Ringing in the New Year

So, the older I get, or maybe the more children I have, the less exciting my New Years Eve celebrations become. I can't really say that I "rang in the new year" since I had been asleep for at least a couple of hours by the time 2012 "arrived". Hey, don't knock it- sleep is a precious commodity around here. :) This has been somewhat of a "blah" week at our house. Rosemary had a double ear infection that made her super cranky and super clingy. Samuel was projectile vomiting after about every other bottle because of all his congestion. Maggie and Penelope have been coughing a lot at night- which means they're getting up and needing Mommy more often. I've averaged getting up 4-5 times per night with children this week. My goal of doing boot camp Monday through Friday and losing that final pound or two was not realized since I really didn't want to take sick kids to the YMCA. Plus, when Allie is gone, I just feel sad and nostalgic and misplaced and ho-hum. So I wasn't overly excited when Brian announced that he was going to have to work all day on Saturday, New Year's Eve. Boo hiss.

Saturday began as many a day does lately- with potty training. I was only working with Penelope, when Rosemary started begging to join in the fun. You can tell by their daily star chart who is going potty more often:

Yep. These two are just SO different. Rosemary is so easily motivated by clapping hands, "Good girl", and especially the shiny star by her name. She will be two in February and she rarely wets her diaper at night. Penelope on the other hand, who will be three in February, wants so badly to wear panties, but has no qualms about pooping in them. Yes pooping in them. She just doesn't care.

Not wanting to be stuck in the house all day with one who wants to get stars by her name every 15 minutes and another who leaves poopies all throughout the house, I decided we needed a trip to the farmer's market. This was the reaction I got when I told them where we were going:

I dressed up my little farmers and off we went. :)

It was a fabulous time. Several farmers were there, with all kinds of greens and sweet potatoes. Brooks Market was set up with Amish butter (we totally got some), farm fresh eggs, apples, oranges, corn meal, jams and jellies, even cured meat hanging that the farmer offered to cut some bacon off of for us. Maggie got a kick out of that. :) I just really enjoy experiencing things like farmer's markets with my children. Letting them talk to the farmers and see things fresh, straight off the farm.

During their naps, I watched an amazing documentary called "Life In a Day". It's a crowdsourced documentary film with 80,000 video clips that people submitted to YouTube all on the day June 24, 2010. Life in 94 countries is represented. It begins and ends at midnight. It is absolutely mind-boggling all the events that occur throughout the world in a 24 hour period. It really opened my eyes to other cultures- how different and yet the same humans are all over the world. Such a picture of the human condition, how we are all searching. It reminded me how blessed I am to have The Answer. To know Jesus makes me richer than so much of the world. It's about 95 minutes long and it's free on YouTube. If you get the chance, check it out.

We visited with my sweet friend Adonna and her son Mark, and my man came home. We put babies in the bed and honestly, I was asleep within minutes. But it was the sleep of a tired Momma who was grateful for the ordinary days in which she is still abundantly, overwhelmingly, blessed.