I-N-S-O-M-N-I-A

I have never . . . and I mean NEVER . . . had difficulty sleeping.  Waking (on time)?  Now *that* has been a problem!  Remember, I am the girl with 5 alarms - 3 of which require me to get up and walk across the room to turn off!  But not being able to fall asleep?  Unheard of.  Until lately.

It hasn't happened a lot.  But, it *has* happened.  And that, in itself, is super strange for me and this body I've inhabited for 43+ years.  And, it's happened / is happening tonight.  Last night.  Whatever.

It's 5:36 AM on Tuesday morning, and I have YET to fall asleep Monday night!  I finished an audio book.  I a-l-m-o-s-t fell asleep during that, but then my bladder made me get up and attend to its needs.  At 3:00 AM (or so), I gave up and put a movie in my laptop.  Pushing the damn cat out of the way the entire time so I could actually see the $#*@ing screen!  Then I got bored with the movie - another bizarre thing for me 'cause I LOVE movies.  And now . . . I'm writing to you.

It's pretty sad, isn't it, that I finally get a chance to blog . . . when I have insomnia!?

Thank goodness, though:  I don't have to work in the morning (which it is now).  I am on a short, much-needed vacation while the babies' mama (with the 3 of them in tow) visits family in another state.  I realize, now that I'm "into" the vacation, however, that Christmastime is not the most ideal time to have one . . . because I'm spending all my time on Christmas prep instead of the huge list I'd made in anticipation!  On the other hand, had I not had this free time to do so, I know I'd be SO much more frantic this time next week!  So, six of one & half a dozen of another.

* The above was written earlier this week.  Now it's Wednesday afternoon. *

I finally got to sleep around 6:30 AM yesterday - which pretty much shot my day to hell since I woke up at 1:30 PM.  I was wondering how I'd do last night, and so I took a homeopathic sleep-aid.  I guess it did (sort of) work because the last I looked at the clock was 2:00 AM.  So, definite progress, eh?

A friend suggested this could be a side-effect of menopause, but - starting that prematurely at 32 - I really thought I'd experienced all the ill from that (hot flashes) already!  Hmph.  

* * *

For the last couple of weeks, we'd been experiencing a horrible warm / melting period that was making me seriously contemplate finding a high bridge to jump off of!  Nearly ALL the snow was gone, and the places where there was packed snow had turned to ice.  Then, Monday (?), it rained and rained and RAINED!  Aaaaaaagh!  Fortunately, though and as predicted, the temps started falling late Monday night, and now we have a good 4+ inches of fresh snow coating everything and normal temps again (21° right now).  I was dreading a brown(ish) Christmas!

There's really nothing new to report in my life.  It's just been babies, babies, babies (and the now 5-year old).  No complaints (!), but it is tiring.  Tucker wasn't feeling very well a few days ago and was off his food - which made me VERY nervous (since this was what Maisy did before she died).  But, I think it was a combination of him getting into something in the woods and - oddly enough - some critter peeing in his food dish on the deck.  I say that because I was able to get him to eat out of another dish.  Weird, huh?

These first few days of vacation have been spent catching up with long-overdue friends and running errands.  Saturday night, a dear friend and I met up for a drink before attending a play . . . except we were having so much fun that we SKIPPED the play!  Ha!  And, we closed down the tavern . . . which maybe wasn't such a good idea . . . but we sure did have fun!  ;)  I had to atone for my sins the next day, though, as it was a scheduled cookie bake day with my dear friend from (where I used to) work.  Needless to say, I was moving rather slowly in the AM and felt no need for my usual afternoon visit to her husband's beer refrig in the garage!  ;)

Today will be the first day of my vacation that I don't have to go anywhere - 6 days into it.  SIX?!  Ack!  :(  I think of those fond, old days at Swamp River Ridge when I was a housewife and didn't go off the property for DAYS!  How I miss that!  I was hoping to get heaps done, but the late falling-asleep hour results in a late getting-up time.  And still, I MADE myself get up when I did.  I could have happily burrowed back under the covers for a couple more hours.

I got lots of wrapping done last night so I can get a clearer idea of where I am as far as shopping goes.  Because I have such limited space here in my wee cabin, I asked my folks if I could start bringing (their) gifts and "storing" them under their tree.  That will help me out.  Storing wrapped presents isn't bad - until the ribbon and bows go on!  After that, you can't stack 'em or things will get flattened!  And I'm ALL about prettily-wrapped packages.  As I say, you can make a so-so gift seem extra special by the wrapping!  ;)

I have a big Amazon order that I am working on, and I only realized last night just how close it is to Christmas and that I HAVE to get that in today!  Wonder how much I'll have to pay in expedited shipping to get things here on time?  Blech.  My fault, tho!

Is it just me who always thinks that there is "plenty of time" until . . . WHAM!?  NO time left!!

I'll leave you with a couple of pics . . .

Bundle of Joy, now a newly-minted 5 year old, likes to play at being a baby on occasion (I suspect because she figures she gets more attention that way!).  Anyway, she slipped into her sister's booster the other day.  I like Little Man's expression - kind of a, "ummm, you're not the sister I'm used to seeing there!"

One of these is not like the other!

This is my new friend who comes to visit and help with the babies when she can.  (So I can get mundane things like dishes done!)  I love N's expression here.  Remember, she's the well-proven biter!  It's as though she's saying, "Oh, no, you don't, Brother!  You KNOW I will bite that finger if you try to stick it in my mouth!"

Just hangin' out - looking at the snow (at the beginning of the month before it all melted!)

I'll leave you with a great one of The Mama - doesn't she look fantastic?!  She came to do some Christmas baking.  Bundle of Joy is going thru a period of very unnatural smiles when you ask her to pose, so I was trying to use reverse psychology here by warning her, "Don't laugh!  Don't you DARE laugh!"  (Didn't work.)  ;)