Tender Mercies

On my last post, I mentioned that my husband was leaving me again... because the Army was calling him away on a two week field exercise where they are going to help control the wild fires in Alaska. Even though that is a pretty cool job to do, we had plans  together this weekend. Ugh. But seriously, that's enough. I decided I wasn't going to mope around, and I WASN'T going to stay inside all weekend. Not with it being so gorgeous outside. Last night I spent downtown at the First Friday Art Walk with another lovely Army wife, and we had a super time. Today I went to the lake! Earlier in the week, my friend Nicole invited us to go to Chena Lakes for a BBQ, an invitation I had to decline because of our Arctic Circle weekend getaway. Well, the moment I heard our plans were going to be canceled, I texted her back and "re-invited" myself. I hope she didn't mind.  After a relaxing morning of sleeping in and my yoga practice, I headed out to Chena Lakes at...

It's a pretty common thing to see a toddler with his baby blanket before nap or bedtime. Without it, there are often lots of tears and a child who is not able to fall asleep. I suppose Mom knew what she was doing when she told the babysitter, "As long as he has his blanket, he will be just fine." I have seen first-hand the night and day difference when a two year old has been reunited with a misplaced baby blanket.  My secret is out! You would think I had grown out of this phase by now. I did too! But I mentioned to my husband last night that I had not been sleeping very well lately, waking up every few hours and just not wanting to go to bed when bedtime rolls around. We have been apart many times before, but this month in particular has just been a long one! "Have you been sleeping with my blanket?" he asked over the phone. "Oh no, I haven't! How did I forget that?"  "Well maybe you should get it out of the drawer. It will help ...