the world is weird

you know what's weird? that curtis can send me a text message from jo'burg, south africa, but his laptop won't recognize the ip to send me an email. that seems so...upside down to me!

but the good news is he landed safe & sound! hooray! :)

a christmas miracle!

i had a saturday.

no no - you don't understand... I experienced SATURDAY today.

i can't recall the last time this happened to me. i mean, i still did a lot of stuff - got up before 9, did kid driving around back and forth to durham, ran to the store to get a swimsuit (wah!), fed everyone lunch and dinner, cleaned the kichen, did 3 loads of laundry (including folding and putting away!), took kyra and molly for a walk around shelly lake, ran to kroger to return our redbox & get the girls ice cream. but i also got a nap, sat at the pool for an hour, got rained on, and felt a peaceful, yet productive, rhythm in my day.

now it's 8, and the girls are settling in for a movie, and i am feeling... sabbath. shalom. peace in my heart. even inner tranquility. it's a feeling so foreign to me ... it has been a long, long time. so i am going to savor it... sit here and enjoy a glass of wine and let it wash over me.

peace.

i'm late!

i am procrastinating going to work. in about 7 minutes i am going to have to race through brushing my teeth to get to work on time by the skin of said teeth. but who cares? :) it's friday!

nothing new to report, other than i think when holidae goes to cat heaven we're going to get a dog. :) if you've followed this blog at all, you know that i'm pretty sure God wants us to have a dog, and now even curtis might want us to, after the highly successful dogsitting we experienced this week. successful but for poor holidae, who didn't leave my room for 4 days, even to eat or drink. :( she's clearly not a dog person.

also, curtis is going to africa on monday! he's going with a group from our church to visit & serve the children's cup care point that ekklesia supports. i am jealous. AND he gets to go on a safari. i am SUPER jealous. stupid curtis. :)

my 7 minutes are up. (i must be a slow typist) excuse me, but i have to go brush my teeth...

the pool

tonight after dinner i took The Girls down the road to the pool for a bit. (God love curtis, he did the dishes and wrapped potatoes for me so i could be the "fun" parent for a change.) i was pretty tired, and it wasn't warm enough to lay out (i can see you shaking your head from here, jessica), but i'm so glad i did.

the pool brings out in The Girls a side of them that i rarely get to see anymore. they are attached at the hip, laughing and somersaulting each other over & under the water, calling to one another, seeking the other out, skipping from pool to diving board & back again in tandem. they clamber into my car grinning and sopping, finishing each other's sentences and regaling me tales of ruthless lifeguards & girls with bikini's too small.

and i love it. the tween/teen thing has plenty of bickering and teasing that leads to tears, posturing and pestering and down right bothering each other - sometimes i swear they do it just to make me crazy. but tonight, at the pool, my teenagers became little brown eyed girls again. maybe even mermaids.

exactly.

the working mom's lament

today is kyra's 8th grade graduation. i had made arrangements with my work to come in late so i could go and watch her graduate with all her various distinctions... but then one of my co-workers had to leave town for a funeral. totally out of her control, and very sad. the nature of my work, though, is such that there are minimum staffing requirements, and with her gone, i must be present. so this morning curtis and meg will be there to cheer her on, watch her receive her awards & national honors society sash, and i will be at work - missing it.

today i hate being a working mom.