Friday, September 30, 2005

All I Can Do

Today my son wasn't himself. He's usually a VERY hyper little boy. This morning he was unusually tired. Later in the afternoon all he wanted to do was sleep. This evening he came down with a fever. All I want to do is hug him to me and rock him to sleep in my arms. Whisper in his ear that everything will be alright and he'll feel better tomorrow. That's all I can do.

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Happy Birthday!

This past Tuesday, my son turned the big 3! He sure was excited, even now if you ask him how old he is, he shouts exuberently,"3!" and holds up his 3 fingers. It's really cute. What can I say? He's a cute kid! I sit here now, and I look back at his little life. He's grown so tall, he can talk alot better now, he's peeing in the potty more regularly (if anyone has any pooh advice, I'd love to hear it!), he can dress himself and he can walk on skates! He's such a little man! There still are times tho', when he calls out in the middle of the night for a hug, or Pooh Bear's tummy is grumbling and it scares him (if only I had that kind of imagination!) or we're out walking and he looks so incredibly small. I'm reminded that he's still a little boy, who needs his Mommy (this morning the 50 million times he called out "mommy" is proof of that!) and Daddy. I thank God for the 3 years I've had him and pray for the many years to come with him. I know he'll grow up strong and pray that he'll grow up to be the man God intends him to be. Now if only he's sleep in a little longer...

I missed this past Tuesday again, thanks to my clingy daughter. Don't get me wrong, I love her with all my might, but I just wish she wasn't so clingy! There's gotta be a medium here, where she can stay and play with other kids, but not go wandering off with strangers. So I sat in the Toddler room again. Which is alright I guess. I'm sure she'll get used to the workers and other kids soon, then I can rejoin the Mom's "world". I hope you all learned something new about marriage that you never knew before, or at least reminded of something that you may have forgotten. Next week is the necklace craft. I won't be there as I'm attending a Pastor/Spouse Retreat in beautiful Canmore (or at least that's what I've heard...I've never been there) with NO kids. I can't wait! There are perks to being a pastor's wife!!

Mom's is also planning on organizing a Mom's Nite Out. If your interested in helping to plan or would just like a nite out, drop me a line. There will also be a sign-up sheet on Tuesday. I went to one before where we went to BP's and then went bowling. It was alot of fun and I got to know some of the Mom's better. It gives you a new perspective, meeting Mom's in the "outside world". We're all alot more wilder than we may think!

So until next time, have a great week and enjoy this sunny weather while you can!!

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Crying Babies

Tuesday mornings always seem to be a mad house for me, from about 8 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. (with a good, relaxing hour or so inthere if I'm lucky). This morning was no different (add on a bit of mother-in-law anxiety...she was coming for a day visit). I woke up nicely after a good nite's sleep, and fed the kids breakfast. Realized it was 8:45 (we had to be out of the house by 9 and I still was in my pj's) scrambled to get EVERYONE dressed, loaded up the car, drove the husband to the dentist (he got his wisdom teeth pulled), remembered I had forgotten my camera at home, drove back home, retrieved camera, and continued to the Alliance Church. Upon arrival I talked my son into leaving his prized toy car in our van, loaded up the diapar bag, my purse, camera case and 2 kids, and entered the church. Dropped off Kid #1 downstairs, carried Kid #2 upstairs, then ran outside to retrieve the Mom's photos (on poster board) I had left in the van. Going back upstairs, I hear Kid #2 howling. So I drop off the photos, look for tacks and pic up Kid #2, saving the workers from her howlish screams. Finding the tacks I place Kid #2 on the floor so I can hang up the photos. She starts wailing, prompting me to close the doors between the hallway and the main room. I finally get the photo posters up, grab Kid #2 and go down the hall to the Toddler Room. We go in, I calm her down and she's starts playing. "Good," I think as I sneak out of the room and make my way to the main room hoping to catch a bit of the main speaker, Occupational Therapist- Christiana Lepage. I grabbed my hot cocoa, a muffin and some REALLY good bread, found a seat and sat down.

Sigh.

10 minutes later, if that (I was able to finish my food and drink) my # comes up on the little # thingy. I sigh again and head out towards Kid #2. Why does she torment me like this?? Can't she sense that mommy needs a break?? So I gather my wailing child and comfort her. I decided to stay awhile, first 5 mins., then 10, then 15, until it was 10:45 a.m. and Mom's were getting ready to leave. Gathering my precious Kid #2, I carried her down to collect our (many) bags and Kid #1, who is now also crying b'cos he fell. With a kid in each arm, my diaper bag, camera case and purse, we make our way back out to the van. We get ourselves buckled in, I drop all our stuff on the seat and I take a moment to breathe. The sun is shining, I can feel the heat on my back, the wind is blowing a fresh breeze to my nostrils and for a moment the rush of the morning is forgotten. Then I remember my husband is waiting for me (hopefully in pain 'cos he made fun of me when I had my wisdom teeth pulled!) so I get in the car and we head over to pick him up. It won't be long before we're home, where lunch will have to be made, kids readied for naps, Mother-n-laws to be entertained and many other things us Mom's have to do throughout our day. Yet as I sit here and write this, I remember that feeling of the sun and wind, and somehow I know I'll get by. I'll make it through another week...

...until next Tuesday!!

Sunday, September 18, 2005

to know or not to know...

It's funny. Last night my husband and I got talking and a question popped up that I wanted him to answer. He was hesitant to say the least, but he finally answered. Now I'm wondering, if it was better to not have asked the question in the first place, but also, to just not have known? So I ask, is it better to know or not know? For the wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend who's being cheated on, is it better to know about the affair, or not ever know and live thru it regardless? For the person who's being talked about behind their back, is it better to know or not know? I think that once you cross a line, you can drive yourself crazy wondering, so maybe it's better knowing. But then, after you know, and your life is changed however big or small, was it worth being so annoying to get the answer? In my case, I haven't figured it out yet. I'm still trying to process the information and figure out what to make of it. There was no way around the question once the topic was brought up.

Sex.

Funny how so little a word, can bring about such conflicting emotions. The past is the past, but how much of it do we all bring with us and still carry around? We started reading Dr. Kevin Leman's Sheet Music. One of the things he mentions is that men think about sex all the time. I thought what a stereotypical comment. Surely not all guys think about sex that often. That got me thinking about the MANY differences between men and women, and that lead to a thought about this bible study that I want to do called Love & Respect. And how men aren't geared to love like women love, it doesn't come natural to them. That's why we women, are always saying things like, "I don't feel loved." And where respect comes naturally to men, it doesn't to us women, that's why he may be saying stuff like, "I don't feel like you respect me." So if women always have "love" on their minds, why aren't we the ones with sex on the mind? Anyway, going back to where I sort of started, Dr. Leman says that a key to a good, healthy marriage is good sex. Funny, but after our first night of tackling this subject, I don't feel any closer. In fact, I'm wondering how long it'll take to bridge the gap created after the first chapter?

When I first started this blog, a James Taylor song was on. It's one of my favourites, so I wanted to add some of the lyrics.

Fire and Rain by James Taylor

...Won't you look down upon me Jesus, You've got to help me make a stand
You've just got to see me thru another day
My body's aching and my time is at hand and I won't make it any other way
Oh, I've seen fire and I've seen rain, I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I'd see you again.

Been walking my mind to an easy time, my back turned towards the sun
Lord knows when the cold wind blows it'll turn your head around
Well there's hours of time on the telephone line to talk about things to come
Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground.
I've seen fire and I've seen rain, I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I've seen lonely times when I could not find a friend, but I always thought that I'd see you baby one more time again...

(I wanted to post a link to this song or something, but have no idea how to do that. If anyone knows, can you tell me?)


Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Just Dance

Have you seen that movie "Napoleon Dynamite"? It's a funny, clean movie that, for our youth group, was an odd highlight last year. One of my favourite parts was when Napoleon's uncle throws a steak at Napoleon. It's just a funny scene.
So I'm in a pretty good mood this morning. Surprisingly. Last night my son threw up a couple of times. One of the things I REALLY hate about being a parent. I was never good with vomit, and I'm still no good with it. But really, who is? My 14 mos. old daughter has a bad cold, that makes her nose constantly drip. So she was in a rotten mood. My husband has a bad neck. He woke up yesterday and was hardly able to turn his head. But me...so far I'm feeling pretty good.

This morning was the start of Mom's Morning Out, here in Prince Albert. I think it went well. Not as many Mom's as past years, but a good turnout still. My job was taking pictures. I love taking pictures. I like the art aspect in it, looking for the perfect pose and composition. So that's what I did. The photos should be up next week.

Last week was a rough week. It's kinda funny, that when you feel crappy, people suddenly want to spend time with you and they ask you out for coffee. Where were they when you were feeling good? It's kinda like God, we all pray fervently when we need His help or advice, but when things are going smoothy, we kinda put Him on the back burner until we need help or healing again. So while I was out on a coffee break, a friend told me about this theory. She believes that husbands are all jerks. Or rather they all do jerkish things. Normally, we can handle the things they do, but for some reason, during PMS, our tolerance level goes down and we suddenly can't handle them doing those jerkish things anymore. And we blow up. For example, my husband has a romantic level of a slug. Very little. I can usually handle his lack of romanticism, but during PMS, it annoys the crap out of me that he can't hold my hand or something. Know what I mean? I agreed with my friend, but when I told my husband her theory, he just shook his head. What do you think?

Then at coffee with another friend, we made the observation that so many of us go about our days with other people, on committee's or groups or whichever, and we hardly even know each other. Sad really. Is that a society flaw that we're just to busy to care about the lives of our "friends"? Or is it a personal flaw? Should we even care? Sometimes I wish I'd have been alive in the day when people cared about one another. If someone saw someone else having a hard go at it, they'd take notice and help them out. Accountability. Webster defines it as: the quality or state of being accountable; an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility. I think that if more people held each other accoutable, things would be better.

Anyway while I was waiting for the webster page to download, my mind travelled to Matthew McConaughey. I have no idea how my mind travelled there, but it was alright. I don't mind thinking about him at all. There's this poster of him being the new Stetson poster boy at our local Shopper's Drug Mart, that I very much want to confiscate. I highly recommend the movie Sahara. It's something both you and your husband can enjoy. There's lots of action sequences, it's funny, and Matthew McConaughey is in it.

If you get anything from this post, let me know and I'll take you out for coffee!!

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

A Week Is A Long Time...

It seems like forever since I last wrote anything on here. And yet I think it was only a week ago. So much has happened. School has begun, youth stuff is beginning, Mom's starts next week. Before you know it, it'll be Christmas!!

Last week, at a friends house, I noticed she had a whole stack of these magazines called Today's Christian Woman.
So I checked it out, the magazine and the website, and it seems pretty good to me. When I first linked to it, I noticed a picture and story on Beth Moore. I just did a bible study of hers last spring. Really pumped and inspiriting woman of God. Worth looking into. I can't find the article I was interested in, but I found something similiar.
Here is a list of ideas for dates with your spouse. Summer is a busy time for everyone and, like me, you may not have had some personal time with your spouse. So check these out for some two-on-two time!!
-Sample a variety of cafes. Eat dinner at one place, then go for dessert at a different place. If they're close together, you can walk to and fro.
-Visit a zoo.
-Watch a ball game.
-Pack a lunch and head for the outdoors. There are plenty of parks around PA.
-Check out a museum or historical park.
-Go for a picnic. Not enough time to go anywhere? Enjoy a candlelight picnic in your backyard!
-Get together with another couple and make your own movie. Or get together with a few couples and create a video/camera scavenger hunt! These are a blast to film and watch!!
-Sketch your dream house.
-Attend an outdoor festival.
-Walk in the rain.
-Build a fire (indoor and out), sit back and talk.
-Go swimming in the middle of the night.
-Build a snowman together.
-Go for a bike ride.
-Share a milkshake with 2 straws.
-Fly a kite.
-Get all dressed up and go to your fav. fast food joint.

These are just a few, if you have any that you've done or would like to do with your spouse, that have been fun. Leave a comment!

I feel like saying this..."until next time!"