Summary

Negative on the time, energy, intellectual ability and so on... therefore the summary post is a must, and in fact, all that I can muster. (Which reminds me of the Fireman's Muster back in the day and I swear they called it MUSTARD. Hmph. Sorry. Easily, happily side tracked these days.)

1. Emi has all her teeth. Meaning the ones that should be in her mouth, are still there, as are the supporting bones, muscles, etc. One jumping 2yo + one hard edge of the bed + gravity =gushing blood, tears, a little bit of screaming (not just on her part) and the ER.

2. I like fire. Fire likes me. You'd think we're on to something here. Wrong. It follows me. Like a rite of passage through each phase of life. Almost burnt the house down last night. Did NOT though- thanks be to dear sweet baby Jesus. Loooong story. Apparently I make one kick-ass fire for a cold wintery night. In the middle of the night the logs stacked to the side of the wood burning stove got in on the fun. Every bit of the house: the carpet, our clothes, my hair, the baby, my purse, even my shower curtain smell like an ash tray. And my scarf. 8( I am NOT complaining. I am grateful to Nat who came peeling into my bedroom, and thus no actual damage, just smelliness ensues. And my eyes are burning. And a little trouble breathing. Ok. I'll stop.

3. Johannesburg. Never been there. Don't really have a plan to go there, or so I thought. My yahoo account (which I've had for 11+ years) decided last week I was actually located in Johannesburg. Isn't that the FARTHEST I could actually be from where I am now? What are the chances that that very night I was reading to Lu a chicken-soup-type book, and blindly picked the story whose fairy tale ending ended in Johannesburg. Odd odd ODD!

4. Nat, bless her heart, is such a little love. I gave her a few dollars a few weeks back to get something from the book fair at school. (Have I already posted about this? Deja vu....) When I picked her up from Mama Hen's that day after school she bounded into my arms with a wrapped present. She was so proud. She spent her money on a birthday present for Grandpy! She said it was a football book. Cool. Appropriate. Very thoughtful especially for an 8yo. Today (12/10) is his bday. He opened it. Oh my goodness child..... love her. Grandpy's 54th(?)-ish bday blessed him with a 1st-grade reading level football book. Ginormous font and all. 8)

5. I like Christmas itself. What it stands for. (I like this little ditty: Jesus is the reason for the season.) I like the little white lights. Lots of them. I like going through the Christmas ornaments. I have failed to yet take a Xmas picture. But I tell you I can BARELY handle the rest of the busy-ness, the drama, the tension, the demands. But there comes a point when no matter how badly I want to do just one more thing, my body actually starts to shut down. It's happened before. I don't want it to happen again. How can I make sure that Jesus is the reason for my season if all I'm doing is powering through one event to another, and then falling in a heap at the end. That's not the kind of Christmas-y I want to be. I guess this year I'd like to just be the intentional, quiet, reflective bystander.