Times

Well, it's 4:30 AM. Maybe I should say 4-stinking-30 AM, because I want to be asleep. The heater running in the winter always makes my nose stopped up and I don't sleep well. Some would say (my husband, perhaps) that maybe I should just lay in bed until I go back to sleep. Therein lies the weirdness of me... I woke up at 3:50. This is too early to get up so I lay there in bed with my stuffy nose until 4:30, which is not too early to get up. Why is 4:30 not too early to get up? Because it is close to 5:00, which is an acceptable morning time to get out of bed. So I'm up. It's the same with lunchtime. 10:00 is too early to eat lunch, but 10:30 is okay to prepare lunch because it is close to 11:00, which is (of course) an acceptable time to eat lunch. Don't even talk to me about dinner. Breakfast and lunchtimes are precise (6:00AM and 11:00AM) but dinnertime doesn't matter because I don't like to eat after a certain time (6:00PM). I will eat after that time if there is a special function or I'm going out to dinner, but I prefer not to. I will eat supper at as early as 3:30 in the afternoon (I actually prefer to do that), or skip it altogether if I deem it "too late to eat". Now, if we are with other people I do eat, not because I'm overly hungry (I've been doing this so long now that I'm actually not ever very hungry in the evening), but because I do not want to explain that "6:00 PM is too late to eat dinner" when most people I know do not actually eat dinner until 6:00 PM. 6:00 PM is an acceptable time to eat dinner. So is 5:00. 3:30 is not an acceptable time to eat dinner, but somehow I don't care, even though I care very much about breakfast and lunchtimes. Let's talk about the word "acceptable". I keep using that word. I usually eat breakfast and lunch by myself or with my kids. Who cares about the time we eat? Who are these times acceptable to? I do not know why I do that the way I do.

Enough of the crazy.

Thanks to everybody for the encouragement to me in our beloved Christmas season. Quinn has been a great encouragement to me; just reminding me of the gospel and showing me different stuff about Advent. My mom had some great activities for crafts and I'm thinking next Tuesday is craft day at my house. Takers? We've been talking about Matisse in school lately and he did a lot of interesting things. He was one of the "Fauve" artists which means "wild beasts". The art critics called them that because they would paint a picture using bright colors (paints the sky red instead of blue) to describe the way they felt. Critics didn't like that. Anyhoo, Matisse also did Decoupage with different color tissue to create some of his art and I would like to do that with the kids. Maybe even something Christmasy. Let me know. Or make Christmas ornaments.

My sister is leaving tomorrow. I'm sad because we've had a great time together, even though there have been mass amounts of children in the house. Actually, that hasn't been too bad. The laundry has been insane. But I am a little weird about laundry (imagine that). The kids have gotten along very well and have thoroughly enjoyed each other. I'm sad to see them go. My brother-in-law arrived yesterday and we all (minus the kids) went out to PF Changs and Cheesecake Factory last night. Emma and Katrina kept the kids. It was a blast. I like being friends with my sister.

So this is a broad post. A little crazy, followed by a little Christmas, followed by a little sentimentality...

Now it's 5:20. I'm hungry but I can't eat until 6:00. Maybe I'll make coffee. There are no mental times on coffee.
Let's talk about mental for a minute...