Jots and tittles

- Harriet has totally mastered the Falling Asleep By Herself trick.  She is seriously a pro.  We have fine-tuned the bedtime routine so that it is super consistent every night (bath, books, prayer, sleep) and she actually says, "Time to go night-night" and puts her head on her pillow.  I give her a big hug, leave the room, and within five minutes she's asleep.  It's a.mazing.  And I praise God for this breakthrough.

- Edmund goes to bed at nine-ish every night, so I have a few hours (hours, people) of unoccupied time.  My last school exam is tomorrow, so then my life will really feel...free.  Or something.  I'm hesitant to crowd the uninterrupted hours with too many activities because I know I need to seriously take a chill pill for a while.  But at the same time, I don't want to always waste it away on re-runs of Supernanny.  I need small happy projects that feed my creative bents without making a huge mess.  Pinterest, here I come....

- Two really cool acquisitions:
1) a 1951 Singer sewing machine, in a beautiful blond wood cabinet, with some pretty retro lines.  The whole shoot and match works like a dream, and there is even a little secret hide-y drawer that Steve discovered the other night - FULL of old notions and such.  Goosebumps!  The best part?  This machine came with a zig-zag attachment which is totally rockin' awesome.  Eleanor and I tried it out today for the first time and it worked beautifully.  I can now sew knits!  Ah!

2) a double jogging stroller.  This is a cool story, for I had been on the look-out for a double jogging stroller since I realized that having just a single jogging stroller increased the logistic factor when I wanted to go running.  I was made aware of a double jogging stroller on a buy/sell/trade sort of page, but it was too far away and too expensive.  Still, I felt like this might be my change to land a double stroller, so I decided to talk to Steve about it and see if we could somehow swing it.  That very afternoon, I received a text from a friend who was given a double jogging stroller but did not have use for it.  So she gave it to me!  Whee!  I tried it out with the kids this afternoon and, let me tell you, it is a nice stroller.  What a blessing!  In honor of all of this, Clara and I have decided to run our first 5K in July.  Jazzercise tells us that we could probably run a 5K right now, but I wouldn't mind having a few weeks to get used to the feel of a longer distance run.

- This is going to be a busy, family-filled week.  Steve's parents are driving out from California tomorrow, Clara's entire in-laws will be here on Friday, and there will be fence-building, and Mother's Day, and a lot of fun and games.  Hooray!

(I'm hoping to get a camera for Mother's Day.  Just a subtle hint....)