what I do

If you’ve ever wondered just what I do when I’m not diapering, feeding, playing with the kids, cooking, cleaning the house, or surfing the web…well here’s a little peek at some of my recent crafting endeavors. There’s a little ribbon crafting, a little sewing, and some attempts at organization happening here.

And just because I love nothing more that catching my kids being the wonderful little people that they are, here’s a pic of them snuggling on the sofa the other day. Sweet Little Bear with his arm around Little Lamb as she’s nestled snuggly between her siblings. This is definitely what it’s all about!!

Belle is on the mend. Not quite normal yet-still a bit whiney, occasionally still says her tummy hurts, and hardly eating anything, but definitely better. I do believe she may make it to school tomorrow!!

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4 hours

That is the amount of time Belle has spent at school in a full weeks time, spread over two days. Last Thursday, as I took her to school, it began snowing. The weather people all predicted a big storm for our area. Most of the local districts closed beforehand. Belle’s district decided not to cancel. I got a call from the automated system one hour into the school day that they were closing early. She spent all of 2 hours at school on Thursday.

Having caught some heat for ignoring the 100% winter weather forecasts on Thursday (which lead to 4″ of snow followed by sleet and freezing rain), the district cancelled school for Friday by 5pm on Thursday. And of course the roads were completely clear on Friday.

Monday was a holiday for MLK, Jr.

Tuesday, I sent her to school despite and incredibly whiney disposition. 2 hours in to school the nurse called to say she had a 103 degree temp.

We went to the doctor and she has Strep. We got the antibiotics filled. She’s slowly on the mend-no fever today but still incredibly whiney, sleepy, and listless.

Yesterday also happened to be my birthday. 33 years old. As my dear friend from college said, “You’re a palindrome now!”

That’s about all I’ve got.

from under the depths…

Belle (who has a day off from school today) and Little Bear came running to me this morning.

“We have an emergency! Little Bear’s spiderman car went under the oven!!”

So I crawl down to the floor and retrieve the car. While laying on the floor I noticed a fair amount of cereal under the oven-ours has a drawer underneath for cookie sheet and the like. I pulled the drawer out all the way and was completely amazed at all I found. I guess it’s been about 8 months since I cleaned it out and put a mouse trap back there.

Anyhow, I just knew you’d want to see what all I found. I’m always thinking of you guys like that. I’m a sharer, what can I say? So, here is the photographic evidence of my “treasure”:

Contents: 7-8 crayon bits, 1 baby rattle, 1 Indian figure, 1 baby link, 1 blue ninja turtle thing, 1 paper from Belle’s school about Healthy lunches, 1 marker, 1 bat toy, 1 Barbie boot, 2 hot wheels cars, 1 Koala magnet, and 1 diaper.

It may be difficult to tell from the picture, but I have all of this junk sitting in my rectangular cake pan. You might be wondering why I would put all this nasty, dirty stuff in my pan. Well, that would be the pan that has been MIA since before Little Bear’s birthday! Yes, it too was under the drawer. I guess it fell out the back end of the drawer. I’ve searched the house up and down for that thing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve almost bought another one.

I shutter to think of what’s hiding under the fridge.

Still trying…

I’ve been having a lot of neck trouble lately. Because of my scoliosis, I am particularly susceptible to muscle spasms. Back in early December we moved the computer to the coffee table to make it easier for the kids-no pushing and shoving for turns knocking somebody out of the chair. Generally I’ve been happy with the arrangement, but it seems to be aggravating my neck. It has something to do with sitting on the floor and placing my arms up on the table which is a bit too high for me.

All this is to say I’ve had to severely limit my computer time lately. J has a major presentation at work (Grand Rounds, if you know much about medical stuff) on Wednesday, so he has full reign of the laptop right now. I would greatly appreciate any good thoughts you could send his way these next few days. Being a “quiet guy”, these sorts of things are particularly difficult for him.

Well I’ve surpassed my allotted time, so I better go now.

Free moments

I’ve been working on being disciplined in how I use my free moments. I have several works in progress (“WIP’s”) including a knitted hat for Little Bear and calendar/planner for myself. I’m doing my best to evaluate what I’m doing each day as compared to what I want to be doing and seeing where I can improve. It hasn’t allowed me much time to sit and write, however. I do hope that once I’ve got a few things squared away, I will be able to carve a dedicated writing time into my day. Until then, just be patient!

if you can’t beat them, drown them out!

Sorry to have been so silent lately. Christmas came and left more quickly than I ever could have imagined. My parents came to town for a quick post-Christmas visit. This was our first Christmas that we did not travel, and I did my best to just soak it all in. Then, just as I was ready to share all of our fun with you all, J began a week of a VERY difficult schedule. The kind that wears me out so that by the end of the day, I find myself in a fit of anger. Today I lasted longer than last night before turning into my tyrant self. I suppose part of that is because Little Lamb napped slightly better than yesterday and also because not having J around to usher in the New Year was, in a word, depressing. The year 2007 ended with as little excitement and fun as I ever could have imagined. In fact, I was asleep by 10:15 pm. I would have gone to bed by 6 pm just to end the day if I could have.

So tonight, as the tyrant began to emerge, I grabbed the vacuum and cleaned the rug, under the sofa, around the toe kick of the kitchen cabinets, and throughout the dining room. At least then I couldn’t hear the children blatantly ignore my directions! Another benefit: once I finished it was time to put Little Lamb to bed, followed closely by Little Bear and Belle. I haven’t given Little Bear his nap the last two days so that he can see J the few, and by few I mean two, hours he is available to play. Because he’s skipped his nap, he has fallen asleep on the sofa around 7:30. At least tonight I got him dressed and brushed his teeth before he fell asleep!

Anyhow, with the kitchen clean-we’ve been eating dinner around 4:15 so we can eat with J-and even the floors vacuumed, I’m going to do some crafting!

Good night to you all. I’m hoping to have a 2007 review post coming soon, but I’ll have to be of clearer mind to do that. My glasses are much less than rose-colored right now and I fear it’s not the best time for fondly looking back.

Till next time…