Quick Takes: The Restoring Order Edition

Seven snippets of life right now, in no particular order.

1. Seriously loving finding our routines again.
   In the midst of the power outages, yes -- plural, being away last weekend for the incredibly successful Mega Event Experience, we are getting back into the normal flow with naps, adventures and normal, ordinary life.  
2. We've had beautiful weather the past few days.
   It's so difficult to realize that two weeks ago, it was treacherous out here.  Dangerous, cold, icy, and tree damage everywhere you turned.  The past few days have had bright, beautiful sunshine with crispy cold evenings.  We headed to the park today to burn some of Thomas's energy, and it was 28° outside.  So yes, he was in snow pants, but he was happy.  If we've learned anything in the past few weeks, it's that HE DOES NOT LIKE HAVING COLD LEGS AND FEET.
3. Thomas is very into "powers" right now.
   Each morning, he tries different things to see if they work.  Clearly, we've not had any homeschooling lessons on the whole principle of electricity.  On Friday night, the power went out AGAIN just as I was getting ready to bake our dinner into the oven. I wrapped up the fish and slid it into the freezer, and left the potatoes on the stove.  The house alarm automatically triggers when the power goes out, so Thomas called Jonathan to tell him, "Papa! Powers off! Powers off! Help!" while I disarmed the alarm. I started to cry and brought John Paul back to the bedroom to feed him. Thomas crawled up on the bed with me and handed me the remote, "It's okay, Mommy.  Let's watch Brother Francis."   And then he realized the tv didn't work again.  "ARE YOU KIDDING ME, MOMMY? WHERE'S THE POWERS?" 
4. Still dealing with fears of the night. 
   
   The power outages definitely didn't help with this.  His current roster of things he's scared of: cia-tees (coyotes), monstas, dragons and dinosaurs. We find ourselves with a Wee Ski in our bed each night.  "I scared, Mommy.  Cuddle."  Thomas does love the surprises that came from Auntie Liz last week -- a Wee Ski-sized headlamp and a stash of glow sticks for nighttime. Such a sweet, sweet surprise!  But tonight, I loved what I found on the webcam when I logged in. Lights blazing in their room, Thomas had crawled into the crib w/John Paul and they were both sound asleep with big brother's arm around little brother.  Hopefully, this will be the first night he stays in his room the whole time. 
5. Fun, fun Relay stuff going on right now.
   Planning for the Blarney Blast, speaking at the Cowlitz/Wahkiakum kickoff tomorrow night, and finishing up the details and follow up from a fantastic training weekend w/the top events in our division.  It's an incredible honor chairing the workgroup for the Mega Events -- the best of our Division. We had rave reviews from the Mega Event Experience that we held in Seattle last weekend...so glad for major successes following the frustrations that surrounded our power problems!!  One of my favorite moments was seeing Reuel Johnson (the national VP for Relay For Life) dancing on the purple screen to Justin Timberlake's "Sexyback" -- things I never thought I would see. I had a blast with Anna and Carrie and Linda and the rest of the usual suspects. 
6. Love being back in the kitchen.
   Jonathan flew to California last week, and while he was gone, I made every lemon dish I could think of.  How I married a man who doesn't like lemon, I'll never know. We had lemon-glazed carrots, lemon broccoli, citrus mahi mahi, eggs benedict, greek lemon-chicken soup, and lemon ice cream.  All whipped up in the kitchen, a few with the help of my Wee Sous Chef.  Yesterday, we had a very quiet day at home (at Jonathan's request) and watched the Superbowl with french bread mini pizzas, tequila lime chicken nachos, and popcorn.  Low key and perfect.
7. I love Thomas's quotables.  I need to start writing them down.
   Until then, soak in the joy on his face on the plane at the park today.  It's been a long day, and tonight I've been on my own since it's poker night for Jonathan...so I'm ready to crash.  So looking forward to wee-early-morning-rising again!!