The flower vase she always wanted--a charity shop find that J gave Lu for Christmas.


Oh I just love my new spots. Darren gave me this spotty tea set for Christmas. The red chickens (which were my grandmas) and the teapot just cheer me up!


Decorating Christmas cookies with church friends.


I love this picture of Jesse. He's really in his artist zone.

The kids have been so good while Darren has been away--I can hardly believe it. Surely it will all melt down tomorrow just in time for him to come home Friday morning? My kids definitely watch more tv while he is away because otherwise I find it hard to get every thing done, like a healthy dinner. (Sometimes tv doesn't work, of course, and it just riles the kids up and makes them tune me out which is a worse situation. But it has worked out quite well for this stretch.)

I've wanted to ask.... Does anyone feel like they feed their kids gruel for dinner? Sometimes my food is good and almost always it is healthy. But sometimes the throwing together of the vegetables with some sort of leftover soup or sauce to either stand alone or go over pasta just looks like the only gruel we can muster to survive off of.

I found myself making crumb muffins with a recipe I found in "More with Less" and I questioned the wisdom of it afterwards. It did use up some crumbs, alas even some homemade crumbs, but the taste of them was entirely too salty, though paired with a bit of honey worked out well. Turns out, I have decided that I will make these muffins again, but I will eliminate the salt called for in the recipe. Anyway, here I am on a bad day food wise--I'm sick of preparing food and cleaning up, and I'm sick of being with my food so much that it's not enjoyable to sit down to a meal. It all looks like old news that I can't be bothered to chew, though I do it so when I tell my kids to eat up, they don't point the finger at me. Ahhh.....All I want is to savor a foamy cappucino while not engaging the outside world. Has anyone out there got so sick of the immersion motherhood gives you into food that all you want is that cup of coffee to be savored, smelled, and thankfully not chewed, cuz you just can't be bothered? I find myself in that state many times when D and I get the occasional date.

Jesse has been reading in his bed with a flashlight that he got for Christmas which has been great because it gives him the chance to stay up later than Luci. I don't think she could handle being put to bed at a different time from him. For a while Jesse needed all the sleep he could get but now it seems he's actually unable to get to sleep at the normal time. He's been telling me lately when I tuck him in that he hopes he gets to sleep because it takes him a really long time.

A great thing about Jesse lately is that he has been so willing to help Luci get her coat on, or her shoes on, or to help Luci get into her pajamas. Today I had them race me--they had to get their coats, etc. on and I had to get dressed. I thought I would beat them but they managed it, with a lot of Jesse's efforts. He got Luci buttoned unevenly up and must have been the assistant behind the hat and poncho that was over her coat flapping in the wind. Unfortunately Luci could only find one mitten even though it was attached to her coat but that's pretty good for a slow-coach Jesse and a Luci who reminds me defiantly every day (when encouraged to dress herself) that she is "Not ever, never, gonna learn how to do it." Speaking of Luci, I have been totally attuned to how Luci takes lots of breathy breaths while she is talking. It takes her forever to get through her monologues and she makes me think of Marilyn Monroe or somebody like that. She's definitely kept me laughing though and, thankfully, not so much pulling my hair out.

While I made fruit salad for dessert tonight, the kids tidied up the living room which was the greatest gift to me. Sure, I had to ask for it but I couldn't believe that they actually took the time to do categorical/organized clean-up. One of my pet peeves is when everything is just crammed into some supposedly discreet location. But I noticed that tonite the art supplies were put with the art supplies and the teacups into the teacup bag (Luci has never stopped playing with that Judy), etc., etc. I was pleasantly surprised.

I've been catching Luci ducking behind the curtain in our living room the last couple of days to color her fingernails with marker. I wonder when I started doing that.....I remember doing that around 4th grade I think? She'll probably keep me to my word to paint her nails tomorrow morning before school. Hopefully she goes to school. I kept her out today because when we were scootering J to school, she starting her hacking cough and threw up on the sidewalk. I'm sure most of the parents thought "The flu!" but thankfully (maybe with the exception of Darren) been free of that this season.