Swaziland and Sweets

We sent Rick and the rest of the team from Vanguard off to Swaziland yesterday.

We had a very early morning of driving Rick to the Denver airport.(I will fill you in on the big events yesterday in a different post later.)

Rick returns on the 22nd.

I am in survival mode.

I have stocked up on soda, ice cream and cookie dough, all the essentials for life without hubby.

Today, when I was at the grocery store, I was asked if I run a daycare. No, actually these are all my children.

I have packed our days in order to stay busy. We all seem to survive better if we are busy.

My kids are in the really bad place of fighting and aggravating each other relentlessly. That right there will wear me out quicker than anything.

I can't tell you how many times I have already said the phrase, "It won't hurt my feelings to send you all to your beds if you can't get along."

Laila wants chips at every meal, so I am starting to give foods a new name. Today at breakfast she had "cereal chips"(a.k.a. corn flakes). Tonight I am trying to convince her that peanut butter and crackers are "peanut butter chips."

Tonight is $1 scoop night at Baskin Robbins. We had dessert before dinner. A couple of my kids decided to buy additional scoops with their own money. Ice cream might be their whole dinner.

I was able to ichat with Rick today. It is always such a relief to me to see that he made it there safely. They are in Joburg for the night, and leave out for Swaziland early in the morning.

This is the first Vanguard trip that I have not been on. That is very hard for me. I got the team ready and sent them on their way to execute the ministry. It makes me sad, but I KNOW that I need to be home with my kids this year.

God keeps confirming that in so many ways.

So, while Rick is in Swaziland, we will be consuming a fair amount of sweets around here. It is ironic that our ministry is called "Beyond Survival." I feel like that is my goal right now moving "beyond survival" as a mom.

If you want to follow their trip, you can join the FB group "Beyond Survival" by clicking here.