Some self-indulgence...you were warned.

This transition -- returning to life after vacation -- has been rough.  Maybe worse than rough; maybe horrible.

The thing is, there are plenty of reasons.  The horribleness can be explained away:  jet-lag, the kids have been sick, I have a job that I am finally facing, I'm not busy enough to really be distracted at that job, I miss my family, I miss my friends (especially the bride), I miss yards with grass, BLAH BLAH BLAH.

But I'm just not sure that's it.  Doesn't it feel like some things are just going to have to change? Big things? Like our political system? And the legal industry? (I know, maybe only big to me.  And other lawyers.) And our disproportionate energy use? Or am I in a mood?  We did find out that my sweet husband  needs £3000 of dental work.  But I was in the mood before that.

And then this morning, I had such a nice morning at home with my kids.  SO NICE.  Best time since returning to London.  We baked bread and ate breakfast and got dressed and read lots of books because there was a book sale at my work (can you say random?) and I bought the kids a bunch of new books for very little money.

I suppose what I'm taking from this horrible transition is that as a newly-working-again mom, I can now truly appreciate the time I get to spend with my kids.  I've been reading a new blog (she's not a Mormon, which I know brings my husband some relief as I think he secretly expects our very own, no-strings-attached copy of the Book of Mormon to show up at our house any day.  To be honest, I would ask for one if I thought that reading it would give me the interior decorating skill or fashion sense of the Mormon bloggers I read.  Holy parenthetical, Batman!), and the woman who writes it takes cheesy photos, lives in a McMansion in Florida, and is uncomfortably effusive about how much she loves her life... but she's sort of getting to me.  And she's really good at saying all the time how much she loves her girls, and pointing out the happy moments she has with them each day.

I think I'm just homesick.  (Which home is that?)

Today, Tommy drew a treasure map and showed me the "X" where the treasure was buried, and then, he drew the pirate ship.  The most amazing part of this is that it actually resembled a ship.  Then, he drew the sails, and again, they actually resembled sails.  Then, a flag that actually looked like a flag.  Then, some "bones" on the flag that did not look like bones.  But still.

Lulu didn't do anything truly remarkable today (that I can remember, anyway), but she has been screaming in her bed for two nights.  Our fault.  We let her sleep with us two of the nights that she was sick and jet lagged.  There are two completely contradictory rules of parenting:  one is to do what "feels" right, and the other is stick to your routine.  And if you do something that feels right, like letting a clingy, sick baby sleep with you, but she normally sleeps in her own bed, she's going to realize how much better it is when she's not doing the routine and let you know that she knows it's your routine and she wants to do it her way for a while.

Eli has to work on his speech this weekend (he leaves for Australia on Tuesday, right after we drop the big boy off for his first day of school), Tommy has a swimming lesson on Saturday, and we have to buy school shoes.  Otherwise, we'd better do something to make us (one of us, at least) feel grateful to live in London.

Seriously, I'm going to get some musical tickets.  Not for this weekend, but for a weekend in the near-ish future.

Visitors would also help.