I’m talking about Recipe Resources over on my food blog.  If you’ve got a favorite cookbook, site, blog or whatever you’d like to share…click on over!  Argh!  It seems wordpress tossed my photo when I changed the theme.  Add another item to the to do list!

Having Belle home from school these two days has been such a joy!  We darted about here and there yesterday.  Not really accomplishing most of the things I’d hoped to do, but together nonetheless.  Today, we’re staying home for now.  Belle finished a book in bed this morning and then started working on a Brain Quest workbook I bought her.  All without me asking!  I love it when I find her on weekend mornings snuggled in bed with a book.  

The Littles, as I so often call them, are still waking up too early.  They haven’t made it past 6:10 am since the time change.  It will come in handy tomorrow morning, but I haven’t much liked it on these mornings I don’t have to be up and running.  They do play in their room fairly nicely, but they come begging for food every few minutes.  

I’m tackling laundry and other such fun chores today.  And now you see why I don’t post all that often.  Our lives are just so exciting!!

Well looky there.  I get sick and suddenly half a month is gone!  Honestly, once we recovered from the flu, we’ve been out and about having too much fun to stop and write.  With the holidays coming-and all the fun cooking involved, I’d really like to get my cooking blog resurrected.  

We have a big backlog of photos to download off the camera, but once that happens I’ll post some of our Halloween pics.  We had a fabulous week with J home on vacation.  Sadly, he heads back to work tomorrow just as Belle has two days off.  I’m looking forward to a couple extra days with my big girl.  It feels like forever since she’s has a day off school!  

Song I’ll be singing all day, thanks to a sweet purchase  by J on ITunes for his girls: Party in the USA.  It’s just the type of song you find yourself singing at random moments, even if you haven’t heard it in weeks.

Pardon me for a bit, but I’m over here on the sofa sleeping away. Yes, I’ve got the bug now. Fever, chills, a cough that’s given new meaning to sore stomach muscles. My kids have spent far too much time watching tv these last few days, but frankly it’s all I can do to walk over to the thing and turn it on.
See you again when I’m well…

A nasty flu bug-likely H1N1-has hit the depechemom household.  It’s a tough one, I tell ya.  Little Bear started with a fever on Friday morning and Little Lamb came down with it on Saturday morning.  LB was warm again this morning, but got by with just one dose of meds.  LL was back up to 102 and required two doses of meds.  She did get up and play around 2 which was a big improvement over the last few days.
We’ve missed school and two birthday parties, cancelled dinner plans with friends, and only left the house when necessary.  Thank goodness for the grocery pickup-I order everything online and set up a time to pick it all up.  It did cost me an extra $4 this time, but I couldn’t take them in the store knowing how sick they’ve been.
I’ve tossed countless bowls of food that Little Lamb requested but then refused to eat.  The girl ate 3/4 of a piece of toast and a slice of a baguette today.  Maybe a few cheerios or crispix.  That’s it.  Little Bear is eating a little more than she is, but still ate virtually no dinner.  They are drinking juice, watered down coke, water, and a little milk.  I’m going to have to seriously fatten them up once they are well.  Little Bear had finally gotten to 32 pounds…bet he’s back down to 30 or 31 before this is all over.
I’ve gotten more than enough snuggles in with LL and LB.  Of course Belle is jealous.  She hasn’t even sat on the sofa since Thursday evening!  LB told me today that he would keep me forever for my hair.  He still likes to play with it now and then.  Usually just a quick stroke before bed or leaving for school.
Anyhow, I’m praying every moment of every day that J, Belle, and I don’t get it.  I have a suspiciously scratchy throat and I’m full on exhausted-but that’s likely just from taking care of two sick wee ones.
I did manage to get some cooking accomplished today.  Homemade Chicken Stock, French Onion Soup, and an Apple Skillet Cake.  I wasn’t as impressed with the cake as I wanted to be.  I’m hoping to get my food blog going again as the holidays approach…we’ll see how that goes though!

Ok, so I finally made it through the whole alphabet.  I know I had a better word for Z some time ago, but it’s long gone now.

As for the last month or so around here, all three of my  children are in school at some point.  Belle is enjoying second grade and is devouring books right and left.  Little Bear is in preschool M, W, F.  All but one of his best buddies from last year are in his class this year.  The Pre-K is large enough to have 2 classes of kids!  Little Lamb goes to the same school on M, W.  I only wanted her to attend two days a week, but knew it would be too much for her to be away from LB that much if she attended the traditional Tues/Thurs days.  Thankfully our school’s director is extremely understanding and is allowing her to follow an unusual schedule.  She has also been extremely helpful with the financial side.  All of the classes are full (or close to full) this year which allows her to be a bit more flexible.  I thank God each day that we found such an amazing school here in our small town.
I am keeping myself busy by serving on the Leadership Team for my Bible Study.  All the leaders meet on Wednesday mornings to go over the study and then I’m in the 1-2 year old class on Thursdays (when everyone else is in Bible Study).  There are two little boys, both named Will, who have attached themselves to me.  They are so sweet and a bit prone to crying for mommy, but the way they reach for me as their closest stand-in warms my heart.  Last week was the best week thus far for the Will who typically cries the hardest.  I even had the pleasure of seeing him laugh, which was huge!!  The other Will was absent, so I’m praying he doesn’t back track this week.  
I have a 4 month old baby I watch on Fridays.  He’s the son of a friend who is a nurse and therefore is able to just work one day a week.  She may increase it to two days eventually, which will take out my only “me time” on Mondays, but I’ll get over it.  
We celebrated two birthdays last month as well.  Belle is now a big 8 year old girl and my wee Little Lamb is 3.  Not so wee, huh?  She is half-way potty trained.  And by half-way I mean, she’s trained in one but not the other.  And that’s all the details I’m going to give you on that one.  Except maybe one phrase I hope to never hear again (but know that I will) “Mommy, my pants are wet from my poop!”  I actually had to go buy more underwear today because of the ones we’ve had to throw away.  I’m not usually one for being that wasteful, but some things are beyond repair.  Especially when you are out running errands and aren’t planning to go straight home.  Ok, I’m really done with that now!
So, yeah, we’re a bit busy around here.  Enjoying life just as much as we can, though!   And clearly too tired for nice transitions between paragraphs.  Take what you can get, people!  :)

I’m helping with the Yearbook at Belle’s school this year.  I know absolutely nothing about the actual construction of the book, which is fine because the Mom who is in charge is a graphic designer.  I’m simply going to keep track of order forms and other organizational stuff.  I’m looking forward to having a sneak peak of the book, though!  The Yearbook, or rather Annual, at my school was a really big deal.  I attended a K-12 school and we were all in one book.  The books were big-about an inch thick-and were highly anticipated.  The release date was always guarded under extreme secrecy. We always had a big all-school gathering when they were finally released.  The signing of the books was a very big deal as well.  Belle’s school doesn’t get into the hoopla much.  The books are handed out to those who order them and that’s pretty much it.  I guess the fanfare is reduced so the kids who can’t afford to buy them don’t feel badly.

of the incredibly large hole I seem to have fallen into. Every day I think “This is the day I’ll get around to posting” and then I never get around to it.
Anyhow, it seems a few of you are still mucking about. Gotta love feed readers!

Belle is somewhat of a worry wort.  I have a tendency to worry about things now and then, but I suppose that goes with the territory of being a female.  The thing about Belle is, she tends to worry about things which she needn’t be concerned.  I happened to share an idea I’ve used with a couple of friends this week and they liked it, so I thought I’d share it with you.  I explained to Belle that some things are “kid worries” and others are “adult worries”.  So when she starts asking those “what-if” questions on a subject that’s too big for her, I tell her it’s an adult worry.  She’s a thinker and I worry (ha! ) about her spending time mulling over things she really has no control over, like money, where we’ll move next, or what happens if our house is robbed.  I give her a small answer, so she knows I’ve already thought through it, and then tell her it’s J’s and my worry, not hers.  Hopefully, this will help her learn how to release things to a “higher” power.

And now for the WOW!  I’m posting this link mostly for my friend Jennifer.  She may have already seen it for herself, but I have so say this is the most stunning picture of a butterfly I’ve ever seen!  Karen is such a gifted photographer, and I can’t wait until her book is out!

A couple of nights ago I was dreaming some whacky dream about my mom.  I woke up from said dream around 3am feeling warm.  I got up to walk around a bit, figuring it was my restless legs making my hot.  I checked the thermostat, just to be sure, and then walked into the living room.  I quickly turned back down the hall when I heard that familiar bug banging into a light sound.  The only light was from the nightlight in the hallway, and sure enough there was a big ole bug, drawn to the flame, if you will.  I took a double take, hoping my sleepy state was causing my eyesight to fail me.  Unfortunately, my fears were confirmed.  The bug was a gigantic hornet!!
After a moment of freaking out, I pulled myself together and headed to the basement for the super huge bug spray.  (Not the official name.  Clearly.)   When I went downstairs, I turned on the light over the stairs.  I had no idea at the time, but this turned out to be stroke of genius.  The bug, once again drawn to the flame, joined me on the basement stairs.  It was banging into the light at the top of the stairs.  I ran and grabbed the spray, but didn’t want to fight the beast on the stairs.  So, I turned on the light in the laundry area and turned off the light on the stairs.  Immediately the bug flew to the new light.  I sprayed that nasty bug at least 4 times.  I didn’t want to smush it-that wouldn’t leave any photographic evidence.  So, I left it writhing away on the floor and got back in bed.
Now, normally I’m not much on killing bugs, especially not with chemicals.  But sometimes, that’s just what you’ve got to do.  As I lay in bed, I was so thankful I had woken up.  I often pray that God will wake me, should someone need me in the night.  I kept thinking how terrible it would be to wake up by being stung by that beast!  Especially since the only other light in the house was in Little Bear and Little Lamb’s room.  Unfortunately I was so thankful, I couldn’t get back to sleep until around 4:30am.
Here’s a picture of my nighttime visitor.  Keep in mind, it was MUCH bigger before I sprayed it.  In fact, it was shocking how quickly it shriveled!   Even still, you can see it was still larger than the quarter after the big shrivel.

See the new look! I think I might possibly like this one. It has been far too long since I’ve actually been happy with the look around here. It’s not perfect, but it’s way better than anything I’ve put together lately.
We’re wading our way through new school schedules, ballet class, preschool orientations, doctor’s appointments, new Bible Study commitments…whew! It’s gonna be a heck of a week. Somehow I also have to manage to plan two birthday parties. One girl (Belle) has big plans-too big, if you ask me-and the other (Little Lamb), well I just have no idea what she wants. She’s so easily swayed by her siblings, that I really don’t know what SHE likes. And all that’s without considering J’s crazy schedule this week. I’m sure I’ll survive to tell the tale, but I suspect I’m going to be a tired Mama come next weekend!