A Few Things I'm Thankful For

1. A safe trip to Indiana and back. We just got back this evening.
2. Shane put Allie on the potty when we got home tonight and she actually pooped in it!!! I made a huge deal of it and even took a picture of it, which Allie was excited about. (Her pooping on the potty has been a rare thing so far.) Don't worry, I won't post the picture. :)
3. We got our car fixed the day after Thanksgiving and were able to drive to New Castle, IN and Fremont, IN on Saturday with no problems! It nearly broke down on Wednesday only half an hour from Shane's mom's. I thought it was the transmission but it was only an ignition coil. It wasn't cheap but it's better than paying for a new transmission!
4. A wonderful time with Shane's mom Kay and her husband Bill; Shane's dad Bob, wife Jo, and sister Reba; Aunt Shirley, Uncle Bill, and extended family on the Bentz side; my Grandma and Grandad Sieber and extended family on my mother's side; my dad, wife Diane, and brother Chris and sister Kayla.
5. The life of my uncle Don Mapes, who passed away Saturday after a long illness.
6. Those of you in Indiana who faithfully read my blog. I'm grateful you're there and I'm flattered you come back again and again.
7. The new Newsboys greatest hits CD. We listened to 900 miles worth of it this weekend!
8. Zicam!!! I felt yet another cold virus coming on yesterday. I've been taking Zicam, which is Zinc, and my symptoms are much less severe. Oh, praise God. I have a lot of work to do this week, including babysitting, and I was wondering if I'd be up for it.
9. My gym membership starts this week. Now that the Thanksgiving dinners are over, I'm more than ready to slim down. My current body shape is a lot like my Grandma Mapes': normal arms and legs but a round belly and a double chin. I don't actually mind that too much. When I was a skinny teenager, I wanted to be a homemaker like Grandma and I decided I wanted to look matronly like her too. Now that I'm a homemaker, I'm finding it not necessary or healthy to be (even a little) overweight.
10. Christmas is coming!! I'm looking forward to putting up the tree again with the kids and experiencing the wonder of the season through their eyes. I'm making a nativity advent calendar for them. I'll post pictures of it when it's done.
11. God's watching over us and providing for us and speaking into our hearts through His word and for fellowship with other believers and for contemporary Christian music.

I'm finally posting something! Can you believe it?

I have a good excuse: viruses! Ever since September, it's been one cold after another. If we're lucky, we get two weeks of good health in between. At this moment I'm suffering with a stuffy head, cough, and an ear infection. My voice still sounds raspy -- towards the end of a sentence I'm lucky if I have any voice left! :) Next time I'll try to remember to take that zinc stuff I've heard so many good things about. Zicam, is it called? Whatever it is, it's supposed to shorten the duration and lessen the severity of cold viruses.

So, Saturday, Sunday, and today I spent in bed. When I wasn't sleeping I was reading. Such good stories!! I can't get enough of books. I read two books by Maria von Trapp, the Austrian woman whose life "The Sound of Music" was based on, finished the last novel in the Hornblower series by C.S. Forester, and began a historical book about Napoleon and Josephine. Fascinating stuff!

I'm glad I had those books to keep me company, because being sick is so isolating! I've been missing Shane and the kids. Tomorrow I'm planning to resume babysitting and we're going to the library for storytime and crafts. I'm eager for the busyness of life to resume. I'm sure my poor husband is looking forward to going back to the office again also.

Starting the week after Thanksgiving, I'm getting a membership to a tiny fitness center here in our little village. Tiny though it is, it has all I need: a toy-filled nursery for the kids, workout classes, a few treadmills, stairclimbers and whatnot. The best part is that membership is free if you spend two hours a week supervising the nursery. So that's what I'm going to do. Another benefit (and this is what really pushed me over the edge) is that there are bookholders on the treadmills and stairclimbers! Joy! I can read to my heart's content and not even be aware of the passage of time or of how much my glutes hurt. It's a brilliant plan. I hope I can stick to it. The prospect of my muscles hurting in protest after years of non-use is enough to make me say, forget it, you'll never have the same body as when you were 20; it's too much work! But on the other hand, I've seen what happens after years of a sedentary life: heart disease, stroke, diabetes. Maybe I can't have my 20-year-old body back, but if I can make a few positive changes and live a healthier lifestyle, it's bound to be worth it.

Happy Halloween!

Isaac and Allie enjoyed Trick-or-Treating tonight for an hour and a half! Most houses had lights on in our family-friendly neighborhood. A third of the way through, Allie's bag started dragging on the ground from the weight. Then she wanted me to carry it for her. Gotta go put them to bed. Wish us luck!

Kids in the Pool

We've had hot weather this week in Southcentral Wisconsin. Temps in the high '80's. All three kids, Isaac, Allison, and Brock (read below for his introduction) enjoyed the pool for about 30 minutes today. They were good and worn out for naptime.

The bugs have been terrible around here. The moment you step outside, you get a dozen mosquitoes, grasshoppers, and bees swirling around your head. The spiders must be having a field day with so much to eat. The grasshoppers are the size of my little finger. I can hardly stand to take the kids outside at the moment. I wonder how long it will be until it frosts...a month? Right now our overnight temps are in the 50's. I'm SO ready for Fall! A small number of trees are already showing some color at the very tops. Mmmm... I can almost smell that Fall air already.

We had a cricket on our carpet last night. It was almost funny watching Shane attempt to swat it. If you've ever tried to use a flyswatter on carpet, you'll know what I mean. It wasn't working. He swats, it jumps; he swats, it jumps; etc, for five minutes. Looking back, it was funny, but at the time, I was really squeamish. To me, crickets are worse than spiders. They kinda look like spiders, but they jump unpredictably. That freaks me out.