Mountz Memoirs: Happy Birthday, Mimi!

I apologize for my inconsistent blogging. Last night I wanted to go to bed at a decent hour so the blogging had to wait. So I will catch up now.
Wednesday was the usual routine with Precepts in the morning. I had to wake Ellie up and I was still 15 minutes late - the latest I have ever been. Mrs. Garner was out of town so Aunt Carol stepped up and taught us for our final study until the new year. Before the class began Jon was reading Ezekiel in his Bible reading plan and his comments did not make me very excited about studying the book but I have been pleasantly surprised on how much I have enjoyed the study. I was even tempted to grab Corinne's Bible geography book from her bedroom when I was up there the other day in order to have a better scope of the land. I held back.
Since I was in Elverson for the morning and needed to go grocery shopping in Morgantown Jon and I decided we should meet up for lunch. Precepts ends around 11:15 which was too early for Jon to take lunch (he said if he takes an early lunch the afternoon seems super long). Since I had some time to kill Ellie and I decided to do our grocery shopping before lunch. We arrived at Walmart around 11:40 and were walking to the car by 12:30. I was pleased since Ellie remained content in her seat the entire time and we even had a slow checkout lady.

Ellie surrounded by groceries.

Jon met us at AJ's and we enjoyed a leisurely lunch. Ellie was hungry by this point so I fed her the bit of bottle I had brought along to hold her off.

Looking at the pizza grease in disgust

The two of us took the groceries home and I nursed before putting her down for a nap. Kelly offered to come by to watch her during Kaitlyn's piano lesson but her napping schedule was so off from our busy morning that she was set to sleep right through the piano lesson, which she did. I was surprised but pleased.
Between lessons I cleaned up the house and tried to plan out our weekend. We have a busy few days ahead of us so I wanted to make sure that I was prepared. Jon came home and we had spaghetti for dinner. He had signed up to host the men's prayer group so I pulled out the extra cookies from Monday night from the freezer after cleaning up the kitchen and headed to Bible Study.
This was also the last meeting for our evening Bible Study before January and Ellie decided to celebrate by staying awake the entire time. Peter was sick upstairs in his bed so I was hesitant to poke around to put Ellie to sleep in the cradle. I ended up trying to put her down but waited too long because she was overtired and did not want to go to sleep. If I time putting her down correctly she puts her head down and just sucks her pacifier until she falls asleep a few minutes later. This time she lifted her head up as far as she could over and over, dropping out her pacifier. After 15 minutes or so I brought her back downstairs and just held her. She was so very tired but she just didn't want to sleep. When we came home she went right to sleep once she was in her crib.

Today I had to make a meal for a family from our church who had a baby in September. Her due date was Christmas day so she was 3 months early and her son, Sammy, is still in the hospital. The husband works second shift and the mom spends most of the day at the hospital so they asked us to drop the meal off at 11:30. At least that's what the website said. I called her at 10:45 to see if that would work and she asked if I could come as soon as I could since she was about to leave for the hospital. I had called right as I was getting out of the shower so I quickly scrambled to get out the door. Fortunately Ellie was sleeping so my hands were free and I could focus on collecting the meal and getting ready to go. Waking Ellie up we drove the meal out and arrived around 11:15. We tried our best.
Since today was Mimi's birthday Kelly and I set up a lunch date with her at Cafe 110. We met there around 11:30 and enjoyed soup, salad, and a panini. Clark ate some crackers and fruit that Kelly brought along. Ellie sat in her car seat and just watched. We all split a large brownie with ice cream for dessert, including Clark. We didn't give him any until the end and he ate what was leftover. He couldn't see the plate because of the napkin holder so when Kelly stopped filling his fork he started hollering until Kelly gave him the plate and told him it was all gone. He really liked that brownie!
Ellie and I swung by the post office on our way home and then spent the afternoon hanging out at home. I finished one Christmas sewing project and started another. I realized that I need a few more materials and that I need to pick up the speed - I am not very quick with my sewing projects. Hopefully I will finish everything in time.
Jon came home and hung out with Ellie while I switched the laundry and then we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Mom's birthday dinner. Grandma had ham, pineapple sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, green beans, salad, lemon cheesecake pie, chocolate cake and ice cream for dinner. It was so delicious! Jon and I were grateful to have been invited and hung out until 9:30. I had put Ellie to sleep shortly after dinner began and we had to wake her up to go home. She was out! When we came home I put her back to sleep and then switched the laundry and cleaned up the kitchen. I feel as though I accomplish so much more in the evenings after Ellie is asleep for the night than I do during the day. Perhaps the motivation of going to bed is just what I need to be productive.

Ellieisms:
Ellie loves to smile! She was smiling after we woke her up to leave Grandma and Grandpa's as I changed her into her pajamas. I even got a decent picture of her on Grandma's lap smiling.