Single mama time again

Wes is leaving for China again tomorrow for the second time this summer. He'll have spent 4 of 6 weeks this summer in China. I'm getting more relaxed about being by myself but I really miss him when he's gone. Sadly for Margaret, he is not accompanying the baby panda back to China, nor is he going to win the gold medal in swimming. At least it seems likely that he'll be home before the Olympics, and I hope I can get the kids to watch some because I think they'd like it.

I instituted tv-free week here this week, and so far it's going really well. M didn't ask to watch yesterday at all, and this morning when she sleepily asked to watch something while I was still in bed, I reminded her about no-tv-week and she just climbed into bed with me and we went back to sleep. Until Henry woke up with the same tv request, and instead rolled around the bed keeping us awake. Later on, I heard him playing "watch movies!" with his animals. It's sad that watching tv/movies is a game in our house. But they've been playing together all morning without me. So I guess it's ok.

I'm trying to spend less time on the internet lately, because it's a huge time suck/mental energy drain for me. I think it might be a serious addiction. Last week we had 2 days with no internet due to modem issues, and I felt so free and efficient. I'm in the process of moving H into M's room, so that will free up his room to be an office. If I put the computer in there, it won't be right in my line of sight all day, so I can ignore it for long periods of time. That seems to be the healthiest thing for me. So don't worry if I seem to be ignoring you, internet. I'll get to you eventually, just maybe less frequently.

In the meantime, look what Wes and I accomplished on Sunday: This is what it used to look like before we pulled up the carpet and took the bed down:
Well, that's what it looked like a year ago, when you take all the bedding off the bed, but try to imagine. I'm in the process of priming the floor, then I'll paint it and it will be ready for us to go buy a new bed for the kiddoes. They complain mightily about the other kid stepping on them, etc. in that bed, so we're seriously considering this bed from IKEA, with M on top and H on the bottom:I have a few reservations about this: Like do they *really* want to sleep separately? And what happens when I have to lie down with someone in the middle of the night? Some friends who were here this weekend said they have the bed, and their kids *love* it, which is reassuring, but will *my* kids love it? It will make more space in the room, because it's twin sized instead of full. And Henry won't fall out of bed if he's on the floor.

OK, I'm done rambling.