Monday Morning Fog

I shouldn't really be blogging, I should be writing email, or something.
But I thought I'd give some smattering unrelated to each other updates and then go do email.

The Cat
His name is Bander. He is really my beloved mother's cat. He big and glorious, though young, all black and long haired. He's always been skiddish. After he ran away we found that he was coming back to eat the food we'd left out, and there were fat kitty tracks all over the back yard. Stupidly, we let the food eating go on for several days before thinking to set a trap. I don't even remember what day we finally did that. But he's very smart, and he managed to eat the food out of the trap Twice without being caught. Now he's apparently not eating the food, though there are traces of him. The next step, as my mother rightly points out, is to go sleep in the old house which I need to do. The plan was for one of us to do that last night. However, Matt, as I mentioned, had two teeth out last week and instead of being in less pain every day, the pain has gradually and steadily increased, so that last night he couldn't sleep at all, and I didn't want him to have to be up with any wakeful children. So this morning, hopefully, we will check on the cat again and take him to the dentist. And then, hopefully, I'll be able to sleep there tonight. Of course, all the neighbors have been alerted. I haven't called the paper or put up signs because he's obviously hanging around.

The Children
Elphine, this morning, in a fit of fabulous older girlness, got the baby up and played with her, filled my tea kettle and put it on so it was hot when we came down, got breakfast for everyone, and is now teaching the lot of them to dance ballet. Romulus is always dressed, now, in full armor-helmet, shield, breastplate, sword-play obviously. Gladys is under the false impression that she should be able to climb on anything whenever she wants to, and play in the potty. The house is now covered in signs, for visitors, to remember to close all bathroom doors, shut all potty lids, and don't be suckered in by her sweet smile when she tries to get you to open the bathroom door for her. Aloysius seems, to me today, more solid. He plays Narnia all day long, waving his sword and killing the White Witch over and over.

The Church
Yesterday we worshiped in beautiful light filled St. Andrew's Catholic Church, which we are, if you have read the church blog, trying to buy. Its enormous. It seats 400 something and has a massive parish hall, where, someone pointed out, we could host a rock concert if we wanted to. I'm not at all sure why we'd want to. It is seriously short of Sunday School possibilities and would require some juggling to fit all our various classes in. However, like the house in which we now reside, its in such great shape all it needs is some new carpet and a paint job. It was, I'll admit it, a fine and amazing thing to dress all the children up, shove them out the door with their father to walk the 50 feet to the church, and then take a shower in peace, perfect peace, and arrive myself, 30 minutes later, calm, basically together and cheerful. And then, when it was all over, we walked back for a nice rest.

School
Not surprisingly, it hasn't happened really for exactly two weeks, except here and there where I could squeeze in a book or a worksheet or a history lesson (Inauguration Day). But we're much more settled now. All our supplies are out and organized. And so after Matt has had his tooth looked at and we've replenished our supply of milk and cheerios, we will settle back in. And, as far as I'm concerned, I'm not unpacking or packing any more, or rearranging cupboards, or doing Anything except school until after Easter. (Ha, God is probably laughing at me.)