Mommy Brain

It’s been an interesting week in our house, plumbing wise. First, we thought our hot water heater had sprung a leak and we would need a new one. Thankfully, it turns out to simply be a leaky valve that is easily replaced. Then, we had water backing up into our basement drain. In the middle of Natalie’s slumber party. All the extra flushing didn’t help. We had a guy out Saturday, who cleared our line all the way out to the street. He removed the manhole cover and found standing water in the city line. He thought we would be okay until Monday, but he was wrong. After two showers and washing dishes, it happened again today. He came out again - this time not charging us, wonderful man - and cleared it. He said that the water is still sitting in the main city line, and draining very, very slowly. So we’re keeping the water usage to a minimum and I’ll call the city out tomorrow. Fun, fun.

The slumber party was a complete and utter and exhausting success. Natalie said it was everything she was hoping for. She was tired and sick to her stomach the next day (staying up till 3:30 am and eating pizza rolls, ice cream, birthday cake, popcorn, and M&Ms will do that to you), but she said it was still worth it. And I’m convinced that nothing much has changed since I was having my slumber parties growing up. Eleven-year-old girls - at least the delightful girls we had at our house Friday night - are the same as I remember. The songs have changed, some of the slang words have changed (no one says “totally radical” anymore), but they still like to giggle and talk about their favorite songs and films and sing and dance and play truth or dare and watch movies with cute boys in them.

We are officially on Christmas break from homeschooling, and I am so ready for it. We’ll keep up with our reading aloud - of course - and finish Jotham’s Journey before Christmas. But there will be lots more time for Mommy to read some of her books from the tottering to-read pile and hopefully some time to do some Christmas origami and bake some cookies. And a Mommy’s night out - Michelle and I are going to see Dan in Real Life tomorrow night.

And lastly, does anyone out there watch the Sci-Fi Channel series Eureka? Kevin and I have been Netflixing season one, and it’s really wonderful. It’s kind of like Stargate crossed with Northern Exposure - two other series we enjoy.