The main news of the week was the snow. That's what consumed us all weekend.
Why, yes, Todd IS in shorts. Is this not how you dress in knee-high snowdrifts?
By Monday, the power was back on, the roads were somewhat cleared, and the temperatures were high enough that stuff was starting to melt.
We spent Monday and Tuesday running errands - partly because we had a few things we needed to do, and partly because I was feeling a bit stir-crazy after being stuck inside all weekend. We went to Staples and Walmart on Monday, and hit Target and Menards on Tuesday. (Sidenote: I am getting ready to add some pantry storage to my laundry room, and am gathering supplies as they go on sale. The Menards trip for laminate shelving made me WAY happier than might seem reasonable, but you guys, I need this. I need this so bad.) The kids didn't mind all the errands, though, since we're listening through Chamber of Secrets on audiobook, and it offered them plenty of listening time.
In unrelated-to-the-rest-of-this-post news, Lissy has now decided she actually likes baths, and throws a tantrum each time she's REMOVED from the tub.
After schoolwork on Tuesday afternoon, the kids spent time learning to braid. Also, learning to take photos with the big camera. Penelope's efforts at both braiding and photography were major successes:
Finneas' attempts at braiding and photography were... a bit more lackluster.
Saucy stuff right there.
Callista has also been reeeeally into brushing my hair lately, and will spend a solid 20 minutes just brushing away. She insists, however, that I take off my glasses while she does it, and has now started accessorizing herself with them. It's a whole process.
On Wednesday morning, Rocco woke up dry heaving, but we tried heading up to the Amish anyway. He barfed once in the van on the way, and once we hit the gravel, the road conditions were just terrible, so it was an eventful trip. We got home and Rocco slept the rest of the morning. Luckily, he woke up feeling better, and none of the rest of us seem to have caught anything, so that's a huge answer to prayer.
Wednesday night, a friend watched the kids so that Todd and I could go on a date. It was so very, very refreshing - it's been months since we've gotten the chance to just be together without the kids. It's been a challenging couple of weeks at our house, with sickness and bad weather and kids hitting new stages, and I've felt tired. It was so good to get the chance to reconnect and breathe a bit. We went to an Asian bistro, then walked around Hobby Lobby and bought a few grocery items at Schnucks… just because we're grown ups who weren't quite ready to go home yet.
Yesterday was our first truly normal day all week, so nothing super newsworthy happened (other than the fact that I started my first-ever, full-on grease fire in the kitchen. The top of the stove was actually aflame. Luckily it burned itself out while I was searching for some baking soda to smother it...). Today we're going to make a Walmart run because we're in for another weekend of storms, only this time it's supposed to be ice rather than snow, and they're anticipating a lot of power outages.
Over the last few years, I've felt an increasing level of anxiety over my lack of emergency preparedness. Not in like a 'doomsday prepper' or a 'remember Y2K' kind of way, but in a way that acknowledges just how many people I'm responsible to care for, and how much effort and how many resources it takes on a normal day to provide for them all, much less under strained circumstances. (It probably doesn't help, too, that I've got third trimester hormones coursing through my body at this point, which I suspect are lubricating some of my more visceral maternal instincts and increasing my desire to protect my brood.) So, all that to say, I will feel a bit better when I feel a bit better prepared for whatever might hit us this weekend.
Annnnd speaking of third trimester hormones, I'M OFFICIALLY IN THE THIRD TRIMESTER. Let the panic ensue: Who will watch the kids when I go into labor? How many freezer meals should I plan for, and when will I make them? When will I find the time to wash all the baby clothes, and where will I put them once they're out? We're already so short on dresser space; what will I do about clothing storage? What will we name her - and how will we ever hope to find a name as cool as the other kids'? And on and on. Can you see the panic in my eyes?
Yeah, maybe not quite yet. Right now all I'm thinking about is the ice storm. I'll worry about baby stuff once the weather gets better.
*ALSO!! Today marks the FIFTEEN YEAR anniversary of the day I gave my life away to Jesus. I'm never looking back - he has been so, so good to me, and it's really incredible when I think about everything he's given me that I'm absolutely sure I would have missed out on if I had just chosen to continue in my own way. Thanking God for his kindness to me!
1 comment :
you are getting really close to the place where you will have been following Jesus over half of your life. almost there! I have longer to go. I don't have a set in stone date when I became a Christian, but there was a season where things were happening which was somewhere during late 2001 at the earliest and definitely in full swing by 2002-2003ish. I was baptized in March of 2004 and I know I had been a Christian for a spell at that point because I remember feeling repentant over the fact that I had waited as long as I did to get baptized. Some of that was just ignorance (it never occurred to me) and some of that was arrogance (putting it off once it had occurred to me)
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