Yoo hoo, anybody home?  LOL  I know, it has been 18 months since I last posted here.  I didn't realize it had been quite that long until today, when someone asked me for help with her blog on HSB, and I logged into mine.  Wow.  Time flies when you're busy homeschooling four kids -- and in the last 5-6 months, I would also have to admit that I joined Facebook and sometimes am addicted.

Well, let's see.  Guess I should bring you up to speed on how old the kids are now:  oldest DD is 10, my DSs are 8 and 5 1/2, and the youngest DD is 3 1/2.

That's all for now.  Please leave a comment if you read this.

God bless,

Lori.

In an attempt to keep our identity anonymous from strangers, I have not been using my children's real names, nor pictures of them.  In the process, I have created The World's Most Boring Blog because I only have images of things like burned-out cars and fixer-upper ones -- and very few pictures, period.  So here goes:

Above this text, there should be a picture of "the bunch" (sans DD2, who was inside visiting with Grandma) from DD9's birthday party.  The first time I inserted it, I couldn't remember how to resize it, but now I think I've got it.

I will probably add more party pics later.

At least I finally "bit the bullet". 

-L.

Well, I was thinking I might not post this because it might just be a boring "laundry list" of household chores, but it looks like Lori2 double-dog dared me, so here goes:

First, I overslept, because I accidentally set the alarm for PM (DH says I'm good at that).  If memory serves me correctly, (although I did wake up at about 7:30 and look at the clock, I rolled back over, fell asleep, and) I finally got out of bed at 9:45 a.m.  My DH and I have a derogatory term for ourselves when we sleep in that late, but it's not PC so I'm not going to blog it. 

I made myself two fried eggs for breakfast, along with a piece of toast -- more like half a piece of toast, because I had sent most of the whole wheat bread with the rest of the family.

I ground three batches of wheat.  I have a Grain Mill attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer (mine is an older version than the one in this picture; I like the looks of mine better because it has actually has a "picture" of a mill cast in the iron on the front, although this one may beat mine for efficiency, I don't know), so I can only grind 6 c. of wheat berries at a time.  Then I have to wait 45 min. before I can run another batch.  I pre-measured two or three loaves' worth into quart-size Ziploc freezer bags, dumped the rest into two gallon-sized bags, and placed all of them in the freezer. 

I started a loaf of bread in the breadmaker.

I ran a towel and a hand towel through our faux front-loader washing machine with a cup of Clorox.  I know, something is wrong with this picture, having to clean a washing machine.  But that is what I do, usually about every six days, to keep our clean laundry smelling like clean laundry should smell.

Somewhere in this timeframe, I seem to recall unloading the dishwasher and emptying the dish drainer as well, maybe handwashing some things, and straightening the kitchen somewhat.  Maybe I should go back and read my first post to see where I was...

Okay, true confessions here.  I hadn't cleaned up the eat-in area of the kitchen from the day before when the kids had played with Play-Doh in there.   So I still had to sweep the kitchen floor.  I moved the table and chairs out of the way, and even swept adjacent areas in the family room, dining room, hallway and foyer closet just for sport.  You should have seen the piles of Play-doh, crumbs, etc., that I collected -- er, no, you shouldn't have seen them.  I probably would have been embarrassed.

I also spent more time in the playroom, but not nearly as much as the day before.  Maybe 45 minutes on the playroom and the schoolroom.

I think I started cleaning myself up for the wedding at 1:45, so the above is supposedly 4 hours' worth of work.  I know, once it's there in black and white (or white and purple, in the case of this blog), it doesn't seem like much.  My 85-year-old mother probably could have shaved 1:15 off my time.  Just call me Slacker Mom -- oh, wait, that's Lori2's old blog.  Guess you have to call me Coaster Mom.  LOL

God bless,

Lori.

Okay, I think I need to rewind to last Saturday morning at 9:20, so you know why I am joking that I am on summer vacation tonight.  Bear with me, as I am probably going to "chase a few rabbits" before I actually get to tonight.

Last Saturday morning, DH left early to run some errands and I was home with the kids.  He called at 9:20 a.m. to say "the Big Burg" (our nickname for the car he was driving) had broken down.  Well, the car is only 12 years old with about 150,000 miles on it, so I was not surprised -- I expect it to happen periodically, and just pray that it won't happen at 65 mph on the highway.  When he told me where to come pick him up, I immediately said, "Thank you, Lord," because he was in a parking lot about seven minutes from home!

He was cutting through two rows of parking spaces in between a Panera Bread and mobile phone store, lining himself up for the drive-thru ATM at the bank next door, when the ball joint on the front driver's side of the car suddenly gave out.  The car just went SLAM!, right down on the left front tire.  The slightly funny part of the story is that there was a guy washing the windows of the mobile phone place, and the loud THUD directly behind him, just about made the poor guy jump out of his skin!

So, the kids and I hopped in our other car and headed over to pick him up.  I almost cried when I saw the car sitting diagonally in the middle of a bank of empty parking spaces, again thanking God that he was safe.  Several hours later, the car was towed to my MIL's house about 45 min. away.  She has a barn and DH keeps a lot of tools out there, so it's easier to work on cars there than it is here.   Soooo....DH has been at his mom's much of his free time since then, working on the car.

Tomorrow night, DH and I have a wedding and reception to attend, so we had already asked his mom and sister to keep the kids overnight.  Since the car is still not finished, he decided to spend the night out there, so he worked on the car tonight and will continue to work on it tomorrow.  While he was going to be there, he figured he might as well take the kids out tonight, too.  Soooo...that leaves me with the house to myself tonight and most of the day tomorrow, which -- as you might imagine -- doesn't happen very often.

So what did I do?  First, I took a nap.  An hour-and-a-half nap with about 30 minutes of hitting the snooze.    I stayed up late last night, so that I take full responsibility for, but then as I was going to bed, DD2 woke up.  She kept scratching her wrist (she has eczema), she wanted "muk" [milk], she was a bit poofy so I changed her diaper...she finally yawned...then eventually she turned over on her left side, which is usually a sign she will fall asleep shortly...but every time I would think she was back asleep and I would make one small move to get up, she would roll onto her back again and say, "Mommy..."  About two hours after she awakened, she did go back to sleep.  So I had roughly half a normal night's sleep, and I was very tired by the afternoon.  I decided I would be more productive later if I took a nap. 

Second, I drank a lot of water because I felt dehydrated after my nap.  I probably ate something then, too.  I don't remember for sure, but I eat practically all the time, so it's a good guess -- LOL.  The pickin's are rather slim in our kitchen right now since I have been without a car all week (DH had to take the other car to work, of course) and we have not made a full grocery run, so I probably ate twice as much as I actually needed because things that I wanted were not here.  Then, with having drunk so much water, you can guess where else I was a few times .  I also unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher.

Third and foremost, I put away and threw away things in the basement where the playroom, schoolroom, and storage room are.  I am ashamed to say that things had gotten so out of hand down there, I'm not finished yet.  Unfortunately, DH and I have never managed to make the "one thing out at a time" rule, stick.  Hopefully that will be our resolution for this summer, to better train the kids in this regard.

I was throwing away spilled peanuts (one of the older kids took a practically brand-new jar down there, but let DD2 get ahold of it and she spilled it ) and chunks of Play-Doh (now, I don't let the kids play with Play-Doh in the carpeted playroom, so why someone took red Play-Doh down there and left it on the navy blue carpet, I haven't the foggiest idea, and two pieces are firmly stuck ) and broken crayons and scraps of paper and string cheese wrappers, sorting Legos and Lincoln Logs and Lauri puzzles and Little People and Pop-Onz and Gears into their proper containers (why was there a large pile of little Legos waaaay across the room from the Lego table??), tossing plastic plates and fake food in the general direction of the toy kitchen, rewinding VHS tapes, deciding we can finally get rid of the wooden and plastic blocks...

The fun part was, I had my iPod on, so I was free to belt out my favorite tunes at the top of my lungs.    With other people in the house, of course, I don't do that; every once in a while, I will hum or sing verrrry softly.  I love to sing, so it was nice to be able to cut loose!  LOL

I also spent a little time reading e-mail and a little bit of news, and blogging (obviously).

Maybe tomorrow there will be a Part II to my essay.  Hopefully I will get a good night's rest and hit it hard again tomorrow.

G'night,

Lori.

For dinner tonight, I made Peanut-Crusted Chicken (for a similar recipe, click here; in particular, mine didn't call for lemongrass nor a hot/sweet sauce) .  I planned to make it a few days ago, but for one or more reasons I don't remember at the moment, it was postponed until tonight.  Strangely enough, I noticed the date the recipe was published in the Cincinnati Enquirer:  5/24/98, exactly 10 years ago today.

Saturday is the day I typically grind wheat, so it was easy enough to grind some dry corn kernels into cornmeal.  Too, I decided to grind some pastry berries (wheat) into flour to use that instead of all-purpose flour.  Little did I know how the clock was ticking.

First, DD2 woke up from her nap, and she and DS4 took turns interrupting me from dinner prep.  Then, when I went to grind the peanuts in my mini food processor, I read the instruction manual and realized the peanuts were supposed to be chilled first.  OOPS.  I forgot about that.    So I asked DH how long he thought I needed to refrigerate them in order for them to be sufficiently chilled.  He said he really wasn't sure, but then guessed half an hour.

Sooooo...I put the bowl of peanuts in the frig and found something else to do for half an hour.  Then I chopped the peanuts.  Easy enough. 

Then, when I finally had the oven pre-heated, all the ingredients prepped, and the three bowls staged with the flour, buttermilk, and peanut/cornmeal mixture respectively, DH came rushing into the kitchen saying, "I hear crying."  Eventually, we traced it to the basement half bath, where DD8 lay sitting on the floor in tears and bleeding.

[Before I go on, I must explain that our basement potty is one of those that was not pre-planned, so you walk up two steps before you can sit on "the throne" .] 

At first, it wasn't clear where the blood was coming from, but then she explained what happened:  let's just say she miscalculated on her dismount and leave it at that , and hit the back of her head either on the edge of one of the steps (that's what she thinks happened) or the edge of the sink.  In the end, the cut was very small and not gaping open at all; we just had to figure out how to get the blood out of her hair.

So after we finished tending to her, I went back to dinner.  It really doesn't take too long to "triple-dip" chicken like that, although I probably take a few more minutes than most people trying to get every square millimeter completely coated.  But soon, the chicken -- initially, covered with aluminum foil -- was in the oven and the timer was set. 

I took the foil off at the specified time, and put it back in the oven for the coating to bake.  I checked it when it should have been finished, but the coating didn't look golden brown yet  and still looked rather dry to boot.  So I put it back in for another five minutes.  I had to repeat this several times, as it just did not look done.  I don't know if my chicken was not completely thawed like I thought, or if it was because I used the whole-wheat flour instead of all-purpose (which probably made the crust a bit thicker).  I did notice in the online recipe, that it does say to cook it about 10 min. longer than mine does once the foil is off.  At any rate, it finally looked done enough, so I took it out.  Then it had to cool for a while in order for the crust to dry out somewhat. 

I think it was 8:45 by the time we ate dinner!

That is not unusual for some people, I'm sure, but for our family -- who often eats at 4:30, 5:00, 5:30 -- it was...

I thought about taking a picture of the chicken when it was finally on the table, but (1) there were some chunks of coating off, so it wasn't picture-perfect and (2) we were ready to EAT.

[I know, I know, I have disappeared from the blogosphere for a few weeks now.  The last week of March and the entire month of April were very busy.  But hopefully I will start posting at least once a week again.  Maybe even PICTURES -- I know, what a concept for me and my blog LOL.]

A few weeks ago, I decided to take a moment to check my friend and fellow homeschooling mom Kim's blog ("Nuttier than a Fruitcake," in case you viewed it at some point)...lo and behold, her blog was GONE!  So I e-mailed her and asked what had happened.

She said that keeping it updated was stressing her out, so she deleted it.  Anything in her life that was stressing her out and could be removed from her life, was.   

To her decision, I say, "YOU GO, GIRL!!!"  I admire her for having the courage to do that.  If she's anything like me, she has that little "tape" playing in her head, telling her to "finish what you started" -- "you can't quit".  But guess what -- if something is only a hobby (although she is in business, too, so she probably did have customers looking at her blog), by all means, opt out if it is causing you stress rather than relieving it.

I occasionally evaluate my blogging for the same thing.  So far, I am okay with the fact that I may not post an entry for three weeks at a time and may not produce anything noteworthy even when I do.  I am okay with the fact I may have the world's most boring blog.    If I ever feel myself succumbing to "peer pressure" (whether real or contrived), I hope I will be brave like Kim and pull the plug.

Ditto scrapbooking.  I love scrapbooking because it is a creative outlet that gives me some free time, and yet it keeps me connected to my family (because I am scrapbooking pictures of them).  I have often said, though, that as soon as it becomes just one more thing on my "to-do" list, I will stop.

Well, this post wasn't exciting, no pictures, no links, no nothin' LOL, but I'm back.  Now, onto lesson planning...

Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.            ~Matt. 6:33

-Lori.

No, I don't mean that my nieces and nephews are finally going to think I'm great -- LOL, I mean that one of my nieces is due to have a baby, making me a great aunt for the first time.

Her blood pressure was elevated at her appointment yesterday, and apparently she's been having trouble with it recently, so they decided to admit her last night and induce her.  She is now 6 cm dilated, decided she'd had enough of natural labor and wanted an epidural.  Her husband is very interested in seeing everything that happens, to see what his wife does for a living (she's in her third or fourth year of residency in OB/GYN), but he admitted that the epidural freaked him out a little bit.  I e-mailed back that feeling a little freaked out while watching someone stick a needle in your wife's back is understandable, that I'm just proud of him for not passing out like I might have done.  [Yes, I have given birth to four children, but I have never had an epidural.]

I gave the children an update this morning and asked to pray.  We held hands and I asked DS4 (since he's crew chief today) to pray, but he declined.  So I decided to ask DD8 if she wanted to, and she said yes.  It was a most precious prayer.    She first thanked God for this beautiful day, then prayed for her cousin and the doctors (that they wouldn't make a mistake).  She also prayed for all the sick and afflicted in the world, then prayed for her cousin again. 

The soon-to-be new dad said that the estimated time of arrival is 3:30 - 5:00.  Please pray for my niece, her husband, and the baby -- and my sister (the soon-to-be grandma) who is probably biting her fingernails.  

-soon-to-be Great Aunt "Lo". 

I will probably expand upon this entry later...

DS6 lost his first "official" tooth!    For those of you who have seen him IRL, you know he already has a missing tooth.  You may not know, however, that he lost it through trauma, not rite of passage.

Well, DD2 is yanking on my arm, so I will have to finish this and post a picture later...

-L.

As I mentioned yesterday, we bought Girl Scout cookies from the girls in our church, even though we chose American Heritage Girls for our daughter.  Today, I received an e-mail from AHG with a link to an article at World Net Daily, written by someone who was once proud to be a Girl Scout herself, suggesting "Don't Buy the Cookies".  I'm not going to provide the link here since children read and blog here and the article mentions some topics best left for parents to broach with their own children at their own discretion if possible, but it is available at either World Net Daily or the American Heritage Girls website.  

Although I, too, was a Girl Scout for many years, I recognized that they had strayed considerably from their foundation in "God and country", so I knew American Heritage Girls was the way my daughters would go.  I just didn't quite realize the extent of the situation, although I am not surprised.

The good news is, the Boy Scouts have not changed.  We plan to sign up DS6 for Cub Scouts next year.

-Lori.

...while there are Girl Scout Cookies in the house??  Although DD8 is not in Girl Scouts (she is in American Heritage Girls), three girls in our church are, so DH and I purchased two boxes of cookies from each of them.  This year, DD8 and DS6 even bought some boxes of their own!  DS4 opted to save his money and just eat Dad and Mom's cookies.

It has been a time of great temptation for me because one of the girls didn't bring her cookies to church yet, so I don't have my Caramel DeLites -- but DS6 ordered a box from one of the other girls, so he has them already!!!  I will try to remember that with every temptation, there is an escape hatch...in this case, I have to open the other cabinet and choose from either Peanut Butter Sandwiches, which are DH's favorites, or Thin Mints, my other favorites.  I did "borrow" just one cookie from DS6, promising that I will pay him back when mine are in my hot little hands, but from now on, with Peanut Butter and Thin Mints, let me therewith be content...until Sunday, anyway... 

Yet again, I have fallen silent for about two weeks.  Part of that was because we were about to leave on a two-week vacation, so I was busy with planning menus, grinding extra wheat, printing packing lists and packing in addition to the typical home keeping and home schooling routine. 

When we go on vacation, we almost always stay in a condo with a full kitchen and choose to eat in all but one or two meals during the week, so I planned menus for the two weeks we were gone plus a few days after we return.  This time, I even packed little containers with the spices premeasured for the dishes I planned on making, so as not to have to carry so many spice jars, and many Ziploc bags of wheat flour (also premeasured) to make bread.  Normally, we don't make homemade bread on vacation, but my system had gotten out of whack the weekend before our trip (which I thought was a result of more white flour than I usually eat), so I decided we would haul the breadmaker and wheat flour on vacation to avoid a repeat performance...

Further, the Wednesday morning before we left, DD2 spilled approximately 3 CUPS of HONEY on the kitchen table, herself, the chair she was sitting on, and the floor -- not just the kitchen; she had also tracked it into the foyer, which is where I heard her announcing, "I kicky"  [I'm sticky].  As you might have guessed, I had a nervous breakdown when I discovered it.  I could post an entire entry on the conversation I had with DH while I sat on the floor of the kitchen, DD2's arm in my left hand and the phone in my right, wailing -- but I probably won't, because I probably don't remember half of what I said and surely some of the things I said do not bear repeating, ever.  The good news is, I did get up off the floor and get busy cleaning.  After going over the floor with the Swiffer Wet Jet twice and OxyClean in warm water and a rag once, socks and shoes no longer stuck to the tile.

We have now been away from home for ten days.  The resort we were at the first week, wanted to charge $30 for week of Internet access; as much as DH wanted to check his work e-mail, we declined.  Where we are now, we have free Internet -- ah, much better.  We enjoyed a wonderful week last week, visiting with friends Lepidoptera, Old Baldy Top, and their children and attending a church meeting in central FL; this week, we six are on our own at the beach.  Sunday evening and yesterday morning, we thoroughly enjoyed the sea and the sand.  As of yesterday afternoon, I seem to be coming down with the cold that is going around, but I'm hoping that won't put too much of a damper on things.

Well, I guess we should round up the troops for the beach before it's lunchtime.

-Lori.

First, let me begin with a disclaimer:  I often say that I do not "diet" in the sense of reducing intake in some form or fashion.  My theory is that a "diet" should be a complete system that can be eaten for your whole lifetime, with the full range of nutrition, not something with an eye only for the short term (so many temporary "diets" are unbalanced, probably even unsafe).  That said, I must confess that sometimes I veer off course in terms of the choices I have made, so I have to make considerable adjustments.  So really when I say "new diet", it really means reverting to what I was supposed to do all along.

Somewhere between Thanksgiving and, say, December 10th, I recall declaring:  my new diet will begin on New Year's Day.    No more Coke (which was a long-since "kicked" habit that suddenly came back into play the day I noticed two 12-packs for $5), cut back on sweets, eat more whole-wheat bread (we, like many other homeschoolers it seems, grind our own wheat) and vegetables...

     
When New Year's Day rolls around, we are traveling back from my mom's house in another state.  Almost without realizing it, I am popping the top on a Coke.  I justify it, thinking that I need to stay awake on the way home.  What was I thinking?  You can't start a new diet when you're traveling.  I declare:  the new diet will start tomorrow. 

January 2nd, I realize that there are way too many of my mom's home-baked goodies in the house.  The new diet will have to wait until all the cookies are gone...

Hmmm...not quite sure what I want to say to close out 2007...as with any year, it had its ups and downs, but by and large, I am tempted to say it was a good year.  It is ending on a good note:  everyone is healthy and we have enjoyed spending the weekend visiting family (and a few special friends ) out of state.  Lord willing, we will return home mid-morning tomorrow. 

I am a very future-oriented person, always planning and thinking about what lies ahead, so whether they are in writing or not, I always have resolutions for the new year.  I want to get back to exercising on a regular basis (wow, do I ever need to do that after eating like a pig this entire weekend), be more diligent about having "quiet time" every afternoon...the list is longer than that, but I'm not sure (1) how many more I would want to make public and (2) whether I could word them at this late hour.

I hope you all can look back on 2007 and say it was largely a good year, and pray that your 2008 is blessed beyond all you ask or think.

In Christian love,

Lori. 

What is it about the first significant snowfall of the winter season?  I think snow is beautiful, from the first snowfall to the last, but I particularly enjoy the first one.  The kids do, too, of course; I think DD8, DS6 and DS3 all bundled up and headed outside to play in it before eating breakfast!  Only trouble is, my attention span becomes that of a kid whose school was called off for the day, so it's hard to accomplish anything.

Okay, that's not the only trouble:  DS6 thinks that (1) because people have their Christmas decorations up and (2) it is snowing, that we are already on Winter Break!  A ha ha ha ha...I had quite the time convincing him that it was still 20 days to Christmas and I have 11 days of school planned for us before then...he thought 11 days was an awful lot...

Well, my consolation is that the first snowfall only comes once each winter season, and we can make up for today by still learning on the day/s that the local schools are cancelled for inclement weather.

Okay, another title that probably inspired a song to pop into someone else's head besides mine.     Belinda Carlisle?  Was that who recorded that?  The Bangles also come to mind, but I don't think that's right.  At any rate, we arrived home from vacation at 11:15 last night, having spent 13 hours on the road and 2 hours at the other Lori (college edition)'s house in GA.  We thoroughly enjoyed our visit there, which went by too quickly.  Yesterday was the first time my family had met her daughter, who is three days younger than my DD1.  It was neat to finally meet her after seeing so many pictures of her, and watch DD1 and her become friends. 

It was a very long day, and the kids did have a few moments their parents could have done without, but for the most part, they did well.  And I think the vacation was a much-needed one, both from a family-time standpoint and from a rejuvenate-Mommy standpoint.  Although I have much to do to get the suitcases unpacked, school lessons planned, and the dreaded "season switch" (swapping the warm-weather clothes for cold-weather ones) accomplished, I feel ready to "have at it" (as they say here in the Midwest) again.

-Lori.

The weather today was the best yet!  We didn't need to wear our windbreakers on the beach for a change.  Well, DD8 hasn't been wearing her jacket in the ocean any day this week, but she has been the exception.  It was still windy, but not nearly as gusty as other days.  If it were summer, it would be a slightly "cold" day, but for this time of year, it was a perfect day for the beach. 

Unfortunately, this morning I woke up with a slightly pulled muscle in my neck/upper back, so I didn't take as good advantage of the beach today as I might have.  I don't know if it was from the cumulative effects of sleeping on the pullout couch more than one night, or sleeping "wrong" last night.  I was sleeping on my Tempurpedic pillow, but the bed leaves much to be desired.  Of course, sleeper sofas in general are not known for being the most comfortable beds, but to make matters worse, the bed frame on this particular couch is bent (that's DH's conclusion, and since he's a mechanical engineer, I believe him ), so the head is several inches lower than the foot...DH's solution was for whomever is sleeping there that night, to place their heads at the foot of the bed.  Gently doing my stretches and using my TENS (electric "stim" unit) a few times today, the situation has gotten much better, but I told DH that I don't think I should sleep on the sofa bed again.

I don't know whether I will get around to blogging tomorrow or not.  We plan to see at least one, if not two, lighthouses tomorrow, and then my thoughts will be turned to getting all our belongings packed up in anticipation of leaving early Saturday morning.

Good night --

-Lori.       

I think the "blogging bug" has bit DD8.  She enjoyed creating the blog yesterday, and now she has asked to do it again tonight.  The ocean was "very angry" (DH's words) today, so we skipped the beach and took the kids to the Roundhouse Museum instead.  Here is her rendition of the day's events:

It's Been a great day. I have had a good time and I went to the Roundhouse Museum. Dad Is going to let us go back to the BEACH. We are going to try to get to the beach at about 11:00.

Today is our first full day on vacation at a GA beach.  DD8 and I have been reading a few blogs, including this one, so I offered to let her type today's entry.  Here she is:

I just found 5 SAND DOLLAR'S and a few seashells too.

The water was very cold and I was very very tired plus I was very far out and the waves didn't help either.  My brother DB6 held my hand most of the time.  My other brother DB3 fell in the water he cried.  My father had to take him back to the condo and dry him off.  It was fun and I had a great time and I will do this tomorrow.  Listen very carefully,OK?

If your brain works like mine does, my title caused Gene Autry's voice to pop into your head...

Here I am, back to blogging after several days' absence.  Last Friday night was a "Free Friday" (free entry into the Cincinnati Museum Center from 4:00 - 8:00 pm.), we took the kids to the Children's Museum and they had a blast.  DD1 couldn't stay still, so of course I didn't get to stay still either, trying to keep up with her.  All at once, I felt very tired, which I attributed to the mild cold I had and the workout from sprinting after DD1. 

The next day, I brewed my pot of coffee and started into the morning chores, but I quickly discovered that I was not moving with any rate of speed.  I kept plugging along, but it took me all morning just to clean the kitchen and fold about one load of laundry.  Before lunch, I was so tired.  I thought once I ate, I would feel better, but all I wanted to do was go to bed.

**************************

Well, maybe I will add to this entry later to explain where the weekend and most of the week went, but at this point, let's just say that I have not felt well.  So finally, just before dinnertime this evening, I started feeling like my normal self again and started tearing into the basic chores in a way I have not been all week.  Good thing, too, because tonight was the dress rehearsal for our concert with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and it's no fun to feel crummy singing under hot stage lights while crowded in like a sardine on narrow risers for an hour.

Well, I'd better get to bed.  Health permitting, the kids and I are going on a field trip tomorrow morning to Woodland Mound.  Considering how wacky my sleep schedule has been this week, it may be a trick to get up and get everyone out the door on time.

I fought it as long as I could.  This past Sunday, though, I think I officially became a daily coffee drinker.  I kept waking up feeling tired, and I just couldn't seem to make even simple decisions in a timely fashion.  The good news is, I think it is helping this non-morning person's brain to think much better than it normally does within the first 2-3 hours of being awake.

The bad news is, I started with a packet of Starbucks that one of my sisters left the last time they visited, so in a mere five days, I have become a coffee snob.  Tonight (I am staying up late to work on lesson plans) I brewed my first pot of Kroger brand coffee -- BLLLEEEECCCCCHHHH.  It tasted quite bitter.  Hmmm...not sure what I am going to do.  I'll try another pot tomorrow and see if it still tastes like I'm drinking raw coffee grounds...   

Okay, I guess I'd better get to lesson planning.  I really don't want to pull an all-nighter.