Yes, yet again I’m moving my blog.  It seems I’ve outgrown this house just as I did the last house.  I’ve actually decided to put my big girl pants on and dive into my own domain.

But that’s not all!

Soon, I’ll be buying Thesis for WordPress so that I can customize my new home ~ how cool is that?  I love a well decorated house and soon mine will be tastefully and beautifully done.  At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.  First, I have to learn to redecorate customize my new house.

In the meantime, you can visit my new home at Butterfliesinmyhand.com.  I’ll have some good ol’ southern sweet tea waiting for you.

and there you have it.  A flu shot.  It’s nothing, really.  Just a little pinprick.  But will it save you from suffering from the flu for several days?  Most likely.

I got the flu this week.  Influenza A, as a matter of fact.  One of those “seasonal flus” that they vaccinate for every fall.  Did I mention that I failed to get my flu shot last year?  I didn’t?  Well, let me tell you people ~ go get your flu shots!!  Because I didn’t get one and I got the flu instead.

Take the kids, too.  Mine haven’t had theirs yet and I will be taking them soon.  Let me tell you it is NO FUN when you have the flu.

But, I think, I hope, I’m over it.  The cough is lingering but that’s what they do.  At least the body aches and overall crumminess is gone.

But do you know what happens when you’re sick for 4 days in a row?  Nothing.  No laundry, no grocery shopping, no cleaning, no teaching.  Well, some of that isn’t true.  Trey did some laundry, he cooked, took care of the kids and cleaned up a little behind me with a disinfectant spray because, you know, who wants to catch the flu, right?  The first day he went back to work, I did make a very short trip to the store to get milk and a frozen lasagna and I did manage to get two lessons done for Monkey on Tuesday.

Overall, though, not much got done that I normally do so I have a lot of catching up to do.  Laundry, consignment sale clothes, cleaning, disinfecting, teaching, researching lesson plans, trips to the library, blog posts (but these may have to wait a while).

If you don’t see me for a few days, just understand I’m buried under a mountain of stuff.

Go get your flu shot!  You don’t want to be buried either, promise.

Did you even know they made special limited edition hard back catalogs with tabs?  We didn’t.

I have to tell you, Little Man cracks.  me.  up.

Just the other night he had me in tears, TEARS I tell you, with something completely innocent that he asked.  Now, to be truthful, while what he said was funny, it probably wasn’t THAT funny, but I was trying really hard to hold the giggles in so he wouldn’t think I was laughing at him.  When you try and keep giggles contained, they become like tribbles.  There’s just no containing them.

We were watching The Empire Strikes Back and Han Solo is being put in the carbon freezing chamber.  Little Man was very concerned about it.  He started asking, “What are they doing?  Why is he going in there?”

As they lifted Han Solo out, Little Man’s final question sent me tumbling over the edge of laughter.

“Why did they make him a chocolate bar?”

This story was also shared over at Thingsmychildsays.com, a fun new website with… well… funny things kids say.  Check it out for giggles and laughs.

I finally got around to actually getting the letters on the wall.  We had the sheet of lettering paper taped to the wall for almost a year.  ’Cuz that’s how I roll.

Monkey and I decided to get a little crafty this year for her valentines.  Her homeschool enrichment program meets on Mondays and Wednesday and they are exchanging valentines this week.  Her teacher encouraged the kids to get a little creative with their valentines and so Monkey and I looked around online to see what we could find.  We discovered Valentine’s Day Fortune Cookies on a blog I visit (thanks, Brandi over at Not Your Average Ordinary) and they were ridiculously easy to make.

First, you find some craft felt at your local craft store.  We tested the idea with paper but it just didn’t turn out so well.  Trace a circle on the felt and cut it out.  We used a bowl and it worked out nicely for size.

Take some pipe-cleaners and cut them to the same length as the diameter of the circle.  Glue with tacky glue or fabric glue.  I guess you can use a hot glue gun, too, but this is what we had on hand.

Then place the pipe-cleaner along the center of the circle.

Glue a small section across one half of the circle…

… then fold over like a taco.

We made lots of tacos.

Then Monkey spent some time hand writing her own messages on little strips of paper.  She even came up with “You’re a “dog”gone good friend” all on her own.  It was for a friend who really likes dogs.  Can you believe it?  I giggled about that all afternoon.

Then she used fancy cutting scissors to make them look neat.

We slid the strips of paper inside our little “tacos” after they dried, then we folded them back over the middle and made our little fortune cookies!  And a pipe-cleaner heart just because we could.

And there you have a basket full of red Valentine Fortune Cookies.

I have two beautiful, creative and competitive cousins.  We visited their family after Christmas this year for the first time in quite a while and it was wonderful to hang out with them.  It was quite a big gathering with all the aunts, uncles and cousins that were there and the kids – boy did the kids ever have a good time.  It was wonderful!  But back to the sisters who are my cousins.  The two Little Men got matchbox cars as part of their Christmas gifts and they would play with them for a while then run off to find some other trouble to get into adventure and leave the cars in the family room.

The sisters decided to have a little fun.

First, the younger sister tried to stack three  cars and a helicopter.

Well, not to be outdone, the older sister stacked a set.

This went on for a little while, going back and forth between the two, and although I took several pictures, not too many of them turned out nice enough for me to post.  I’m not so good at low light macrophotography just yet.

Finally, big sis did it.

She made the bigger stack.

Car stacking is a gift.

I have a new hobby.  It’s Creative Copy Challenge.

I have never considered myself to be a “writer”.  Narrator, perhaps, since I tell stories about our family and such, but not so much the creative writer.  This challenge, though, is quite fun.  The site administrator gives you ten seemingly unrelated words or phrases and you must incorporate all of them into a story.  Long or short, doesn’t matter.  I’ve even seen some people skillfully create one sentence using all the words.

One sentence for me, not so much.

I love the challenge, though, of stretching the imagination and finding ways to create a story using all ten words.

If you have time, you should go to the site and read some of the stories.  They’re all under the comments sections for each challenge.  You’ll be amazed at the variety you’ll find.

I typed this up on Friday, but since I had already posted about my overly enthusiastic son, I thought I’d just schedule this one to post on Monday.  Hopefully, by the time you read this, the constant pain in my hip will be a memory.

Today I’m bedridden.  Not for any serious health issues or anything, but it is doctor’s orders.  This morning I had the joy and privilege of getting an injection into my hip joint.  I don’t like needles.  I’ve mentioned this before when I talked about my appointment with the hip specialist.

I was at the hospital this morning for almost 2 hours for a 13 minute procedure.  Long time, I know.  The hip injection using a fluoroscope is treated very much like a surgery only there’s no general anesthesia.  Instead, they do a “local” using a small amount of a numbing agent to numb the skin where they do the injection.  They send in the dye to make sure the medicine is going in the right place, then they inject the steroidal anti-inflammatory medication.  It really was quite quick and not nearly the “needle of death” that I was expecting.  This was one of those situations that I can truly say, and believe myself when I say it, that the waiting was the worse part.

My hip has been marinating in cortizone since 10:00 this morning.  I hope it’s going to work.

Anyway, because they want the medicine to stay as close to the joint as possible, and because of the numbing agent they added to the cortizone inside the hip (to provide immediate relief from the pain while the cortizone works), the discharge orders were to “take it easy” for the rest of the day.

So I’ve been sitting in bed, surfing the internet, researching homeschool curriculae, finishing a book that’s overdue (The Apostle by Brad Thor.  In case you were curious) and basically enjoying not having to do anything for a while.  Oh, and I did manage to teach math and Language Arts to Monkey.  That was easy.

The kids have been remarkably well behaved.

Trey has been wonderfully helpful when I’ve needed it (and he’s cooking dinner tonight, too – yum!)

Maybe getting the hip injection wasn’t so bad after all.

Little Man has a new thing.  It’s waking up happy.  No, that’s not right, not happy – elated.  No, that’s not right either.  Ok, so maybe I can’t my words right, but I think you get the idea.  No?  Well, here, let me explain.

Three mornings ago, he burst from his room, running down the hall yelling something.  I have no idea what.  It could have been “BONZAI” and it would have totally fit.  Normally, I hear him rustling in his room as he’s waking up, turning on the light, that sort of thing.  Oh, no.  Not this morning.  Why bother with such trivialities as lights when life is waiting for you?

Two mornings ago, I heard him before he reached his closed door.  ”Wah HOO!  Wah HOO!”  He opened his door and practically danced into our room, chanting “wah hoo!”  I asked him why he was in such a good mood and he tells me, quite frankly and in that how-can-you-really-ask-me-that tone, “Because it’s morning-time.”

This morning was a duplicate of two mornings ago.  ”Wah HOO” echoes down the hall and Little Man celebrates another day.

Shouldn’t we all be that way?  Shouldn’t we all wake up with joy in our hearts and celebrate the new day?  It’s another gift; another opportunity to get things right; another opportunity to connect with a friend or family member.  For this is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.  Right?

I think tomorrow I’ll shout “Wah HOO” when I wake up.  Especially if I see 6 inches of snow on the ground