Baby Fever

Okay, so that's just a tease. I DON'T quite have baby fever, despite having seen and held two delightful such creatures this past weekend. First, my sister delivered her third baby late Friday night - and I dislike her just a little bit because of her 6lb, 12 oz (full-term) boy who practically fell out after two pushes. :-) Sigh. I haven't yet posted my last two birth stories describing agonizingly long posterior births yeilding 8-plus pound boys (not wildly big, I know, but apparently about as much as I can handle). Anyway, Saturday evening we drove up to Rock Hill to see the new baby and make the rounds visiting with family and friends. Sunday we went to church with my mom, then enjoyed the enormous and incredibly delicious autumn feast she prepared for us. After we digested said meal a little, we rolled ourselves out to the car and drove out to see our good, good, GOOD friends, the Parkers. They recently built a new house on several acres, and also fairly recently, had their fifth baby, now a sweet roly-poly little girl. I held her, adored her, and still didn't feel a pang of baby-longing. That's not to say I've dismissed the idea of having another - just that I've developed a measure of philosophical patience about it. :-) AT ANY RATE...the Parkers are true kindred spirits, and we simply love spending time with them, our Sunday afternoon this time being no exception. Lisa and I have been friends since we were 9 and 11, and while we haven't always walked similar paths, we certainly do now, so when we get together, we fairly wallow in understanding and support. Our husbands have only known each other since Dave and I were married, but they get along wonderfully, and especially love to swap crazy-wife stories (which are always eerily - and hysterically - similar). And our children...have there been such kindred spirits before? They are the best of friends, and spend wondrous hours together. So our afternoon with them was idyllic, but we tore ourselves away to swing by to see Dave's parents before returning to my mom's. This morning we dropped in briefly to see my dad before winding our way home again. We were able to return on a weekday, by the way, because Dave is off today and the next couple days (paid) while his office is being audited. We are, of course, happy to enjoy this surprise mini-vacation with him, but I am, admittedly, very nervous about anything that might affect his job. But if I can shelve that for the next couple days, I will, and just enjoy these beautiful fall days with Dave and our four (and staying that way for now!) children!

Inspiration

For me, October is traditionally plunge-into-the-depths-of-despair month, for a variety of reasons but all with the same result. And...it's October, obviously, so it hasn't been the greatest of times for me, which may be one reason for my lack of inspiration. Why October? This is also the time of the year when my eczema flares suddenly and drastically (and maddeningly) - perhaps it's all connected. At any rate, this morning I woke up early, trying to capture a moment of solitude and tranquility before tackling another day, but I also woke to sounds in the kitchen. I was a little surprised to find my two oldest bustling around the table, somewhat bleary-eyed as it was rather early for them. But they greeted me cheerfully, poured some milk into a bowl of cereal, announced my breakfast, and presented me with cards they had made the day before. This was all for being, as Drew put it, "the best mommy ever," and it was an even better start to the day than the one I had planned. Of course, the good feeling was tested and tried a couple hours later when Ryan came to me and said I needed to see something, directing me to the bathroom wherein there had been a toilet overflow. Not too long after that, he also showed me an empty fish food canister, wherein had previously been about a month's worth of food. "I fed the fish!" In his room, his piranha-like goldfish (no kidding) were greedily gobbling at the swirling food in the (very small) tank, and there were fish flakes all over the boys' dresser and surrounding carpet, so math hour was replaced by clean-out-the-fish tank, leave-that-plunger-alone, DON'T-flush-the-toilet-again, WAIT, STOP, DON'T pour-all-the-gravel-in-the-sink, and LEAVE-THOSE-FISH-ALONE time.:-)

Well, that was a little garbled, but it was something. October is almost over, November is a little shorter, and God is still good.

It's Been Awhile...

To tell you the truth, I've been thinking about signing off for good. I have felt so uninspired - and uninspiring - that I haven't been able to post anything, and I realize that what I have posted in recent weeks has been inane. This isn't worth anything, either, but I guess I wanted to check in. God is good, and my children are still bright stars in our universe...and that's about it!

One More Thing

And, by the way, who knows from whence my new blog title comes? It's actualy part of the name of our school (forced to pick a name last year, we landed on this from some of our favorite literature...) Now I'm using it to help me revamp my blog.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Good: After a meltdown at AWANAs last week, one of my children showed great determination and spunk, studying hard to learn the section at issue.

The Bad: I overheard an AWANA leader discussing with someone else the child and the meltdown in question. It wasn't a completely unflattering discussion, but still, it's not always very nice to hear.

The Good: Chase is eager to potty-train, and LOVES going around mostly unclothed in the process.

The Bad: Chase escaped out the front door the other day, naked except for socks. An adorable picture, but he didn't want to go back inside, and gleefully - with squeals of forbidden delight - tried to evade capture by running circles around our van as I tried to catch him. And this is when our neighbors pulled in their driveway.

The Good: Chase growing up! He's not a baby anymore and is rapidly developing independence and communication skills.

The Bad: Chase growing up! Today as we were getting ready to go the library, I went to my room to brush my teeth. When I came out, Drew calmly called out from the kitchen, "We have a problem." I walked in to see Chase standing on a chair he had pushed in front of the refrigerator, holding the water lever down continuously and thus flooding the kitchen floor with water.

The Good: My kids learning all kinds of things despite last week's intentional break and yesterday's unintentional one. I've found them outside playing Robinson Crusoe and listened to them around the house singing songs from Les Miserables(even Ryan!) They've written stories together, read to each other, and started nature collections.

The Bad: Having to hope that no one asks them the specifics of what they're currently doing in school. :-)

And the Ugly: Finally getting to the library today, depositing everyone in the children's section, and suddenly realizing that I did NOT mean to wear what I was wearing out in public!