What's Been Keeping Me

So several things have kept me from the blog for three weeks.  Here's a short list:

• Pinterest.  I knew it'd be a black hole for my time and had stayed away for a year or two despite friends encouraging me to get with it already, but I finally caved and have spent quite a few hours pinning craft ideas, crochet patterns, dream house ideas, etc.
• Cleaning out the garage, which happened this weekend.  Our garage was a disaster.  Imagine a disaster of a garage and multiply by a disaster factor of about 7.  We had unopened boxes from our move a year and a half ago, scattered tools and gardening supplies, about 50 cans of paint, dirt and leaves, old leftover supplies from our renovations (think stacks of wood with nails sticking out of them and boxes of cracked tile), etc.  It was truly awful, not to mention hazardous.  My hero of a husband cleaned it out and organized it this weekend, though, and after many hours of work and a trip to the dump, it is much, much better.  Like a new place entirely.  And, bonus!  We found a bunch of stuff we forgot we  had!  And the boxes of toys we opened were completely new to Jane and, therefore, total novelties.
• Nathan's travel.  He was gone for work for about ten days, first in Calgary, then in Boston (sorry, Boston friends--he would have loved to have gotten together with you, but the trip was quite short and he didn't have any free time).  And for at least a couple of weeks before he left, he was working every day in the evenings in preparation for these trips, so he was a little MIA even when he wasn't out of town.  Also, when he's out of town, it becomes even more clear that three kids is A LOT of work, especially when you don't have that extra pair of helping hands at the end of the day.  So by the time everyone was in bed in the evenings, I was too mentally exhausted to blog.
• Nathan took our laptop on his trips, which meant that posting pictures involved extra trouble, and I wasn't up for it. [see point above]
• I've been crocheting Jane's flower blanket, but, as I think I've mentioned, I've been a little drained in the evenings, and I haven't gotten as far as I would have liked.
• Noah got really sick this weekend.  He had a stomach bug or food poisoning, and he couldn't even keep water down for about 24 hours, poor baby.  He is still recovering, and I don't think he's up for a full day of school tomorrow, so I'll probably keep him home for one more day, lucky dog.  He made it clear that this is okay with him as long as he does not miss his book party on Wednesday, okay???
• Jane was randomly sick last week.  She threw up twice with only slight other symptoms, but it was enough to keep us home for about three days and thwart all our other plans, just in case.
• We had our kitchen and the odds and ends in our living room painted, F.I.N.A.L.L.Y.  The bits of painting that remained had disturbed my peace for long enough.  But clearly, not enough to make me pull out a paint brush and sand paper (Nathan, either), so we finally decided to call in a professional. At this point, the only things left to do in our house are updating fixtures and curtains, painting a few rooms, and renovating the upstairs bathroom.  Oh, the upstairs bathroom.  {Sigh.}  That is a conversation for another day.
• I read The Great Gatsby for book club.  The discussion meeting is this week, and it is going to be super fun, because the husbands are invited, and the couple who is hosting is going to have a little Gatsby-esque cocktail party.  Okay, so it won't be all that Gatsby-esque, as it will be a much quieter affair, I'm sure, but they will be serving cocktails. :)  And I think it'll be fun to see what a book discussion is like with the guys.  They'll mix things up, I'm sure.
• Jane turned three!  Pictures to come.  And Clara turned 6 months!  I'll post about that, too.

Later, peeps.  It's bed time.