Tidbits: Busy edition

I'm a bit bleary-eyed, as we've had two rough nights in this house. First, after Luke was diagnosed with an ear infection, he was up seven times in the night. Then last night, when I thought surely he'd be better, he was up from 11:30-1am, then again at 3. Right when I got him settled, thunderstorms rolled in, which means the two big kids are in our bed. Those storms lingered all the way until morning, so the kids were in there the rest of the night. In addition, I discovered at 5am that David had a fever of 103. This morning Luke has spots in 3 areas of his body that make me suspicious of Hand Foot & Mouth Disease. It's been going around, so I have a feeling it has hit our house.

But I can't complain about a little sickness and sleeping distress since we've had a healthy winter overall. And we're in the middle of a busy few weeks. Here's what's going on:

*This last 6 weeks of school is our busiest part of the year for Girl Scouts, probably because we got a slow start at the beginning (didn't get started until November). So we've got several fun things coming up, including a marshmallow roast in our backyard, a visit to a nursing home, and a year-end picnic. (I really wish I could show you pictures of our adorable troop. They are so sweet, but of course I don't have permission from their parents to post here.)

*Brian ordered a shed online and the parts (it needs to be built, of course) will be delivered this weekend. So he's been busy preparing the spot in the yard and making arrangements for building it.

*I'm getting ready to have a garage sale as a result of my 40 Bags in 40 Days project. I will feel that it is complete when they stuff is completely physically out of the house.

*Katy started her 2nd season of soccer, and it's been fun to attend the games. We've had great weather so far, and so many kids in this area play soccer that we ALWAYS know someone on the opposing team. So it's a big social event at every game. Brian is coaching, which he enjoys. Brian says that Katy is observing the game and learning to strategize more than last season. To a parent who doesn't know much about soccer (me), it looks like she isn't doing much, so we'll go with Brian's assessment.

Consulting with the coach

She insists that she doesn't need to tie her hair back

*We're closing on another refinance of our house today. I don't know much about finance, so I let my husband (who majored in it) make the calls. But apparently the rates! Keep getting lower! And the appraisal made us feel better that our home value hasn't fallen much - there have been a couple of low sales recently that made us worry.

*The kids finished this year of AWANA at church. They really love going each week, but by April I am ready for a break, so I enjoy the closing ceremony. :) It's always fun to see them earn their awards. It doesn't look like much, but each of those little jewels on Katy's wings (green thing on her right shoulder) represents a section of scripture memory. She worked hard to complete her book and review badge.

David earned all of his "A" patches and his Cubbie Bear for first year of Cubbies.

*It's hard to believe that in four weeks, the school year will be over and all of this done for the summer. (Our district is done before Memorial Day) Next fall, David will go to preschool 3 mornings a week at the same school where he is now, and Katy will go all day for first grade. (Lunch! Recess! Yikes!)  Which means 3 mornings a week it will be just Luke and me! That will be a different pace than we've kept this year. But first, I am really looking forward to doing lots of fun things this summer.