First Sunday of Advent

"I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me."
                                                                       (Micah 7:7)

We had our first Christmas pageant practice today, after the service.  It was chaotic and disorganized.  One of my adult volunteers, who is playing a wise woman, helpfully asked me if I have read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson.  It was a connection that I had been trying to avoid, and I assured her that our pageant will be nothing like that one.  Actually, I really do think it will be okay, if I can just get my adult actors to quit trading roles and not to wander off to get coffee or do dishes just when their part is coming up.

Full of Pie and Feeling Thankful

We had a nice Thanksgiving.  My parents and my brother and his kids didn't come this year (and we missed them), so it was quiet, but we had a good time anyway.  Some friends with a daughter who is between Travis and Katie in age came over for dessert in the afternoon, and we enjoyed good conversation and Ed's good coffee while the kids ran around and worked off energy.

Katie has become quite a wonderful little helper, when the mood takes her.  All the pre-holiday cleaning that got done (and I won't claim that that was much) was done by her.  She helped with the pies, and she learned to make her daddy's favorite cookies: Ed Bars.  Now I can rest easy knowing that if I get run down by a herd of angry rhinoceroses in my prime (okay, late prime) Ed won't have to do without his cookies (and if you know Ed you will know that this would comfort him considerably).

Here she is, using a big knife to chop nuts.  I am hardly wincing at all.

And spreading coconut.  I spread the chocolate chips because they are just too tempting for Katie, and I put on the sweetened condensed milk just because. 

Emma seems to be recovered.  Which is good because I am getting very tired of supervising pets and their games of musical food dishes.  And of shoving Pepcid pills into a very  unappreciative cat.   Here she and Harry are, snuggled up on Travis's chair.  Kind of cute, aren't they?

Herding Cats

Emma appears to be recovering nicely.  She met me at my bedroom door this morning, meowing imperiously about how breakfast appeared to be running a little late, and would I kindly Hurry Up.  This seems like a good sign.  And I have now had first hand experience with herding cats.  I've heard the expression before, but never properly appreciated the chaos it indicates until this morning, when Emma wanted to eat Harry's food or Bo's food, but Not her own food; Harry wanted Emma's food or Bo's; and Bo preferred either dish of cat food to his dog food.  The vet prescribed Iams (canned food, priced for the Wealthy Cat) for Emma to eat for two weeks, and she finds it unappealing.  To be honest, so do I, but we can't afford to have her back in the kitty ICU, so we will persevere.

School went fairly well today.  Still didn't get to everything (math wants to eat our whole morning), but I think I might have made an impression this morning with my 10,000th repetition of the lecture on how we don't have unlimited time in our days.  Maybe.  The good Lord knows I don't excel at time management, so they are genetically predisposed to fritter.

This is Travis, with what he considers his Skeptical Scientist expression.  Sure, the thermometer may say -11degrees (C), but are we naive enough to trust it?

And finally, the library called this evening to let me know about an interlibrary loan they got in, and the conversation just made me smile.  The woman, Linda, said, "The Skeleton Inside You is here.  Well, not the skeleton inside You, of course.  Because then you'd be a puddle of jelly!  It's the book that's here."
It's a small library and they know me enough to be silly.  I like that.

The Invalid is Home

Emma came home from the vet's at 5:30 tonight, having spent the day and most of yesterday hooked up with an IV.  Judging by the jam-packed invoice, the vet spent the past two days testing her for everything under the sun and dosing her with various random remedies, but he never did figure out what was wrong with her, aside from the rather obvious dehydration issue.

Actually, I think he might have overlooked some demonic possession issues.

Emma was skittish but seemed better when we first got her home, but she has gotten pretty quiet as the evening has progressed.  Now she is just sitting under chairs, looking unhappy, and I haven't seen her drink anything all evening.  Ed gave her the Pepcid, but that hasn't perked her yet.  And of course we didn't get a warranty from the vet -- would you know that the One time you might like an extended warranty, they don't offer one.

As soon as I sit down on the floor to take a picture, everyone piles on.  The kids just Know that I want to take pictures of their feet, and Bo is convinced that no blog post is complete without his Amazing Nose.  Which is why I rarely sit on the floor and take pictures, I guess.

Our Damsel in Distress

Our sweet Emma cat started looking puny on Thursday.  By Friday, there was ample evidence that her digestive system was giving her trouble. Saturday she lay low.  By Sunday afternoon her fur was sticking out in a dehydrated sort of way (hard to describe) and her eyes were sort of glazed.  At bedtime I found her sitting by the water dish, staring at the water wistfully.  She kept sticking her head out over the dish, just above the water, but not drinking.  I dipped my finger in the water and rubbed it on her lips and she licked eagerly.  Then I used the eye dropper to feed her some more water.  Ed cautioned me not to give her to much, but she really seemed to enjoy it.
The kids had book group at 8:30 Monday morning, but we decided that Ed would call the vet's as soon as they opened and we would cut out early if necessary to get Emma in to see the doctor.  So at 11:00 Ed took her to the vet.  And came home an hour later without her.  They couldn't tell immediately what is the matter with her, except that she was very dehydrated, so they are putting her on a kitty IV and running tests.  The vet says there are positive signs, especially that she doesn't seem to be in pain, and Ed and I noticed that she still has the energy to put up a good fight against being put in the crate.  We will know more when the vet calls, this afternoon or tomorrow, but we are hoping for an easy (and low cost!) cure.

Sunny Side Up

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey is looking like a great fit for Katie's science!  It includes most of the subjects I wanted to cover with her this year, so we can read the books I planned to read, but unlike my own very vague plans it is well organized.  Plus it has loads of activities, which is the way Katie likes her science.  Today we studied cells.  Apparently an egg is a cell -- who knew?  She studied the shell and then we broke it and studied the inside.  Actually, Travis wanted to study the shell too, but instead he rapped it sharply with the magnifying glass and we found ourselves looking at the inside rather suddenly.  That boy.

Travis has been stalled recently in science too, due to our lack of the proper lab equipment.  The box from Home Science Tools finally arrived yesterday, with our Chemistry Equipment Kit, and I thought we were ready for business today, but then I opened the alcohol lamp and found that it wanted denatured ethyl alcohol, not rubbing alcohol.  Travis thought maybe the Bacardi rum I bought yesterday for our holiday baking would work, but my dedication to science does not extend that far so his lesson was once more postponed.

Miles to Go and Pageants to Organize

I had a nice long "to do" list for today, but the weather was so absolutely glorious that I didn't do any of it.  Instead the kids and I went for a hike.
Unfortunately, the cap for our water canteen  has gone missing, but I thought we could manage three miles without constant rehydration.  Never again!  Travis was only mildly pitiful, but Katie whimpered and whined all the way up the mountain.  I think if it hadn't been for the constant reminder of ice cream if she could only keep walking, the poor little thing would still be prostrate on the trail.

(Of course, even for a parched and weary boy, fallen tree trunks are irresistable.)

Katie was so excited when she noticed the latest carving in this tree.  "Mom!  Mom!  Someone carved your name on the tree!"  And they had, too.  "Mom."

Brings to mind poor Sam and Frodo collapsing part way up Mt. Doom, doesn't it?

But we made it!

Barely. 

Katie was more chipper once the "up" part was over, though.

She found a big Daddy Long-legs to tease her brother with.

And here we are at the homestead.  You probably can't see it, but I circled a person climbing the rock.  There were actually four of them.  The mind boggles.

In other news, I found a very nice Christmas pageant online, so I don't have to write one.  I made copies for the mom who I hope will be helping me organize the thing, and also for our priest, so he can check it over for anything that might be unkosher.  I asked him today, after church, if the Sunday before Christmas would be okay with him for us to put it on, and he said, "Oh!  I thought the pageant was off this year!"  I quietly panicked for a minute, until he said that it was a minor mix up and that the Sunday before Christmas would be fine for us.  Seems like not having to write a sermon just before Christmas would be pretty fine for him too, but wouldn't it have been awful if the year I was put in charge of the pageant it got cancelled due to miscommunication?  Anyway, we are moving forward now, and the field is wide open for the ways in which our Christmas pageant can be a disaster.