Utter Blather

I was sick from Saturday until yesterday, which means my house isn't exactly Wednesday night meeting-ready.  I am being as ambitious as my pathetically weak self will allow (how on EARTH can you lose that much strength being sick for a few days?) but I decided it was time to sit down and drink a tall glass of water, eat the Super Softee Donut Evan bought last night, and write totally random things on my blog.  So here are the things I've been musing whilst I put kids' books back in the bookcase, picked pajamas off the floor, made beds, braided hair, etc.

• Silly Putty is a loathsome thing.  I'm not saying it isn't a cool toy to play with, but it gets embedded in fabric and never comes out.  And with a 16-month old terror on the loose in my house, it gets embedded in every strand of every fabric in a three-mile radius.  Maybe, if they've been super good, my kids can get Silly Putty for their 17th birthday.
• I love the fact that Cheyenne loves riding her bike.  Even if she only has three minutes before the bus comes, she gets it out and rides circles around the van in our driveway until the bus comes.  Then, she dumps the bike directly behind the rear wheels of the van and merrily jumps on the bus.  But that's a lesson we'll get to, hopefully before the crunch that means I've destroyed her every hope and dream.
• I have never seen such a grey day.  Despite having every shade all the way up, it feels like evening here.  I don't think I have ever been anxious for Daylight Saving Time to end-- usually, I hate the evenings getting darker.  These still-pitch-black-at-seven mornings, though, have me longing for November 6th.
• I could not close my eyes last night, despite the fact I was bone weary.  So I came downstairs to the computer and bought 13 Joan Aiken books.  It's probably a good thing I very rarely get insomnia.  Although, it's hard to imagine getting more bang for your buck than $1 books (plus shipping, but we'll ignore that).
• Before I gave up sleeping and went on a book-buying binge, I mentally went through every step in our eventual bookcase relocation/closet annexation/drastic bedroom rearranging.  This, despite the fact that our bedroom still looks like your great-uncle's hunting camp.  I probably won't be whipping this plan into action anytime soon.
• I'm so glad my husband was sweet enough to stay home Monday morning and help feed kids and get them on the bus.  I like to think it's because he was so sorry for my sickly state, not because he was in no hurry to get to the roofing job he had agreed to help another contractor with.  And I think I just ended a sentence with a preposition, and I don't care.
• I still haven't got out winter coats or boots, and there's snow in the forecast.  Hello, Giant Time Suck on Thursday.
• I like looking in the entryway closet and seeing the cans of applesauce Marilyn canned on the top shelf.  In true Vaughan fashion, now that I know how easy canning can be, I want to can everything.  Probably the urge will fade by the time there's fresh food to can next summer.  Maybe, though, I'm just a few Mason jars away from being a domestic goddess.
• I don't think any of my kids have had the sheer energy + persistance + climbing ingenuity that Lincoln has.  It is utterly exhausting.  Good thing he's still cuter than a button so I forgive him.  He would be even cuter if he still took two naps, though.
• I have hardly been on Facebook in a couple of weeks.  I still like reading about the news in other people's lives, I just haven't had the time/inclination to get on much lately.  Weird.
• My sister-in-law is going on a quilting retreat, and it has made me think blissfully of four days of being able to work on projects with zero interruptions other than to eat food and chat with people.  Hmm, who wants to host a Projects weekend in a lovely Adirondack chalet soon?  Then, I wondered if I had four free days, would I really WANT to mend the 67 books that need mending, or would I want to sink into a reading stupor to rival all reading stupors?

Okay, my doughnut is done, and I need to go sweep up the steel cut oatmeal that's been lurking behind the door of my laundry room for a week now.  Although curling up in the recliner with a book, or crawling under the covers of my luscious bed, both sound infinitely more appealing.  Good thing I made my bed this morning and my current book isn't super captivating.  Rise and shine, Captain Ambitious!