Oh foolish girl...

I stood still in the middle of my kitchen with an anticipitory excitement: Free time! Could it be??? I was in shellshocked disbelief for a moment. So - what will I do??? Daring not to waste a crumb, I quickly decided what the funnest thing at the moment would be.

I put on the kettle for a pot of hot starbucks coffee, a gift from a beautiful friend, -thank you! - and ran to my closet to fish out the afghan I had been working on before someone else came and decided to occupy my hands for 16 hours of the day. Not that I begrudge said person, but still.

I french-pressed my coffee, poured the fresh cream, got my crochet hook and strolled very pleased over to the table to sit with Anna, and sip my hot joe.

heard in the distance :

**waaa! waaa!**

She woke up.

Oh well.

There was a beautiful moment of grown up, relaxed quiet and indulgence. But then after some nursing, of COURSE, there is always nursing, she had such big smiles and coos for us, I knew this was much better than any old afghan. And I still got to sit and sip my coffee while she had her num nums. Yay for baby smiles! They are the best.

In other news, the ceilidhs are going great. They totally recharge my batteries. I guess I have come to a point in my playing or reached a level where it doesn't take as much to maintain the performance level. Certainly a couple years ago, I would never have been able to play these with as little practice as I have had. Whether it is God's pure grace, or I just got better, I'm doing way better than expected. Another yay!

Surgery recovery was remarkable. I'm great. Disgusting tasting chinese herbs are making nursing comfortable and enjoyable. Yay! Niamh is sleeping well at night. Daytime naps are another story... although God gave us swings to save us from the Valley of the Shadow of Desperation. I am doing better at speaking Irish to the girls, which makes me feel like much less of a slacker.

Hey - by any chance - are there any employers in the Dallas/Ft.Worth area reading this who would like to hire my dad? He needs a job.

Though we have been having tons of rain, about which locals are complaining profusely, I am SO enjoying the summer! All I need is green. Jenni is happy with green.

So as not to leave you without a picture, this is a proud Anna last week, displaying her work : writing her name for the first time. I didn't even know she was working on it. She just walked over and showed me. "Yook, Mommy, I wote my name!" And she had. What a girl.