just the two of us

strawberrys delight& what is that picture of these delightful strawberries about? well, those are our first ripe berries of the year!

that would be amelia & me, the mama. we stayed at home while daddy & adeline go off to a bbq party. *sigh* the joys of being ill. this cold has really kicked the bottoms off amelia & i. i was hoping yesterday was my worst day of the illness, but as i woke up this morning i knew that was wrong. maybe today is the worse (or would it be "worst"??) day? yes, carol, as you said in your email, having a cold when it's not cold outside is just wrong! maybe b/c in the winter, when sick, you don't feel so shabby staying inside in a near comatose position all day? but during the warmer months, particularly a spring holiday weekend...being sick just plain sucks.

anyway, blah blah blah sickness.

so wes & adeline left around 3, leaving me with the millie monster (who is the cutest monster ever). after her nap, we played peek a boo with laundry (yes, why am i doing laundry when sick AND holiday?!), read books...then i would sort of zone out on cold medicine & find amelia crawling on me frantically trying to get my attention. it was fun to just hang with the wee one, but i do wish we could've also gone to the bbq! i was looking forward to this for the past few days, hoping my cold would go away by now. i just feel so bad taking sick kids somewhere, ya know? well, apparently adeline had a wonderful time playing with the bunch of boys & another wee but tough toddling girl. (why is it that nearly all our idaho friends are having girls & nearly all the ohio friends have boys?!).

amelia is finally able to read books without older sister disruption & book swiping.

& yesterday we ventured to cinnamon lake (ohio) for my twin niece's birthdays! they're two, which is baffling to think about. i think i finally rid my brain of connecting their names with the vision of them as ohsotiny babies & now i have to add to their brainfile (a term i am now saying is a real word) that they are two!

so this is leila (my sister in law) & her grandma behind her, then chloe & zoe while we are singing happy birthday (which they were so happy to be sung to. heart melting moment, folks).addy running with a stick. brilliant. (where are her parents? lol)

chloe & zoe playing in/around/near my brother's new compost bins/piles. they are mighty spiffy & put ours to shame, sadly.

last week i finished "the book of ruth" (not the one from the bible) by jane hamilton. & i can't get it out of my mind. i have a very hard time watching violence on tv (law & order/ncis/heros/etc can give me nightmares & sad awake thoughts for days). anyway, i bought this book years ago at the vineyard bookstore, thinking it was a devotional or something of that sort. not so! & before i read it now i didn't really know what it was about...until the end. darn it! hate it when that happens. i sorta thought it was similar to "zippy" & "she got up off the couch" by haven kimmel (which are two books i highly recommend, btw, as is her "the solace of leaving early" novel). anyway, this book of ruth ends with a brutal murder (of the mother of ruth) & the wife/mother being beaten nearly to death while pregnant by her mentally unstable husband. (sorry, if i just ruined this book if anyone was going to read it. i do recommend it, if you can handle the violent end; this author has a way of writing in a midwestern dialogue, which made me laugh).

some may know, some may not know, but i was in an abusive relationship in high school (for 3 years! egads) & it just really pains me to even read a fictional account of abuse. but it has made me pull closer to god & wes & hold my girls a bit tighter .... knowing what i know, hopefully i can help them not get into the same situation i was in. but it's not really my choice, it's theirs, which is very hard to let go of. anyway, these are the thoughts that are plaguing the sickly mama right now.

& now, to bed!