Life without the boys

It's been a very strange week for us here at the Poust house. For three days now it's been just me and the two girls. Noah has been at Boy Scout camp since Sunday afternoon, and Dennis has been serving as parent chaperone. Unfortunately, our all-girl extravaganza has been plagued by a virus that started with Olivia late last week and hit Chiara at the beginning of this week. Fever, sore throat, dizziness, and general misery. Lots of moaning and crying going on here -- and I'm not just talking about the girls.

So I have pretty much been a prisoner of the house since the weekend, save for 45 minutes at Mass on Sunday. We did venture out to the library and Farmer's Market late yesterday when Chiara seemed to be on the mend, but that was just a brief and somewhat stressful outing due to the almost constant threat of torrential rain and thunderstorms, something that has become a daily occurrence.

We have watched a lot of the Olympics, something I usually don't do, and we've played restaurant at night, eating by the glow of some pink and purple candle stubs left over from Advent. What I've noticed is that when the boys are away, we eat like a Third World nation. When I go away, Dennis usually takes it as an opportunity to go out and buy something he knows I won't eat -- like a big, fat steak. I, on the other hand, see these kinds of times as an opportunity to make the simplest meals I can muster -- pasta and peas, vegetarian refried bean quesadillas, brown rice with black beans. It becomes very clear that my vegetarianism isn't just something I choose to do; it's my default setting.

Dennis will return home this afternoon, but Noah will stay at camp until Saturday. Later tonight we'll all head to the camp site for Family Night. I can't wait to see Noah in all his Boy Scout glory. I've missed having him around, not just in a mom-missing-her-boy kind of way. I miss the boy who has become a real helper around the house. Noah went to camp last year, but this year is different. It makes me realize how much he's grown up in the past 12 months.