Is it Friday again?

How did the week go by again without an additional blog post? At least Lent will be here soon and I can get back to my (nearly) daily postings of things to be thankful for, which I did last year and it was such a wonderful exercise, I'm going to do it again. Maybe I'll just start early.

Anyway, here we go:

1. Finished Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games yesterday. Absorbing, yes, for a young adult dystopian novel. But I have a hard time with young adult fiction that has nothing about hope in it. No religion whatsoever, just survival. I have requested a copy of her second book, Catching Fire, from the library, but I haven't decided if it's worth reading yet. It made me long for my own copies of Percy Jackson & the Olympians, not just library ones, so I can reread them as often as I want. Now that is the mark of a good book series. And the film for The Lightning Thief is only 2 weeks away! If you haven't seen the trailer, here it is. Time to get a sitter arranged. And I checked Amazon this morning and a paperback set of the 5 Percy Jackson isn't available yet. Maybe it'll be a good birthday present to myself in July.

2. Miranda was sick again last weekend, starting her vomiting mid-afternoon on Sunday, right before I would have been getting ready to go to Youth Group. I'm getting a little tired of missing HS events because of a vomiting girl, but I don't have the heart to leave Marshall home alone when she might pop again at any moment. It's just not nice. Thankfully, she kicked it quickly and was back in school on Tuesday.

3. Because she's still not feeling perfect yet, Miranda has been whining all day every day, but has been going to bed without much complaint, which is a reversal. I'm not sure which I prefer.

4. It was warm enough yesterday afternoon that Miranda deigned to go in the backyard and play after school. For a little girl who's normal temperature seems to run hotter than anyone else in the house (she runs barefoot all winter, pesky girl) she doesn't like to go outside when it's freezing, like today. It was nice to play yesterday, though. Well, she played and I trimmed dead branches off the trees.

5. There was a special GoodLooking session at church Wednesday night as there was a parents' meeting, so Marshall took Alex to play and went to the meeting, which meant I had a quiet and pleasant evening. It was lovely. But I stayed up too late reading Hunger Games. Oh, well.

6. Am planning to run around and do errands with my mother-in-law tomorrow, which will probably include lunch. Sounds lovely! Yes, I am leaving Marshall home alone with the children. Poor boy. I do have the best mother-in-law in the world. No question.

7. Got a wonderful bag of hand-me-downs for Alex from a friend from church on Sunday and found another bag for Miranda in our attic. Free clothes are cool!

Special 8. We finally took our Christmas tree down on Saturday. You know it's bad when Alex has told us several time that it's time to take down the decorations. Of course, we did put the tree up December 2nd.

And here's Jen.

First Time with 7 Quick Takes Friday

1. In the past two days I have finally managed to get all the rooms cleaned up except for ours, made it to the bottom of the laundry bin (now working on the bedding from the kids' rooms), and got almost all of my errands done, including replenishing the vegetable bins since everything that was in there was rotting and needed to go out to the compost heap. Miranda has slept through the night all week (since Monday, I think) which explains why I've been able to get so much done.

2. Since I've been running a sleep deficit since Christmas, I've been drinking a lot more caffeinated drinks (mostly tea and diet Snapple--wish it was Pepsi!) and I've noticed it's become a lot less effective. Dang.

3. I was finally was awake enough last night to go back to stitching. I've almost finished page one of "White Lilies on Red" (yes, I know, I've been promising a progress picture for weeks!) which means I've done the top left corner of this. It's going to be gorgeous! So if one page takes 2 months, that means I've got a long way to go to finish all 20. Still, it's very pretty.

4. Both kids are doing well at school God bless Miss Kim & Miss Barbara and their army of helpers!

5. I finished the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan a few weeks ago (which I HIGHLY recommend) and have The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins sitting on the table, waiting for me to open it. It was recommended by readers of my friend Kim's blog.

6. We will be having a January barbecue tomorrow night at our friends, the Olsons', borrowing my father's philosophy that any barbecue is available for lighting as long as the outside temperature is above freezing. Yummy beer-boiled brats, here we come!

7. Since Marshall was out last night and will miss bedtime again tonight, I should be able to negotiate the privilege of sleeping in tomorrow! Woohoo!

Here's Anne's Friday 7. And Jen, our progenitress.

Miranda's New Year's Resolution

seems to be to prevent me from sleeping through the night. I think I have have one night since Christmas of uninterrupted sleep. Maybe two. I can't remember in this sleep-deprived haze. In her defense, for the whole week of New Year's, she was ill. Last night (or, this morning at 4 am), her pull-up leaked. Yesterday, she was hungry. The day before that, a dirty pull-up woke her. And before that, I can't remember any more. So I have had very few moments of clear thought in the last few weeks.

But then, I only have two children. You must read about Anne Kennedy's night last night here. I did laugh and counted my blessings that they are and remain only 2.

The Myth of the Perfect Parent

Christianity Today, which I read infrequently, has an excellent article today, The Myth of the Perfect Parent, which I found incredibly encouraging. The older my children become, the more I realize how little I can "make" them do and that my parenting challenge is all a lesson in persuasion.

Sorry, no picture yet

I know I promised a progress picture of my new cross stitch but Miranda has been sick for the last week. Today is the first good day since last Saturday and I'm still sitting next to her, waiting in a rather paranoid state. We have been cleaning up vomit and diarrhea since last Sunday, washing and sanitizing everything we can think of, trying to keep her from reinfecting herself again. In desperation yesterday, I actually paged our pediatrician at 8:30 am and he advised me to keep her away from foods that would irritate her stomach. See, when Alex is sick, he doesn't eat or ask for anything that would make him feel worse. And he usually kicks the stomach flu in 12-18 hours. Miranda, after vomiting, is hungry and, well, she is only 3, so she asks for something to eat. Usually, something not good for her upset stomach, and the cycle starts all over again. It took us a couple of days to figure out Miranda's stomach is not like Alex's, but I think we've got it now. But I have washed her bedding so many times in hot water and bleach that her beloved purple blanket is starting to look a little ratty. It may have to be replaced this winter.

My brother and his fiancee arrive for a visit tomorrow morning and so all of the things we were supposed to have been doing all week to get the house ready weren't done because Miranda was up every night and we could barely keep up with the laundry and cleaning required by her illness, much less do anything extra. We now have to decide what we can get done today and what will just have to be left undone.

The cross stitch I am currently working on is White Lilies on Red. It will be beautiful, but if I continue at my current pace, it's going to be a 2 year process.