Caleb's At Home Again Today

He has diarrhea today. So now we're in for the two-week siege. But his teacher and the school nurse both know about it - I think that will make dealing with the absences easier. The only day he was at school all day long this week was Thursday. Half a day Monday, Tuesday, nothing Wednesday, and nothing today. When I talked to his teacher this morning, she thanked me for keeping him home today.

On a totally unrelated but much happier note:

HAPPY 1 MONTH BIRTHDAY WALT AND JOHN!!!

YYYAYYY

They are steadily improving each day. How encouraging! Walt is pushing 3 pounds (not quite there yet) and John is near 2 1/2 pounds. I was looking at a couple of pictures of them yesterday and I thought I saw a bit of resemblance between them. Mostly around the eyes.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to the boys and sent it via e-mail to them this morning. I'm going to try to upload that here to see if I can do it.

So I have all 3 kids at home again. I made the big kids put away their clean clothes this afternoon. At least we'll be a bit productive while we're here. As soon as I'm done with this post I'm going to clean off my desk an then I need to vacuum the office and living room. Jules is sleeping and the big 2 are watching TV.

I've done a load of laundry today, the kitchen isn't in horrible condition, clean clothes are put away in my bedroom, so I think after I've done the desk and the vacuuming, I'll sit and knit for a while. I'm working on a Christmas gift for someone and it's something I've never done before - a sweater knit in one piece. It's been interesting so far. I started at the bottom of the body of the sweater, knit up to armpit level, then stopped on that piece and knit both sleeves separately in the round (no seams). Last night I joined the body and the sleeves and the whole thing is on one circular set of knitting needles. It's really kind of cool because now I'm working on shaping the lower shoulder/upper torso. In a few rows I'll put in a really cute yolk detailing, then it'll really get interesting as I shape the upper shoulders. I'll keep you posted.

Audrey got a bag full of walnuts yesterday at Bible study. Their story was about God's abundance towards Isaac. She came home with about 2 dozen of them. I gave her a nutcracker today and she went to town. She didn't want to eat the walnuts, just crack them. She did a pretty good job, too! I was able to scavenge the walnut pieces pretty easily. Yummy.

Last night I got back the first critique of my re-worked "Pencil Bully" article. It came from another member of the LA Writer's Group. It was mostly little things - I did my big re-write after the first critique at the group meeting last week. It feels good to have published authors hear/read my piece and give such constructive criticism. It didn't even feel like criticism. Nice.

Another unrelated note. Dave Ramsey, my favorite financial guru, premiered on a new TV network (Fox Business Network) this week. I'm really ticked off because DishNetwork doesn't carry the new channel. Grrrrr. I listen to this guy every day on the radio. He's got GREAT advice on how to get out of debt and build wealth. Normal finances for normal people. So if you can get the new Fox Business Network (check at www.daveramsey.com for availability), please watch it for me. It's on at 7pm Central each weeknight and I think they'll rerun the week's shows on the weekend.

Anyway - time to get to work.