But the Week Was Going So Well....

"One woe doth tread upon another's heel, / So fast they follow" Hamlet IV.vii.180-1

1. The week was going so well, Marshall was recovering nicely, things were starting to get back to normal when I slipped on the kitchen floor on Tuesday afternoon and twisted my ankle. My right ankle, the one I need for driving! It seems to be my Achilles tendon and it feels just fine as long as it's wrapped up and I'm lying around, doing nothing. In case you're forgotten, my husband had shoulder surgery last week so he can't drive either and I have to youngish, high maintenance children and it's December! I have been Big Miss Grumpy Pants ever since. (Miranda is Little Miss Grumpy Pants, on a bad day, so it seems only fitting that I should be a bigger version.)

2. So I ditched the last session of Bible study Wednesday morning, my YMT meeting Wednesday night but made it to a MOPS DGL meeting at church this morning because my aunt drove me to and from. This is already extremely annoying. I am the kind of person who does things and runs errands and gets all kinds of things together (like the 3 million plates of fudge I need to start giving out next week to all of Alex and Miranda's numerous helpers at church and school) and I can't do any of it. It's made me really not fun to be with the last couple of days. Thankfully, Marshall is a patient person.

3. Marshall is doing tremendously better. The weekend was tough but he did start feeling better in leaps and bounds after that. Thank you for your prayers.

4. And he thinks he's found a replacement car in Passaic, NJ, which is more than an hour north of us. He went to see it yesterday and if the dealership fix a couple of problems with it, he plans to purchase it next week.

5. The children are having a tough week as well, so it's been good that my aunt's been here since Wednesday. Alex dropped the old iPhone that was serving as a game console for him on Monday morning and shattered the screen which means it's dead, permanently, and he's having a hard time coping with the consequences of his actions. We plan to replace it at Christmas, thanks to my parents, with another old iPhone, but still, disappointment and frustration and anxiety bubbled up out of him Tuesday night and he went on a rampage; it took Marshall about an hour to calm him down again. Poor woozle. Sometimes life is just hard and coping with our feelings is difficult.

Miranda's been in trouble in her class like 5 days out of 6 now so we're drawing up a new plan of incentives for her. Her teacher is just awesome and has a plan, bless her.

6. Dirty Jobs is back next week! Mike Rowe is one of those people I'd really love to invite over for dinner or to stay with us for a week. He's just cool. Really cool.

7. Our life, for 2011, has been living one crisis to the next and I really want it to end! Nice, boring, catch up time. I mean, the piles of stuff in my bedroom are getting ridiculous! I thought these were the things I'd be doing with my mom after she arrived last month, not just another crisis on top of the last 10 that we have to try not to drown in, again!. I was back to my favorite song of a couple of years ago, "Work" by Jars of Clay: "I have no fear of drowning / It's the breathing that's taking all this work." 

Okay, enough whining. I need to go write Christmas cards, something I can do SITTING DOWN. Here's Jen.