Field Trip Day
Rick and the boys are running down to Champaign to pick up some pre-owned computers (Mac, of course) to be donated to a local Catholic school on a very tight budget. (To describe the horrors these children face, Chuck said, “You can’t believe it - their computers still have green screens!) So this gives me a day to go to work without feeling like I’ve abandoned the family.

I know, I know....Rick is here when I’m not. But I still feel like a lousy mother a lot of the time. I was thinking about this topic all last night. A friend of the boys’ came over to play. When I went to the door to say that Eddie was under the weather and Chuck was feeling anti-social, the kid burst into tears and fell into my arms. He needed somebody to talk to after a really bad day at school. He had talked to his mother on her cell phone and she said she’d talk to him when she came home at 7:00. I spent the hour I had planned on using for housework and preparation for the last Respect Life meeting of the year sitting on the couch talking. I hope I helped. But it felt weird cuddling and soothing another mother’s child. I think I’ll call her tonight. Last night I was on my way out when she was coming home.