Get Me Out of Here

I can't escape it any longer. A Charlie Brown Christmas is on television tonight. From where I sit in our family room, I can see our neighbors have their Christmas tree up. My daughters tell me that our neighbors across the street have three trees up. Yes, it would definitely seem another holiday season is upon us, and I am feeling very Charlie-Brownish.

When do you start decorating for Christmas? We usually wait until Christmas Eve or right before, as the Scientist's birthday is right before Christmas, and we like to keep her birthday and Christmas separate. Besides, there's that whole Advent thing. But I'm blue, and I don't think it comes just from being sick for over a week. I want to start decorating now, and I want to decorate to the hilt. I want to replace emptiness with stuff. Yeah, yeah, I know. But I'm just out of ideas. What I'd really like to do is take a break and go someplace unique.

Someplace out of the ordinary.

See new things.

Everything just seems so dreary and pointless.

Feline Frolics

After reading Marie's post about Christmas, and noticing her cat investigating the tree, I happened upon this adorable site where two cats really go at a Christmas tree. Some of the best pics of our cats and our Christmas trees are not online, but here are two:

Champ reclining after a hectic day.

Champ giving the Christmas tree "love."

Fortunately, our cats have never tried to climb the tree. We did have one that chewed through several strings of lights, however. And we are always careful to put all the breakable ornaments near the top of the tree, plus no hooks and no tinsel. It's fun to share the holiday with our little furbabies!

Hurrah for the Pumpkin Pie!

DH and the girls made a couple of homemade pumpkin pies today. (Okay, the shells were store-bought.) To begin with, here's part of a pumpkin, after the squishy stuff and seeds have been taken out, and after it's baked in the oven for a while.

Next, mashing the innards. And mashing. And mashing.

An interesting collection of pie ingredients.

That looks better.

Et voila!

50 Pumpkin Points for anyone who can tell me where the title of this post comes from.

She's Not the Only One

Right now we're studying Ohio history and facts about Ohio. I told the girls that Ohio has two professional football teams and asked if they could name them. The Scientist piped up brightly with "Ohio State..." And yes, she does know the Browns too. Unfortunately, she chooses to cheer for That Team to the East, along with her father. At least Wildchild roots with me for our poor doomed football team in Cleveland.

In other exciting news, we don't get the wildlife sightings of the Quilter, but we did get to watch a neighborhood cat eat a mouse in our backyard. Yum.

Meaning

DH is now on prescription meds and may or may not have a bacterial infection. We'll know in a few days. After a couple of rough nights, Wildchild is doing better. I am feeling better, although it will probably take me a couple of days to get back to full strength physically. The only one who escaped relatively unscathed is the Scientist. And since we stocked up on children's pain medicine and cough and cold medicine, we're pretty much guaranteed the girls won't get sick anymore this winter.

What do you all feel about Thanksgiving? I'm feeling a few guilty twinges this year because I am usually just not enthused about Thanksgiving. I know that it is good to give thanks to God who has given us our lives and everything we have. But I am thankful often for many of my blessings, such as my husband, my children, my home, my cats. Thanksgiving is not really much more than "Turkey Day" and my brother-in-law yelling at the football game to me. Maybe it's the idea of being told, "Today you *must* be thankful for *everything*" that just makes me say "meh."

I'm Still Alive...Sort Of

It's been a surreal week. DH and I both have had some sort of knock-you-down-and-step-on-you virus for the past few days. However, I have taken this time to do some thinking and come up with some very important conclusions, such as life is not worth living and I will never do anything else in my life that I have wanted to accomplish. I'm also a bad parent, and my children will grow up to hate me. If you look carefully, you will see a rain cloud above my head.

Pizza and Cards

We invited the Pistol Packin' Presbytera to our home this evening, since her husband Chaplain to the World is in St. Louis. We had a make-your-own pizza night, so everyone could have their pizza the way they like it. The Presbytera made hers in the shape of a heart, because she misses her husband. Aw!

Now the four of them are playing the card game Zigity.

Safely Through Another Week

It was a very Gloomy Sort of Day. (The Scientist has been re-reading Winnie the Pooh.) It was weird to have a thunderstorm the night before, in November! But my husband finished some things today that really needed to be done out in the garage, and I got a few things accomplished myself that have been eluding me for a while. The Scientist and Wildchild were very excited to help Papa out in the garage. I joke with DH that I thought we had girls instead of boys! Wildchild does have her girly side, such as loving jewelry and pretty dresses. Ironically, she is allergic to nickel, so she can only wear real gold jewelry. The Scientist, however, decided very early on that she identified with her beloved Papa, and there was a time that she didn't want anything to do with things that were "too girly." Fortunately, she has come to terms with the fact that she is, indeed, a girl. :)

I suppose I'm just a pessimist. The week has not been fabulously fantastic, but we had a good routine in school and work, and it just seems too good to last!

A Break in the Weather

I'm glad the sky is nice and blue and sunny again today, after the day we had yesterday! It was so foggy for most of it that I could barely see the neighbors' houses at some points. Good for a Victorian London murder mystery, but not much else.

The girls are busily teaching their baby dolls their new German vocabulary they just got yesterday. Love it when they do my work for me! However, the cross-stitch projects I started with the girls are not progressing so smoothly - so far. I can't really even take a picture to show you, because they only have a few X's each completed. :) But they're still interested, so that's something.

Mr. Blue Sky

Even knowing how weather affects humans, especially those people with SAD, it still amazes me how much a beautiful day such as today, when the air is mild, there is not a cloud in the sky, and the sun is shining brilliantly, perks me up. Of course, yesterday was almost as beautiful a day, and the weather did very little to help my mood. I was rather gloomy all day. Of course, not having any breakfast, and therefore not getting most of my meds taken, was probably the biggest factor there. Yesterday, I did get help from a friend, and we went clothes shopping! Yes, shopping is not the remedy to everything, but especially when one has not gotten new clothes in a while, a little shopping trip can be therapeutic. Today in contrast I had a yummy, if not exactly healthy breakfast, took all my meds, and got off to a good start on the day.

Does this happen to anyone else, that a good start to your day will propel you through the rest of the day and it will all go well, or a bad start will leave you so down that you'll just slog through the rest of the day and feel discontented at the end?

Is it sad that my children, and many others, know Mom or Dad has to check their Halloween candy before they eat it? Or is it a good thing, knowing that we live in a fallen world and that therefore we do need to be aware of bad things that could happen? Or do we parents overreact?

I had a humorous conversation with the Princess yesterday after I told her life was not always all about her. Princess: "But I have a shirt that says 'Life is all about me!'."

Life Abhors a Vacuum

There has been nothing, but nothing, happening around here. But as is so often the way, all kinds of things are popping up! For example, my husband's soccer-playing nephew has a game tonight on the east side of Cleveland. We're meeting all my in-laws at a restaurant for dinner and we may go on to the game. The Scientist has been fighting off cold symptoms and we're not sure we want to sit outside at night in this chilly weather. Yet another thing to deal with, cold symptoms. Last night the Scientist was sleepwalking and I had to talk her back into bed.

Also I found out my husband's niece is having a baby shower given for her in December, so that's something else going on. Plus, Christmas is coming, and the Scientist's birthday is right before Christmas as well, and it seems like we are never prepared for all that. Maybe this year!

Happy Halloweeeeeeeen

Yes, I know it was yesterday, but I was just too exhausted last night to even plug the adapter in to download the pictures. And I didn't even walk around with the kids last night! But the girls were sorting out their candy motherload this morning. :)

This is my pumpkin, designed by me, carved by DH. I feel the same way Marie does about pumpkin guts.

The Scientist was the cutest cheerleader at Spook U., and Wildchild was Princess Strawberry Shortcake. Notice the sparkle from her newly pierced ears! Also, pictures of their pumpkins. The girls had a great time, and that is what it's all about.