Dragging it out

I am amazed at how much my family can drag out bedtime. What is by far the most astonishing is that they worst offender of this is my HUSBAND. One would think that as one of the adults in the house he would be as excited about the kids' bedtimes as I seem to be every evening. Strangely, that is not the case. Perhaps it is because he is rarely, if ever, the one who has spent the entire day at home with them.

And to be honest, one of the reasons I so enjoy the kids' bedtime is the routine...the opportunity to all be together. It's just that tonight I had asked for him to take care of a few things with the kids and of course he decides to wait until bedtime. And in doing the things that I had asked it leads to other things that he realizes need to be done and it just keeps dragging on. I think it might just be his way to squeeze in a few more minutes with them each day, and I really can't blame him for that.

Goodwill

With the arrival of spring (so says the calendar, but mother nature hasn't received the memo yet...snow is in the forecast for tomorrow!) we've been cleaning out closets and other storage areas. With my wonderful husband home this week, he has already made the first of what I'm sure will be many trips to Goodwill. Today's batch was mostly clothes. I often give away to friends as hand-me-downs, but when things start to pile up I also like to send to Goodwill. The thing is, I literally dread this experience. Not because it's time consuming (which it is) and not because the kids groan and complain (which they do) but because I always feel like I am giving away my children's childhood. Isn't that ridiculous? I guess I have some inkling as to how hoarders live as they do...everything they keep has a special meaning to them. Fortunately I have the ability to recognize that things have to go, but I don't have to like it. I've even kept a few really special outfits, just because I want to. It seems a little too sentimental, but I just can't help myself. I find that I enjoy each phase of their lives because there is something awesome about each phase. At the same time, I also recognize how QUICKLY it all goes by, and I enjoy holding on to a little piece of the past.

Quiet Saturday afternoon

We are having a wonderfully quiet Saturday afternoon. The kids have really been awesome at finding their own ways to entertain themselves, and are doing so nicely and without arguing...this is amazing! My wonderful husband has developed a barking cough and he was at the doctor first thing this morning. the doctor thinks it is an upper respiratory infection instead of just a cold and he's on an antibiotic and heavy duty cough medicine. He's pretty much slept the entire time since he took it, which is exactly what he needs. We've also been watching the NCAA women's basketball tourney, and our Irish are in good shape this game!

We've been enjoying lots of basketball recently. Not so pleased that OSU lost last night, but very happy that VCU knocked off Florida State. I always enjoy seeing the power conferences lose, but it seems it is a power conference that wins the championship every year.

No trophies in the derby last night. HT was disappointed but had a blast just being able to participate. I love the fact that it worked out that his first year in scouts was the first year he was able to participate. He had a great time. JR was very disappointed as well. I think for him part of it was that it was his last chance.

Time to watch more basketball!

Derby time

Tomorrow evening is the annual cub scout pine wood derby. HT is participating for the very first time, and since JR just crossed over a month ago, his group was invited back to participate for one last year. This is the first (and probably only) time that all three have been involved. Since the derby is on a Friday evening this year, they decided to start the weigh ins this evening. Everyone is eagerly anticipating the big race tomorrow evening!

I knew I jinxed myself

Today I had some errands to run and then was going to be spending the afternoon at home. I've been really, really wanting to scrapbook, especially since I am now five years behind. I always tell myself that I'll do it as a reward when the house is picked up, laundry is put away, etc. Of course the work is never all done, and therefore scrapbooking never happens. I decided however, that tomorrow I was just going to go ahead and do it. Starting next week we have two weeks of spring break in this house (one for husband and one for the kids) and I can clean while they are home, but scrapbooking probably won't happen. I started printing out pictures and getting things all ready to spend the day on it tomorrow. At one point I thought to myself, half jokingly, "Well, I've probably pretty much guaranteed myself to be called into work tomorrow." Sure enough, I'll be in kindergarten tomorrow. At least it's in for my favorite group of kids. I do have to laugh at the irony though!

Almost back to normal

JC is getting back to normal and so is our life. I was scheduled to work today, so my wonderful husband stayed home with her. She's finally started eating again, although not a lot, and she's much more chipper even this evening than this morning. She still gets tired so very quickly though, and we've decided that at most she'll go to school half day tomorrow. It does feel nice to be "normal" again though. The last three evenings have been such chaos. Friday evening we were in the hospital of course, and Saturday evening we were just completely out of whack the entire day and most of us didn't even eat dinner until 9 at night. Last night we put JC to bed early, and between attempts to plan for my husband missing work and people calling to check on JC, things became incredibly chaotic. Tonight though, we actually had a normal bed time routine. We've been reading the Little House books, and tonight we were even able to take time to read a chapter. It's so nice to know that we are on the road to normal again, and I say prayers for those families whose children are so much sicker and there is no vision of normal for them.

Through the worst of it

I'm happy to report that JC seems to be over the worst of it. There has been no pain in 18 hours, which is a huge accomplishment. We had to give her a second dose yesterday around 6:00 and she pretty much slept from then until 9 this morning. The good news is that although she is still absolutely exhausted, she is fairly chipper today and has been drinking Gatorade with no problems. I think we are going to keep her home again tomorrow to give her an opportunity to just relax, but we are so glad that she seems to be on the upswing!