Whoa. Where did that come from?

So after being all sick and whiny, I was hit with a sudden burst of energy today. I'm still not feeling 100% - I'll spare you the gory details, but suffice it to say that some of my innards are still not cooperating with me - but I do feel better.

The day started off with me catching sight of this little guy on my front porch. Forgive the crappy pictures, but when taking it through the window and the screen, the chances of it coming out clear are slim to none.

But I did manage to catch him in action - if you click on the picture to zoom in and squint just right, you might be able to make him out as he jumped up onto the railing. I thought that he was going to snuggle down into the stroller, but instead he cruised along the railing and jumped onto one of the trees and took off out of sight.

He's lucky he wasn't hanging around at the height of the Animal Control trap-fest....which does appear to have been successful, as it's been at least a week since I've seen any feral cats running around. Last I heard, she still hadn't caught the pregnant one, but hopefully she ended up catching her too so that we can eliminate all of them in the neighborhood. For now.

In between all of the normal kid running I did today, I managed to fold about 87 loads of laundry (don't get excited - I still have about 42 loads left)....and then the kids came home. I had to rush to make supper (thank you, Hamburger Helper) so that I could get the older 3 back out the door with their father for church, but in the meantime I started the prep work to get some more strawberry jam made (sugar-free, this time). I'm doing a bazaar at our church on Saturday so I needed to get some made, plus I was really sick of moving the garbage bag full of frozen strawberries around in my freezer - so it was time.

Besides, I hadn't made enough jam yet this year. I got two more batches made up this evening and have just a little bit of strawberry mush leftover that I can use for other stuff. I think I'm about jammed-out right now.

So of course, in the meantime, my kitchen got trashed (go figure) so I ran about getting everything cleaned up (and it actually looks pretty good if I do say so myself) and getting the dishwasher loaded. I started to fold more laundry, and then realized that for some odd reason the load that I was folding was still wet, so there went my momentum in that department since I had to chuck it all back into the dryer. Ugh.

Then I managed to get Alex and Daniel ready for bed and read Alex's library books to them - and got them settled into bed before the older 3 came back from church.

Things are a little crazier than normal here because instead of the older 3 coming back here after school tomorrow, they are going with their father and stepmother to her parents' place for a long weekend (they're skipping school on Friday) so after I drop them off at school tomorrow morning, I won't see them again until next Wednesday. Boo. But, they'll have fun. Yay. Without me. Boo. Yes, it might be bugging me a little bit.

Ah, the joys of co-parenting. *sigh* Sometimes, it just really sucks ass, to put it bluntly. But we have to do things that we don't necessarily like to do in order to keep the peace. The kids are looking forward to going, and although I'm not thrilled about them missing a day of school, I'm ok with it happening once in a while. Their grades are good enough that it's not going to hurt them, and it's a long-ish drive so it'll be good to leave tomorrow after school.

The weather has turned to crap, as I expected. It was 73 degrees yesterday, and it's now snowing. Yes, snowing. It's not going to accumulate or anything, but still....blah. Don't get me wrong - I love snow - I just don't love the temperature going quite this psychotic quite this quickly. It makes me hurt. And when I hurt, I get crankier.

Anyway....I'm going to go attempt to climb the final mountains of laundry so that I can maybe walk into the laundry room without killing myself....hopefully my energy burst will last a few more hours so that I can at least get it folded tonight, then I can deal with putting it all away tomorrow. Yay. Then it'll be time to start organizing for the bazaar on Saturday.

Here's hoping I sell lots and lots of stuff - that's Christmas money, kids!

I need a helmet

Today started out as a much better day than yesterday did. I got up almost on time, got everyone up and dressed and fed, got lunches packed, and got everyone off to school - on time, even.

Daniel seemed to be feeling better, so I took him to his morning preschool and then I took off walking on my trail that goes through the woods. I wasn't really in the mood to go, but as usual once I got moving it felt pretty good. It was cool out, but not so cold that it was uncomfortable. As I walked, I enjoyed the scenery and got lost in my thoughts.

Suddenly, I heard (and felt) a SWISH! go past my right ear, followed by a WHAM!

What the..............?

OK, you know those cartoons where a squirrel throws an acorn at a human? Yeah. I found that squirrel. Or rather, he found me. But he wasn't chucking any tiny little acorns at my head - instead, it was one of these.

A hedgeapple. The squirrel threw a damned hedgeapple at my head. I kid you not. He sat there on a branch that was hanging across the trail, and I swear he was rubbing his front paws together gleefully as I walked past him.

Now granted, it wasn't as big as this one, but it wasn't much smaller either. It might have been baseball-sized, which is how big they usually are.

I'm thankful that he didn't bean me with this one.

They're not terribly heavy, but I'd imagine that taking one upside the head without warning might sting a little bit.

I'm seriously considering not walking that path again until they're done falling from the trees. It's bad enough to have to watch where I walk so that I don't sprain an ankle on one, but now I have to worry about them being chucked at my head by an evil squirrel.

Only me. I swear.....

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As for the rest of the day, I took Daniel to his afternoon preschool and came home and did some sewing and watched a movie for a while. Then I went to get Alex, and then to get Daniel, as the routine usually goes. I was talking to Daniel's teacher and we were discussing how he just didn't look quite right, but I dismissed it as him being tired since we were up so early.

Then he puked all over the floor outside of the classroom.

Looks like the Vomit Rocket has returned. We got him cleaned up, came home, and he promptly crashed on the couch. Alex is chilling out watching movies and looks like he could fall asleep soon. The older 3 went to a football game with their father so they won't be home until probably 10pm so it's going to be a fairly quiet evening.

I'm going to sew. And do laundry. And maybe mop the kitchen.

Woohoo!!! It's Friday night at my house! Par-tay!

Or not.