A Story

Once upon a time there was a family who had a very good holiday season. Thanksgiving was stressful for the Mother as it has been since her father died. Her father had always done so much that his daughter had always considered Thanksgiving a vacation. No more. Thanksgiving is not very much fun when you have to do all the work. And spend that much money.

And of course as soon as that holiday is over, it's time to prepare for the big one: Christmas. And although the Mother enjoyed Christmas and picking out presents for her loved ones, and although she was filled with gratitude and thankfulness the whole month because of all the blessings her family had, it was a bit stressful too.

There had been a houseguest that month and of course shopping and presents and cleaning and cooking--so much cooking. There was upcoming stress of the next year to think about as well.

So that on Christmas afternoon, when all the festivities were quite over, the Mother developed a bit of a headache and said that she thought she would lie down.

And the headache grew and she felt quite bad and the lying down turned into nearly the whole evening and the Mother went to bed at 10:30. When she awoke the next morning at 8:45, she felt better. Can you imagine needing that much sleep?

The mother feels better now. And she is also going to do something she never, ever does. She is going to make today a vacation day.

There will be no self-imposed guilt about her husband working so she should be working too, like usual.
There will be no worries about all the things that need doing about the house.

The Mother is going to sit and watch movies and do nothing responsible all day long.

The End.

Project: Doctor Visits and a Small Rant

Today was a day of medical stuff. First of all, we had to take the cat to the vet. We've never been to an actual vet's office. Around here, we have a non-profit organization that does low-cost spay/neutering and vaccines. Our cat has always been healthy, so we've always just gone there.

But she's been sick, so we had to go to an actual vet. It was nice. It was much cleaner and the people were very nice. It wasn't as expensive as I feared, either.

She, however, was not pleased.

Back home and not speaking to us. She stayed gone most of the day. 

Kit-Cat got a shot of antibiotics and we hope she's feeling much better really soon. Poor baby.

By the way, if you want to follow Kit-Cat's Instagram page, go here. 

After the vet, I dropped the cat and older girls home and took the youngest to the doctor, where a urine sample was required. After explaining the process to her she said, "This is the weirdest thing I have ever done."

But she couldn't um...successfully complete the sample when we first got there. So the doctor had her drink water while walking around the exam room and then gave instructions for her to run around and get her heart rate up. It worked! But an 8x4 room is pretty hard to work in!

Enough medical stuff for awhile.

This weekend our local library had a knock off of the show Antiques Roadshow. Steve and I were given a book from my uncle last year and we discovered it was a pretty old specimen. We had done a little research online, but wanted to hear from an expert.

We invited my mom to go along and told her to bring some old stuff to have it looked at. She brought her old doll, my grandma's old doll (nearly 100 years old!) and another doll of hers from when she was a girl.

I'm not sure how much the antiques people knew about our particular items, but it was interesting discussing them with them and hearing their opinions. We're not interested in selling those dolls by any means, but I'm glad to know more about them!

Last week was our week off of school (which is why I didn't post much!) so Sunday the younger girls wanted to do one last fun thing. We drove to a mall so the youngest could play in the very awesome play area they have.

And the 2nd born and I did a little window shopping at the American Girl Store.

She loves this store so much.

Well, we did a little more than window shop. My girl wanted a book. Listen, I'll tell you some other time about our journey with her vision, but when this girl asks for a book ----to voluntarily read--- you get that book!!

Then we wanted to treat the girls to ice cream. There were several choices of ice cream stores at this particular mall. Big, national, chain ice cream stores whose names I will not mention here. But none of them could tell us the ingredients of their ice cream. Our 2nd born has food allergies. How can big, national, chain ice cream stores not supply us with a list of ingredients for their products?????

We once went to a place on vacation. Inside this place was a little, how do I say it best? Grill? Eatery? Snack bar? It wasn't a sit-down restaurant is what I'm saying. It was a walk-up-to-the-counter-and-look-at-the-board-and-get-your-food-in-a-paper-boat kind of place. 

And when we asked about allergy information, THEY HANDED US A BINDER WITH COPIES OF EVERY PACKAGE OF FOOD THEY USED. Want a corn dog? Here's a copy of the ingredients on the side of the corn dog box! 

Revolutionary, I'm telling you. Come on ice cream stores. Get it together. 

Signing off,