Dark day

As if the whole witchcraft aspect of today weren't enough reason to avoid celebrating Halloween (we do, though), Caris's peanut allergy gives a compelling reason to just stay in the house! Alas, we ARE going to a Halloween party, and we ARE going trick-or-treating, so we'll just have to be as vigilant as possible to keep her from the perilous peanuts.

Hyper Halloween

My kids have had no candy today. It's only 8:10 am. So, how do their little bodies know to be completely hyper today? It's all in the excitement, I suppose, plus that stupid time change that has everyone all wound up. Lord help me! ROFL!

Weight Watchers

I started Weight Watchers on October 1st, I think. In the first two weeks, I lost 9.9 pounds. Smokin'! Then the third week I just lost all semblance of control and ate mostly whatever I wanted. I didn't go to the meeting on Saturday either, for various reasons. Well, today I decided to buck up and go, and boy am I glad I did! I had only gained back .4 pounds! I'm still down 9.5 pounds total! Oh man, I literally cried on the way home, just so thankful for God's mercy. I had been just hoping to still have SOME net loss - as in, I hoped I hadn't gained back all 9.9 pounds I'd lost before. Whew, what a RELIEF!

Oh, crum!

"Change my heart, O God. Make it ever new. Change my heart, O God. May I be like You."

Truly, this is the cry of my heart today. I'm in such a foul mood! It all started when I couldn't fall asleep last night until well after 11:00 (after having disciplined myself to go to bed at 10:00, instead of staying up to watch ER). I woke up having to potty and with a very stuffy nose at 2, then woke up again at 5:30 when Caris came into my bed with a really wet pull-up (had to change her). Dozed from then until about 7:20 and finally just got up. I had some coffee and though my legs are energetic, the rest of me still feels asleep. It makes me think of my body as an empty vessel that is now half-full, and I guess I need another cup of coffee to fill up to brain-functioning level. Wouldn't that be awful, to go from no coffee, to occasional coffee, to two cups a day?

Cloudy day

It's a cold (62º as I write this) day, and gray outside. It sprinkled for about 20 seconds earlier. I actually broke down and turned the heater on! Isn't it weird and gross that I look forward to that awful dust-burning smell the heater makes each year when it's turned on for the first time? It feels like the start of really a new sort of season, and I'm glad for it. I'm awfully whiny when it comes to being cold but truth be told, it's nice to have a change. This year especially, there are lots of things to look forward to during this cold season. Megan and Jason will be home soon, Mom's wedding after that, then Graham's birthday, then Christmas, weight loss all the while . . . it's exciting!

Towarding

Caris got in bed with me at 2 am, and I delivered her back to her own bed. She got in bed with me again at 6:30, which was fine. After I took my temperature (I finally remembered!) I turned over to nurse her. Soon after Graham cuddled up in bed with us. It was still dark and he whispered, "Mommy." "Yes, baby?" "Which way are you towarding?" "Toward you, honey." "Which way is Caris towarding?" "Toward me."
Very cute!

And in other, not-very-cute news . . . ok - last night the phone rang, and Caris and Graham ran out with Graham yelling, "We called 911, we called 911!" (Scared, obviously). I found the phone and answered and said that my kids had called and I'm so sorry. . . . she said, "Which one called?" I said, "why do you want to know?" She said, "You have three kids - which one called?" I said, "How do you know I have three kids?" She said, "You just told me." I said, "No I didn't, I said, 'I have curious kids." She said, "Oh. So who called?" I said, "I'm not telling you that." She said, "Ok, I'll cancel the call." I thought the whole thing was so totally weird - I mean obviously I had a BIG BIG talk with the kids, and it was wrong of them to call - but how odd that she wouldn't give me a reason for wanting to know who called!

Season Over

Today was the last day of the boys' 2005 AYSO Season! It went by so quickly this year but nonetheless, I am really, really glad it's over. Our evenings get so busy between karate, sports, church and just things that come up, it seems like a rare jewel when we have a quiet evening at home together. Now that sports are over for a while I think I'll get our game night going. It's so easy to live life toward some goal without truly relishing the life we're actually living *now*. It's a bummer to think of all the good ideas we hear or learn about and think they're great, but don't ever go to the time or effort to put them into practice. Game night seems like a simple, fun one. I just looked over at the dining room and sighed when I saw a mess there. Guess that'll need to be cleaned up in order for game night to happen. :-P

So at soccer today, there were so many "pincher bugs" (Earwigs), I can't really explain it here fully. It reminded me of when you look down and realize you've chosen an anthill for your picnic spot, so you move . . . only these are like 20x bigger than ants, and they're everywhere, so moving doesn't make any difference. Oh, and they fly. And climb on everything. They're perfectly disgusting. So guess who in my family absolutely adores these repulsive things? CARIS! She's dainty, she's sweet, she's TWO - and she adores Earwigs. She's lucky: they've taken our city by storm this year. She brings them to me by the handful and cries when any of them die. And yes, they do actually pinch sometimes, and she cries when that happens too. Because she loves them so much, and because she picks them up right after they bite and she throws them, I really think she is crying not out of pain but because it so hurts her feelings that her "friends" would hurt her. So today they kept her very busy at soccer, from crying when Graham took one of hers to showing any parent who would listen (disgusted looks on the parents' faces doesn't dampen her enthusiasm in the slightest), to begging me to pet and kiss them (no thank you) - she played with those Earwigs the entire time we were at soccer today. As gross as it is, I took pictures so she can look back at herself from teenhood and think I was a horrible mother for allowing her to play with something so vile.

Alif fell asleep on the living room floor at 6:00 pm. I guess now that soccer season has ended he can officially hibernate. So I got bold and bathed all of the kids, and that went so well that I thought we could read stories too. It was so nice! The kids were sweet, the boys read to ME quite a lot, which was fun, and Caris just loves books so she was happy. Well, until we didn't like her wooden elephant toy tromping across our pages - then she went off to my bed to pout and promptly fell fast asleep. At 8:30 Graham was in his bed and Malachi was all tired out, so I put them to sleep and then carried Caris infant-style to her bed, where she surprisingly curled into her pillow instead of waking to nurse. Sigh . . . really, a lovely evening!

Instock growing

I've got 3 diapers sewn to send to Nogginworks. This is good! I'm actually getting sewing done *without* letting the house go to (total) pot!

Tired

I'm tired today. I went to bed too late last night after staying up for most of ER, then heading to bed and reading a few chapters of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which is a silly, fun read so far. Then Caris woke up at 5:45. Why would she wake up so early? She went to bed at like 10:00 or something last night. I was out at Circle of Friends and when I came home she hugged me so much and stroked my face and hair and said, "(When) you gone I sad; I miss you so much!" AWWWW! Isn't she the sweetest! I love her all the time but don't really want to see her at 5:45 am. It is pretty cute how she whispers, "Mommy! Mommy, can I have my drinkie pwease? . . . " (waits) "Mommy! (still whispering) Mommy, want my drinkie." So anyway, she nursed and then apparently Daddy set her up with a Blue's Clues video. The boys were still asleep and Daddy was off to work, and yeah - about half an hour later there's my whispering baby again, wanting the other drinkie. I gave it and finally got up. Had some coffee, which REALLY jump-started me this morning, because I haven't had any coffee in quite a while. That was a good thing. Got tons of housework done and stalkingly tried calling Amanda G-P several times to see if I can come and pick up some of her laundry. I don't want her feeling sick during her pregnancy, but it will be nice to ease some stress for her if she will let me. I guess that is a big blessing to come out of my having been so terribly sick with Caris. I have not gotten ahold of her yet. The kids acted really unkindly with each other this morning so we are not going to the CHECK park day. This was mostly a relief to me but a little disappointing as well. I'm just a grouch today altogether. My abdomen feels odd and I can't help but wonder if I could be pregnant, but I'm sure it's more likely that my period is trying to come. I am going to start temping (I accidentally wrote tempting there, which is pretty applicable too, ROFL!) and charting tomorrow. I need to know where I am in my strange cycles. I feel like I'm totally in Cycle Wilderness, which is not a really fun place to be. Darn, someone has called my cell phone 2x today and it's the wrong number. That always makes me nervous. Go away man! So alright - kids are down for naps and I need to put in at least the 30 minutes of sewing I've committed to doing during naptime. Shall I have some tea first?

Out of Steam!

I've had a great day, but I am now officially Out of Steam! I'm tired and cranky and want all children in bed, and it's only 5:07 - still the most challenging part of today is yet to come!! Dinner, cleaning the kitchen, getting all the teeth brushed, all the pajamas on, changing sheets that smell like pee, ohhh the list goes on. And that doesn't even count that we have no pull-ups, so we'll have to figure that out too. How's that for complaining?

Menu 10/11/05

Dinners:
Taco salad
Meatloaf, salad, rolls
Cranberry chicken, rice, salad
Beef, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Hawaiian pork chops, rice, fruit kabobs
Chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese sandwiches

Lunch (rest are leftovers, snacky lunches)
Soup & veggies
Sandwiches & fruit
Chicken & veggie quesadillas

Snacks (other than fruit, yogurt, cheese, etc.)
Fruit smoothie
Chips & salsa

Trying it out

Ok, thought I'd try this out instead of Livejournal. Let's just see which we like better! Trying out various fonts at the moment, and wondering why it's not orange like I selected. Let me try again. Not a terribly huge number of fonts to choose from, but this suits me just fine, not that it'll go with my cute dots background or anything. :-D So ok, looks like everything's going according to plan so far.