Monday Musings--14 May 2012

Right now...we are getting a slow start on our week.  Part of this has to do with the fact that I seem to be coming down with a cold (really, we hardly get sick at all in the winter!) and I am running on 5 hours sleep after a second night of insomnia.  Ugh.

This weekend was...eventful!  On Friday night we went ahead and gave Sebastian his main birthday gift--a Sony digital camcorder.  Actually, he is paying for a part of it, as we try to keep birthday spending within certain limits, and this camcorder, even purchased from Craigslist as it was, still exceeded those limits.  We gave it to him early (his birthday is actually tomorrow), thinking that we would be going to the Folk Medicine Festival in Red Boiling Springs, and that he would enjoy taking photos and shooting footage.  As it turned out, when we got up on Saturday the weather said there was an 85 percent chance of thunderstorms by noon, and we decided not to go.  Instead, we did something we needed to do, which is hit the thrift stores.  We didn't get everything we needed (Gemma still needs T-shirts and tops for summer and dress shoes or sandals for Mass, and shoes are needed for various family members), but we did pretty well.

It was a long day.  After the thrift shops, we went ahead and did our grocery shopping so that I wouldn't have to shop after Mass on Mother's Day.

We got home in the late afternoon.  We gave Sebastian his other gifts and brought out the cake.  I guess chocolate birthday cake and homemade coconut ice cream wasn't the best option for dinner.  Although we don't shun sugar, we also do not eat a lot of sweets, and I think the combination of having missed her nap and a sudden sugar glut did Gemma in:  she was violently ill from about 7 until 9:30, by which time she had pretty much purged herself of the sweets and slept very well.  I, however, did not. I thought that perhaps there might be a chance that we were coming down with some sort of intestinal bug.  And so I couldn't sleep (listening as I was for sounds of further illness)  and was up until about 12:30 a.m.

We went to the early Mass (with me still in a fog of sleep-deprivation) so as to be with my mom and sister for the Mass on Mother's Day.  It was pouring, and had been since night, and continued to do so all throughout the day.  I came home and took a little nap, rose, ate lunch, looked at yarn online, talked to my dad on the phone and then knit while watching this fantastic series loaned to me by a lovely lady.  It's really good...and the music and images are quite wonderful (and through June 15th you can get a buy-one-set-get-a-second-one-free deal).

Some women get flowers and jewelry for Mother's Day; I get freshly picked strawberries and rocks.  Bret found these rocks on a job site, and was taken with their roundness.  They are not geodes, although they are slightly crystalline inside (not hollow, however).  He picked out six to represent our kids.  I haven't washed them up yet, but I daresay it won't make much difference!

Some plans for this week:  school and housecleaning, naturally; make up a batch of shredded pork barbecue; register the kids with our umbrella school for the coming year and make some decisions about curricula, mainly for Una, who is going into 9th grade this fall.  I have an order to fill from the Etsy shop, too, for a couple of watercolor sketchbooks. I also want to pick out a fingering weight yarn for a shawl I'd like to knit.  I have never used fingering weight yarn before, and with my eyes not quite so good as they used to be, the prospect is rather daunting!  And now that I am done with Sebastian's birthday gifts, maybe I can finally work on some of the sewing projects I have piling up.

If I find some time for myself, I hope to...work on my knitting!  It's really my favorite way to unwind, and I am feeling far too wound up these days.

I am grateful for...making it to Mass yesterday; being the mother of 6 unique souls who make me crazy but keep me laughing.

Some prayer intentions for this week:  for Sebastian, who will be 11 tomorrow; that no one else gets ill (we have a few scratchy throats this morning!) and that Bret will have some free time and fair weather to work on the house later this week.

I wish you all a very good week, and to all the wonderful mothers out there who give me so much inspiration and strength, a very happy belated Mother's Day!