By the Numbers

NaNoWriMo Word Count: 2013 (not enough)

Health to Illness Ratio: 1 out 3 kids sick - much better ratio than Monday

Price of Washing Machine on Craig's List: $40 (Amen to that)

Days til our Gas Dryer is hooked up: unknown

Bike Rack for back of my bike &
Training Wheels for Theo's bike: $0 (Freecycle)

Networking doula meetings I have missed due to family illness: 5 (but there is one tomorrow night, so here's hoping)

Hours of sleep I needed last night to feel sane: 12, meaning I went to bed at 7:30.

Days til the days start getting longer again: 47

Days til I make chocolate breading pudding for our party: 3

Boo!

7 Quick Takes Friday (vol 5)

7 Quick Takes is Hosted By Jennifer at Conversion Diaries. She is awesome.

7 Very Quick Takes, Getting Late on a Friday

1. Ha, hilarity! I dreamt I agreed to write a 50,000 word novel next month & told a bunch of people on the Internet about it! Oh, wait....


2. Believers and skeptics, what are your thoughts on spiritual powers? Henry has been showing some incredible stuff, in the emotional arena - kind of like Deanna Troy from Star Trek Next Generation, (I sense sadness, Captain). The other day, while Henry & Theo were upstairs watching TV, Isaac was downstairs crying in a kitchen chair. The day moved on. About 8 hours later, Henry sat in the chair and asked, "Why was Isaac crying in this chair?" I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, but haven't really much more to say, than this: um, wow, okay, that was odd. And, trust me, he couldn't have heard it from where he was, plus Backyardians is the best show ever.

3. Writing Buddies, sigh. I'm much more inclined to not tell all of you I am planning to write a novel next month. I'm even less inclined to post excerpts and progress on the website, but I'm going to do this because the part of me that wants to hide my notes, excerpts and word count will win out & I will do nothing. I'm actually more frightened of the extroverted attempt at novel writing than by the 50000 word count.

4. Kitchen Design Challenge: Though is a more traditional whistle rather than a hum, I do like my new yellow teapot that arrived this afternoon. It looks lovely in the kitchen and does not shriek. Parts of the kitchen remain problematic, mainly the part in which I have three boys and no washing machine (yet). The lovely Laundry Fairy remains faithful, so we are very blessed to have such help. Yet, every now and then, someone gets dirty enough that I'd like put his whole self in the washing machine not just his pants and mulch filled shoes. And if you are guessing that that self is Theo, you would be correct. He is some sort of dirt, sand, sauce, jelly, mulch magnet, far more so than Isaac and Henry were at age three.


5. At the risk of repeating myself, I want to re-share this amazing song that has been singing in my heart at its most fragile time of year. My sister Jenni shared it with me & now I have developed my very own Peter Mulvey obsession.



6. This weary month of illness, general October depression and migraine's is more than half over & I'm ready to bake half a cake and eat it myself in celebration. I'm ready to re-join world that includes healthy people, grown-ups, work and getting outside.


7. I've done a 180 on having Matt around the house. It's much easier now. We are finding a rhythm to the day. He knows when to leave the unsalted butter on the counter alone (= Karen is going to bake today) and I have learned when he is up for doing something non-work related, or which of the kids he can keep an eye on for a few minutes while I run out. It is absolutely great to have him home for dinner every Thursday no matter what, plus the whole weekend. The houseful of boys is showing improved spirits, and Matt is really getting to do a lot of hands on parenting of our most difficult and precious Henry. That is worth its weight in gold. Henry is a complex little puzzle, but once you are in, you are in. Matt is really working it right now, and Henry is rewarding him greatly with lots of love and play and very good behavior all around. I am ready to retire! Hopefully soon, Matt can work from home maybe 2 or 3 days a week not just one. Woot! I think I may have just blogged about marriage and the sky did not fall.

Distractions

We've had a large helping of illness at our house recently - ranging from the common cold, to pneumonia and h1n1 -including its full range of symptoms! September 17th was the first day of this current round. Kids have been in & out of school since then, both Matt and I were down for the count at one point or another. Today is the first day they are all three back at school, Matt at work & I am recovering. Somewhere underneath this mess of laundry is my apartment, that we moved into. It is an eyesore today & needs my attention, but I am not sure I have it in me.

Today's distractions include:

Ordering a tea kettle with a proper hum. I am hoping this one works. Our hotpot got shorted out by this places ancient wiring & I don't want face that tragedy again. For nearly a month we've been boiling water in a pot on the stove, but kettles are so much nicer to look at on the stove top. It's yellow, which I hope will help with the kitchen design challenge.

Winning an ebay auction for a stroller buggy board. Our ancient one is no longer made, so when I re-order the connector pieces, they did not fit at all. We have to have a simpler method of getting to school. Sometimes I am just not up for supervising the city street scootering. It's bad enough that when allowed to walk, Theo often shouts to everyone on the street, "Hey everybody, let's play tag!" The scootering often turns to racing & the pedestrians of Northampton do not need to be mowed down by small children pretending to be Mario and Luigi, at least not everyday & certainly not on days we are running late. By the way, my stroller does not look like that. We have a normal looking Maclaren. (Did I just stroller name drop on my own blog? Good grief, I need to get out more.)

Signing up for National Novel Writing Month, because I clearly am not busy enough. I have no idea what this means or what I will write, but I know several other writers who did this last year & found it excruciatingly painful and/or rewarding. If you are going to write along this year, please let me know so we can harass/encourage one another.

That is all I have done thus far in the way of distractions. I'm sure I'll think of other ways to be marginally productive. Perhaps I will got do errands that involved going to three different stores for three different things or consolidate my school, church, doula and social calendars so I can pick a day for a apartment warming party - it is freezing in here & a mess, which brings me back to the need to clean it, only I'd prefer to not spend today cleaning. I need to sit down and be tired. I need to sit down for a moment and be grateful that I have done 9 years past the day I almost lost my life in a complicated miscarriage of pregnancy. I need to stay inside myself and tell Jordan that I miss her & wish she were here to be 8, pretty and bossing her brothers around. We need another girl around this place.

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Here's a song my sister shared that just takes my breath away as I love, miss and keep going.