a big separate weekend

two weeks ago, david took the kids to michigan to spend some time with the extended staple family, while i stayed home to prepare the kitchen for construction. it's both a wonderful and awful thing to be home alone, missing your kids, but luxuriating in the silence of the absence.

while they snuggled down in the big tub with lots of bubbles,


i got to see benjamin booker with my dear friend stephanie.


the next day, while the kids met new cousins and david got to see his big famiy, my heart ached to be missing it all.


trying to fit this fridge through this doorway was no consolation prize.


but i got that new rickety temporary kitchen all set up, and the shelves emptied into boxes, so i guess it was time well spent.


the following morning, while my three favorite people were homebound aboard a ferry,


i caught the willy street parade while on a run through the neighborhood. the bubble car is always a big crowd favorite.


a weekend apart is hard for us, because weekends is what we have to all be together all day long. to lose even one feels like a real loss. but, after 10 years of marriage, 5 years of parenting, and many many many weekends spent together, i think we navigated this one pretty successfully.

speaking of 10 years of marriage, check out these fresh faced kids at the wedding church doors at lunch time on their 10th anniversary. happy anniversary, david, you handsome devil.