My brain seems to run at a much faster rate than my body can move – and my body moves at a consistently quick pace. So that just gives you a little idea of just how many thoughts are swirling around my head at any given moment! As I was cleaning up the kitchen this morning after sending kiddos out the door for school my head was racing – it was the first time in weeks that the house was quiet (two kids seem to play just fine together when the other three are at school). Here are a few random thoughts on my Monday.

Birthday Messages
My brother and his family are the very best at remembering birthdays and they never fail to call with a special happy birthday song. My birthday was over Christmas break and this family happened to be staying with us. The day came and went and celebrating was minimal – although we had a lot of fun. It wasn’t until they left to go home I realized I never got a birthday song from them. I always look forward to their birthday messages. We were talking with them last night and I called him out for skipping my birthday song while they were staying at my house. He started laughing, “Have you not checked your voicemail?!” My voicemail hadn’t been working since before they came to visit and I just got it working again and sure enough there was a message from him on my birthday. While we were separated by a single floor in our house they rocked the happy birthday song and it was awesome. We all had a good laugh. They make me want to be better about sending birthday messages.

Kids are back in school
The older kids all went back to school today and my morning has been awesome. I love schedules. I love routines. And I love that nobody was teasing. I was able to work faster than Briggs which meant I cleaned up messes faster than he could make them. I’ve been sick for the past couple days so I was behind in all areas of life. Christmas is down – but the naked tree still sits in the living room. I’m debating whether I take the whole thing apart and shove it back in the disintegrating box – or do I wrap it and tie it up and store it in the corner where the box was stored. The tree might be there a couple more days until I can decide what the best option is.

Video vs Photo
I take a lot of photos. I’m comfortable taking photos and my camera is never far from me. When I got a new camera two years back it had a nice video feature which was new to me. I’m not nearly as comfortable auto-focusing video especially when they’re moving targets but I’m trying to be better about using it in video mode. I decided for the month of January I would video something every day just for a few seconds to get a little more comfortable. I don’t want to forget Cannon’s sweet voice or the way Briggs is starting to formulate words. I want proof of the noise chaos for years to come when our home is quiet. I want see personalities come to life that just aren’t captured in a still photo. I’m on a mission to capture more video.

Why is healthcare so maddening??
Doctor’s are frustrating which is not new news. I’m still working through health issues which means I spend a lot of time on the phone with doctor’s offices or waiting for doctors. Today I was on hold for 12 minutes to make an appointment. Unfortunately, I’ve been trying to make an appt for almost two weeks with this particular doctor (a doctor specifically given to me by my neurologist). The office isn’t sure he’s the doctor I should be seeing so they wanted to pull my records before making the appointment and they would get back to me. I’ve called three times since then and they seem to be just as surprised that nobody has been in contact with me to make an appointment or suggest another doctor. They assure me someone will get back to me today. I’m not holding my breath. I’ll call again tomorrow.

My little blog journal
I might be one of the last people in the social media world that still uses a blog to document life – but I do. If I don’t write it here – I probably will never remember. I was talking with my mom today, who is doing some work for me, relinking 8,000 pictures for my blog (thanks to photobucket holding them hostage at an insane price!) I’ve been sick this last week and my mom commented that our family seems to get sick a lot between Christmas and New Years. I wanted to refute her claim, because that did not even sound accurate. But she’s been relinking all the pictures and has gone back a couple years in my posts already and has seen that we’ve been sick in years past at this time. This blog fills in all the gaps that I seem to forget over time. It’s been the only consistent journal I have had in my life.

Watercolors
For Christmas, Steve got me everything I need to get started in watercolor lettering. I am beyond excited and a little intimidated! He keeps asking why I haven’t pulled it out and started using it – I keep looking for the perfect moment – when I’m not sick, I don’t have little fingers that are going to be making a mess of it and the house is in decent condition that I don’t feel guilty sitting down for a while. I’m carving out time this week for it.