I read a book or two

and I did some other stuff too, during my self imposed blogging sabbatical.

Oddly enough, my house is no cleaner. I really thought it would be, I actually thought it would be spotless. Yeah, not so much. But I did mop the floors yesterday. And again today. God damn spring and all the flooded sidewalks. Liam has soaked 2 pairs of brand new runners. Granted they were on sale at Payless, but still! 2 pairs! Speaking of Payless, I bought Saoirse 4 pairs of shoes, including next years winter boots, for $22. I also got Sophie a pair of Airwalk fake crocs and sandals for $5 each. I love $5 sales.

So I couldn't keep myself totally away. As I was reading my book (Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult...totally fantastic...made me cry) one night 4 or 5 days in I wondered if Michelle had had her baby and I had to check. She hadn't and still hasn't. Sigh. Poor Michelle. Those last few weeks are dreadful. And then one night I wondered if Boliath knew the sex of her baby. And she does. But she hasn't told the Big Man yet. So I am forced to wait and wonder. I checked out some other sites that night, intending to go through my blogroll, but my computer froze on me. And I couldn't be arsed to turn it on again.

And you know, it was sort of nice not being beholden to my computer. Because I'm a little obsessive. Checking my email to see if anyone has commented, checking blogs to see if anyone has updated. But I have to admit that I totally missed you people. And I found it sort of strange, that there are these people out there that I will never know but I know bits and pieces of their lives and I wonder how they are. I read a post once where the blogger said when she turns off her computer she doesn't think of her readers again. Not me! I find myself wondering quite often about one blogger or another. Not that I plan on stalking youse or anything.

I'm babbling, as I tend to do. I did want to thank those of you who left comments wondering if all was okay, and Angie who even asked in a blog post. I emailed her saying all was fine, but I was a bit blah. And blah is really the only way I could describe it. There's nothing wrong per se, all is fine with William, kids are all good, but I myself am completely and totally blah. I feel run down. I lost 4 lbs and then gained 6. In one month. What the fuck? My back has been going out constantly for the last 2 months. Now my hips are acting up. Again, what the fuck? Did I turn 73 overnight? The paranoid part of me thinks I have bone cancer, the realistic part knows I need to lose a lot of weight. Oh and once again I had sex on day 14. So this is another worry, for the next week or so. William says he thinks I purposely want to get pregnant. I said no, it's just that I take it when I can get it. And what's the deal with that? I dream about sex every single night. Too much information? Sorry.

Shall I tell you briefly what has been going on the last couple of weeks? No? Well, I'm going to anyway.

The Lenten promise. Remember that? Oh ye of little faith Beccy and Eric who had me pegged at 5 days, 6 hours and 47 minutes and a week to a week and a half respectively. I lasted like 30 days. And then I poured myself a glass of coke. Sigh. It tasted sort of gross actually. I have not had a Mr. Big though, but am going to suggest to William that he have one for me on Easter morning. I sort of screwed myself by saying chocolate instead of chocolate bars. The day after was Liam's birthday and mid bite in a Boston cream doughnut I realized I was not supposed to be enjoying that layer of chocolate. Crapoly. So I guess that Beccy and Eric actually guessed a little high. But still. I've done okay. Except for when Saoirse brings me a half eaten Cadbury's cream egg. It would be scandalous to throw it away. There's starving children in Africa after all.

What else? Sophie is so freaking adorable and she is growing up so quickly that it makes me sad. I really wish I could post a picture because she has the funniest expression- she tilts her head back, squeezes her eyes shut so that her nose goes all scrunchy and grins like a madman. And then she does it again and again because we all laugh so much. She is crawling properly now, no more army crawl. Today she saw Liam had ice cream and did the dash from one end of the livingroom to the other to get a few spoonfuls. She also walks around furniture. The other day she attempted the stairs. It was not successful. Short legs, like her mummy.

Saoirse is loving everyone now. I have suddenly become mama. It's quite sweet really. She says to Sophie "Boo boo...boo boo (that's what Taylor calls her, now we've all started)...I like you boo boo." Today she said to Liam "Don't be rude!" She's very bossy with him as I've said before. Now that is warming up she constantly wants to be outside. It's a shame the back yard is still full of snow. We get only morning sun back there, so it could be ages before it melts.

Taylor and Liam are on Spring Break this week, and thus far have not once looked at their chore jar. The chore jar rocks in theory. I found they were complaining so much about the ONE chore (dishes) they were required to do daily that I created a daily jar and a weekend jar in which they have to pick 2 chores per day and 4 on weekends. Sadly, neither of them have ended up with washing dishes, so it has fallen to me. They are thrilled of course. It is much easier to help Saoirse put away toys or clear the table than wash the dishes.

Both of them received their report cards on the 16th. Taylor's was okay, but she did not hand in one French assignment, and her teacher lost the other, so he could not assess her in 2 of the 3 areas. I was none to pleased with either of them. When I went to the parent teacher interviews, in which her teacher (not the French teacher) did not say anything to me until we were leaving!, I wrote on the form we were given that I do not feel Taylor is willing to accept responsibility for her lack of effort and that her marks do not reflect her true ability. As we were leaving her asked if I had any questions and I said no, I wasn't surprised at all. We discussed the IB program she will do in junior high and he said he didn't think she would have a problem maintining the 70% average, he would be more concerned with the state of her locker. And yea, I think I'm disorganized? She's a freaking mess. Did I tell you I spent ages cleaning her room the day before her birthday so she could have a sleepover and the next day it was a mess again and 3 weeks later still had not been properly cleaned? It was finally done last night because she wanted her friend Marissa to sleep over. The only reason it was finished is because Marissa helped her.

And Liam. Oh, the changes! His report card was fantastic. He has jumped two levels in reading and did not receive a single "not yet meeting requirements" (which would be a D for your alphabetical folks) but even better was the comments his teacher said about him in my interview. The week before she had emailed me saying he was having his best week ever, and when she asked him what the change was he told her it was spring and he was getting outside and burning off energy. We talked about how well he does in Math, and how he always helps the other kids. She said that he has become a leader in the class. I was thrilled. At home, he is definitely not a leader, he hangs out with 2 bigger boys, both a bit on the rough side, one of whom he was banned from playing with last summer. On the last day of school, she told him how mature he has become. He was quite pleased himself. Now if only the school maturity could rub off at home, particularly in the bedroom cleanliness area.

Cripes, this is way long. Oops. Did you make it to the end?

But I forgot to tell you about my haircut. Another time. Isn't it sad when a haircut can become a post? What does that say about my life?