Time with The Children

On Thursday, after wondering how I should ask Tiffany for kids for the weekend, Nate called me and we talked for a while. When we were done talking, Nate handed the phone back to Tiffany. I asked her if I could have the children for the weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Later she texted me and said, "You may have the kids from Friday evening until Sunday after church."

I picked them up around 6:15pm on Friday. On the way home, Nate was telling me some of the things Tiffany was telling them about the situation. Lily wanted to go the the office to play and get checked but it was getting too late. Nate was mentioning all the games he wanted to play so I decided it would be a work and play day on Saturday. When we got home we read scriptures and stories together and sent the kids to bed. Before going to bed, Nate made a list of all the games he wanted to play. After he went to bed, I made a list of all the chores that needed to be done.

In the morning before breakfast, Nate packed up the Wii and games so he could take it with him when they left. After breakfast, we pulled out the two lists and chose the first chore and the first game. The kids chose to go to the office and clean windows while I analyzed x-rays. After we finished we played Sorry. The kids ate the bread I had at the office to hold them over till lunch. Once we finished we headed home and ate pizza for lunch. Then they chose to clean the hallway. Nate also helped load whites and gowns into the washer. After cleaning the hallway we played Quirkle. Then the kids chose to weed. After weeding, which I did most of because they've never weeded before, we played Uno. Then all three wanted to play outside so they did different chores to play outside. Nate chose to sort his clean laundry and put it in his drawers. Lily chose to put the gowns in the dryer. I helped Matthew find his Sunday clothes.

The kids played outside until dinner time. I chose to make German pancakes for dinner instead of Kartoffelpuffer, because Nate wanted that. After dinner we read scriptures and stories and went to bed.

I knew we wouldn't have time to do our full Sunday morning routine because of daylight saving time. But after breakfast we did a short set of scripture stories from the weekly reading. Then we got ready for church and ate lunch on the way. At church the children were well behaved while I did choir practice. When it was time to sing in the choir, I asked Nate to take charge of the other two while I was up front, but Lily was not behaving so I invited her to come up with me. She agreed so I walked with her up front and she sat next to me while I sang. Then we went back to our seats. The other two were well behaved the whole time we were up front. After the sacrament meeting they went to primary and after church Tiffany and her mom were waiting in the foyer. I told Tiffany that we needed to talk and I asked if she had decided what to do with Nate's schooling as she told me she would the week before. She told me she hadn't. I tried negotiating with her to keep him at his current school but she refused my suggestion. I offered to consider suggestions she had and all she could say was we should sell the house which isn't a short term solution.

I spent quality time with the kids, as I like to do, and refused to turn on the TV and waist the little time we had together watching it or playing video games. We prayed a lot for healing and for Tiffany and it appears that our prayers won't be answered in the short term or the way we want.