Monday Musings--17 January 2011

Right now...it is 6:05 a.m., dark and the house is quiet.  Una has spent the night with friends (my Goddaughter's family), and I know the day will be more difficult without her help.  She is so good with Gemma, and is Gemma's "back-up Mama" when this one is otherwise indisposed!  I will be glad when Bret goes to get her this afternoon.

This weekend...was lovely.  On Saturday we went to the Amish Market nearby to pick up peanut butter, yeast, natural salt and dried apples and apricots, and feed for the animals.  I always enjoy the ride out there (only about 15 minutes) and the opportunity to speak a little German at the store.  We then stopped by my sister's to drop off eggs and pick up egg cartons.  What is it with my chickens?  Either there is a glut of eggs
and we are inundated, or else we haven't enough to make up a batch of scrambled eggs for breakfast!

We then went to the library in Scottsville for the first time in a couple of months.  Una and Sebastian picked up the artwork they had on exhibit through their art class, and the kids checked out books.  Rural libraries are a bummer...they didn't have the Horatio Hornblower series, which annoyed Una somewhat and me even more.  What kind of a library is lacking almost every classic of literature?  Anytime I am looking for something specific, they don't have it.  I fantasized about being the one in charge of ordering books....

From there we came home, to lunch, laundry, baths and so forth.  I made split pea soup, which was compared to something unmentionable by one of my boys.  It is one of those things I can make only rarely, because the majority gives it a thumbs-down, even if Bret, Una and I like it.  Oh well...

Yesterday we went to Mass in Gallatin, and to a party afterwards.  Very Catholic: only 5 families, 9 adults (one papa couldn't make it), and 32 kids.  It was crazy and noisy, but thank God for their garage and their bonus room--which looked like a cyclone had hit after the kids were through with it; the adults were actually able to converse.  We stayed for hours and hours, and the kids played so well.  Dominic and Gemma passed out on the way home, and we put them straight to bed.

Some plans for the week:  I'm such a procrastinator when it comes to big decisions.  I have to make the switch to Samaritan Ministries this month, and although I feel pretty much at ease about it, I still haven't called for an application.  I still have gifts to get for Adrian's birthday, and I want to paint up his wooden shield for him.  I am not sure what emblem I will use for it, but he is to be six, so it has to be "cool".

If I find some time for myself, I hope to...work on some watercolor sketchbooks to put up for sale and finish Gemma's Pixie Bonnet.


Special prayer intentions for the week:  that Una starts feeling better.  For two weeks now she has been having a "cycle" of fibromyalgia symptoms.  The medication she has been taking, Guaifenesin, was working well, and she actually had a month or so without any symptoms.  Now she has them back in full force: neck, shoulder and back pain, headaches, weird shooting pains, burning eyes and so forth.  I am wondering if approaching puberty and the hormone shifts may be accounting for this.  Anyway, it makes school difficult for her.  I am also praying some prayers of thanksgiving this week, for the first birthday on Tuesday of Madeline Therese, for the successful completion of a beautiful kneeler Bret designed and constructed for a dear reader of this blog, and for the kindness of friends.

Something that makes me smile:  Five families and 32 kids!  The "carbon footprint" of Godzilla!  Makes me proud to be pro-life!