Patrick: “If you change your mind, I’m the first in line…”

Liam: “Honey I’m still three, take a chance on me!”

Here we find ourselves once again at that time of year.  I was going to have all the decorations up and the cards done, stacked, and ready to mail well in advance.  I was going to have all the presents wrapped and a generally Christmasey atmosphere about the house.

Yeah.  Anyway.

I get 10 hours of very interrupted sleep lately.  I’ve been waking up most days before noon.  I have to psych myself up to shoot straight over to the kitchen and eat before the waves of nausea get too intense.  The laundry has piled up to new and epic heights.  At least the Christmas tree is up and somewhat decorated.  Most of the glass balls are cowering at the top of the tree.  There have been a few casualties this year.  “BAAALLLLL????!!!  BALL!!! BALL!!!”   Giggle, CRASH!

I found a curious device for combating nausea called Sea Bands.  They are naught but 1.5″ thick elastic bands with hard plastic skin-facing half-spheres that are placed on the inner wrist, about three fingers below the palm.  I was skeptical until I went almost a whole day without feeling like I was on the verge of tossing my cookies.  I guess it works on some sort of acupressure points.   Unfortunately it leaves red-purple gouges in its wake, making it less than comfortable to wear for more than a few hours at a time.

In case you can’t tell, I’m feeling a bit discouraged.

I have many seeds sitting in my kitchen drawer, dreaming of warming soil and springtime sprouts.  The planning stage of my garden was in full swing.  I eagerly looked forward to putting it into action.  Now I am doubting the viability of my ambitions.  I guess we will see.  I can only hope that in a few more weeks I will feel better, and I’ll get as much done in that time as possible, before I become the Titanic run aground (again).

The winter weather here is downright schizophrenic.  It’s terrible.  One day it will be 70 degrees and the next it will plummet to 40, but not the kind of 40 degrees that’s like, “Oh, it’s a bit nippy outside!”.  It’s the kind of 40 degrees that compels you to cover every inch of skin with several layers, don a ski mask, and then frantically attempt to complete whatever urgent task forced you out of doors, while enduring convulsive full-body shivers and involuntarily muttering profanities as the damp and nefarious cold wraps itself around your bones.  Please, enough of the icy-sleety-windy stuff already.

On a more positive note, we have had a lot of visitors lately.  Kyle drove up to see us, and helped my darling husband put up the Christmas lights outside.  The boys were very glad to see their uncle.  The Neatos came up and we had a nice visit, as usual, and the big boys got to go to a gun show, and then we went out to see Christmas lights.  There is a most excellent and entertaining spectacle of techno lights here in town at the home of Mr. Andy Rash and his photography business.  Damien and Amy flew out to see us (Happy Birthday, Amy!), and we discovered that Amy’s due date is a couple days away from mine!  So we got to feel pukey together.  It’s nice to have someone to simultaneously be glad and commiserate with.  I miss having friends.  It’s really hard to move somewhere that you don’t know anybody, and then try to form new friendships while taking care of a family full time.  I’ve just about given up.  I’m forgetting how to converse with people.  Maybe I’ll be grunting and carrying a club soon.  Does it have to be this way?

I hope that everybody has a most wonderful and merry Christmas.  To all our family and friends, we are thinking of you and wishing we could all be together.  Big hugs and kisses.