Hallooooo!

As friend Tigger would say.

Oh, I miss everyone! I'm not even sure that anyone comes around anymore, haven't checked visits or the sitemeter for weeks! I could very well be talking only to myself! Which isn't unusual, but I do imagine usually that someone will eventually read this....

What's been up for me:
Well, for starters, I get very little computer time, as Trev and Maddie both always want their turn. And even when I'm on this one, I get so irritated by the slowness that I usually only pop in to write a short something, and visit one blog. I'm so behind on everyone's news! I think I've checked two blogs since Saturday a week ago!

I Finally boxed up and sent my two computers off to get sparklified on Friday. One -the desktop- to my Dad (for a new processor, complete with drivers, and all that other irritating tedious business that goes along with pc repairs), and the notebook back to Dell. It would be SOOO Nice to have them both back in a couple of weeks! I'll try not to be greedy, though.

Got the outside lights up today. They look splendid, of course! White icicles for me, thank you.

What else? The children had a most despicious illness, that took a lot of my time for a few days. Cleaning blankets, sheets, carpets, et cetera, et cetera.

Pms for a few days. Started to get into a fit yesterday, then thought - hmmm, headache, wonder if it's pms? then all of a sudden like magic I was able to deal with life in a much more friendly sort of way, and sure enough, early this morning (at three, actually, when Maddie Rudely woke me to demand cereal and then a computer game - no, she didn't get either one of them folks, I strive to live ru, but I am not a saint!) I received my evidence that my hormones were to thank for (some of my) crazy behavior.

Holiday decorations are up. Still haven't decided if we're going to our usual Robinson Tree Farms for our tree, or if Eric shall get his wish, and we'll actually purchase a permit from the forest service and trek out on snowshoes to cut ours down ourselves for the first time. We'll see. (If we cut it down, rest assured that we'll be replacing it with one or two in the springtime!)

I started reading Jon and Myla's Every day Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting, again. I've had it since I was pregnant with Trev, I think, but have yet to read the entire book. I was somehow relieved and rejuvenated while reading in the second and third chapters about sort of getting rid of the regular sorts of thoughts and actions, and looking inside each moment for its magic and the beauty and learning that it offers us.
Somehow, while I believe in this idea with everything I am, and strive to recognize the Ordinary Life Magic, as I call it, sometimes I wonder if I'm making it all up. So hearing someone else say, with their own words and relating their own experiences a similar idea, and how it's worth celebrating - and indeed touted as worth celebrating, makes me feel like maybe I'm not crazy and too romantic, idealistic, or just being fanciful.
I am also most heartened by their inspirational words that just being mindfully In The Moment, one finds ones self wiser and more knowledgeable (and even healed of one's own past), and more willing the next time to take the time and process through something, and that practicing mindfulness itself becomes easier, more familiar, and maybe even habitual. Course, you have to be open to all moments being new and uncertain, and not tagging this moment, though seemingly familiar, with what you learned in the last one.
I am eager to read the entire book, and am heartened greatly by what I've read thus far.

My recent dark moments are past - I was feeling almost undone for a while by this stress or that, but frankly I've just been too damned busy to worry about what worries me, or even what could be a worry.
Unfortunately, along with that comes "no time to think", but [action] in step the voices of Myla and Jon, so I am hopeful to be back to my usual (but non-worrying and newly enlightened and newly patient) self, post haste!

And here I sit, now, feeling guilty because Eric is tired and ready to be relieved of duty, hmmph ;) even though he knows this is the first chance I've had to write in two or three weeks. I think maybe when I'm with the notebook at the kitchen table, I don't seem quite So Far Away, though, truth is, I hear every shout and demand for "tickle me!" that I would if I were still in the same room.
But dh thinks I'm on permanent vacation, and he's a bit worried. And tired.
So I shall say "see you at six-something in the morning.... maybe I'll have something to say."
If not, then I'll just read about what YOU have to say.
xxoo