what's up weekly. (Where am I? What day is it?)

What day is it?  Is it Friday?  Or at least close to Friday?  I think we're getting close to Friday, so I'll go ahead and blog.

It has been The Week After Christmas Week, that notorious, disorienting vacuum of time which I will never get back.  I should have spent it putting my food room back in order.  I should have spent it being diligent with my exercise and Bible reading routines, since there was nothing else on the schedule competing for my time.  I should have spent it eating better, as it is now January and I've heard people are back into that kind of thing again.  But no.  I have spent most of the week laying on the couch in my pajamas, eating fudge and reading books into oblivion and then complaining that I don't feel well.  It's been magical, let me tell you.  Or, it would have been if it wasn't so blah.

Well, "blah" for me.  The kids had a grand old time, playing outside and building table forts inside.  I'm told there will be a screening of an original production of the Nutcracker today.

However, that's not to say we didn't have at least some fun this week.  For starters, I got some cooking and baking and cleaning done on Saturday, which was such a blessing after the chaos of illness and Christmas hit our house so hard through the first two weeks of break.  Then I served "brinner" for Sabbath dinner and was awarded the Greatest Chef of All Time Award from the kids.  What's the secret to having your husband praise you in the gates and your children rise up and call you blessed?  Apparently it's pancakes for dinner.  Code cracked without having to do all that other hard stuff in Proverbs 31.

On Sunday, everyone was actually healthy and able to attend church!  Then, as it was New Years Eve, we had a cheeseboard to celebrate.  Unfortunately, I was an idiot and thought buying the kids party blowers was a good idea.  WHEN WILL I LEARN.  If I had been tempted to let the kids stay up until midnight (which I wasn't, nor do I even think the kids know that's a cultural tradition or an individual option), I would have had to send them to bed at the normal time anyway just to get the blowing to stop.  Todd and I actually found ourselves still awake at midnight, watching Frasier like good citizens.  (Well, even better citizens would have been in bed by a responsible 10:00 p.m. so they could log their tight nine hours, but this was good enough for a subtle little pat on the back anyway.)

On New Years Eve, we have a little mini talent presentation where everyone is welcomed to share a portrait of our family as it was in the given year.  Todd, Penelope and Rocco shared poems.  The other kids shared original artwork.  This is Callista's drawing of our family.

This is Laurelai's.

This was Finneas'.

This was Atticus'.

On Monday, my family came down to celebrate Second Christmas together.  We opted to serve just a bunch of appetizers in place of a formal meal, and the tribe of cousins all ran around like well-mannered savages, and we all exchanged presents.  It was glorious.  

Then, there was Tuesday.  As it was the first day of post-Christmas relaxation, I quickly slipped into the coma that lasted for the rest of the week.  At one point, I made a trip to Walmart and the library with the big girls.  I read a few books, including one that I though was going to be about aging in place but turned out to be how to survive 2012's IMMINENT CLIMATE COLLAPSE.  (I was too lazy to change the channel, so I read the whole thing, but wowza.  Glad that's not my worldview or I'd spend a lot more of my free time calculating the carbon hoofprint of milk goats and weaving cat hair into potholders and breathing into a recycled paper bag.  Sounds like a delightful existence, but I'll pass.)  But I'm pretty sure that's the extent of any signs of my vitality.  

Today I really should clean the bathrooms.  The kids will be assigned to deep clean their rooms.  I will attempt to get in the first workout of the week.  Tomorrow will be Epiphany, so we will spend it taking down the Christmas stuff (I really should wait until Epiphany is officially over, but the day after Epiphany is Sunday, and the next day is the first day back to school, plus I am ready to yeet this giant dead tree) and then having our last cheeseboard of the Christmas season, including our King's Cake.

And then it will be Monday, and we will start a long stretch before our next break.  Wish us luck, and pray for our endurance.  After watching myself live this week like a total sack of sludge, I'm a bit worried about my own transition back to the land of the living.