feels like a Tuesday

I can't get over how quiet the house is without Suse. You would think that just having the smallest girl absent wouldn't make such a big difference, but believe me, it does. I didn't realize how I'd miss the background buzz of Zach, Cody, Hannah Montana, Drake, Josh, and SpongeBob. And how peaceful it could be without the perpetual sibling static that permeates my days.

We had seven deer walk across our front yard just a bit ago! We've come to expect an occasional deer visitor, but this was a whole herd. I love where we live. Especially because we've had quite a bit of satisfactory snowfall this winter. All around me I hear people saying they're ready for spring, but not me. If it were up to me, we'd continue to have total snowiness right up until April 1, when it could begin to melt. But not a moment before.

Jim was at a college Bible study tonight, and Dan was at his girlfriend's house, so that left just Garrison, me, and American Idol. Thank heavens for VCRs (yes, we are still living in the dark ages of no TiVo) because when DB and his wife called and asked for someone to come hold the baby so they could catch some much-needed snoozing, I was out the door.



Do you see the way my shoulders are curled forward and around him? I believe this is what's known as Baby-Holding Shoulder Roll Posture Syndrome, and I've got it. It comes from years of wrapping your whole body around a small tiny person while holding them up under your chin. It's as natural to me as the involuntary swaying-rocking motion that starts up as soon as I get a child in my arms. As far as I can tell, there's no cure.

While I bounced and rocked and cuddled, Garrison worked on his assignment for English Lit -- write a journal entry for Princess Nausicaa about her first meeting with Odysseus. Poor buddy -- what self-respecting 14 year old kid enjoys studying Greek mythology in the first place? I'm thinking the last thing he's going to want to do is put himself in the place of a teenage princess, and creatively write about her feelings as she might record them in her journal.

Enjoy these baby days while you can, little James.

My take on Idol, after I'd watched the recording (I really prefer watching it that way, if you want to know the truth. I can scan right through the commercials and all the blah blah blah), was that they should just cancel the rest of the season right here and now and award the title to David Archuleta. I'd be tempted to gobble him up, he's just so sweet and precious. But that would be a crying shame, if I couldn't listen to him SING. My word.

My next favorite is Michael Johns, but I kinda wish he'd go for it on the high notes. Maybe he's all just raw appeal without the vocal range.

Speaking of TV, I'll leave you with this, then I'm done. I'm so bummed about Friday Night Lights. I don't know how they can think about canceling it when there are so many unresolved story lines. It's downright cruel and unusual to make us care about these people and then just phhhht, that's it??

I bet the executives were English Lit teachers in their former lives.