When the boy is gone, peace reigns!

On Monday we sent Kenyon away. Yep, he left on a church bus to go to camp for the week. He was so very excited about it. This is the 4th year that he has gone to camp and he has had so much fun each time.

There he is there in the red shirt. (sorry about the blurriness-man I need to work on my photography.)

He was extra excited this year because they are going to a new camp this time and they have horseback riding. He had to have some extra money for that so he got himself a job. Through July he has gone on the paper route with me 2 nights a week for $5 a day. He rode along and had to roll and bag the papers for me. Even on the nights when they were extra fat and he had some troubles getting them in the bag, I did not help him. He struggled but figured it out and got his job done and earned his own money for the extras at camp.

It is so strange how one boy can have such an impact on the house. When he is gone peace reigns. The girls play so nicely together that I can sometimes forget that they are even here. It is not that the boy is bad but just that he is a boy. He is busy all the time. He has to be doing something at all times which equals getting into things most of the time and noise follows him EVERYWHERE he goes. When he is around, even if he is helping me, I never seem to be able to get things done in a timely fashion, I have spent this week-with no boy-getting things done. Of course I had to spend one day cutting and gathering limbs from the storm. If Kenyon would have been here, he would have no doubt wanted to be involved with using the big clippers and cutting limbs but it would have taken a lot longer with his help. I spent another day in my own bedroom. My neighbor, Ms Barbara, has been really sick for awhile(please pray for her-they can not figure out what is wrong) and she is having her sister move in with her to help out. Her sister did not want to give up her own bedroom set so Ms Barbara got rid of her extra set. SHE GAVE IT TO US! :) I spent a whole day taking everything out of our room and replacing it with a new MATCHING bedroom set. We had one chest of drawers, 2 smaller dressers and a queen size head board but nothing matched and our bedroom was crowded.

We got a new chest of drawers

a dresser with mirror

the matching headboard

and a bedside table.

I rearranged the whole room and cleaned out everything. It took me the biggest part of a whole day but it was so nice to be able to spend the day with peace and quiet. The girls played house most of the day and stayed out of my way as I moved furniture around. When Monty came home, he was so surprised at what all I had gotten accomplished. I asked him how he liked it and he said " it finally looks like a bedroom. I feel like I am in a motel." I have had to resist the urge to just sit in my room all day and pretend that the rest of the house looks just as good.

This afternoon my son will be home. I have really missed him and can't wait to hear all about his week at camp but am I a bad mom for enjoying the peace we have had while he has been gone?