Late Night ...

It's very early in the morning and I have yet to sleep. Perhaps this isn't exactly a true statement. I slept for about two hours in the early afternoon and awoke around 7:00 in the evening. I have learned that sleep must be taken when it is given. My being knows nothing of the normal ways of people. Therefore I take advantage of those moments when sleep comes easily without consideration for the possible ramifications. Perhaps if I had avoided that bit of rest earlier I would have easily slept tonight. It is unlikely, though. My times of insomnia are not usually cured by forced sleeping patterns. Instead, I find myself laying in bed all night with my thoughts raging in my mind when I try to force my body to adapt to the demands of a sleeping routine.

My lack of sleep often causes disturbances in my household. My dear husband is an early riser who prefers to go to sleep very early in the evening. My tendencies to be up throughout the night are often difficult for him because he misses me during the night. He often wanders out of our room, bleary eyed and half asleep, just to be sure I am okay. Sometimes, when I've fallen asleep on the sofa, he will turn out the lights and pull the covers around me to be sure I am comfortably warm. I try to warn him before he is asleep if I know that my night will be sleepless. If he knows that I will be up late, he tends to sleep better and worry less.

If my own sleeplessness were not enough to maintain the disorder and chaos in our lives, our youngest child also struggles with the desire to stay awake and the need to sleep. She, too, is a night owl like her mother. There are many nights that she tosses and turns in the bed, trying to find a comfortable position or trying to settle her restless thoughts so that she can sleep. (She inherited her ability to flip across the entire bed in 2 seconds flat from her father. I use to think he was the world's worst for flopping in the bed. He's now 2nd on that list... Marisa has him beat by a country mile.)

Now everybody in the house is sleeping soundly while I sit up and write. I may cook a proper breakfast for everybody today. I usually only cook a big breakfast for them on days like this when I have already been up all night. I don't do early mornings, but late nights are a completely different story. I'm not the least bit groggy or grumpy or irritable when I've been up really late like tonight. I'll eventually go to sleep - usually around 6:00 or 7:00 - and sleep for a few hours while Daddy keeps up with the wee beasties. Perhaps if I serve them all a gracious breakfast they will enjoy their day better and let me sleep all through the morning and into the afternoon... (after church, that is)

Changes

There are a lot of things changing around here. The leaves are changing now. The weather is changing. The time has come for a few personal changes.

I'm doing a great deal of cleaning and purging. Many of the things that we just don't need are getting disposed of, given away, sold, or just tossed in the junk bin.

Along with the personal household changes, I'm making a few changes to my websites, too. If you are a regular visitor, you may notice right away that some things have changed.

The Entrecard drop box has been moved down a ways. If you're a user of Entrecard, then you may be aware the new owners of Entrecard have decided to start showing 'sponsored ads' on the Entrecard box. Due to the fact that the owner is not going to allow blog owners to decide what ads will be shown, I have decided that it is necessary for the integrity of all of my sites to move that box lower on my page.

For now I will continue to use Entrecard because I feel it is a very good asset to my sites. However, if the ads that are pushed through are not acceptable then I discontinue my association with that system completely.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused to my visitors and advertisers.

And So It Goes

I woke up way too early this morning at the insistence of the little people. I have no idea why they decided to get up so early.

And today's forecast --- Rain and Thunderstorms all day long... AGAIN!!!

Thank you, Lord, for giving us the rain that we so desperately needed. (But did you have to give it to us all at once????)

Rain Rain...

The weather here has been particularly dreary and rainy lately. As a result of all the moisture, we have mushrooms. I can walk through my yard and easily find a half a dozen different species of mushrooms. It would be quite nice if they were edible and I could harvest them for dinner. Perhaps I will go on a photo safari and take pictures of all the different mushrooms I find. I've been thinking of doing that for a couple of weeks now. I just haven't gotten around to it. I bet the girls would gladly join me for such a trip.

I'm still fascinated by the creation of something as simple as a mushroom. What purpose does the mushroom hold within the world? They come so quickly and fade away just as fast. Most people view them as a pest of the yard, an intruder that mars the beautiful landscape. I don't see them this way, though. I think they are beautiful. I love how they can cover the ground overnight without any warning. I love the variety and the colors. I was told by my daughter that her and her Daddy saw a bright orange mushroom in the woods over the weekend. I haven't seen one that's bright orange, yet. Our yard just has some of the basic white, grey, and brown 'shrooms.

I enjoy finding beauty in something that others see only as an ugly imperfection. It's far easier than you might think to see the beauty in the world around you.

Getting A Good Night of Sleep

There's nothing like having a week without sleep to help you realize just how important sleep is for one's ability to function.

I am thankful that with the help of a bit of honey, I managed to get some sleep last night. My little girls have both been sick for a week, and none of the cough medicine was helping. It occurred to me that honey would be a good idea. I'm not real sure where the thought came from - perhaps a silent nudge from the powers that be - but I did recall reading a while back that honey was good for soothing a raw throat. It worked. Thank God, it worked. I desperately needed to sleep. Yes, I know that the girls both needed to sleep, too, but I was getting to be in poor shape from my lack of rest. It's very difficult to continue to take care of everybody who needs me to care for them when I'm not getting any sleep.

So today I am grateful that sleep was accomplished last night. I'm also grateful that at least one of my girls seems to be almost back to normal. Perhaps in a few more days we will all be past this phase of perpetual sickness. With any luck, I won't catch any of their germs...

No Rest for the Weary

This week has been one hectic bit of time. First, Marisa got sick. As she is beginning to get better, now her big sister is sick. Not only is Kira sick, but she's more sick than Marisa was. Kira even makes a point to let me know that she is more pitiful and more sick than Marisa was. Even in sickness there is sibling competition. I find that to be quite amusing that the oldest wishes to be more sick than the youngest.

I was very blessed today when I had to get out of bed. My husband would have been spending the day in Atlanta today, but instead he decided to stay home with me because the girls are both sick. I would never have asked him to skip his plans since he was going to Dragon Con, and that is only once a year. He decided on his own, though, that he couldn't leave me home with two sick girls. He gets big kudos for that. I'm very glad that he didn't leave me to do it on my own, though I would have managed just fine. It's much easier with a bit of moral and physical support.

On a lighter note, I'm getting a whole bunch of hugs and snuggles from my girls. It seems that when they aren't feeling well they tend to want much more attention.