All-Entertainment Edition

1. We've had a bad week here. Insomnia has plagued the whole household, which turns Marshall and I into zombies, Miranda into a sniveling wreck and Alex just gets more hyper and easily irritated. So, instead of rehashing all the things that went wrong, I've decided to focus on something more positive: other fun ways to spend (waste) your time.

John Carter (of Mars) was an excellent movie--so much fun! We enjoyed it, so you should go see it too!

2. My cousin Theresa, with whom I had a lovely visit on Saturday in North Jersey, recommended a new book series for me, Fablehaven, by Brandon Mull. I read book one over the weekend, picked up book 2 from the library on Tuesday and finished that Wednesday night and now book three (also from the library) is on the table waiting for me to read it tonight. Mull isn't as good as Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson is my hero), but I am really enjoying the series.

3. Patricia Briggs' new book, Fair Game, arrived from Amazon last Friday. I didn't stay up all night reading it, just until midnight. I finished it on Sunday. I don't like her Alpha & Omega series as much as the stories about Mercy Thompson, but they are still worth reading.

4. While my mother and I were away on Saturday, visiting with family in North Jersey, Marshall took the children to play with their cousins, who introduced us to the world of Phineas and Ferb. Miranda is now good and obsessed, and Alex and I aren't far behind.

5. On Tuesday, my mother graciously took charge of Miranda so my mother-in-law and I could spend the day at the Philadelphia Art Museum. We spent a long portion of our time visiting the Van Gogh Up Close exhibit, which is excellent! If you live in the area, you must visit! I liked it so much, I changed the decor in my kitchen.

For many years, I have been displaying the works of one of my favorite watercolor artist, Steve Hanks.

Here's a close up of the frames on the right:

And here's the left. You'll forgive me if I don't take the time to look up the actual names of the paintings.

Well, here is the same wall and frames with a Van Gogh make-over.

Clockwise, starting on the right: Crown Imperial (Frititllaria) in a Copper Vase, 1887; Road Menders at Saint-Remy, 1889; Iris, 1889.

On the top, my favorite from the exhibit, Almond Blossom, 1890. And then Sunflowers, 1887.

You, too, can do this with stationary reproductions of the paintings and a few cheap frames. My thanks to my husband and my mother for the artistic arrangement.

6. Marshall is planning to spend the weekend putting in the rest of the laminate in the front room and the hallway. Prepare yourself for impressive pictures in next week's blog.

7. My favorite Steve Hanks painting, Finding Yourself in the World, is still one I would like to hang in my house. Here it is:

Ones that I presently own are Coastline and Reflecting (which hangs in my powder room, so as to not make any casual visitor uncomfortable).

And here's Jen.

No Pithy Title Comes to Mind

1. This week has been so full of business alternating with complete exhaustion that I feel almost dazed here on Friday morning. The complicating factors were:

• Alex's cheek injury was exacerbated on Saturday night (he re-bit it and it bled all over again, much to his dismay) so I kept him home from school on Monday so I could take him to our pediatrician for examination and antibiotics. It is looking much better today, when he took his final dose of medication.
• Teacher conferences were scheduled for the school district on Wednesday and Thursday which meant Miranda had no school and Alex had early dismissal for both days. 
• I had MOPS on Tuesday morning and Bible Study Wednesday morning.
• My mother has been working to pull up the carpet in the hallway and front room to help Marshall in his effort towards laying the new laminate flooring, which has been really helpful, but kicked off my dust allergies with a vengeance. So I've been wandering around vaguely for several days on my prescription allergy medicine, but it's better than sneezing constantly. 

2. Perhaps it was not the most helpful thing, but in the evenings I've been watching Band of Brothers and catching up on the third season of Justified. I've made it through the first 7 episodes of the former, which means I've just watch some of Easy Company survive the Battle of Bastogne, and all I can think of is how can anyone who knows about this awful battle still want to declare war on anyone? But then I watch Justified (through episode 4, so far) and am reminded just how cruel and vicious humanity can be and pray for God's mercy on us all.

Justified had a killer second season last year, in more ways than one, and while season 3 so far is good and I am loving Neal McDonough and Mykelti Williamson as this year's villains, it mostly makes me want to watch Boomtown again, in which they were absolutely brilliant! But Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins and Nick Searcy are still as awesome as advertised.

3. My mother and I took the children to the movies for the first time ever yesterday afternoon, to see The Lorax. Alex's teacher made me promise to take him since he's addicted to Dr. Seuss books and Despicable Me is one of our favorite movies. Of course, being me, we arrived early, so the kids had to sit for a few minutes before everything started and then there were 20 minutes of trailers and commercials before the actual movie started, so Alex was pretty much done half-way through the 86 minute film. Poor sweetie. He just wasn't that interested in the story and wanted to be able to move around the theatre; sitting still is hard for him. Miranda followed the movie much more easily and her behavior was more typical, per usual. But since the theatre was mostly empty and the other patrons were families with small children, we didn't bug anyone.

4. My reward for surviving the week is going to see John Carter tonight with Marshall and my mother. I had to get a little creative in finding a babysitter since most of my usual sitters are taking the SAT's on Saturday or out of town, but it's going to be a lot of fun. Ignore the mainstream reviews and the serious lack of advertising; go see this movie!

5. Tomorrow my mother and I are driving to Morris Plains to see family and attend the bridal shower of a cousin. It should be a lovely time to visit with family I haven't seen since my brother's wedding 2 years ago. But Morris Plains is a little further afield than I had realized previously. Ah, North Jersey, a world unto itself.

6. I have been trying to go back to all of my normal activities to put additional stress on my ankle to get a serious evaluation of my healing progress and am happy to report it is doing far better than I expected. I am pleased to be able to go back to PT this afternoon (I had to cancel my appointment for Monday because of Alex's trip to the doctor) and tell them how much better I am feeling.

7. Some pictures of our changing house for you:

Marshall spent most of Sunday slaving over the new floor in Alex's room, but it looks pretty awesome now...

as you can see when compared to the hallway.

Here's the front room with the carpet torn up and lots of leftover padding to be scrubbed or sanded off. Miranda helped me Monday afternoon to do a small section, but after half an hour of serious scrubbing, I was wiped out. I'm really grateful I don't depend on this kind of activity for my livelihood. The rest of the progress pictures are here.

My first daffodil opened yesterday; so pretty!

Bonus 8. Marshall was able to fulfill a long-standing desire to buy a 1977 Volkswagon bus on Monday. You can see the first pictures here. The car isn't on our property yet, but we do have a title. He will be blogging about this on his own, so more details to follow.

And here's Jen.

Is March Really Here Already?

1. It's been a very full week and I'm having difficulty summing everything up in a few short paragraphs. Perhaps I should work through the week day by day, but I'm going to start with yesterday, since that is the freshest in my mind.

Marshall took Thursday off of work to put in a new laminate floor in Miranda's room. It really looks lovely even though it took him longer than anticipated and he would tell you it's not perfect. I can't tell; it looks great to me. You can see some progress pictures here but I'll post some finished pictures here:

Doesn't it look wonderful!

So, since we had everything out of Miranda's room to put the floor in, I spent some time sorting through Miranda's toys and books and throwing away anything broken or unused, which meant I dumped her toy boxes on the floor in the front room. I didn't get it all finished, though, because by 6 pm I was tired (I spent the afternoon running around with my mother doing errands and buying groceries), which meant I left this mess on the floor:

Miranda came stomping in to me a little while later announcing that since I'd made the mess, I had to clean it up and do it right now! (Apparently, she listens to me when I tell her this, even if she rarely follows my edict.) I gave her back her usual response: I'll do it later.

2. Wednesday was our big dentist adventure. Alex had an appointment with our family dentist two weeks ago that went badly and she recommended we make appointments with Children's Dental Care Associates. They were able to book the children back to back, starting at 11 am. (To give our children the best care, they clear out the office of other patients, just in case.) Miranda went first and sailed through with flying colors: x-rays, teeth cleaned, no cavities, adult teeth visible and should be popping up soon. Alex was a different matter.

We knew from our other visit that Alex had a cavity in one of his back molars that would need filling and he had another adult tooth moving up in the front of his mouth that would probably necessitate at least one baby tooth being pulled. (Poor boy, he seems to have my problem of baby teeth falling out later than usual.) Well, they were able to do these things (after the usual x-rays and cleaning) but when it was all done, he didn't know what to do when he felt his cheek numb and so he chomped on it and it bled everywhere. And he howled and we were distressed. It's still swollen but healing. He still looks chipmunk-like, though.

My car is still at the shop, so my mother-in-law graciously came and played chauffeur, driving us to and from and dropping Miranda off at school after we were all done. In recompense for his trauma, Alex got the whole day off of school and a white Angry Bird plush toy (from the Tooth Fairy, officially).

2. Tuesday my mother came over so that I could take her car to my PT appointment while she stayed and put Miranda on the bus at the appropriate time. Last Friday, when my ankle was examined, my therapist estimated I should need only about 3 more weeks of therapy and devised a whole new, more difficult exercise program for me to complete during my office visits. So I was very stiff and sore last Friday after my new program but on Tuesday I didn't feel quite so worn out, in terms of muscle use, so I must be getting better! The thing that hurts the most, strangely, is not walking or driving but sitting with my legs down, so when I sit, I'm still sitting around the house with my foot up.

3. Monday is rather blurry in my memory because I was recovering from the HS Winter Retreat from the past weekend. I shuffled the children along to their regular things, did a little laundry, tried to take a nap and took a long shower. And, I'm sure, played Words with Friends.

4. Sunday was rather full. Since, as I am reminded every year, HS students don't sleep much at these events, I didn't get much sleep the night before, but was able to get up and function for our last large group session and get all packed up again for our trip home. We left right after lunch and arrived back at the church, as Dave promised, at 2:30. Since my car was in the shop, I hitched a ride home with a friend to her house (halfway between our house and the church) where Marshall picked me up to bring me home to a lovely family dinner with my parents and visiting aunt and uncle. (I'm not sure I was very gracious at the table, however, since all I wanted was to sleep or shower or both at the same time.) But my children were happy to see me and everyone did eventually go to bed. I was so grateful for my soft, warm, fluffy bed, as the bunk beds at the retreat center were rather hard and stacked so close together you couldn't sit up while in the actual bed. Since I had the bottom bunk, though, I could just roll out onto the floor, and did so.

5. Saturday I was up early to breakfast with our students and then we had a morning session together, and then after lunch, I took a long, leisurely nap, the kind that only get interrupted by dinner, which never happens at home. I know the students ran around outside, played with the outdoor cats at the facility, played soccer in the gym, played card games and banana-grams in our rec. room, but I stayed in bed. That's my idea of free time! Then we had dinner, games (where the boys actually won 4 on a couch!) and another large group session, followed by Smores at a campfire and more games before we finally sent the students to bed, after midnight, and turned the lights out even later than that! Man, hanging out with youths is not for the faint of heart.

6. Friday was spent writing last week's blog post, running around the house trying to have everything ready for Marshall to be home alone with the kids and then to my PT appointment, after which I was understandably sore. And then off to the retreat! It was a very full day.

7. Life is very full right now, keeping everyone moving forward with everything that needs doing. We're going to try to prep the front room for its new floor this weekend, which will mean finding all the packing boxes for the china (somewhere in the attic, I think) so that we can carefully put all that stuff away before ripping up that ugly, awful carpet. If only my brain can keep up and remember all this stuff that needs doing. Marshall actually writes it all down but I'm afraid to; the list would be too long.

And here's Jen!

Still Playing Scarecrow Here (No Brain)

1. So that cold I was beginning to get last Friday knocked me silly for most of the week and only this morning am I starting to feel like my head is attached in the right place. I skipped church Sunday morning and Sunday night (although I did go see The Vow with my HS small group Sunday afternoon) and took every opportunity to take a nap. I skipped MOPS on Tuesday, Bible study on Wednesday and slept in yesterday (since Marshall took the day off of work and was able to, mostly, get Alex ready for school--I helped a little). I did all of these things because...

2. At 5:30 tonight I'm leaving to spend the weekend with the Hope Church High School group. We are going to Refreshing Mountain Camp in Stevens, PA, and because the winter is so mild, I'm trying to decide if I need to bring my snow boots at all. I consider this one of my favorite vacations of the year because I leave all my problems and responsibilities at home and enjoy spending time with the students without worrying about getting home to my kids because I don't have to come home until Sunday afternoon!

3. So I watched a couple of movies this week. Last Friday night I watched Drive and wished I had re-read Christianity Today's review of it before deciding to watch this movie that was on so many people's top ten lists for 2011. Yes, Ryan Gosling is very good, but the film has a corpse count of 10 bodies. I think I would have passed had I known that ahead of time. I also watched The Thin Red Line one evening this week and was mostly puzzled by it; Roger Ebert's review says it best here. And then, Sunday afternoon, I saw The Vow with my HS small group and liked it better than I expected to. I think most reviewers were a bit harsh; the leads were very appealing.

4. Lent started on Wednesday and I am going to try to honor it this year by giving up anxiety, as suggested by my blogging friend, Anne Kennedy, who blogs at An Undercurrent of Hostility. Of course, I had a pretty panic-filled week, what with running my car over a curb last Thursday night on my way to Alex's school (in the dark and in the rain) and damaging the frame of my car. And then there was the dentist appt. Miranda was supposed to have Wednesday morning with our family dentist that I then cancelled and rescheduled for both children next Wednesday at a specialty dentist who can cope better with their autism so I don't have to give tranqs to everyone before we walk in the door. However, on a happier note, Simcha Fisher has a great post about it today. Read it here and have a good laugh.

5. As I mentioned above, Marshall took yesterday off of work, which meant he could come with me to meet with both Miranda's teacher and case manager, and then Alex's. Miranda is starting the re-evaluation process in the school district so we can give her a formal classification in the school system (pre-K students are simply labeled "pre-school disabled") and they can decide where she would best fit in a kindergarten class. Alex also just finished a re-evaluation process with his therapists and his case manager is so pleased with his progress, especially since the start of this school year, that she was practically glowing. Marshall and I came out of the meetings so incredibly grateful that we work with, seemingly, the best special education staff on the planet and that God has blessed us so richly as to work with people who care deeply for our children and have their best interests at heart. Give thanks with us; God is good.

6. Leaving Marshall at home with the kids this weekend isn't as fraught as usual since my parents are here to help and Aunt Katie and Uncle Thom arrive tomorrow for another visit (Yay!) but I still want to have the laundry done and the house mostly picked up before I leave. Typical Sarah.

7. Still playing lots of Words with Friends. I have 19 games currently running. And I found a new online Mahjong game to play in between moves. Going away without my laptop or iPod this weekend is going to feel a little like going cold turkey.

Jen is back! Read her blog here.

Man, I Miss My Brain

1. I am currently experiencing what my mother-in-law calls and out of body experience: my head feels like it's floating somewhere above my body. Yesterday, I started having a scratchy throat and today I may have a cold trying to settle into my head. So I am drinking mandarin orange green tea (the only flavor of green tea I can stomach) and as soon as Miranda goes to school, I'm going back to bed. I haven't been sick for months and, well, no one can stay completely healthy indefinitely.

2. Yesterday, I started the day by taking Alex to the dentist which was an expectedly unpleasant experience for both of us. The bad news is, he has a cavity so we've been referred to a specialist who can knock him out to proceed with dental work. Ugh. This is just one of those times when living with autism sucks. Miranda's turn is next week. And, yes, there will be Valium for everyone beforehand, as prescribed by our family doctor. He's really wonderful about that.

3. My mother returned safely from California on Monday and it is really wonderful to have her back. My father returned from Madison last night after a week away so we will be all together again tomorrow to celebrate the birthday of a good friend.

4. Alex's 100th day of school vest turned out pretty good, mostly thanks to my husband for cutting it out and my mother for recommending that I go out and buy lots of stickers.

He cut out Angry Birds pictures and glued them on, then we added Toy Story, Dr. Seuss and Cars stickers, all the while advertising for Trader Joe's. We don't have many plain paper bags around here; they get almost instantly recycled.

5. Valentines Day came and went happily. Both children took their piles of cards to school, 39 for Alex and 27 for Miranda, and came home with even larger piles. One of my Bible study friends suggested Wednesday morning that we try to get all the other parents at school, instead of sending home candy or pencils or stickers, to spend that money on something worthwhile, like this. I'm with her; most of the candy that came into the house went straight into the trash. The pencils are useful as long as we can hide them from Alex (he likes to chew the erasers and generally ruins the whole thing). And I am not a big fan of stickers unless used for a specific project, like Alex's vest pictured above. Maybe next year....

6. Wednesday was a grumpy day for me, so I spent my time laughing hysterically (to such an extent Marshall refused to be in the same room as me) on this site, which was new to me. The content is usually foul and profane and very, very funny.

7. Sunday afternoon my HS small group is meeting to go see The Vow and then go for frozen yogurt. Not my movie of choice, but it should be fun to see it with a gaggle of girls. At least, Channing Tatum is nice to look at.

And here's Hallie. Jen is back next week!

Clean It Up!

1. I have looked everywhere for someone who posted the Laurie Berkner video for "Clean it Up" and can find it nowhere. It was originally on her Buzz, Buzz music album and then in an episode of Jack's Big Music Show, "King of Swing." Anyway, it has been the theme of my life this week. 2 weeks of sloth must eventually lead to a week of frantic activity.

If you are unfamiliar with Laurie, I am so sorry. You have missed out on the best pre-school music available, ever. Go buy some, now. Actually, I just checked her website to see that she has a new cd and dvd available. Guess what my kids are getting for Valentine's Day?! Guess who's going to love it more than them = me.

2. Back to the cleaning: in between all of the Words with Friends games I've been playing, my twice weekly PT appointments, MOPS, Bible study, Youth Group and all of my regular chores, I have actually been cleaning up the massive mess in the house we've managed to make, with assistance from husband and children. And the lady who cleans my house came yesterday, so we can see the floors again. I still have Miranda's toy bins to sort, piles of clean laundry to put away, but the view from here is much better than it was last Saturday. My ankle felt better this week, which allowed for extra activity.

3. I have gone a little overboard on Valentines this year. Maybe it's because Alex had 40 to do for his classes and Miranda did about 30 for hers, or that my Hallmark software makes card-making so darn easy and fun, or that my husband isn't supervising how quickly I use up our postage supplies, or making cards for other people makes me happy, or for them all together. I sent a lot of cards this year (the last go in the mailbox today) and it was fun!

4. It has been a strange winter here, but in a good way. We had a light dusting of show yesterday, just enough to look pretty with nothing sticking to the roads and all melted by afternoon. That's how I like my snow. I have a feeling we'll be going to Longwood Gardens earlier this year for the customary spring viewing of the tulips. Here are my crocuses from yesterday:

5. Monday is the 100th day of school for Alex so his teacher has sent home a pattern for making a vest out of a brown paper grocery sack for wearing on Monday, with 100 of something stuck to it. A fun project for me, to be sure. I expect Alex will help but that I will do most of the work. I hate school projects like this.

6. I picked up Smiley's People by John le Carre and Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel Drezner at the library yesterday, so it should give me an interesting weekend's worth of reading. I am still anxiously awaiting the publication of Fair Game by Patricia Briggs and The Serpent's Shadow by Rick Riordan. Amazon pre-order, I love you.

7. Marshall picked up a couple new-used laptops for us since the ones he and I have been using were slowly failing and so this week I've been trying to transfer my stuff. Strangely enough, I don't have a lot of documents anymore that aren't already in the cloud. Too weird.

And here's Hallie. (Remember, Jen's taking a break to finish her book!)

Right Now--At This Very Moment--Everything is Fine

1. The sun is shining and it should be at least 45 degrees today. Alex is at school for a half-day (teacher inservice) which of course means that Miranda has no school today but she's happily playing in the bath tub after a little tussle this morning about picking up her Legos. It only took her half an hour to decide to pick them up. After Alex gets home, I have promised them both a trip to Chick Fil'A so they can play while Mommy writes post cards. They should be tired and happy by night-fall.

2. Yesterday, Miranda left her toy horse Rodi (who she decided is a girl so she had to use her markers to give Rodi eyelashes) with Puppet on his head at the door to wait for her to get home from school. It was so cute, I have recreated the moment just for you:

She is a darling girl, that Miranda, when we aren't so frustrated with her behavior that we are considering gnawing our own legs off.

3. Earlier in the week, Alex and Miranda were fighting over who could use the laptop they officially share, so Miranda was allowed to use mine. (Alex has been known to peel keys off of keyboards in a moment of boredom.) When I came back to find her later, she'd decided she was cold and so put on her Daddy's fleece, which was handy, creating yet another picture so cute I had to share it:

And, yes, that is what the dining room table has looked like all week. On the rare occasions we actually sit down at the table to eat, we just shove the stuff to one end, or pile it on the black dresser nearby, which looks worse.

4. Since I'm in a picture sharing mood, here are my darlings in that little bit of snow we had 2 weeks ago:

Since Lands End was having their end of season sale, I ordered new snow gloves for each of them, figuring (this was 2 weeks ago) that they would use them again this season. However, now that my hyacinths, daffodils and crocuses are trying to come up in the front flower bed, I'm hoping that was the end of our snow for the winter. The gloves are large enough that they will probably work for next year, although I will have to get new snow pants for Alex next year. Poor Miranda will have to settle for hand me downs again, which she finds annoying because Alex's color choices are never girly enough for her. Alex got brand new red snow boots for his birthday last October but Miranda was presented with his boots from last year which are a boring forest green instead of her preferred purple or pink. Poor baby.

5. I am still struggling to keep up with the housework. I calculated that the 6 hours that I'm spending in Physical Therapy and driving to and from Physical Therapy is the time I would usually spend cleaning the house. So, I look around me at the toys and papers and other flotsam of life in frustration but don't have the mental or physical energy to fix it. It is a bit discouraging. Ah, well, my cleaning lady will probably come next week and it will all be clean again. I just severely dislike the mess and my inability to get off the couch and start cleaning is even more annoying.

6. My mother is still having such a delightful time snuggling her grand-baby girl in California, and I must share this picture:

Talk about one happy lady. My father is on an airplane right at this moment to join them.

7. I read Tinker Tailor Solder Spy this week and have since requested Smiley's People from the library. I have also started reading One for the Money by Janet Evanovich. It seems happy and fluffy and should pass the time.

Jen is taking the rest of the month off, so Hallie Lord at Betty Beguiles is guest hosting 7 Quick Takes for the rest of the month.