Lotsa Things

I just got back from a run around our neighborhood a few minutes ago and still can't believe how mild it is out there at night! We still have a few windows open and it feels wonderful! I live for that fresh, reawakening earth smell each spring. However, this is New England after all, so we could be due for a blizzard by the end of the week!

Isabelle and I carried in a huge armful of costumes today...that means they're off my dining room table, which feels great! I was counting the outfits in my head earlier and they number in the dozens now. It doesn't feel like that much when I'm working on them, but when I stop and tally 'em up, it seems like a lot. But it makes me happy.

My cousin pinned a cute thing on skirts from someone's blog (I'm too lazy to look it up right now...on this blog...), and now I really want to make myself some skirts! They're so easy, don't require much fabric, and pretty quick to sew up, but...I have a little problem. I don't like my legs. Or rather, I don't like my skin. I have always had hard red bumps on the backs of my arms and red dot-like pricks all over my calves. Plus now I've got some minor veining issues going on...super. I thought maybe it was a sensitivity to shaving, because they seem kind of follicle-related, but since I'm not giving up shaving my legs any time soon, you see my dilemma.

This is going to be all kinds of random, bear with me. Or don't.  :)

I picked up a book on curly hair from the library and for the first time in my whole life I feel like someone else can identify with my hair isses. Of course the author is African-American and is mainly discussing much tighter curls than I've got, but curly is curly. I still can't believe it when my girlfriends tell me they blowdry their hair- everyday!- with no (Z-E-R-O) styling products in it, and it comes out perfectly straight and sleek and shiny. My hair, on the other hand, would closely resemble one of those puffy dandelions you blow in the wind- it would be a perfectly round, wispy, poof-ball, frizzy and fly-away all over my whole head. I know this from experience. Not fun. I'm going to try a couple of suggestions from the book and see how I fare.

We just found out that my uncle has throat cancer and suffered a minor stroke over the weekend. I'm having a really hard time watching the people I love getting older. It frightens me no matter how much I tell myself that God is in control of it all.

Bill's younger cousin, Josh, continues to suffer with his brain tumor. Actually, everyone suffers. His condition is terminal and his children are so small. My heart aches on a daily basis for his wife, facing, enduring, so much. They are able to rest in God's promises and protection. What a beautiful gift that is.

Not that this is anywhere near as important as life and death, but I am going through round two of athlete's foot...only this is like nothing I've ever had! Huge blisters under my toes- it feels like socks that get bunched up in all the wrong places- and now my left heel is literally splitting wide open with a callous-like crack and everything I'm trying to help it isn't working. Pumice, lotions, creams, oils, scraping- nothing is working, and it hurts, a lot! Every step is like walking on a tack. Maybe that's why I'm so amazed I was finally able to run without considerable pain tonight.

I've been running around like crazy between Jonah's orthopedic appointments for his broken arm and orthodontist appointments for broken wires and headgear adjustments. Ethan is having two more molars pulled out tomorrow morning- his adult teeth grow in before his baby teeth are even loose, and because the molars are so much bigger, they were really hurting him. My teeth were the same way when I was a kid.

Although I feel happy in general, there is still a lingering sadness, and I'm not sure why, or what about. It feels like I'm mourning something. I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that my little boys are not little anymore. It seems like yesterday we were running off to Story Hour at the library, going for long walks in the double stroller while I wore Caleb in the carrier, reading stories together in my bed before naptimes. And now? Now they are so big! I love who they are, who they're becoming, but I also feel so incredibly sad because I really miss who they used to be. It's just so different now. Sigh.

I see it's 9:00 and I'd wanted to catch an episode of the Duggars. Goodnight!