Still raining.

Or very wet, at least.

There was sun in the forecast today.

There is no sunshine outside my window. Boo.

But! It's ok. Because I have laundry to do. And this in my lap ...

So I'm warm and happy ... and optimistic it could still clear up before I head out this afternoon.

Ahh, Monday. 

Time for a little dusting.

Holy smokes. Y'all? We got some MUCH needed rain last night. And now the layer of dust on everything in my house is doubly obvious to me.

You know, more obvious in the sense that I can't look at it today and say, "oh well, no sense in clearing that away because it will just be dusty again in five minutes."

So here I am, to-do list in hand, kids off to school, myself all properly caffeinated and in comfy clothes and hair whispies pulled back in one of those best-inventions-ever (if it would actually stay on my head) stretchy bands ... I got Pandora streaming through my TV and windows cracked open - because people? It was 82 degrees in my bedroom when I went to bed last night. I am not kidding! And I couldn't really keep the windows open because it was raining as I fell asleep.

It's all good though, because we're having air-conditioning installed in the house this week. Praise Jesus! We have always been fortunate to have a window AC unit that cooled the house nicely in the summer, but I hated how it blocked a window in the front of the house all summer long. And that I had to call on someone to help me put it in. And take it out. And last year I actually had some duct tape around the edges to seal it around the window on the inside. Now, I do love me some duct tape, but that was pretty ghetto.

So in a few days I'm gonna feel like a princess. I might not leave the house for a while.

But today? Cinderella. Time for me to get started.

Some days are better ... and goofier ... than others.

Today was much better than yesterday.

I woke up at 5:30 feeling rested.

We made it out the door on time to catch the school bus.

I had a relatively productive day at home.

I even got a little nap in. With the animals.

They kill me with the cute, these two.

This evening I got a great report from Rachel's teacher at our parent-teacher conference.

Then Rach and I picked up a pizza on the way home. While we waited for our pizza Rachel asked for a quarter for a gumball machine.

Did you know you can get a mustache from a gumball machine?

Oh my gosh. The girl had me in stitches on the way home. We're talking the full-on, I probably shouldn't have been laughing so hard while I was driving kind of stitches.

I said, "Please take a picture of yourself so I can put it on my blog."

She laughed that nervous laugh.

And then she twisted her face up and took a bunch of pictures.

So I guess she's OK with the world seeing her goofiness.

Which is good. 'Cause there's enough goofy to go around.

 Thank God for good days and goofy kids.

Monday. And there is much to do.

Poor Ladybug is so confused. Daddy was here and now he's gone. The kids were here, now gone. And I'm not always here, but here I am today. And I'm buzzing around the house, cleaning and straightening and tripping over her because she is hot on my heels. When she's not following me around she's sitting in a chair by the window keeping watch.

 See?

I feel for her. The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind and we're all out of our usual routine. It was so nice, as always, to have Steve home. He hit the road around 4 this morning to go back to PA. I imagine it will be spring break before we see him again. Boo. Sad face. Sad, sad face.

The good news is we definitely made the most of his time here. At the last minute we decided to take Rachel to a local hotel with a pool and water slide because that's what she wanted for her birthday - to swim. Actually she wanted a big ol' par-tay by the pool, but she settled for inviting one friend for one night at the hotel, eating out at her place of choice (that's kind of our birthday tradition) and cupcakes in the hotel room. Her birthday is tomorrow and she will turn 10. Ten big ones. Hardly seems possible. I'll bake a cake and we'll do a little something special for her tomorrow evening, too. Today is all about catching up on the stuff I ignored while Steve was here ... the usual: laundry, dishes, bills, and general housekeeping. And while I am sad he is gone again, I am definitely enjoying the quiet time alone, and I have plenty to do to keep myself busy.

Rejoicing!

We have so much for which to be thankful!

I'm sorry if I kinda' left y'all hanging after my last post about my father-in-law, but I'm guessing most folks who read my blog also find me some other way - like through Facebook or church or e-mail or whatever. Anywho, the great news is dad came through surgery just fine and as of this afternoon it sounds like he might be home by tomorrow evening.

Can you imagine? Brain surgery, and then home just four days later. Whew.

And I'm laughing at myself a little because I said he did "just fine" but I can tell you Friday was one of the longest days of my life. The whole process was not without its hiccups, and dad certainly isn't completely out of the woods yet, but the surgery to remove what the doctors are pretty certain were cancerous tumors from his noggin went very well. We were able to see him Friday evening after he woke up and it was such a relief that he recognized all of us and talked and laughed with us. He even cussed a few times, which I told him he had a free pass on for a few days. Because of the location of the tumors there was a concern that he might lose his speech and/or ability to understand speech, so I didn't care what he said, and neither did anyone else ... it was just so good to hear him speaking.

The past week has been hectic and I'm exhausted - physically and emotionally. And for as much as I love turning the clocks back and gaining that hour of sleep again, I despise it getting dark at 5 o'clock in the evening (or whenever it gets dark now ... much sooner than I'm ready for).

So, I've got some catching up to do around here and a few blog posts rolling around in my head I'll try to get written over the next few days. In the meantime I'm basking in the blessings we've been showered in recently. Praise God.

Ugh.

I've been sick. Bleh. Since Saturday afternoon when I came home from a workshop at church and crawled into bed intending to take a quick nap before heading to a wedding reception with the fam.

The clock kept ticking and Steve and the kids got ready and I couldn't drag myself out of bed. And then I got chills and just couldn't get warm enough. It went downhill from there.

I'm starting to come around this morning. I managed to finally get out of my pajamas and hit the shower, and my appetite is coming back.

I am really glad Steve has been here to help with the kids (though I'm pretty sure he's the one who shared his germs with me). It's been good to have him here, in general. We haven't been doing much of anything special - just running the kids around and eating dinners together at night and hanging out.

It feels good. Even if I don't.

Monday, Monday, Monday!

Happy Monday, folks!

Wow. I am just in awe over my surroundings lately. As I was walking into the house from the front yard yesterday I had to stop and take it all in. The fall colors are just amazing. The air has been nice and warm during the days and cool at night and I am lovin' it. Sounds like we have a few more days of this and then it's going to turn cooler again. I'm ok with that, too.

Yeah, I totally teased you with that comment about the fall colors and I have no pictures for you. I'll try to remedy that today because I plan to spend some time outdoors. (And as I type I'm looking out the window to see leaves floating down onto the ground. Gorgeous!) I keep saying I'm going to do some cleanup in the yard and then I go out there and get started and I get distracted by something else. Lame. I need to pull the rest of the plants out of the veggie beds, plant some perennials I bought on clearance, and do some general tidying up and tucking things away before the snow flies. Because ... ugh ... it will be here before we know it and if I don't get this stuff done I will be kicking myself.

And - excitement abounds! - I have someone coming to install a water softener today. Praise Jesus! This is something we have really needed since we moved in, but somehow it always got pushed to the bottom of the list. (It's pretty easy to push things to the bottom of the list when they require spending a chunk o' change. And they're not as fun as a big-screen TV. *ahem*) After today I won't have to scrub the showers so hard, the dishwasher will work better, my skin will be softer, the faucets won't be all crusty, and my coffee will even taste better. Hallelujah!

AND ... why not continue my randomness with a few pictures from the weekend? OK, I will then.

The kids and I visited one of our favorite local parks on Lake Michigan Saturday afternoon. There's a great playground and sculpture park and you can watch boats going in and out of the harbor all day long.

I let Sam and Rachel go off and play while I stretched out in the grass and soaked up some sun. Until Rachel came racing over and hollered, "Mom! Take a picture of me!"

I obliged.

What a joker. Believe me, she is never, ever this still or quiet at home.

Both the kids' favorite: the zip-line-type-thingamabob. 

(Ha! Notice how Sam's feet touch the ground?)

Hm. Yeah. He doesn't get quite as excited as Rachel does about having pictures taken.

Still cute, though.

Exhibit B, the self portraits:

Sometimes the outtakes are the best.

SUNday!!

OK, well it's really Monday, but the sun is shining today and it was shining yesterday and the day before. And I can't tell you how happy it makes me to see the sun shine.

I don't know what's up with me lately but my ambitions don't get much further than being added to my list of things to do before I crap out on 'em. I try to hit the ground running in the mornings (ok, running might be a bit of an exaggeration) but often I end up getting off to a good start and then I'm ready for a nap by lunchtime.

What the heck?

Maybe I'm still trying to shake the vacation hangover. We did lots of chillaxin over Christmas break and it was so nice. Lots of good food, lots of long naps, just hanging out and enjoying having some family time. Then as it all wound down I was geeked about getting back into a routine and getting organized and planning projects for spring and getting caught up on things I need to finish ... but the past few days I feel like I've been dragging my butt through a foot of mud.

I really hope I'm not fighting off another round of illness. Actually, if I'm fighting something off I hope I'm successful.

I tend to be pretty hard on myself when I look around and see that I've accomplished a whole lot of nothing during the day. I tell myself I am so blessed to have the opportunity to be a homemaker, the least I could do is use my time wisely.

But today? Today I am going to listen to my body. The sun is streaming through the windows onto the couch and I hear it calling my name.

The list will still be here tomorrow.

Quiet Monday.

Wow. I had big plans for the blog last week. Lots of pictures, updates on projects around the house, and perhaps a little waxing poetic about the change in seasons and the beautiful fall weather we've been having.

How quickly life gets in the way.

Tuesday morning I met a friend for coffee, met another friend for lunch, then made my fall trek to Sam's Club. Wednesday and Thursday mornings I had the pleasure of babysitting for my friends' 5-month-old baby boy. I had so much fun with him, but boy had I forgotten how exhausting it is to entertain, feed, rock, sing to, bounce, change diapers for, and ogle a baby for a few hours! So in the afternoons I chilled out at home and did pretty much nothing. Thursday night Steve came home, between jobs and waiting for A Phone Call.

Before I knew it the weekend was here and we had things to do. We visited with friends Friday night, Rachel walked in the annual Harvest Festival parade with her Brownie troop on Saturday, then Sunday we all went to church followed by an ice cream social, then we stopped by for a quick visit with my mom, and Rachel had her Girl Scout meeting Sunday afternoon. We finished up the day with dinner at my in-laws'.

Whew! I was so glad to fall into bed and get a good night of sleep last night, but sleep wasn't in the cards, apparently. I woke up at 3 a.m. sneezing and with so much pressure in my sinuses it made my teeth hurt. Stupid allergies! I never did get back to sleep after that.

So I was really happy to send the kids off to school this morning.

Check that. I was happy Steve was still here so he could wake them up and get them off to school this morning.

God bless that husband of mine.

Tonight Steve and the kids got to spend some fun time together making apple dumplings from scratch. I know Sam and Rachel enjoyed that time with their dad; they don't get to do that very often. And bonus - the dumplings tasted awesome! The perfect end to a quiet fall day.

Back to the grind.

Well hello, Monday.

We're back to the usual grind today, whatever that means. Our routines seem to change right around the time they become routine so I don't even know if I'm doing the right thing for a mid-June Monday.

I make a phone call to set up an appointment.

I take a look at the household budget.

I add a couple of items to the Goodwill box.

I think about making a grocery list.

I went to bed early last night with the intent of getting plenty of sleep and hitting the ground running this morning. After I tossed and turned for two hours I got up, wandered around the house, surfed the 'Net for a few minutes, then went back to bed and tossed and turned for a while longer before finally falling to sleep. So much for my good intentions.

The weatherman says we might get some rain this afternoon and that wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit. Rainy afternoons are perfect for napping.

Oh, Monday.

Dishes. Laundry. Grocery list. To-do list. More laundry.

Back to the grind. Back to having a quiet house during the day. Back to being a single parent, for all intents and purposes. Mondays are both good and bad, for all the same reasons.

I'm thinking of taking a cue from the dog and stretching out on the couch for a nap. I promise something more exciting ... or interactive ... or funny or ridiculous ... tomorrow. For now, just a sweet reminder of a lovely weekend: