Sounds at Night

We live out in the country on the edge of a farm. I usually love the night time noises. Last night I kept hearing two owls calling to each other. It was very relaxing. Then I was awakened by MB crying.

I was having trouble sleeping after feeding MB. I was about to drift off when I heard an unearthly terrifying scream! It sounded like it was outside and didn't sound quite human, but it scared me. I was half asleep, so I thought that it was a person screaming. I jumped up and ran to look at everyone. I'm pretty sure that it was a raccoon!

Have you ever heard a raccoon screaming like that? When I lived in Tennessee with my grandparents, I slept with my window open and it was quite near to the ground. A raccoon came right up to the screen and let out this ungodly screaming and screeching one night. It sounded like it was in the bed with me. It was very horrible and scared the "you know what" out of me. That was the first time that I'd ever heard that particular night time noise. Fortunately, the raccoon last night must have been further away or it would have sounded even scarier.

In the Spring here , we usually hear the tree frogs in the evenings. We live nearby a swampy area, so it sounds like hundreds of the little frogs chirping away. We also hear the geese honking and cattle mooing from the farm. These are all relaxing noises to me.

Dammit Boots

Here we go again on watching our language! Especially me! After Metal Boy's check-up appointment, I took the kids to Target to shop. Metal Girl picked out these lovely green froggy boots as a treat for being so especially nice during the appointment. She has been asking for rain boots for a long time. She loves them dearly and wants to wear them ALL the TIME everywhere we go. Well, yesterday she was kicking at Metal Boy with them, so I um said something like "dammit those boots". So the boots were put away, and last night she asked if she could wear her " Dammit Boots". Sigh. Aren't these the cutest little dammit boots you ever did see?

MG has started insisting on doing things herself and wanting to try new things. I was making omelets for she and I, and she wanted to crack the eggs. I want to be patient and let her try new things, but I only had three eggs left! I didn't let her do it, so she had a trantrum. Then she later had a tantrum because she wanted to wash the dishes. I had already finished them, but she kept crying and saying "I want to do dishes by myself!" over and over. Mark let her help him do the dishes later after dinner. She was so tickled. :)

Favorite Children's Book?

I love children's books. This morning I took the kids to a puppet show at the library based on Jan Brett's book The Mitten. We barely got there in time at 10 AM. All the traffic lights were green, so I was lucky! I love to read, but have been reading lots of children's books during the last three years for obvious reasons. I love them. I especially love Jan Brett's books. Her art work is so unique and beautiful. Metal Girl has also fallen in love with these stories. I made her a felt mitten with all the animals. We have to do this story every night. We also love Trouble With Trolls by this author.

I have lately been reading books that I loved as a child. I just read some of the Trixie Beldon mysteries. Next, I'm going to read a classic book that I've never read... Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I watched the first part of the Jane Eyre miniseries on PBS last Sunday evening. Are you guys reading anything good right now?

I feel rejuvenated today. It was nice to get out and do things. I got off to an extra nice start because the kids slept in today! This is a rarity indeed. I had a precious hour of free time this morning! It's amazing all the things that I was able to do within that hour. I knew that I had to take advantage of it while I could. :)

Night Time Peace

* Van Gogh's Starry Night *




Everyone is in bed sleeping soundly. This is my time to myself. I have been terrible about getting started on the exercising. I did it one night and then nothing the rest of the week. Sigh.
Mark and I had a rare 45 minutes of quiet time on Friday evening. We had gone to the bank and were then going to get groceries. It got really quiet in the back of the car, and we realized both kids were sleeping! At the same time! It was SO UNUSUALLY QUIET. Instead of going to the nearby grocery store, we decided to go further to have a nice drive and time to talk.

I won't go on and on about this, but I always get depressed in the winter. It's not too terrible this time, but I do feel like I have less energy. I just don't get anything accomplished with cleaning the house and chores. I know that part of the answer to improve how I feel would be to exercise. I take care of the kids and then don't feel motivation or energy to do much else. I'm trying to cut back on caffeine... I felt so good when I quit drinking coffee while pregnant. So I really have to do these things before I can expect to feel better with my moods and energy level. Hopefully I can get going and feel better.

Last night I stayed up writing in my journal about my new year's resolutions. Well, my main resolution is to start an exercise program tonight. Oh joy! I've really been making excuses about not having time to exercise alone. I do have about two or three hours of free time every night after the kids go to bed. That's plenty of time to exercise. I really don't want anyone to see me doing it because I'm not all that coordinated, so this will be the perfect thing for me. I know that this will only help me, so tonight's the night!! I'm not going to make any other resolutions because this is a really big one for me. There are definitely other areas in my life that I need to improve, but I think that this is the most important one.

I've been a little homesick for my family and the mountains in Tennessee. I've been remembering some happy times when I was a kid.



My dad used to get excited when we had snow. He loved Winter and Christmastime. Sometimes the mountains would have snow even if we didn't get it in the valley. Dad would take us up to Gatlinburg in his blue chevy truck. The rocky sides of the mountain along the winding road were covered in glistening icesicles. This is a picture along the road up to Gatlinburg in the Smoky Mountains that I found online. Just like I remember it.

I've really been missing my family. People I love age while I'm away, so I think about how they're not going to be here forever. Every moment we share with people we love is precious. My Dad died when I was eight, but he sure knew how to make lasting memories for me. I really want to write about them here sometimes. I don't want to forget those special times.

I've been just a bit sad thinking too much about things. I think that when I was sick I felt sorry for myself and then started thinking about sad things. I felt extremely crummy and felt so bad that I couldn't think straight enough to get us to the doctor. I thought that it was a really REALLY bad cold, but I'm pretty convinced that we had the flu. It went on and on for at least seven days, we had fevers and aching muscles, head colds and I was so weak that I could barely stand up in the shower. We're finally on the mend, but I really really should have taken the kids both to the doctor. I just didn't realize that it was worse than a cold. : ( The important thing is that we are ok now. Next time I'll be going to the doctor with the slightest sniffle. It usually doesn't happen this way with me being sick too.

We're finally getting our normal cold weather here in Maryland. I sure hope that it kills some of these germs. There are so many yucky stomach viruses, flus and colds being passed around. Just about everybody I know has been sick with something. I also hope that we get a beautiful bunch of snow soon!

Happy Birthday Bubby!

Today is my little boy's very first birthday. He is the sweetest little guy and is such a joy. He is very comical and seems to have a great sense of humor even at such a young age. He really makes us smile and keeps us laughing. He was giving big sis kisses yesterday. Happy birthday to you little bubby!

Crappy Colds

Metal Mark has been spared so far, but the rest of us have had the worst crappiest colds. I can handle taking care of the kids when they're sick...even at the same time... but it gets harder when I'm sick too. Thank goodness Mark was able to take off early one day from work. Then I was already taking off on Friday to help at Metal Girl's preschool. That's when I got really sick with the cold. Last night was a blessing because Metal Boy slept through the night. Then he was hungry at 6:30am but went right back to sleep after that!!!! Boy, that was some much needed sleep.

Metal Boy will turn 1 on Tuesday!!!! He shares his birthday with his grandfather "Pap-pap". It's hard to believe that this past year has flown by so fast!

There goes New Year's Resolution #1

I would have been doing really well if I hadn't had to put together MG's big girl bed. I had really been holding back on cussing in front of her. Then I decided to put the bed together. It had ten million screws and bolts, so I think I may have said that many curse words. Sigh. Maybe since we're only three days into the new year I can start over. Think so? Anyway, the bed is put together, but I left the crib in her room just incase we can't get her to stay in the new bed tonight.

Both kids have been sick for the last few days. Oh no...I just heard MG say a bad word while she's playing. Maybe I should get out the soap and lick it. Instead of eating chocolate, maybe I deserve a big bar of soap.

Even though they've been sick, today was much better. They both have colds, but their appetites are back to normal.