Blogging My Head Out...

Well, here I am, a week after I said I could get back to blogging... :) I just don't know how to dive back in, but I think they call that procrastination.

Today was a rather busy day...after I was initially able to drag myself up off the couch and into the shower. I got up immediately when my alarm went off (only because I put it on my book shelf where I'm forced to get up to turn it off!), but after a cup of tea, two pieces of toast, and a smidgin of leftover meatloaf, I went straight to the couch and lay flat under a thick blanket for a long time until I could possibly consider coming out again. Everyone else was either gone or still a-snooze.

When I had showered and perked up a little, I hurriedly stuffed my huge book bag full of everything I might possibly need for the day or forevermore and set off in the Crowe's Silver Bullet (I think that's what Rodgey called it once...or am I mistaken?) A few days ago, when I was going to take the kids to the park, we were looking for the van keys at their house, and Rodgey kept asking me, "Why don't you just drive the truck?"(the nickname for the Much Nicer vehicle) There were several good reasons, but I didn't have a chance to explain them all to him. As we climbed into the somewhat Aged and Used van, he shook his head at me and said, "I still don't understand why you passed up a great opportunity to drive something that's worth more than 200 dollars!"

So...it was on to the Crowes, where Bruce and Deb had just gotten back from a short jaunt to Ukraine to make plans and scout out a house they found, which they will probably buy. So Deb made hot drinks for us and we sat looking at pictures of snow-patched Rzchichiv while she explained details of our future home (for a year or more, in my case.) It was pretty exciting. I was excited to hear that there are a lot of Ukrainian girls my age who hang around there, who I'll surely get to learn Russian from and build relationships with. The prospect of being there for an extended period of time where I can grow some roots is encouraging to me. Five week missions trips where you are constantly on the move just become emotionally exhausting after awhile, because you have to reach out to person after person without having a lasting connection. So, if God works it out so, I'll be moving to Ukraine in May or June 08, shortly after the Crowes.

At 11:15, Mom picked me up for a birthday lunch for our friend Miss Brenda. There were a lot of other ladies there, and I was the only girl, but I didn't mind, since Miss Brenda is one of my dear friends, and so is my Mom, and for the most part I like listening to my Mom's friends talk :) It was a pleasant time, and I hope a blessing for the birthday girl. The waitress was exceptionally nice and brought Mom and I loads of food we couldn't eat. (We split a plate, but still ended up taking half of it home as leftovers for siblings to have for supper.)

When we left, I had a raging headache, which may in part be due, as my Mom pointed out, to a light caffeine addiction...nooooooo!!!! I said I would never be dependent on coffee! I'm still hoping that's not it. But I went yesterday and most of today without the "drug," and had major headaches. I realize that I have been drinking steadily more and more coffee as it gets cooler out...but I didn't think it was that much. I usually have it in a teacup and make it "blonde" (half-coffee, half-milk, with a teaspoon of sugar) so I can't believe I could really be addicted. But I have been having either coffee or tea once or twice a day...I just hate the idea of being dependent on a drink. Oh well.

After some ibuprofen, I just felt sort of swampy and fuzzy all over, and thought another moment of horizontalness might be really nice...but there was english class with the girls, which I hadn't prepared for at all. So I thought, well, Mrs. Burklin is always teaching classes when she's sick--much sicker than I am--and she teaches the classes with much more...you know...know how, preparation, and General Wholehearted Wonderfulness, that surely I can just pluck up for a few hours and do this thing! So I gave in to Mom's recommended cup of coffee (just feeding the flames!). Sure enough, it perked me up pretty decently and I began to feel a general Competance and Happiness over the commas and semicolons and the funny sentences we kept making up and scrawling across the tremendous marker board. At the beginning of the class I was feeling down and wondering if anything I was doing was doing any good or if I was working for nothing...but then I remembered how Chance, (my once-apon-a-time big brother and English tutor of approximately two months), drove the wonderful ways of commas, conjunctions, and semicolons into me
over and over with all the force of a sledgehammer, and how it STUCK, to my great benefit. I'm still benefitting from it today. And nobody tell me that commas aren't important! I know I don't get all of my punctuation right all of the time, but it's still amazing what a tiny sliver of confidence about something the size of a comma can do for you! I actually really got to enjoying myself with the whole comma thing. And the girls are so good in class...they didn't make fun of me or anything ;) Now at home, it could be a different story!

After that, I read to Ethan, as promised. It's one of my favorite things to do, and I'm just pleasantly amazed at his persistent begging for a story. Of course, he wants only "knight books," which we seem to have exhausted at the library, and I'm not ready for another three weeks of St. George just yet. After all, we have two other versions at home that I've read to him too. I did find a long picture book divided into chapters that I started reading to him this afternoon, about Robin Hood. That also qualified, I guess. It's amazing. He'll just sit there for an hour, listening, cuddled in a blanket, occasionally asking, "Are those the bad guys or the good guys?" Even when I don't get to read to him, Mom does it regularly. He's definitely going to get some idea of chivalry, anyway!

And now I'm blogging my head out. Wait...that's not what I meant to say...head off...heart out...whatever. It feels good to write out the events of the day. It's time to go now, though.

So, The End

P.S. The amount of labels I have are ridiculous. Mybe I'm being hyper-sensitive about them and should discontinue the system.