Life sans Wife

Every semester in college you have the one week affectionately known as "hell week," "miracle week," or "suicide week" depending on the institution, in which every paper you have ever had assigned to you is due. Somehow you do end up getting through it, hand in your work and then forget that the week ever happened, and vow to get further ahead the next semester so that semester's hell week will not be so crazy. Believe it or not, being away from hell week for a few years now, I sort of miss it. I miss the rush, the testing your limits, the complete closure of the whole thing. Perhaps its the misplaced nostalgia, or the lack of memory, or the plain ignorance on my part, but this week for me is the married with children equivalent of hell week. My wife has fled the state for a week to go to two very important weddings and we collectively decided that I should watch all the children while she is gone. We are about six hours into that decision and there is a small nagging voice in the back of my head saying, "Oops."
I have approached this week like an end to semester, to be as prepared as possible I sat down and figured out a schedule of activities, a menu, even when the Brewers are on the radio, so I have a plan. Just like in hell week though, I know this plan is doomed to failure. I won't do everything on the list, I'll forget something really important (like laundry or sunscreen) and in the end I will have a sense of completion. After all, hell week is never perfect, you never write the paper you really wanted to, you never ace the test the way you thought you might, but when the week is over you can't help but feel like you've accomplished something. Next Thursday at around this time, I will be precious few hours from finishing out the week and will no doubt be tired, drained, longing for my wife and overall just plain spent, but for now, "Bring it on."
A couple of other unrelated thoughts, congrats to the Mighty Ducks (I hate that name by the way). A classic example of a talented team who just put the pieces together at the right time. Really good effort in net, leaving the Sens hurting. The series was very fast and very watchable. Apparently watchable does not equal watched however.
Great line in Pirates of the Carribean Three that sort of reminded me of the famous Jim Elliot quote, (spoiler alert) "Ten years for one day seems like a heavy price to pay." "It depends on the one day." Really good line that also gets to the heart of Samuel Wells point, "Faithfulness is but effectiveness measured against a much longer timescale." Also why eschatology is so crucial to proper theology and Christian living.