Living at Warp Speed

I was with my friend, Sara, last Sat. and she commented, "You haven't blogged in a long time!" It's been 12 days - I guess she's right!

I am in such a busy mode right now. And the kids haven't said anything exceptionally cute. Well, except Sam. He has decided that he wants to go potty by himself - which is fine. It saves me time and effort if I don't have to trudge all the way upstairs with him several times a day. Well last night I was getting his shower ready and he says, "Mom, you need to get out of the bathroom. I have to go potty!"

There is Sam last Friday, on his 3rd birthday. Can't believe he is so big, already! I don't think he understood birthdays yet this year. When I was singing to him at 9:22am, he says, "Stop singing that song, Mom!" When we put the "3" candle on his cupcakes, he exclaimed, "Oh, a '5'!" But by Sunday he had figured it all out. We had another party for him in W'loo on Sat. And then on Sun. we brought treat bags for his Sunday School class. His Childrens church teacher told me that during class Sam kept telling everyone, "It's my bertday - I fwee now." So, somewhere between Friday and Sunday he caught on to the whole thing!

I had a couple of friend "dates" in the last week. Last Thurs. Melissa and I went out. It is always so refreshing to spend time with her. Our husbands see eachother frequently during the week because her husband manages the Lennox store in DM and, of course, that's what Lozier installs. I guess on Thurs. they had seen eachother and joked that they needed a date night. We ate at the 5 and Diner in Pleasant Hill and then we saw "You Again." It was a delightful movie and I don't think there was a single swear word in it - no sex at all. It was really fun - Jamie Lee Curtis, Sigourney Weaver, Odette Yustman... Then, of course we had to talk for a long while afterwards!

And then last night I met up with my homeschooling friend, Malissa. We have a monthly Culvers date. Before I met her, I ran out to Jordan Creek and did some running around at the mall, which was nice - no kids!

This afternoon I have to attend a FEMA mitigation meeting. Tomorrow is free, although I have to crank out and submit another FW piece sometime that day. Thursday evening Ben has his first chorale concert, something I am both anticipating and dreading. Friday I am going to try to knock some of next week's shopping out of the way, as well as take care of my Sunday meal prep. My plan is to carve pumpkins that night, too. Sat. I have a whole day chock full of stuff to do. And next week is going to be a scheduling nightmare.

Oh, and Will is wanting me to be planning his 16th birthday party, I have to take the boys in for birthday pics and well as their group shot for Christmas cards. Will's baptism is coming up in about 10 days, too. So, I'm a little stressed these days, I think!

But thank God I can DO these things! This Sat. will be the 3 year anniversary of my stroke. Things could be so different.

A note of encouragement that was given to me recently: For the first time, Ben is in a SS class without a brother. His teachers are in their late 60s and I was kind of nervous about letting Ben advance into there because of the way he is and their age. Autism is a relatively new disorder. Most older folks do not understand it. His teacher told me that Ben is a joy to teach. She and her husband are just having a ball with him, apparently. They love his attitude, his honesty, and love for the Lord. Janice told me that Ben frequently gives the plan of salvation in his answers in class. She said that, spiritually, he just shines at the top of the class. These are things that I just don't see here at home, esp. now that he is out of the house for 7 hours a day. I would not know that Ben is so spiritually minded if Janice didn't tell me. When Ben is home he spends his time listening to music or messing around the computer (his latest thing is type in the name of a city and then add "Walmart" behind it. That way he gets to look at the designs, interior and exterior, of Walmarts all across the US. Yes, it's strange. And yes, it's totally Ben!). He eats, goes to bed, and then goes to school the next day. So our contact is a little more limited these days.

But it's a blessing to hear these things. Honestly, I'm surprised because I see so many areas where we have not been good, Godly examples for the boys. But they're absorbing something from somewhere. Maybe they're catching things we didn't know we were throwing out there.

Well, back to my schedule. Years ago, there was a comic strip called "Calvin and Hobbes." I loved that sarcastic little kid and Sara got me quite a few of his anthologies. My boys have actually fallen in love with him, too, and I think those books are in chunks now, separated from the binding, because they've been read so many times by both me and the boys. Calvin was a creative little kid, to put it mildly, and one of his inventions was a "duplicator." Usually it would result in numerous mild-mannered Calvins walking around while the real Calvin continued to wreak havoc in the background. I think I need a duplicator for the next few weeks. I don't have any desire to wreak havoc, but I sure could use another Me to help get all that needs to be done, done!