Quick Before I Get Sidetrack'd

Things are going well around here.

Enjoying the pretty weather – playing outside, walks, trips to the park.

Not getting as much sleep as I’d like (on that note, why does the 3 week old growth spurt hit right at the height of sleep deprivation?  That only adds insult to injury).

Managed to clean the kitchen (except for mopping) and dust part of the living room today – progress on the housekeeping front.

Looking forward to a visit from Matt’s parents this weekend.

Hope you’re all having a good week.  I’ll try to have some real content to post in the next day or so.

Isn’t that title just so clever? I’m suffering a bit from worn out, ready to have this baby creativity block.

So, what is special about April 7th? In my life it is the celebration of my brother.

I am blessed to have a wonderful older brother, and, although, we are not as close in distance or relationship at this point as I would like (or as we’ve been at other times in our lives), I am happy to say he is also my friend.

And in honor of his birthday, I’m going to tell a couple of stories on myself that I think are amusing…

J’s big hobby in elementary school age and into early middle school was building model cars, airplanes, and boats. He could often be found hard at work on the bar in our basement gluing pieces together, painting the finished work, and applying decals and stickers. He worked all shapes, sizes, and types of models.

Once, when I was probably six or seven years old (possibly a bit younger), J and Daddy were working on a huge model pirate ship. If I remember correctly, it was probably a couple feet long and was amazingly detailed with fabric sails, oars and guns coming from the lower decks, and the whole pirate-y bit. They had put a ton of time and effort into this ship and were probably 90%-100% finished when “the incident” occurred.

For whatever reason, J had set the ship on the basement floor and left it there to get something from upstairs while I was still playing downstairs. I was being a typical girl and doing gymnastics or something on the furniture and was hanging upside down in Daddy’s recliner watching something on TV. I’m not sure exactly what happened, or how it happened, but the next thing I knew I was sliding off the recliner and directly on top of the pirate ship. I remember a crunching sound, the sound of J running down the stairs, and my crying as he yelled.

The ship had attained damage of the hit-by-several-cannonballs type and was totally destroyed. It was an accident, but that didn’t make it any better in the eyes of my 11-ish year old brother who had worked so hard to build that pirate ship.

And then there was the time when I was about three and I flushed J’s pet fish down the toilet. The fish lived in a bowl on our kitchen island. Apparently it was sleeping, but it looked dead to my preschool eyes. I took it to the bathroom, dumped it, and flushed. It started swimming down the drain. Oops!

It’s a wonder he still likes me. Happy birthday, brother!

This week has flown by me, thus the lack of posts all.week.long.

We had a wonderful weekend last weekend with our friends from Knoxville. We didn’t do anything very exciting (ate, shopped, talked), but it was great to spend time with them. Matt introduced their 5 year old to the Wii and the joys of Wii bowling. We had a lot of fun Saturday afternoon and evening playing games and competing against each other.

The only un-fun part of the weekend was a hand-foot-and-mouth disease scare. Little woke up Saturday morning with small red bumps all over the backs of her hands and tops of her feet and swelling in her hands. A call to the after-hours nurse produced an over-the-phone diagnosis of HFMD, but I began to doubt that was the problem when we got home and did a bit more research in some of the medical databases we have access to. Turns out it was just an allergic reaction and had cleared up totally by Sunday morning. Our best guess is that she was reacting to the laundry detergent that our friends use on their son’s blankies.

Monday was a holiday for Matt, so we enjoyed some family time and celebrated MLK day with a trip to Home Depot, lunch at Olive Garden, and some grocery shopping. Tuesday and Thursday didn’t see that much activity, but my blogging time was directed to other tasks. Tuesday was spent catching up on my Bible Study before class on Wednesday, and Thursday’s time was spent cleaning and napping.

The other news of the week came to my attention on Wednesday, and I spent the afternoon talking to my mom and my aunt, giving Little a few extra hugs, and thanking God for her health. My cousin’s son, who is 4 years old, was diagnosed with a cancerous mass on his adrenal gland. He has been in the hospital since Sunday, and today he underwent a procedure to put in a permanent IV port. He will begin his first round of chemotherapy this evening; it is possible that he could be in the hospital for 4 months, but right now it looks more like he will be able to go home sometimes between rounds of chemo (total treatment time looks like it will be 6 to 12 months). We are grateful that he is close to a wonderful children’s hospital, that it was caught quickly, and that he is expected to make a full recovery. Your prayers for him and his family would be greatly appreciated.

Which brings us to today. Today I have been preparing for a ladies’ getaway that I’m going on this weekend with several friends. This will be the first time I’ve been away from Little overnight, so I’m feeling just a tiny bit anxious, but I know she and Matt will be just fine here by themselves. And I’m really excited about spending a couple of days with girlfriends.!

And that, friends, is the excitement for this week. Maybe next week I’ll be around a bit more. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

I’m pleased to announce that I am once again proud aunt to an adorable nephew. My sweet sister-in-law Lu and new baby Grayson are both doing well. She will probably be out of the blogging loop for a bit, but I’m sure she would appreciate any well wishes and congratulations you might like to leave at her place.

Little is the only girl grandchild on either side of the family and then with Boo coming in a few months she will really be outnumbered. I don’t know if this is a good thing or not. Hopefully, one day we will add a few more girls (either in our immediate family or nieces), but right now we are happy surrounded by the boys.

So today the Sidetrack’d family celebrates our new nephew and cousin and praises God that he and his Mommy are healthy and happy! Thanks for allowing me to brag a bit.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are happily gearing up for Christmas.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I’m not sure exactly why it ranks above Thanksgiving or Easter or even Fourth of July, but I’ve always loved the Christmas season. There is something about the lights and the decorations, the wrapped packages and spirit of giving, the music and the traditions that make me smile.

Matt and I try not to get mired in the stress that the season can bring, and we try to stay focused on the real reason for Christmas instead of focusing on the consumerism that society fosters. Now that Little is getting old enough to participate (although still very limited participation) it is time to begin creating family traditions that she will carry through life just as we carry those of our families. What exactly will this entail? I’m not sure yet.

We started with a decision to stay home this year for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (we’ve traveled to family every Christmas since Matt and I began dating); we will miss celebrating with our extended family, but this is what we want for the future of our family (and what better time to start than the present?). We will attend a Christmas Eve worship service either at our church or another church in our area. We will try to begin instilling in her from an early age an appreciation that Christmas is a season set aside to reflect on the birth of Jesus and what that means to us as individuals, family, and beyond. We will decorate our Christmas tree and our home. We (or at least Momma) will bake goodies for us to enjoy and to share with our friends and neighbors. We will attend and host Christmas parties. We will give and receive gifts. We will incorporate traditions from my childhood and from Matt’s childhood with new ideas and activities to create a Christmastime that is specific to our family.

This is a new phase we are entering into with the holidays, and it will be fun to see how our ideas, activities, and traditions unfold through the years to come. Now we’ve just gotta get the tree up so the season can truly begin!

I would love to hear some of the special Christmas traditions that your family has created if you would like to share in the comments.