Coughing in the New Year

That's what I did. Believe me, the traditional "ringing in" the New Year is a much better idea. I actually coughed so much and so hard between December 19th (when my cold started) and last weekend that I pulled a muscle down near the right half of my rib cage. I wouldn't recommend it.

But anyway! God is graciously allowing me to recover now, and we are starting to try and pull ourselves back together. Slowly.

One huge blessing (emphasis on "huge") to our kids was a Christmas presents they received from Grandma Dawn and Grandpa Tom. It helped keep them busy and smiling when I was at my lowest, sicky yuckness. It looked like this....

and this...

and then this!

All three kids LOVED decorating and playing in this cute cardboard cottage from myveryownhouse.com. They called it "The House," and got a kick out of asking our visitors, "Do you have a House in your house?" Tee-hee hee. Meg and Matthew also loved abusing and battering The House, which is why The House now resides in The Recycling Pile. (Sniff, sniff. I get a little too attached to my children's playthings.) But, wow, it sure was good fun while it lasted. Even if it did take up a solid half of our little living room.

In the absence of The House, I "invented" a new game for the kids last night, which was an instant hit. It's called Challenge, and it involves me creating individualized series of activities for each kid to complete as quickly as possible. For example, "Meg, your challenge is to do one leap, one soutenu (a ballet turn), skip to the kitchen, whirl around on the sit-and-spin, boogie back into the living room, write your name on the easel and do one more leap." "Matthew, your challenge is to clap your hands three times, do a somersault, shoot one basket, run around the table with the doll stroller and do four bounces on the bouncy ball." The kids are eating it up. And it's great exercise for cooped-up, antsy, little bodies.

And that's a greatly overdue update from the Wilcox household. Happy 2011, everyone!