Help! I'm an emotional raisin.

Hello precious friends. It's been quite a while since my last post. I hope I haven't lost you all. Even though February is only the second month of the year, it has turned out to be my least favorite so far.

It started out well enough, but since we last met, this is what's happened: Second Darling got strep throat, we were in a car accident on the way home from her doctor's appointment because the original strep didn't clear up. The following week, the stomach flu from you-know-where hit with a vengeance. All of us had some form of it. Fourth Darling had it the worst, although Darling Man would challenge that seeing how he played chess with death and won (his words, not mine). Because she couldn't keep anything down for five days, little Fourth Darling has lost a lot of her chub. She looked so pathetic. Once that was over, finally, we thought we were in the clear. This weekend we decided to tempt fate by taking Fourth Darling to the nursery. So now she's bruised and emaciated. Who wants to place a bet?

Last week, for the first time in a month, we had some good friends over to play. Super Dog was tied up in the yard because he gets so excited and jumpy when the kids are playing. Somehow, the kids migrated to where he was tied up, playing Indians - whooping and hollering. Well, Super Dog thought our kids were in trouble, and bit (yes bit!) one of the visiting girls in the arm. Let's just say I almost had a nervous breakdown at this point. Well, one bite is enough, so Darling Man (being the grown-up in the family) decreed that Super Dog could not stay. So today, we (did I say 'we', I mean 'I') took him to the only no-kill shelter in our city. There were plenty of tears and gnashing of teeth, and the kids cried too.

Yesterday, Sunday, the breaks went out on the big green van. How classy is it to drive home from church using the emergency break? Got to love it. At least we were dressed nicely. You know what this means....a car payment is on the near horizon. The big green van is baked. The best we can hope is that someone will buy it and ship it over the border.

So, perhaps this will explain why I feel like an emotional raisin. I feel like I've had the guts sucked out of me. I would tell you that we managed to get school done despite all these "challenges," but I'd be lying through my teeth. Hopefully March will be better. I'm ready for Spring, for a cleansing, for a vacation a long, long, long way away. Don't give up on my posts. Hopefully I'll get back on track.