It's here. February 7th. The day I spend the other 364 days a year dreading.
Christian Athanasius would be two today.
Okay, it's more like the preceding week and the day that I spend the year dreading. I spent yesterday bursting into tears because of things like "it's snowing" and "Patrick is still sick and needed to be carried and/or nursed around the clock" and I'm pretty sure I've been taking every single possibly unkind (but not meant that way) thing I've heard or read all week the wrong way.
Let's just say that it's probably not the best week to offer me constructive criticism on how I could be a better person because right now I am just trying to get through the rest of this week (unless it's on how to be a better mouse catcher/killer.... because that I could totally use).
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| My favorite picture shortly before what happened, happened. |
Athanasius?
Yes. Paul picked the first name. I picked the middle name. I'd really lobbied for it as one of my favorite boys names for a future first name (with the suggestion being Athanasius Augustine) but Paul wasn't a fan.
After much debate I sold him on it as a middle name. Barely.
Okay. So. Let's try to pick things up a bit and I'll try not to be so depressing just because it's today and I'm counting the hours until tomorrow. (Why yes, after typing that I realize that the previous sentence is a total and complete fail.) Also, when I'm feeling particularly dramatic I apparently use periods dramatically and inappropriately. Sorry about that grammar lovers. It's like my brain screams, don't do it! Don't do it! But I just can't help myself.
Patrick learned to climb up on the couch yesterday. I am not a fan of this newest accomplishment. I think climbing onto the couch should have a pre-attempt-common-sense-requirement that one first understands that if they sit on the edge of the couch with their back to the room and bounce up and down something bad is likely to happen.
And after watching Boomer sit on the edge and bounce and then scream in outrage when I picked him up because he now believes that he should always be on the couch, standing up and jumping and walking and living life on the couch's edge (with it's drop right down to the hard wood floors) I am 100% certain that he is not ready to be able to get up there by himself.
Unfortunately I have a feeling that it's not a skill that he's going to be forgetting any time soon!
I took a bowl of fresh powdery snow, which we have in abundance and mixed it with sugar and vanilla almond milk until it tasted like heaven.
And for about thirty minutes I wasn't like: February!!!!
I was more like: February!!
And then the moment past and it was right back to being a quadruple exclamation point type of month.
Last night while I was sewing a mouse came into the room and
Then I went downstairs to try to forget about the mouse and a second mouse ran past me. I feel like I'm the little old lady in Ratatouille. At least I don't have a shotgun. If I did we might have had an issue last night. Especially when the mouse darted past me a second time and disappeared by the bed, where he hung out ruffling papers and rustling around where I couldn't find him.
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| You may not remember this earlier picture that I draw of the mouse but it's still a shockingly accurate portrayal of what the mouse looks like when he sneaks up on me late at night. |
After watching this I'm pretty sure that I should find a different store to do my shopping at today. I'm not sure I want to brave the crowds braving the cold to see the President visiting MSU to sign the Farm Bill just to to do my weekly shopping on the other side of the school...
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Can commiserate with your dislike of February. February 14 is the one year anniversary of the official due date for the little one we lost at 13 weeks - also named Christian. Though no way it would have been his or her actual birth date, since my other four have all come two or three weeks early. I would so much like to have that little baby to hold and be having a one year party for, though that would mean our littlest seven month old could not have been born, so bittersweet. I will just have to cuddle the other four extra this week (and hope that doesn't result in me catching the stomach flu the two oldest have had)! February...
ReplyDeleteI have you in my thoughts and prayers today. You see, tomorrow is my birthday, and when I saw your little one Christian Athanasius would have been born one day before my own birthday, it really touched my heart. Praying that God will comfort you, and let you feel peace, knowing your little boy is joyfully surrounded by God's Glory today. God Bless You. ~ Bonnie
ReplyDeleteAbout your meeses: eww (shudder). I know what you mean about mice. As a kid I used to be afraid to go to the bathroom at night because I imagined a mouse would run over my foot. It never happened, but, oh, just imagining it kept me in place. I really, really hate those things. I can relate.
ReplyDeleteI too did everything I could think of to get rid of the mice that inevitably come into the house in the fall. I hated mouse traps because I hated having to dispose of them and see the dead animal. Finally I started buying those little pellet packs at the hardware store and putting them in the basement and behind the stove and in secure places so only the mice could get them.
That worked fine for a while, but then in 2011 the EPA passed new regulations that limited the sale of products containing Bromadiolone, which is the very effective mice and rat killer that was the main ingredient. They did that because there is no antidote for it if a child or animal ingests it. So what you can buy now at the hardware store is pretty ineffective.
However, you can still get it because of rodent problems some industries (farms, food processors, groceries stores and so on) are prone to. I did find a website, DoMyOwnPestControl.com where I was able to buy pellets with this in it, but I had to buy a large quantity. This stuff is VERY EFFECTIVE, and I still have packets from two years ago behind the stove and refrigerator that have not been touched (I leave the packets sealed. The mice will chew through them to get at the bait, and then you can tell if they have eaten them).
The product I bought it called FASTTRAC. You may not want this, because the warning on the label is "Fastrac Blox is a neurotoxin and there is no antidote if children or pets consume the bait." However, there are other alternatives that reviews on the site claim are also very effective.
Lastly, one thing we tried that seemed to have had some good effect was to put anti-freeze mixed with cherry Kool-Aid (I suppose you could use any sugar laced liquid) in tuna cans and placed those in secure places (the basement, under the enclosed back porch). Because of the anti-freeze it never freezes so it's available to the rodents all the time, and anti-freeze is poisonous. So this is a kind of secondary suggestion.
Anyway, I sure hate those meeces (no disrespect, Lord.) :-)
God Bless You. ~ Bonnie
I'm going to be received into the Church on February 21st and I was wondering if there was any particular prayer or novena I could say for you or your family or Christian during the days before hand. You're in my prayers!
ReplyDeleteOh thank you Claire! And congratulations! Any prayers at all that you would offer for us would be greatly appreciated!
ReplyDeleteOh thank you Claire! And congratulations! Any prayers at all that you would offer for us would be greatly appreciated!
ReplyDeletePrayers for you today. How hard it must be. And I love his name, Christian Athanasius. I think it's perfect.
ReplyDeleteI've had good luck with the Ultrasonic mouse things, moreso if you have a ceiling plug (as I do in my basement
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