By Nicole

Whew, it has been a whirlwind couple of days.  And I have no expectation that things will slow down. One of the most annoying things for me this month of NaBloPoMo is that my blog has felt more like Facebook status updates than any real writing.  Not only have I not had time for it, I just haven't had a writer's mind lately.  My mind is filled with nothing but to do lists and checkmarks.  In fact, I am so sidetracked these days that I spent most of yesterday reversing my words. Whatever I meant to say, I said backwards.  Instead of wash your face and brush your teeth, it was brush your face and wash your teeth. Most of date night was spent with me reversing everything or taking long pauses between sentences so I could make sure that my mouth actually said what my mind was thinking and that whatever my mind was thinking made sense. I married a patient man, thank goodness.  Thankfully, today was a laid back, do a lot of random things type of ...

Well... this isn't really an "ode", but the title sounded good.  I looked up all types of poetry online , and got impatient, so I quit. Besides, I wrote this at 12:30ish the other night, in purple crayon on a random notebook, while trying to sleep.  There are times that I think If I didn't sleep a wink   I would be fine And other times, yes That I must confess   Sleep is divine If only I could choose When to wake or to snooze   I'd be dreaming!   First attempt at poetry in YEARS. 

My husband and I had a funny, banter-filled conversation the other night over sleeping and waking habits.  You see, he recently switched shifts.  For the majority of our relationship - a year of long-distance dating and eight years of marriage, he has worked night shift - 10pm to 6am.  By the time he gets home in the morning, the kids and I are up and ready to leave for work and school.  There were periods of time when I hated it (see http://womaninawheelbarrow.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-growth-and-growing.html ), but for the most part... I had grown to like it (don't tell him).  You see, we had two nights a week to snuggle and then I had five nights a week to stay up as late as I liked and watch what I wanted and write up blogs or eat ice cream, or all three at the same time.  Those were the days (ahem, nights).  Well, now he is home most nights, which took some getting used to (for both of us), and he switched again to this crazy shift ...