Charlyn’s Web

We went to my parent’s house on Christmas Eve for the annual gathering of my Dad’s extended family. I had talked to my brother earlier in the day and he told me that his son had been ill with a stomach bug. He was no longer throwing up and my brother was waiting for my nephew to get up to see if his fever was gone. I thought that if the fever was gone then he wouldn’t be contagious any more.

We had a lovely gathering of family and a pleasant Christmas morning. But on Wednesday, stomachs started to not feel too good. My Dad and oldest brother started feeling it first then HP complained of a stomach ache. We thought HP was making a fuss about it because he didn’t want to go over to my Aunt and Uncle’s house with us. He wanted to stay with his cousin. So we left him there with strict instructions to stay calm and that his Uncles could take turns beating him if they felt it necessary- or if they just felt like it. The rest of us had a nice visit with my Uncle, Aunt and cousins. The cousins had new boyfriends to get acquainted with and it was an enjoyable time. One boyfriend dances and he and TG were having a grand time performing lifts and jumps plus some wrestling thrown in for fun. TG started acting like her tummy was bothering her which is surprising because she is the one with the steel stomach. We packed the girls up and headed back to Mom and Dad’s.

When we got there we found The Boy laid out on the couch- he definitely had the bug. My Dad and oldest brother were still feeling terrible and my other brother knew he was getting it so he packed up my nephew and headed the hour and a half home while he still could make it. Then TG started in and it was a joyous evening for all.

We had planned on heading home on Thursday afternoon but The Col. checked the weather and saw that there was supposed to be snow accumulation along the freeway and I was worried he or I would get the bug which would make the drive awful to say the least, so we threw our stuff in the van and headed out as soon as we could.

We made it home. KJ hadn’t shown signs of the stomach flu but she had had a bug a few weeks ago so I think she was immune. BUT she came home with a bad cough followed by a fever. She still has a runny nose and isn’t feeling up to snuff. The Col. seems to have sneaked by without being hit. I felt a bit puny for a few days, then felt better and now may be catching the cold part.

We decided not to go to church yesterday. KJ was definitely not well enough to go. We decided that the rest of us were walking petri dishes of festering germs and didn’t want to share anymore. It was a good decision as TG is still showing signs of the stomach bug working it’s way through her system and now has the cold too. HP is still not overly energetic either.

I can just see my cousins and their boyfriends getting this and then having to fly on airplanes. Just the discomfort of that plus spreading the lovely little bug to others on the plane and then it’s all over the States. Oy. Not pleasant thoughts. Who would have thought in the beginning the wide stretching reach of a little bug that we thought wasn’t able to infect us anymore? ‘Tis the Season of giving, I guess.

As things funnel down to the last days before Christmas, I feel as if things are spiraling out of control. The presents are here, the ones for the kids aren’t wrapped yet but ones for other people are. I have shipped out all the boxes to loved ones in other states. That in it’s self is a feat- we are known for mailing our boxes on Christmas Eve. Hey, it was tradition! We believe in spreading out the Christmas cheer. Oops, there is one more box I’ll have to get ready, forgot that. But overall, that area is in good shape. The house is decorated, the tree (gasp!) is up and decorated.
A few weeks back I made up a batch of cookie dough and froze it to get a jump on things. Then, because I had a jump on things, I proceeded to do nothing. Know where that dough is right now? Still in the freezer. Man, I need to get that out and defrosted! I have now baked a double batch of my Grandmother’s fruit cake for my Dad and my kids. The kids and Dad fight over it. I give a few small loaves of it away to people who have foolishly said they like it therefore dooming themselves to receiving some every year. The other cookies I made went into the packages that were mailed off so I need to keep busy and make more. I also need to round up the gifts for Brett’s office people, church friends etc. No pressure. Snort!

Yesterday we went to town and played with the other homeschool families at a local gym and then we went to a friend’s house for a Christmas Party. Tonight nothing is planned but it’s the lull before the storm, so to speak. Thursday we take cookies and gifts to a local treatment place for alcoholics and sing songs with them. Then on Friday we are scheduled to have dinner with friends (oh, won’t that be a hardship!). Saturday morning we have a church play practice at 9 AM and we’ll have to work in our Christmas (we celebrate Christmas as a family then go to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s for another one). Then Sunday is church with the play. For Sunday School we are having a Continental Breakfast and I, in a moment of insanity, said I would bring cinnamon rolls. Then Sunday night is Brett’s office party. Monday we will head out to Grandma and Grandpa’s, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.

Whew! I’m tired just writing it all down!

I’m tired in general, from battling a cold and having to get up numerous times to cover up children and let Somebody’s Dog out again. I opened up the dishwasher this morning and wondered to myself if “your mother ran the dishwasher?” No, she hadn’t. I then wished the kids had a better Mother and was glad there were no telepaths around.

The outside temperature has been pretty cool. Did you know what is considered “cold” and “cool” are subject to interpretation? The Col. doesn’t think it’s “cold” until it is around 0 (zero) degrees. I consider it “cold” more around 32 degrees (Fahrenheit). We did get down to 1 degree last week and we all agreed that was “cold”. Most of the rest of the week the high has not been much over freezing. I consider that “cold” but then I am a weeny.

The inside temps have been around 70 degrees because I am cheap frugal and believe in bundling up so we don’t pay through the nose on our electric bill. (Electricity is fairly reasonable here so we are on a totally electric system.) I have noticed that even though I am wearing socks and shoes, my toes are cold. Then I look at my children, who are not wearing socks or slippers. They refuse to put them on and when I feel their feet it’s like touching an ice block. Don’t they feel it? They don’t seem to mind. They act like I am asking them to pull their finger nails out one by one when I even suggest putting something on. They put on socks when they go outside and, after coming in because their feet are cold, promptly take them off. “Take them off” is, of course, a nice way of saying it- they remove them from their feet, turning the socks inside out in the process, and fling them about the house. I find socks in the most interesting of places. And then they wonder why they never have clean socks- even when I have done the laundry. Could it be because when you wore three pairs outside in the snow and they somehow got wet so you threw all three pairs about, never to be seen again? It makes the whole process simpler when you do it three at a time, she says with heavy sarcasm.

Now excuse me while I go slip into something warmer and start a load of laundry.

Snap! Thump!

Oh no.

I sneak towards the kitchen and, from as far away as possible, peer into the floor vent.

Yep.

The trap is flipped over.

The only thing I like less than live mice are dead ones.

I emailed The Col. that he had better come home soon or he will not get a dinner as the kitchen is contaminated.

There is also five, count them 5!, inches of snow on the ground. If I put stock in anecdotal evidence; I would say this is NOT a sign of Global Warming.

This week has been interesting, that’s for sure!

“I didn’t know you were expecting again!” Said the voice loudly across several feet of store.

I sighed deeply and quietly said “scream!”

We meandered over to talk with the teenager we are acquainted with who made the comment. I guess she didn’t hear our quiet denials because, after we listened to how awful her life was going, she asked-

“So really, how far along are you?”

Um, I’m not pregnant.

Her jaw drops, she stares at my tummy, looks at my face and then back to my tummy.

I am seriously considering giving that empire waist top away.

I am crying in my tea.

I think I need something stronger.

I’m going to go get some chocolate!

One of the harder things about blogging, besides thinking of something semi-intelligent to say, is thinking up an appropriate post title. How much do you give away? Is it too obscure? What in the world should I call this one? That is where I am today because there is no real theme just a basic catch up post.

I was ill with a cold for a number of days last week. I wasn’t really all that sick but was totally drained of energy. I lay on the couch and read a magazine and napped while the children ran wild. They didn’t really run wild. They used their time constructively. The Boy taught KJ how to climb the walls. Yep. I am so thrilled. The Boy is practically a spider boy the way he can climb up to the ceiling using just the walls. It’s in the hallway where the walls are close together and somehow he braces his legs on the wall, they bow outwards so it looks painful, and walks up the wall to the ceiling. We have vaulted ceilings so he gets up to the point. If one looks at this new development with squinty eyes and suspends their natural negative viewpoint, one can see some good in it. They cooperated together, The Boy exhibited teaching abilities and patience, K showed her usual determination and it kept them entertained. It helps if I take off my glasses, cock my head and squint really hard; suspending my normal negative viewpoint is so hard to do.

Anyway, back to the cold stuff. I finally am feeling better but TG’s nose has been runny again, The Col. is a bit stuffy and now KJ was looking pretty hang dog and sounded stuffy. We so love to share germs.

We went to a Rec day for home schoolers yesterday at a local gym. KJ was confused last year with the word “gym” and now TG is exhibiting the same confusion. “Gym” sounds like “Jim” and so they think it’s a person we are going to see. Last year my three kids glued themselves to my side on the bleachers and refused to go forth and play. It’s just a run around free time inside the gym with balls, jump ropes, etc. If I forced them away from me the wandered down the bleachers and sat together. I threatened through clenched teeth that we would never leave our house again if they didn’t get out there and PLAY! That is why we went to all this trouble to get down here was so they could run off energy! It dampened my enthusiasm for going down there. But I signed up again this year and down we went and 2/3 of them ran out there right away and played! Whew! We have spent a little bit of time getting to know some of the other kids better and that helped. This year I only have one glued to me- TG- who last year was the one most likely to go out there and play. Go figure. Must be her age.

We had snow for several days last week. KJ got over her fear of crunchy snow and began to enjoy playing in it with HP. TG was still deathly afraid of it and screamed the whole time I walked around with her in it. I am so glad the neighbors all work. Then a wind came through and melted it all off. It was gusting pretty hard for several days. There are lots of branches scattered about the yard now.

So that’s about the last week in review. Wasn’t it thrilling?

There was snow again yesterday (and more today) which is pretty unusual for this early in the season. But we take what we can get! The Col., who loves driving in this kind of weather, drove the van to work to see how it would handle in two inches of snow. At our dinner of turkey burritos, he told us that it didn’t do as well as he had hoped. He told us of turning into the road that leads to his work and sliding until his front wheels hit the curb. He drove on down to the parking lot and when he tried to make that turn he went into another slide which he couldn’t get out of until the front wheels were in the grass. He thinks it might be the tires.

Also, at dinner The Col. told me how he had not done well that day in sticking with his diet. It seems some of his office mates ordered in pizza. He was determined to behave and ate his salad (with turkey- notice the recurring eating theme here?) before the smells of pizza filled the office. He was strong until mid afternoon when he saw pieces lying around and he succumbed to their siren song. He commented how he had done so well over Thanksgiving but fell off the wagon today. This innocent piece of information put him in the frying pan.

“Yes, Thanksgiving, the meal I slaved over? The one you hardly ate any of?”

“Um yeah.”

“You couldn’t find it in your heart to succumb to the glories of that meal but you fell to a cold slab of greasy Dominoes pizza?!?!?!?”

“It wasn’t Dominoes, it was Pizza Hut.”

“Oh, like that makes it better.”

To appease me he tried the candy I had made; it’s an Aplets type candy with apples and nuts. He said it was good but I am beginning to doubt his palette.

About this time a little voice popped up from the other side of the table.

“Papa, if you had gone slower you wouldn’t have slid.” Said KJ seriously. She had been thinking the whole thing through.

“Yes,” said her Papa sarcastically, “I shouldn’t go 60 miles an hour through there.”

She seriously nodded her head and said; “You should drive slow on that road like Mama does.”

She looks at me and I nod, trying to hide my smirk.

She proceeded to lecture her father, the man who has a CDL, who drove over the road trucks for awhile, who can drive anything out there, who has driven on more snowy, icy roads than she has ever been on in her whole life, the one person I want to be riding with in bad weather, on how to drive.

This morning he wondered if he should drive the van or dig the 4 wheel drive Suburban out of the shop. I told him that now that he has been told how to drive in the snow, he could probably take the van. KJ heard this and continued on with her lecture about driving slow while we shared a laugh.

You gotta be careful what you say around these here women folk, you never know what will land you in a whole heap of trouble and a lecture or two.

As we ate our volumous feast at Thanksgiving, the one I had spent many hours cooking, my son smiled at me and said the meal was “awesome”. He thanked me when he went to bed for the “awesome” food! I felt warm with pride that I had provided my loved one with such a high rated meal (he often doesn’t feel that way about my dinners).

On Sunday we made turkey sandwiches (what took us so long, you ask? I don’t know is my honest answer). HP watched me make one up for the kids. I was putting cranberry sauce on it because they all love it when he asked: “Can us kids have just cheese sandwiches?” No said I. When it was all together I cut it up as HP mused farther about how he wasn’t going to like it and could he have just a quarter of the sandwich? He took one bite and said “Hmm! This is good!” With much restraint, I kept my mouth shut.

Last night I wasn’t feeling to hot due to a cold coming on so I decided to go easy and fix Polish Sausage, mac and cheese (from a box- cringe) and flavored beans. I figured that everyone was getting tired of having turkey, no matter how many different ways I have been fixing it. The Col. was working late so it was just the kids and I eating it up. After a large serving of sausage, two servings of mac and cheese and two servings of beans (and still wanting more) my Son grinned at me and said…

you know what is coming….

“This is awesome!”

I am completely deflated.

Posts keep drifting into my head and then right back out again. It sure would be nice to have memory cells. I will leave off my theory about where they go for now- I’ve thrown enough of my more ‘interesting’ theories around lately.

Thanksgiving was quiet, just us five here. There was enough food for 12 people. It was really overdoing things a bit considering that the two adults are dieting and two of the kids don’t eat very much. The Boy has been known to eat as much as me so he counts more than kid status. (We are already dreading our food bill when he reaches teenagedom.) We’ve had tons of leftovers. I made a wonderful turkey nachos and a turkey, stuffing and cheese casserole. I think we’ll take a break tonight.

It’s been cold outside so the kids haven’t been out much. I make them go out but it doesn’t take long before they are complaining of being cold. I made them run around the house two times this morning before I let them back in. But they still have plenty of energy and are doing the ‘wild thing’ here in the house which drives me nuts. There is only so much running and screaming and yelling these old nerves can take. Plus there are the considerable ‘accidents’ that come from rough housing. I have become hard hearted and tell them that if they choose to act that way then they have to accept the consequences and most importantly of all- don’t come crying to me! I really appreciated how well they played together on Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I was cooking away in the kitchen when they decided to have a birthday part for a favorite stuffed animal. They pulled out all the stuffed animals, gathering them around the honoree and sang Happy Birthday. It kept them occupied for quite some time and it was fun to hear them cooperating together. Of course, it took some time before all the stuffed party guests were put back in their homes but a Mother can’t have everything.

The Col. may be sleeping slightly more better. (I like to use good grammar to impress you all.) But some of it may be that he is going to bed every night between 7-9 so even if he wakes up at 3:30 he has gotten a fair amount of sleep. It’s not the best for family life but at least he’s more alert during the day. Or at least, that’s the theory. I know, I know, I promised no harebrained theories for this post but it just slipped out.

I had better go before I let anything else slip.

Have I ever told you what I think about the number three?

I crawled back into bed after getting up for the second time with T last night. She has a cold and has been thrashing about a bit more than usual. Mind you, it’s not easy to thrash about in her bed with all the dolls and books she has stashed in there but somehow she manages. I don’t have to do much when I get up with her, just cover her up or stroke her head but any interruption to my sleep goes against my sloth like nature and is considered a horrible event.

I lay my weary body down, weary from cooking for two days and then cleaning up (The Col. helped with that which was wonderful!) and then I heard it.

Click, click, click.

I knew that sound. I had heard it about three times here in the last few months.

Click, click, click.

It was The Dog pacing in the utility room. That was not good.

I tried to ignore it.

Click, click, click.

It wasn’t going away. I considered waking The Col. because even though I may occasionally take pity on the poor creature and feed him, he is The Col.’s dog. But then my heart felt pity on the poor man who hasn’t been sleeping well. It was two AM. If I woke him then he probably would not go back to sleep and if I let him sleep then he would get another hour and a half- until about 3:30 which has been when he wakes up, apparently, just for the fun of it.

Click, click, click.

Whine.

It was getting desperate and even though The Col. seems to wake up at the drop of a hat, he doesn’t ever seem to wake up when his Dog needs him.

Sigh.

Up I get, drag myself out, put my feet on the cold hard floor of the utility room and let the poor guy out. I get a blanket and curl up in a fetal position on the couch until I hear him back on the porch. He was certainly acting perky for such an awful hour. I was grateful there was enough oxygen hanging around for my activity. I am a firm believer that there isn’t oxygen at those hours of the night. To prove to me otherwise you would have to get me up and encourage activity and then I would have to seriously harm you. That would not be a good thing so we will leave it as unproven scientific fact.

The Col. insists that there is enough oxygen at 3:30 when he has been waking up (today being no exception) but I figure that is probably what is causing his whole sleep problem. His poor brain cells are oxygen deprived at that time and causing them to misfire.

That’s my theory and I am sticking to it!

And next time he had better take care of his dog!