Well, today is the day that I've been dreading ever since my father-in-law first suggested that my husband accompany him to a pastor's conference in Florida. Two reasons for dreading the trip: 1.) Cole and I usually attend this conference every year during the first week in February and I knew that if Cole went to Florida, my yearly retreat to Minnesota was out. and 2.) The Florida conference is loooong. He'll be gone for six days. So, after getting him all packed and saying our good-byes early this morning, I did what any grieving-left-behind-wife would do: I started cleaning like a mad woman. (Actually, I met with a friend for weekly discipleship at 8:00am, but THEN I started cleaning like a mad woman.) I've been cleaning out kid's drawers, vacumming under beds. The house looks great now and I've got one huge trash bag full of the discards and two laundry baskets of random things that need to put away. What a feeling! Now, I'm bone tired, but I made promises to certain children that tonight would be FUN. Ty likes to cook, so I promised him that he could make some brownies. Tru and Ava were both invited for sleep-overs with various friends, so their fun is secure in the hands of some other moms. That leaves Emma. Thankfully her ideas of fun coincide with mine quite nicely because after all of that cleaning, my fun-o-meter is running on the low side. Boy, it's times like these that I remember to be thankful that I'm not a single mom. God was really smart to give each family TWO parents. Here's to the rest of the week without Cole. I'm already counting down the days until I hear the garage door opener whirring open.