Conversion Diary is hosting Quick Takes today. She found an interesting blog that gives loads of ideas for healthy(er) living. Head on over to check it out!
~ 1 ~
We started a new month this past week and that has led me to be a bit reflective about my Word of the Year. I’m giving myself a B-, mainly for effort. And yes, that does include an appropriate level of grace bestowed upon myself for the fact that I was ill for the first 2 weeks of the year, had more calendared activities than usual as a family and that I really didn’t have an ultimate “plan” as to what I wanted to achieve in my “purposeful” state. Kind of formulating that as I go along. I’ve got lots of room for improvement and I’m hopeful that some doses of sunshine, good health and regular visits to the gym will make my February a little more successful!
~ 2 ~
Speaking of illness, my eldest came down with a nasty cough and sinus ick yesterday. I applied some Vick’s rub to his chest in the afternoon, hoping that would ease the cough a bit (which it didn’t). As I was putting the Vick’s away, L came running up behind me, lifting his shirt (yes, the same pajama top he refused to take off the entire day) and asked for “medsin”. At first I wasn’t understanding him (remember, I get 4 hours of sleep TOPS these days) but it dawned on me that he wanted some Vick’s rub for himself. I finally got quick on my feet, put some lotion in my hands and rubbed that on him, saying “Hope you feel better little one!” He was quite happy with me after that. For about 25 seconds. *sigh*
~ 3 ~
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And speaking of illness again, I am on the warpath to not catching this round of sinus ick from my fellow home dwellers, though I’ve already started blowing my nose. Eee gads, I am so ready to be healthy for longer than 2 weeks at a time. The neti pot is out and is in use. I’ve already had one cup of a garlic and pepper broth and the caffeine is nowhere to be found in me – just water and decaf tea, thank you very much. Hopefully this will do the trick…especially since I’ll be flying it solo on Sunday and Monday, thanks to the Packers being in the Super Bowl. (Go Packs!)
~ 4 ~
Last Friday I talked on Esther chapter 3 at my women’s Bible Study group. If you’ll remember, I was a bit unsure of how that was going to go since I was having a tough time connecting the Scripture passages to the chapter in the book we’re studying. Thankfully, with a little help from my awesome Hubby, it all came together quite nicely. I get to speak again in about 6 weeks on Esther chapter 8 and the study guide subject is Praising God’s Faithfulness. I am really looking forward to writing that talk as there is a bounty of life experiences to pull from!
~ 5 ~
So D is turning 5 in July. FIVE. That so does not sound like a preschooler to me. That sounds like a Kindergartner. Even though he won’t be heading to Kinder quite just yet, the “purposeful” part in me is trying to plan a nice, five-year-old kid-sized birthday celebration. I would love to hear some ideas as I’m a little stumped about how to plan if it’s an outdoor event. July last summer was actually quite nice and would not have been a problem to hold a party at a park or something. Since the trained weather forecaster typically can’t even ballpark it a few weeks beforehand, I’m not even going to try and guess if we’ll be having a sizzling July or another cooler-than-usual July for this year. Funderland is peaking my interests as is renting a caboose at the Railroad Museum…but that thing doesn’t look air-conditioned. Hmm….
~ 6 ~
For my birthday this year (in 16 days…don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to send me a gift…) I’ll be heading south on a jet plane. By myself. To do nothing but eat, SLEEP, chat the days and nights away with my girlfriends, SLEEP, eat sushi, SLEEP, squeeze a road trip in, SLEEP, and get my nails done. And get a massage (I think). And maybe see a movie. 16 days and counting…
~ 7 ~
So, I didn’t get randomly picked as the winner of the Breville Toaster Oven (bummer!!!!), but I’ve got my name in for another drawing. Shabby Apple (where you can find some of the most darling dresses you will ever lay your eyes on, I’m tellin’ ya) is teaming up with Totally Tessa to give away this lovely L’Amour dress:
Tessa gives the required steps to enter the drawing (there are several different ways) at the end of this blog post. And the best part – you still have time to enter! The deadline is this Sunday, so get crackin’! (And if I had my pick, I’d be in the Billie dress faster than you can say “Happy 39”!)
![clip_image002[4]](https://gardengal1.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/clip_image0024.jpg "clip_image002[4]")
In the Land of Ridd 
Really praying that you and the whole family will be done with sickness and have a great sick-free February (and rest of the year)!
Your birthday trip sounds awesome! I have been so preoccupied with my 2012 birthday coming up that I kind of forgot I have one THIS year first! haha, I just realized how silly that sounds but it’s true!
Can you believe how quick your boys are growing up. It all happens too fast! 🙂
I know. I can’t imagine what I’ll be doing in 2012. I’m just glad I had the ability to plan the trip during my birthday this year. And it’s true – in some ways, “it” really does go by too fast. But in other ways, I wish the time would hurry up already!!!! Mama needs her sleep! 🙂
Oh wow, a birthday trip! You will have a wonderful time sleeping! And all that other stuff too.
Really, four hours sleep most nights? I hope it gets better soon!
Yes. 4 hours and that’s usually not even in a row (bugh!). L has been an absolute nightmare at night, pretty much since the time change…way back when. He was already an early riser before that hit and ever since then, it’s been terrible. Doesn’t help that I’m not able to close my eyes before 11pm most nights. Then L is up by 1 or 2am, sometimes earlier. Then one of us is sleeping on the floor in his room just so he’ll stay in bed. We don’t sleep much after that. He doesn’t even sleep much after that. NO. FUN.
Oh, wow. Tell me L at least goes to bed early(ish). Although, if you can’t fall asleep before 11…wow. My first impulse, when anyone has a problem, is to refer them to a book. Have you read The No-Cry Sleep Solution? You probably have, but I have a copy if you’d like to borrow it.
Z sometimes has trouble – usually it’s that she wakes up at 3, comes to bed with us, and then fidgets/talks for an hour and a half before falling back to sleep. Maybe I should give that book another read! But I think, with these issues, there isn’t much to do. Especially for lazy parents like me & my husband, but even for the hard-working, determined mommies & daddies, sleep stuff is just so hard.
Anyway, I’m sorry it’s like that for you, and I hope it gets better soon.
Oh yes, both boys are usually asleep by 7:30 – I’ve tried going to bed around 9:00 & I just can’t fall asleep. I think it’s really hard mentally to give up that “free” time with just Hubbs & I or something. And yes, I’ve read that book along with a few others regarding kids & sleep. I could probably skim them for some refresher material but I might get depressed if the efforts fail! 🙂 Sleep stuff stinks.