband preaching. I love our church.

As for school, I may have written a great blog post last week, but the truth was, it was a rough week. Tears, tempers, and so.many.distractions. So my mom came to the rescue, and adjusted her work schedule so that she starts at 10 a.m. and comes before that to help out. Gabriel and Noah love the attention from her, and it was so very wonderful to have some quiet time yesterday morning to get work done with the older two. Twelve days left until summer!!!

Now that the boys are bonding and comfortable with us, we’re branching out some more with family and friends. Gabe and Noah had a play date at their cousins’, Owen and Oliver’s, house yesterday (if you’re wondering, Gabriel and Oliver are the same age — nearly 4), and we’re having a friend from church, Malachi, over to play on Wednesday. It’s sweet what a great group of kids in our church and neighborhood are our little guys’ ages. God has been preparing lots of friends for them!

There are many things I loved about our simple life at home the past month, and so now that the boys are doing so well, I want to be careful not to jam-pack our schedule with activities. We have lots of time to do everything we want.

David and I still feel tired, but more encouraged than overwhelmed at this point. Honestly we feel like we aged three years in the last three and a half weeks (really five if you count those harrowing two weeks where we knew about the boys but weren’t yet sure they’d be ours), and I keep checking the mirror for gray hairs I know must have sprouted.

But looking back, of course it was such a short amount of time. We still have our ups and downs, but it is unbelievable how well the boys are doing and how they seem to genuinely be attaching to us as their parents. Those spontaneous smiles and hugs and cuddles make everything worth it. Yesterday was the first day I didn’t want to throw up my hands in despair at sibling dynamics, and I counted at least four different points in the day where siblings were enjoying one another.

We attribute all of this to God’s goodness, the prayers of many, and the help of many (as you can see from this post). We still won’t have to cook a meal until the second week of June, and that is awesome.

Happy Tuesday!