A Hunting He Has Gone

Piles of various camouflaged items all over the floor of at least one room in our house can mean only one thing: Shawn is hunting!
He left Sunday afternoon with our friend, Andy, as well as Andy's dad and brother who traveled up from Nevada and Arizona. They made it up to "interior Alaska" and are now southeast of Tok, Alaska. Andy has a SPOT locator, so from the looks of things, I think they've set up camp. I believe the season officially opened today, but I'm not exactly sure since I can't seem to find a set of current hunting regs anywhere in this house. Is that not the craziest thing you've ever heard? No hunting regs in the Phelps' household! I tell ya, it's almost scary. But anyway, the game they are pursuing is moose. I sure hope he gets one this year. Not because I particularly want another animal head/hide mounted somewhere in my living room, but because I'd love to stock the freezer full. We got about 1/3 of the moose that Shawn's hunting buddy, Mark, shot last year, and the meat has lasted us all year. Plus we think it's delicious and it's a super lean red meat. So if Shawn enjoys hunting moose and the reward is a year's worth of meat in the freezer, then it's a win-win for all of us.
The only downside to his hunt is that the three of us are on our own for two weeks. Yes, I did use a plural form of the word week. I'm sure it's the perfect length of time as far as the moose are concerned, but it's basically well into overtime for the three of us. So to handle the time better I'm really careful and intentional about how I schedule out our days. I have to balance enough activities and time with other people so everyone stays happy. I've learned that Carly handles Shawn's absence much better if she gets an occaisonal break from me. Her school schedule will help a lot this year, and I also got her signed up for more swimming lessons that start tomorrow. With a couple of playdates mixed in, we should have a happy little daddy's girl when it's all said and done.
As well as keeping the kids active, I like to try to do projects while Shawn is gone on trips. And usually I don't tell him what I'm going to do so it will be a surprise when he gets home. Today I started two projects that I hope to finish before he returns. One was scrapeing the old popcorn texture off the ceiling of the hall. I got about 1/3 of it done in about an hour with the standard interruptions--diaper change, sippy refill, resettling children on the couch for their show, lessons in sibling love...you know the usual. The second project today was starting to sew curtains for Isaac's room. After the ceiling is scraped I plan to retexture it (which I've done before in Isaac's room, don't worry) and maybe even paint it (we'll see). Another project that is waiting in the wings, is reorganizing our bedroom closet. It really needs to be done. Hopefully I can get it all done.

And now, what you've all been waiting for...pictures of the kids. This is what the kids did this evening before dinner. It was a great creative activity and kept everyone happy. Momma got to cut out fabric on one end of the table and the kiddos made playdough creations on the other end. I was really impressed with Isaac making what he called "snakes". I'm still shocked myself, when I see what he's doing or hear what he's saying and then remember that he's not even two yet. He truly is such a big boy.


If anyone is interested in checking out Andy's SPOT locator page, let me know and I'll send you the link.