the process of recuperation

visiting far away family and friends - fun. traveling to and fro - exhausting. recuperating from an excess of holiday treats, late night game playing, and grandparental spoilage - nightmarish.

we walked into a sparkling clean home, only to destroy it minutes later with bags upon bags of unloaded clothes, toiletries, and christmas loot. although we did laundry before we left madison, before we left arizona, we ended up with mounds of waiting laundry. that doesn't add up, and i don't know how that is possible, but it is.

of course, with our living room hijacked by the unpacked luggage, the rest of the house quickly became a disheveled mess.

we got back sunday night, and had to jump right back into the normal routine of things by monday morning. isaiah woke up bright and early for school. and that afternoon, makayah's first day of intermediate ballet lessons began. it's her third year of "lessons." 

the proper way to perform an arabesque.

makayah doing her own version of an arabesque.

next up, a trip to costco for a week's (or two) worth of food was in order. we were in mad need of detoxing our holiday treat -filled bodies. travel eating for an extended amount of time is not recommended.

our first dinner back home: fresh spinach, blueberries, strawberries, avocado, and grilled salmon. it felt unbelievably good to eat fresh, homemade food.

mimzy was a great helper throughout the week. i wish she was as good at cleaning up as she is at making messes.

and since this was our week of recuperating, the kids were lucky that they even had two baths these past 5 days. and thankfully, mimzy didn't scream this time around. she actually enjoyed her bath and wanted to stay and play. thank you, bath toys.

sam took the kids out to the school playground for some much needed outdoor play, while i caught up on a ton of work. along with unpacking, we had also fallen behind in our photography business with the holiday break taking us away from our main editing station at home.

it was such a gorgeous and sunshiney day! we just had to take advantage of it.

mimzy thoroughly enjoyed herself...

as well as the taste of the metal playthings.

when they had had enough of the playground, they came back to pick me up. we dropped off our overdue library books at the library and stopped for ice cream at the neighboring ice cream shoppe. 

it's been 7 days since we arrived home. the living room has been cleared out. there are still empty bags to be taken down to our storage room in the basement, the laundry has been clean - and almost all folded, isaiah and mak's snack days have both been cleared out of the way for the rest of the month, bedtimes, are back to 7:30pm, ballet and sports classes have been attended, church lesson for this week has been planned and taught, photos have been edited and delivered, meals have been healthy and filled with fresh veggies. for the most part, the house is back in working order.

there are still lots of things on my to-do list:

mimzy's nap times are still such a mess, mommy and daddy bedtimes are still askew, and we have lots to catch up on concerning isaiah and daddy's homework assignments.

at least it all seems more manageable now that the luggage has cleared the living room floor.

here are some kiddie quotes i just have to add before my foggy head forgets them:

**

as we were out and about running errands, the kids were playing some sort of game. isaiah shouted out, "makayah, you're cheating!" makayah waved her hand and retorted, "cheating is fiiiiiine."

**

after a long and busy day of running more errands (recuperating somehow requires this), we all plopped down in front of the t.v. for some mindless entertainment...the miss america pageant just happened to be on. they were announcing each contestant and isaiah said, "she's pretty. but WHAT is she wearing?!" (just for your info, she had a loud and busy shirt with only one sleeve, yeah, what the what?) ;) 

**

just last night, isaiah and makayah were playing battleship together. isaiah gave his coordinates for attack, "D7." 

makayah smiled and said, "nope, this ship is SAILING!"

"makayah! there is no sailing in battleship!"

****

today i am grateful for:

*keeping my sanity through this crazy process of recovery. we're almost back to our normal routine of things.

*the huge help sam has been. he doesn't have school until the 22nd, or something like that. so, he's been here to run errands, take the kids out, and do the dishes. thank you, sam.

*our van we get back today. it got a scratch on the side, shortly after we came home and sam immediately sent it to the shop to be fixed. we've had a dinky rental car for the past few days and although it has that new car smell - we all really, really miss our roomy van with heated side mirrors, power side doors,  and all weather tires. 

*paper plates. they are a lifesaver when trying to catch up on post-travel life.