Alive and well, just busy as....

You fill in the blank. If you're the rhyming sort, feel free.

It's been a long month since my last post. I've been swimming across an endless lake of creamed corn, but finally reached the other shore. Let's hope there are no more of those in the future!

We have two Christmas performances down (Halle's children's musical last Sunday, and Emily's choir concert this past Tuesday evening) and one left to go tomorrow. Tomorrow morning is the adult Christmas choir's turn to sing. We had our last rehearsal today. I think it will be awesome. I'll have to be there at 7:45, and with Brian in Sacramento today/tonight, he probably won't make it home until then at the earliest. This means the younger kids will be getting up early to get ready and go with me. Won't that be fun!

I'm almost done with my fall reading challenge list. I am finally starting the last book. Of course, I've been able to pick up a few extra along the way as well, so that is always good. Books not on the list that I finished since the last update are:

• Alaska Twilight, Colleen Coble
• The Book of Jane, Anne Dayton
• Joshua's Family, Joseph Girzone
• In Search of Eden, Linda Nichols
• Bachelor's Puzzle, Judith Pella
• Crimson Eve, Brandilyn Collins
• After the Leaves Fall, Nicole Baart
• Searching for Eternity, Elizabeth Musser
• Pushed: the Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care, Jennifer Block
• Mosaic, Pieces of My Life So Far, Amy Grant
  

Wow, makes it look like I've done nothing but read for the last month, but that is certainly not the case! In addition to that reading, I designed and printed graduation invitations for my husband's senior nurse anesthesia residents, as well as programs for their graduation ceremony held a little over a week ago. I also did the newsletter for the base homeschool group and uploaded it to our group site. Aaaannnddd... I designed the program for the school's Christmas concert, to the point of even making last-minute changes the day before the event. That last little job at least earns me "service hours" towards the 20 hours we are required to do a year. It's 20 hours or $200 (or $10 an hour for every hour under 20 you don't get in).

The tree is up and several presents are wrapped and under it. I was worried how Rory would handle it, but once we moved the one ornament she seemed most interested in (and it was a puppy ornament, go figure), she has seemed to pretty much leave it alone. I was afraid I wasn't going to get into the Christmas spirit this year but it seems to have arrived at last.

Tomorrow afternoon is a cookie exchange for the ladies at church, but I am doing a rare thing for me and opting out. I tend to be one of those people who tries to do everything.... not that I can't say no when it's something I don't want to do, just that I like doing as much as I can. But after being gone last Sunday night for 3 hours at the annual ladies' Christmas dinner, I think I will just stay home. With the running I've done today (rehearsal, groceries), I think I'll need to be home to get some laundry taken care of tomorrow anyhow.

So there you have it. Just a couple of hours left in the evening before I need to start getting kids bathed and ready for bed. I'm sure there are plenty of other things I should be doing other than this.... but they can wait a little while longer.