What a week

It has been, indeed. Last week, I led the PW Bible study on Tuesday, had a COM meeting on Wednesday (that went surprisingly well - but left me exhausted. I really am an introvert - 5 hours straight of talking to adults, while a welcome break from full-time mommyhood, leaves me exhausted.), had my annual appointment with my pulminalogist on Thursday, and then a consult on having M. evaluated for giftedness on Friday. COM, the doctor, and the evaluation were all a good 45 minute one-way drive, which now seems like forever. I know I shouldn't complain - 2 years ago I was living in a small town and had to drive at least 45 minutes to everything - but I have gotten spoiled living in the suburbs these last 18+ months. Anyway, as if that wasn't enough in one week, I had a PW Council meeting on Saturday and preached on Sunday. So, I have come to the realization that - for this time of my life - 6 days straight of commitments is too much. I used to do this and more week in and week out - but the demands of my life are so different now.
So, today began the at-home catch up. Laundry is done for the week, just needs to be put away in the morning (I finished folding after the girls were in bed, and I won't go into their rooms for fear of waking them up unless the house is on fire. Literally.) I have picked up and vacuumed the living room, and cleaned the kitchen. Tomorrow I need to change sheets on the beds, mop the dining room (this is where C. eats all her meals - it needs to be mopped. Badly.), and vacuum the play/sew area in the basement. It is nice to have non-mentally challenging work to do after a week of much head-time. And it is relaxing to me to see the house come into some semblance of order again after a week of chaos. By tomorrow night I need to shift back into getting ready to preach on March 9.
In other news, my mom signed the papers to buy her condo here today. She will be here by Easter. I almost wish she wasn't coming until after Easter, as the time right before is so busy for us, and her sister is driving out with her and will be here for a couple of days to help her get settled - but, what will be will be. It will be nice to have her closer - M. is so excited about this she can hardly stand it. She can't talk about Grandma C. moving here to "Salt City" without jumping up and down. Quite cute, especially when she does this without knocking her sister over.... :)
C. is just so cute herself these days. She is so proud of herself for everything still, and is really starting to communicate so much more. C. still doesn't talk much - not at all really - but in the last few days she has started to make sounds repeatedly like she is trying to say certain words. "Cat" is the most frequent attempt. She loves our cats. Someday, they will love her back....
Oh, and I finished my new purse. Not sure I love it for me - I like it, but it is quite bright. I am thinking I might like it better in different colors. So, I am using it for now and thinking about if I will keep it. 2 things didn't turn out quite right - I added pockets on the lining to hold pens, lip gloss, my phone, and my inhaler - so I don't have to dig for them. They are up kind of high, though, so if I make another one I will move them down lower. It makes it hard to close the purse clasp where they are. Also, I sewed the handles on backwards. This is the kind of thing no one else would notice, but I did. Of course, I noticed after I had gotten to the point that changing them would mean taking out 3 seams of very tiny stitching - so they will stay backwards. I will try to post a picture or two soon. One thing I do love is that I lined it in bright yellow fabric, so it is very easy to see inside.
One final celebration - I am wearing a pair of jeans today that has not fit since before I got pregnant with C. It has taken a year to get back into them, but I did it. I still need to lose about 15 pounds - but I am quite happy about this milestone.
Once again, probably more details than you may want to know. I am now off to bed.

Monday, Monday

So, M. was fine today. It always amazes me how quickly she can bounce back from illness. She is rarely down for more than 24 hours. Yesterday, she took a 3 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon and woke up quite chipper. She slept well last night, and today you could hardly tell she'd been sick at all. Now as long as no one else in the family gets sick, we are in good shape.
I should say, as long as no one else gets the puking sick, we are in good shape, as I am coming down with a respiratory bug. Which wouldn't be bad if it didn't mean my asthma was kicking in again. So, I have a call in for an appointment at my pulmonologist this week. I don't want to let this go and be sick for weeks like I was at one point last fall - I am trying to learn to take care of myself.
On the sewing front, I made M.'s belt - so now we will see if she will wear it. I made it from a European pattern, so it was in centimeters and I had to convert to inches - and I messed up and made the seam allowances 1/8 of an inch to narrow. Which doesn't seem like much, except that the belt is supposed to be 1 inch wide and it is now 1 and 1/4 inches wide. So, we will see if M. likes and will wear it. If not, well, I think I spent a grand total of $2 on it - so, no worries. And I will pay more attention to my math when converting in the future. 1 cm is more like 3/8 inch - not 1/4....
Off to bed now.

Sick day

For M., not me. She woke up and threw up this morning, and then did so 4 more times before she went down for an afternoon nap about an hour ago. I am hoping it's just a short viral bug. And that no one else gets it. She is still pretty chipper in between bouts, so that gives me hope that it will be over soon.
Poor C. can't figure out what's going on. First, M. got a bath this morning and she didn't (they usually take baths one after the other or together - and C. loves, loves, loves the water) and then Mommy would cuddle with M. and not let C. up - because M. was vomiting again. Normally I try to let C. join whatever M. and I are doing - C. usually looses interest in about 2 minutes and gets down to play again - but today I had to keep her away from the action.
So, now I am off to scrub and sanitize the bath tub. You really don't want to know details.....

Religious Education

For all those who are religious, of the Judeo-Christian strand, check out this. Especially the "bag of plagues." Think we could hand those out at our community Easter egg hunt this year?

eta: link is fixed - sorry about that!

Saturday Night

So, I have to say that the sound of my 2 girls snoring in rhythm is one of the sweetest sounds in the universe. C. stirred just as M. was ready to go to sleep, and I had already promised M. to sit in her room until she went to sleep tonight, so I rocked C. sitting on the end of M.'s bed - and they were both out in about 3 minutes. So sweet.
I went fabric shopping today. Many of the local stores were having President's Day sales - so the girls and I hit 3 stores looking for fabrics for spring/summer clothes. I got a bit stir-crazy this last week and decided that since it won't stop snowing here - I need to do something to bring on spring. So, I have fabric for:

-a new fabric purse for me.
-a skirt for me (blue tiny floral print.)
-matching pink capri pants and white/pink print tops for the girls
-purple print for sundresses for the girls
-one pair blue and one pair purple pajama pants for M., maybe for C. (not sure if there will be enough so I may need different fabric for C.)
-a purple belt for M. (need to make this first - she is so skinny that her pants are always falling down. Hopefully a belt will help - at least with the pants that have belt loops..... :) )
-knit fabric to make pajama tops for summer (have to brag that this was an insanely good deal - $.99 a yard and it takes just over a yard for one top for each girl - )

I think that is everything. I have figured out how to set up my new cutting table that I got for Christmas - it's a fold down table that is about waist high and about 4 ft. by 6 ft. when set up. I can spread out fabric and patterns to cut it out without crawling on the floor, getting "help" from the girls, and worrying about pins getting stuck in little feet. Now I just have to keep the pins in the pin cushion on the table. I also have a new gigantic cutting mat to go on top of it - so I can use my rotary cutter - and again, keep it out of little hands. (If you don't sew and haven't a clue what a rotary cutter is, think a small pizza cutter with an incredibly sharp blade used to cut fabric. Much faster than scissors for cutting things out fabric.)

So, we may have snow until July at this point - but I don't care. I will be hiding in my basement sewing/play room and dreaming of warmer days until they come (in between all the other stuff I have to do....)
(And we won't have snow until July - it just feels like it right now)