#7 Not me Me These have to be really fast, because I’m supposed to be sweeping the floors, doing the laundry and baking. Not sipping on my coffee and blogging.  #6 I finally convinced the Ogre to give Downton Abbey a go with me last night. Melanie and Jen have been praising this show to the skies forever, so when we found ourselves not wanting to commit to a whole movie but also not wanting to watch television that isn’t... Read more

Dude! The Ogre and I got five blissful hours alone today to Christmas shop, swig espresso, hold hands and snog inappropriately when no one was looking. They might have been looking, though, but they were mostly teenagers who were doing the same thing. We were in a mall, after all. Yeah, we’re not the greatest example of controlling PDA impulses in public but come on. We’ve been apart for six months. Also, every time my husband’s hand may have wandered... Read more

Yesterday started out on a fantastic note. My little brother, home from his sophomore year in a blaze of glory (no, really, the kid got a 90 on his accounting final at A&M;, people, plus steady 100’s in his Mandarin class) most unfortunately came down with a terrible case of strep throat over the weekend. I did what any awesome sister would do. I made fun of him for whining like a little girl and then made him a strong... Read more

Okay. So, obviously, my taste in Christmas music is not totally refined. I do know that you’re probably going, “Really? “In the Bleak Midwinter” to this?” But I just love this song. It’s so adorable. It was sung by a 10-year-old little girl, and I think her voice and the words and the melody so perfectly capture the frank childhood belief that anything is possible. I particularly love these lines: “I want a hippopotamus for Christmas / I don’t think... Read more

You would think, given that I’m an English major and all, that I would understand the definition of “irony”. But actually I’ve always found it very slippery. Or rather, I can spout the definition to you. The definition of irony, or one among many, is that the surface meaning and the underlying meaning of what is said are not the same. This much I get. But I always have a hard time quite deciding if something is situationally ironic or... Read more

One of my fellow blogging moms, Christine, just posted today that yesterday she and her 1-year-old were hit by a tractor-trailor. She is okay, and Sly will live, but he had severe damage to his backside. Please pray for this family and for this poor little boy. Here’s a link to her blog. I’m sure she’d appreciate words of comfort and support right now. Read more

The other day my sister-in-law and I were discussing how much we love the song In the Bleak Midwinter. It is one of my favorite Christmas songs, and I actually had never heard it until Melanie linked to it last year.   I spent most of last Christmas season singing the only lines I could remember from the song (In the bleak midwinter/frosty wind made moan/earth stood hard as iron/water like a stone./Snow had fallen, snow on snow/snow on snow/in... Read more

Oh my gosh oh my gosh OH MY GOSH! My husband is coming home this weekend. He’s coming home for good. He’ll be here Monday. And… And… And he’s offered to take the night shift on Monday night!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sleep. All I can think about is glorious, uninterrupted sleep. Sleep which shall not be shattered by my son’s inexplicable refusal to sleep like a normal human being. Sleep in which I shall have a dream that I get to see the... Read more

O. M. G.  My streak of horrible luck continueth. Last night after Mass, in which I was continually wrestling with a wriggling, fit-throwing Charlotte, I realized that my thumb hurt. Then I realized that part of it has been numb for a few days, and I had filed that in the back of my brain, in the “things I will deal with later” section along with my weight loss plans, my rusty exercise routine, and that mysterious puddle on the... Read more

I’ve been rambling about Santa. Listen, guys, the combination of antibiotics, steroids, inhalors, cough syrup, and lack of sleep has made me…fuzzy. Although I read through this post about ten times after I wrote it, I’m still not sure if it makes sense or even contains a coherent argument. Also the Ogre is in meetings with students all day today, so I’m short a proof-reader, which always makes me nervous. Any chance one of y’all can go read it and then... Read more