we do not need to go to the toystore, camille!

Or do we? I love The Big Toy Store. I love the dollhouse stuff. I love the baby dolls and doll strollers. I have two coupons in my purse from the mail, and I would really like to go. But we have enough toys. Camille is reading the ad that came in the morning paper, and she thinks we really need to go.

She didn't heed my pleas not to come visit me in the night. No, she showed up so stealthily at my bedside, reaching for a hug. I wonder if God sees I need just a bit more patience when I am the least tolerant. More softness and goodness, so that instead of seeing a little brat coming in to wreck my sleep, I see my little sweetie who just needs reassurance after waking up....a little angel who just wants Mama.

I still asked her this morning to please not do that again.

Because it wakes me up, and as she pads back to her room, I am wide awake!

I told her this morning that when she wakes up, not to worry about falling back to sleep, just use the time to talk to God. And of course I thought, "right back atcha, Mama!"

I have found that it is a useful time to talk to God, and we all know I have plenty to talk to Him about these days. Last night I thought about all of the my kids, and prayed for them, and for my siblings and their families, and my friends, and my blogger friends, and the soldiers, and and and.

So maybe there is a good reason for Camille to be tip-toeing into my room each night.

Today, we are going shopping. Samuel has no school today, according to him. There is a Stupid Field Trip, according to him. And he needs some sneakers, so we shall go find him some today. Miss Sonja must have overheard some plans, because her tummy started aching this morning. She is home too. Camille is very glad we are going bye-bye. I am picking Kathryn and Suzanne up early so they can come too.

We need a part for the truck that is sitting in the driveway. We need things like bananas and grapefruit and yogurt.

I had a hilarious dream last night. I received a letter inviting me to be a member of the Olympic Hockey team. I went in to the interview and told the guy that I do not skate (anymore), nor do I play hockey. He then asked me to tell about myself. Well, I said, I have sixteen children, I have lived the past 27+ years sleep-deprived and so busy I didn't know if I was coming or going, as my mother would say, then last year I decided to live a healthy lifestyle, lost fifty pounds in six months, and now, even though I am not making much progress, I am bound and determined to lose more and keep exercising. And, he said, "You are just the sort of person we are looking for!" It was so funny, that dream. Because I got all this really cool hockey equipment, and was showing it off to the boys in the youth group...I know, it was an outrageous dream, but how can my mind come up with such things? When I told the college kids my dream this morning, Mirielle said, "Mom, you are obsessed." I told her that I HAVE to be obsessed, otherwise I will stray from being careful, and I will fail. Lukewarmness and weightloss cannot co-exist for me. Perhaps when I lose all this, and am in the maintenance mode for the rest of my life I can relax a little. blah.

Then I got on the scale this morning and I am the lowest I have been yet on this journey! I think since Benjamin was born, and he is all grown up now. So it is working, slowly but surely! Yay!

Yesterday we had some company. My sister-in-law Kim came over with her two youngest, Danielle and Sean. Danielle is 9 months older than Char, and Sean is three months older than Camille. They get along fabulously. They played and played, and Sean did not want to leave when it was time to go home, he kept trying to convince his mom that he did not get to play! It was nice for Kim and I to sit and talk and have coffee. What a difference from when she would come over back in the day, when we both had like five kids five and under. phew. (we would both do it again, though!)

Why oh why am I such a procrastinator? Because I like the tremendous feeling of accomplishment I get when I finally make a simple phone call, like calling for an eye appointment for Suze, who failed her eye test in school?

Dinner last night: chicken alfredo, and broccoli. I just had a huge bowl of steaming hot spinach with lemon pepper, and a bowl of green beans with shreded chicken on it, and some hot sauce. I was hungry later so I had some nuts. The kids had chocolate ice cream, I stayed far away from that. I am finding it is dangerous to get too hungry though, all reason flies out the window when the tummy starts to growl. Esau found that out the hard way too. So I try to have those healthy snacks before I get starving.

Well, I have to get moving if I am going to pick the girls up on time. I will exercise first, it has to be a priority or it will fall by the wayside. (sometimes when I write things like this, I think, "wait, is this ME? Miss Donut? Miss Lazybones??"...it doesn't seem real!)