being home...

This is one of the nicest cats ever. He has taken so much abuse from the younger kitty, the kitty with the unending energy. That little kitty jumps on this guy, attacks him, pounces, wrestles...and big kitty just takes it in stride. He simply doesn't care. Then they lie next to each other for a nap. This big kitty likes to snuggle on my lap, he does it every evening. He starts walking towards my chair, jumps up onto my lap, and purrs.

Yesterday, Suri jumped up and snuggled into my lap.
She's a little large, but she doesn't know it.

Our vehicle situation right now: one car is in the shop in town, getting all sorts of things fixed and tweaked in order to pass the N.Y. state annual inspection. Paul's truck will go in next, the brakes are bad. It is sitting in the driveway, and he drove my minivan to work. He suggested I drive him in, so I would have a vehicle. Nah, I don't think so. Not having a vehicle is rather nice, I daresay. I can't go anywhere, so here I am at home, and it's not bad.

Today is a cold one! There was a two hour delay for school, the wind is blowing, and the temperature, a balmy 15 (-9.4C), and dropping. Brr. I have two space heaters going in the living room this morning.

I exercised yesterday afternoon. I had to track down my ten pound weights, I found them in Evelyn's room. So I just exercised in there, with Sonja lying there on the floor in front of their heater, on her iPod. She was a good girl, and didn't laugh at her mama. I also vacuumed the stairs, washed the foyer floor, swept and mopped the kitchen and living room...I am trying to stay active here in the house. The older girls are all about eating well and working out, so I refrained from any baking. It's one thing to bake cookies and know they will get eaten, but if they don't want to eat them either, I just won't make any.

The little girls have their cousin here, she spent the night last night. Her older sister Olivia is here too, she spent the night with the older girls. Homeschooling is nice:)

I shouldn't even read the news. The 17 year old girl from Connecticut who has Non-hodgkin's lymphoma, and has refused chemotherapy because she doesn't want her immune system compromised, she thinks there are better ways to fight it. Her mother agrees with her and supports her, but the local department of child services disagrees, and flexed their muscles to get her into their custody, and actually forced her to submit to chemo. I couldn't help but draw the correlation: a woman in America has the right to "choose" whether to continue with a pregnancy, but not what drugs go into her own body?

And Martha, you are right, there is much to be thankful for in the winter. I mean, we don't live under a bridge. In the big city, there are some homeless shelters, but there are also those who just live under the bridges. How can they stand the cold? We have shelter, food and water, and hot coffee and books. We have computers and internet, internet being right up there with food and water, for my kids with their iPods. Even the dogs seem thankful. Usually, when I let them out in the morning, they go happily out the door, even if someone has already let them out earlier. This morning, they just stood there and wagged their tails, and looked at me like I was a crazy woman. No sir, they did not want to go out again.