Tonight our family has rediscovered homeostasis. Now if you’re like me (and for as many times as I’ve typed those words here, I have yet to have anyone indicate that they are), you have a hard time seeing or hearing the word homeostasis without thinking about the kid in sixth grade science class who giggled every time the teacher used the word because, well, "he said homo" (even though he didn’t actually say "homo.") That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about equilibrium; an elimination of tension.

I left our church gathering tonight about half-way through the sermon (it wasn’t me preaching, though I’ve been tempted to leave half-way through one of my sermons before) to pick up Amy at the airport. She survived her excursion to the west coast; we survived her excursion to the west coast.

I thought this experience might provide us all with some classic tragic-comic moments…you know, stories about me running around the house with one kid screaming, another bleeding, and the third covered in her own bodily fluids. No such luck. It all went really well. I’m not saying I’m great at being a single parent, but everyone stayed fed and clothed (they even had baths Saturday), the house stayed clean, and I can only recall about three total spankings. I’d say the over/under on that was a bit higher.

I had some great help in spots, and I really appreciate that. It probably kept me just north of sane. That said, it was more or less just the four of us for the bulk of the five days. I’m not eager for any more stretches like this, but it was good to have this kind of intense time with the three of them. I love them, and I don’t ever want to complain about time with my kids. They’re a blessing in small and large doses.

And all that said, we aren’t really us without Amy around. She’s the glue and the motor and the heart of all that happens at 201 Augsburg Court. My kids are so deeply connected to her and the subtle changes in them when she’s not around aren’t so subtle to me. She centers them and steadies them, and she also has an almost supernatural ability to locate and enliven their unique personalities and energies. I’m pretty good at wrestling and tickling and wiping butts and reading stories and spanking and giving hugs and discussing the logical progression of the series of events that led to your spanking, but she does all the heavy lifting. The real kicker is that all those things she does for Aiden, Ella Grace, and Ainsley – she does them for me too.

So our system needs her coordinated responses to all the disturbances in our normal condition to maintain our internal stability. She’s the keeper of homeostasis around here, and we’re all thrilled she’s back.

Also I’m going to sleep late Monday morning, which will rule.

Let me clarify that hilarious joke in my previous post where, depending on how you read it, I might have insinuated that some blogging moms are terrible mothers. Once upon a time I knew exactly who was reading my words. Now I never know who’s hanging around here, which means not everyone knows how to process my razor sharp wit. What I was doing there, of course, was noting that being the primary (and especially sole) caregiver to multiple kids is very hard work…very time consuming, exhausting, and so forth. And I was confessing that this is a lifestyle to which I am not particularly accustomed. I meant no offense to anyone except, of course, anyone who is actually neglecting their children. That’s bad. Don’t do that.