Clap my hands and shout for joy

Phil was gone all of last week. He was in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho singing with Voice Male. It is so good to have him home. Eden really missed him. At one point she started crying and saying, "I sad, I sad, I sad." When I asked her why, she replied in a soft, thoughtful voice, "I miss my daddy." We talked to him several times every day and she loved that. She was such a good girl while he was gone.

So was I (mostly). I had three goals while he was gone:

1. Surprise him by painting our bedroom.
1a. Only paint while Eden slept - to not sacrifice being an attentive mom just to get my project done.
2. Keep the dishes done (he is the dish do-er and so when he is gone, I tend to let them build up).
3. Be a happy, supportive little warrior and not complain when we talked on the phone.

Here is how I did:

1. I got the bedroom painted but I ran into some questions about which paint went where and so I ended up telling him so I could make sure it was done to is aesthetic satisfaction. We had planned on doing it two-toned but I messed up and put the wrong color on top. That is when I told him and we decided to just do the whole thing in that color (kind of a dark sage/moss green). I really like it and think it is better than it would have been if I had done it correctly. Nikki (one of the YW in our branch) came over and helped one day, that was great.

1a. I did paint for about 20 minutes after she woke up from her nap on Friday. I was nearly done with the walls and so she watched Leap Frog's Alphabet Factory (she knows most of her alphabet by sound and sight these days!) while I finished up.

2. There was one night that I went to bed with dishes in the sink but other than that, I kept up on the dishes.

3. I was a total whiner on Wednesday but I did well the rest of the week. Glad I could repent of Wednesday. I didn't whine that he was gone, just about other stuff (mostly the paint color mix up).

Now he is home and we are very, very glad. Last night I suggested that the two wrapped gifts in the corner could be seen as "welcome home" gifts instead of father's day gifts. He didn't require much convincing (is that because he knows me so well and figured protesting would be fruitless or does he like opening presents early as much as I do?). He really liked his gifts (I'll do another post about those - probably on a Tutorial Tuesday post). We also made him a fun banner that said, "Welcome Home Dad" and served him one of his favorite meals.

I'm so glad when daddy comes home glad as I can be. Clap my hands and shout for joy place Eden on his knee. Put my arms around his neck hug him tight like this. Pat his cheek and give him what? A GREAT BIG KISS!