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December 31, 2006
happy new year
I can't believe it's been so long since I posted an entry. Having my laptop dead is part of the problem (I just took a new one out of the box a few days ago, Merry Christmas!). But it isn't the whole problem.
I really did not realize just how busy I would be here in Northern Illinois. My midwifery position is in a very busy practice, and they expect everyone to be in the office 40 hours a week, plus whatever evening and weekend hours are required by the call schedule. It's the first place I've been where you don't get time off post-call. Of course, if there is no one in labor, one can sleep at home on call nights, and that does happen on occasion. But just as an example - I've caught 21 babies (and assisted in 5 cesareans) between 10/26/06 and now.
I've also been trying to use my down time at home to get this place more organized. I am pleased to announce that my cookbook collection is finally all out of its boxes and on shelves. Our library/guest room is getting neater by the week. It has actually been used twice for its intended use as a guest sleeping quarters.
Our Christmas tree was up in time for the open house, even though it only had lights and no ornaments. I never did get the ornaments on it, either. Oh well. All the creche sets managed to make it out on time, though. John volunteered us both for the choir for Midnight Mass, and those rehearsals took a chunk of time. I had told the choir director that I was on call Christmas Eve and she was still OK with that. True to form, I did get a page just at the beginning of Mass and it pulled me out of the church during one of the two pieces where I was playing the flute. But it was a false alarm, and that baby was actually not born until yesterday. I made it through the rest of Mass OK. Thank God for silent alerts on the pager.
We had our youngest daughter home for Christmas. The rest of the children celebrated with their other family and friends in venues ranging from OR to TN to Los Angeles CA to ID. My sister and her family came up from Kentucky for a 36 hour stay, and I got to meet my sister's new son-in-law. If I can figure out how, I'll try to scan in their Christmas picture.
I cooked a traditional Christmas dinner. Standing rib roast, Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, carrots, brocolli, green beans. I made a salad with baby greens, romaine, pomegranite seeds, mandarin oranges, and grape tomatoes -designed to be dressed with a light vinegar and oil dressing. Almonds were available but left off because of the food allergies of one of the guests. In a concession to my vegetarian daughter, I cooked the Yorkshire pudding in butter rather than beef drippings. It was still yummy. I had various wines and beers and juices available as well, Since the dining room is very small, and the food took up the entire table, we ate buffet style and shared TV trays in the living room. It was very cozy and lots of fun.
I've missed so much news in my involuntary blogfast! I finally had the chance to read Pansy Moss's birth story. Congratulations, one and all. And who knows what all else I missed? I finally got the chance to clean out my email inbox of over 1000 unread and not likely to be read entries. (I've been trying to scan every day or so to see if there is anything urgent or personal).
Who knows when I will surface again. This new laptop is running on WIndows XP and it is making me crazy, as I can't figure out how to put my old shortcuts for blogging onto the system. I have been on Windows 2K for 6 years and I plan to upgrade this thing to Vista fairly soon, so maybe that will make it a little easier.
Hope that you all are having a Merry Christmas. I'll try to resurface sooner than Epiphany, but who knows?
God bless us, each and every one.
Posted by alicia at December 31, 2006 4:07 PM
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Comments
We are glad each time you do surface. Peace to you and John in the new year.
Posted by: Owen at December 31, 2006 8:43 PM
Where are you in Northern Illinois? I'm a doula in the Chicago area and have read your blog for a while but didn't realize until this post that you're up here!
Posted by: Holly at January 4, 2007 2:54 PM