Must keep at this

Yes, I must keep at this.  Part of my trouble is that I have given up looking at blogs for Lent; thus, mine also gets neglected.  And, wow, does one week ever fly around here.

It turns out that I spoke too soon about the February Scourge.  Apparently, it had neglected to send me a change-of-name notice and arrived exactly as March did.  Dave was the first to go down and the rest followed like dominoes.  God is merciful, though.  I prayed that I would be sick through the night so as to avoid having to nurse the baby (she sleeps through the night).  My stomach began its gymnastics approximately ten minutes after Sarah nursed to sleep on Sunday and the worst of the onslaught stopped shortly before Dave brought her in for her morning feeding.  I still felt rotten all of Monday and Dave stayed home so that I could lie in bed all day - what leisure!  (He was also recovering from his bout with the flu.)

Joseph seems to have dodged the bullet despite Sarah beginning her first stomach-flu experience by throwing up on Joseph as he held her.  He arrived at my bedside cradling his hand like a wounded dove.  With tears in his eyes (and in his Jimmy Dean voice) he said, "Baby Sarah just threw up all over me.  I think I am going to be sick because I am covered in her germs.  My hand is burning and it needs to be wrapped up."  He then passed me a green bandanna with which to wrap his germ-infested hand.  I rolled over and sent him off to wash his hands.  His teacher told Dave later that week that he told her the same story and kept warning her of the imminent arrival of his stomach flu as he was "infested with Baby Sarah's germs."  Dave also overheard Joe at school talking with one of his classmates, "So, Hayden, when are you going to invite me to that birthday party of yours?"  Hayden looked perplexed as, to the best of his knowledge, his birthday doesn't arrive again until Fall, "Umm, I guess in the Fall."  "OK," responded Joe, "I'll be waiting for my invitation."  Dear Hayden, I hope you know that he means business.

The winter shows signs of retreat as birds are beginning to arrive back on the branches of our evergreens; the streets are slick with water rather than ice; and Baby Sarah requires one snowsuit, not two.  We are all in desperate need of a change of season and the season-changer that is March Break is only hours away.  Funny to think that we will soon be complaining about black flies and wondering how our world was only just covered in snow.

Lent this year has coincided beautifully with the end of winter and the longer days are a balm to the soul much as the arrival of Easter is soon to be.  In fact, the daylight has so increased that Ben asked us at supper why we were eating so early.

Sarah is growing up far too fast:  she is nine months now.  Despite her first birthday being only three months away, she has yet to cut a tooth or show any desire to do much other than sit quietly in one place on the floor (or, in the middle of the table).  Her lack of precociousness is almost exactly like Ben's and Hannah's.  Hannah didn't crawl 'til a year and walked at 15 months while Ben waited until 16 months to take his first steps.  Nice siblings after which to model one's self.

And now I am rambling.  Hopefully I'll be back with some photos or a story.