Wonderings...

Here are a few things I pondered today:

1. Wait, I thought the kids were fine yesterday? What do you mean we're ALL sick now?
2. Why can't I have outside dogs?
3. Do all sick toddlers try to maintain a diet solely based on sugar, or is it just mine?
4. How did I get so fortunate with Big Sister? She is the sweetest, lowest-maintenance sick kid I've ever seen.
   
5. Why do our new neighbors have to be those people- the ones who just moved in on Sunday but already set up their targets for shooting practice in the backyard?
6. Is it illegal to shoot a gun in your backyard? Or is this what I get for living where I do?
7. Is that even a real gun? Or am I freaking out about some kid & his Red Rider BB gun? (Hey, he might shoot his eye out. Or one of my kids' or dogs' eyes. Can you tell I'm not really a gun person?!)
8. How can a child who woke up at 5 only sleep for 45 minutes?! And is it really worth it when the time it takes to soothe a child to sleep is longer than her afternoon nap?
9. Can I seriously be considering giving up eating out for lent.
   
10. Will we starve before April?
11. Did any of our friends have King Cake yesterday?
    
12. How long has it been since I've had King Cake?
    
13. Dang it, why did I start thinking about King Cake?
14. When was the last time I had a shower? (You don't want to know the answer to this one)
15. What is the deal with that Wiggle's song about "hugging up a big monkey man?"
16. How many times have I been "blessed" today? Literally- I've sneezed countless times and heard two precious "bless you"s nearly every time.
17. Why the poop are we all sneezing so much?
18. Where are all of these %@#^*%&^% ants coming from?!
19. Is it only 5:30? Is 5:30 too early to put everyone in bed?
20. Is there anything else I can do to help my sweet sick girls to feel better?
21. How many of those pretend pieces of food did Little Sister put in her mouth?
    
22. Do I need to wipe them down with disinfectant?
    
23. And why will she eat more of them than anything else I've offered today?
    
24. What else was I thinking about today?
25. How in the world did we all survive today- and even more importantly, how did we do it without (much) fussing or fighting or drama?

With the three of us under the weather, I didn't have a lot of time for deep thoughts. But that's okay, because Jack Handey guy manages enough for all of us.

What about you? What have you wondered? Any deep thoughts? Can you help a momma out until she regains her mind?


PS- After a shower & dinner, I can now add these thoughts:

26. How can a shower make such a HUGE difference? AND...
27. Where did I get such a great guy, to make me pancakes, eggs & bacon after he got home from church? Oh yeah, AND...
28. Why does bacon smell up the whole house?!

Bedtime Jukebox

Our girls sleep with a CD playing on repeat throughout the night. It seems to help them stay asleep and settle back in if they wake up in the night. Of course, it is probably creating terrible habits. A few weeks ago, when we lost power, none of us could sleep without the background noise. And heaven forbid we forget it when we travel!

But the CD player isn't the jukebox to which I am referring in the title of this post.

I am.

For a few months now, Little Sister has been making requests while I rock her and sing.

At first, she would just start singing a new song, right over whatever I was singing. Sometimes one song would remind her of another, and she just couldn't wait until the first song ended to move on to the next. What used to be a soothing bedtime routine started to sound something like this:

Me: (singing) Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bi-

LS: Oh how Jesus

Me: (singing) Oh how I love Jesus,
Oh how I love Jesus
Oh how I love Je-

LS: Jesus Childgen World

Me: (singing) Jesus loves the little children
All the children of the worl-

LS: Oh how Jesus

You get the idea. Depending on the night, Big Sister might be giggling in her bed, or growling with frustration.

As Little Sis has gotten more verbal, the routine has become even sillier. She does understand more, so sometimes I'll tell her I-want-to-finish-the-song-we-just-started-and-then-I'll-sing-the-next-one-will-you-give-me-a-break-please!? But mostly, she does even more talking when we're supposed to be singing. Here's what went down tonight:

Me: Are you ready to rock & sing?

LS: (singing) Dot Ho World...

Me: (singing) He's got the whole world, in His hands-

LS: No. I don' wandat. (singing) Doodnigh' [Little Sis]

Me: (after singing eleventy billion verses of the goodnight song, in which she told me exactly which names to sing) Okay, I want to sing something different. (singing) Jesus loves me, this I kn-

LS: (singing) Oh how I love!

Me: I'll sing that after I finish this song. (continues singing) For the Bible tells me so.

LS: no no. I don' wandat. I wan "Oh how I love."

Me: (singing) Little ones to him belong.

LS: (singing over me) Oh how I love.

Me: (still singing) They are weak but he is strong.
yes, Jesus-

LS: I wan "Oh how i love."

Me: (singing) Oh how I love Jesus...



And how I love my sweet, stubborn Little Sister and our snuggly times before bed. Even if I do feel like a jukebox.

sicko

I was working on this big post about snow & Climate Change. I'll share it soon. Right now I don't have the energy to finish it, or to enter into debate about it.

I am sick. Cough & congestion, fever & body aches, too dizzy to stand up much sick. Little Sister seemed to have it- she was pitiful and wanted to be held almost all day. But she never had a fever.

Today she is acting like her usual playful self. (Actually, while I type this, she is working on a dirty diaper. But she keeps walking over to Big Sis, lifting up the back of her shirt and asking, "[BigSis], you poopin'?" This is making Big Sister very angry and indignant. It is also making me laugh uncontrollably. Which in turn makes me cough. And hurt. And want to cry.

I don't know why this winter has been so rough on us as far as sickness goes. Maybe it's Mom's Morning Out and being around little kids for just a few hours, twice a week. Enough time to be exposed but not to build up immunity. Whatever it is, it stinks.

I'm going to try to help get my kids ready for school, and then I'm heading back to bed.

Song for Sunday: A King's Tribute

Tonight we had a Valentine's Banquet at our church. This is primarily a function for the older adults, although there was a decent representation in the younger crowd as well. The entertainment for the night was an Elvis tribute artist. It was not exactly my cup of tea, although I'll admit to singing along with a few songs. Here is one of them- perfect for Valentine's Day, dedicated to my hunka-hunka-burning love*.

Love Me Tender
credited to Elvis Presley and Vera Matson

Love me tender,

love me sweet,
never let me go.
You have made my life complete,
and I love you so.

Love me tender,
love me true,
all my dreams fulfilled.
For my darlin' I love you,
and I always will.

Love me tender,
love me long,
take me to your heart.
For it's there that I belong,
and we'll never part.

Love me tender,
love me dear,
tell me you are mine.
I'll be yours through all the years,
till the end of time.

Good deal

Tomorrow is the last day to order $25 gift certificates on restaurant.com for $2. Just enter promo code HEART when you're ready to check out.

I spent $10 and now have $75 worth of dates for Hubby & I, and good deals on new places for my mom & dad to try.

Happy bargain shopping!

Feeling Crafty

The rain stopped!

Well actually, it stopped and then returned in a much more welcome form. It's snowing!

The only stinky thing about the snow is that we were supposed to be volunteering for Give a Day, Get a Day at Disney. The place where we were going to help is about 45 minutes away and we've acquired a healthy respect for small snow amounts in the South, so we'll stay put.

Our trip is coming up soon (remember this post? I had planned on playing a guessing game a little longer, but I'm not so good at secrets, or at finding Disney hint photo ops that aren't obvious...) , so we're running out of options to earn our free day. I'm waiting to hear back from our local chapter of the Linus Project about making blankets for our service. It would be perfect, because I feel like tackling some projects.

See the cute Valentine's Day Lollipops we made for Big Sister's classmates?

The idea came from here. She has SO many cute things, and most of them are pretty simple. Except that the first few Candy Canes got a little too melty...

But that's ok. It gives me something to submit to the new blog I found. It's pretty funny, and it also makes me feel like I'm not alone when I make a mess of simple projects.

I also have a few new crafty blogs I'm following. Check them out:
Mod Podge Rocks
Mustard Seed Creations
MaryJanes and Galoshes
That last one has a super fun giveaway going on right now, so head over & enter!

I'm not the only one with the creative juices flowing around here. Just check out these Valentines Big Sister has been working on:

I know I'm a little biased, but I think she is quite an artist.

She says she wants to be one when she grows up. And a Kindergarten teacher, and a Vet, a Radio Station Person, a "Pet Store Lady" and a Mom. I think I know where we'll be sticking that tax refund this year. (YES! It's true! WE GET A REFUND!!!)

So, friends, things are looking up today. The rain gave way to snow. We've actually accomplished some fun (and cute) things around here. We're getting a little tax money back into our pockets for the first time in years. And I'm starting (slowly) to feel like my own personal fog is lifting after it settled in a looong time ago.

More on that one is coming soon.

Time to join Big Sis in her snow dance.

Odds & ends

I don't have much to say today, except:

1. I am so tired of rain. I know I'll regret saying that when we have yet another drought this summer, but COME ON! If the temp was just a few degrees lower it would all be snow. And I know some of you (SJ) are getting tired of the snow, but it would at least be a heck of a lot prettier. Just about anything is prettier than mud.
   
   
2. I'm working on our taxes, which is always a crapshoot around here since Hubby is ordained and therefore taxed as "self-employed." Basically, for you non-ministry families, that means that we pay all of his Social Security and such after the fact. No extreme amount of withholding has seemed to grant us a refund since he was ordained four years ago. Last year we at least got closer to breaking even, but somehow none of my part-time paychecks went to federal taxes this year, so we might as well start writing our check now. Sigh.
   
   
3. I don't have anything profound to write myself, but I did want to share this article by Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post. It is about Tim Tebow and the Superbowl ad controversy. Of course, the ad was benign- I'd even call it sweet, so the controversy has all but died down. But I still think the dialogue it brought to attention deserves, well, more attention. As a woman, a Democrat, a Christian, and someone who believes in the sanctity of all life, I grow weary of everyone assuming the worst about "the other side," digging in their heels and refusing to work together. I think we need more people- in the church, the capital, and the press- willing to see things from the other side. Jenkins did just that.
   
   
4. Did I mention that I want it to stop raining?