Entries from April 2007 ↓

So, my new family doctor is a licensed Natural Family Planning (NFP) teacher. It has always been something that fascinated me, because I can’t bring myself to take birth control pills. I have nothing against anyone taking them, but I just can’t do it for some reason. I think it stems from my mom being very anti putting anything into your body that doesn’t absolutely need to be there, and while she didn’t teach my siblings and I that, I think that it just rubbed off on us. I wouldn’t even take anything but Motrin recovering post-partum. (However you can bet I had that Epi. Well, at least with one. The other came too fast.) She told me that the other places she’s had practices there have been a lot of interest, but very little here. When I showed interest in it, she was ready to have a class for me like this week. But I’m going to go the first week in May. She will give us a class in her office. If it’s something we’re interested in, we go to 3-4 more classes a couple of weeks apart to learn the ins and outs. She told me that she very highly prefers that husbands attend because it takes both cooperating to do it right. God bless my hubby, he didn’t bat an eyelash when I told him what I’d signed him up to do. If nothing else, I’ll learn something new. It’s always intriguing to learn something new about bodies and how they work. And if I post an "I’m pregnant!!!" post in several months you will all know that I’m a poor student who lacks attention to detail.

Forest loves American Idol, but he seldom watches it with me because he’s sleeping. He happened to be up on Tuesday night and watched with us. They were having a special charity night where they were showing third-world countries. He was watching a piece on these poor African children and said "Why don’t they have food?" and I said "Because they are very, very poor.", and he said "Why do I have food?" and I said "Because you’re very, very blessed.", and he looked at me with his big brown eyes and said "Why doesn’t God bless those poor children?". Both hubby and I looked at each other for a minute, like "what do we say????". And I said "God blessed us so we can bless them." But he still didn’t understand it. How could he though? He’s 3, and I’m an adult and still don’t understand why I got to be one of the blessed ones. He wanted to give all of his money in his wallet, the money he’s been saving for months and months to buy a sand wedge, to the poor children.

Such a nice day for a walk. Such a nice day to take my camera along. Loved the contrast of the sky against the red bricks. But this church’s bells played a song for literally 12 minutes. Hey, I love hymns (much more than the average person). But that’s a long time for the next-door neighbors who hear it every day.

Our winter wasn’t particularly bad, in fact it was mild. However it felt long. It was snowing in April. So you can imagine me drooling as I read the forecasts prediction of days in the upper 60’s this weekend. Well the actual weather did even better — yesterday it was 73!!

The first sunny, really warm day brought:

• Showing my boys a fuzzy caterpillar for the first time. Warrior scooped it up and had it 2 inches from his mouth before I could stop him. I guess the color maybe reminded him of chocolate. (???) Fuzzy chocolate. (???)
• Sun drying my diapers for the first time in a looong time. (Which in turn brought weird looks from some neighbors. I can’t help it I’m crunchy though.) They are so much nicer when you bring them in…. they smell better (not that I nestle my nose in them and inhale deeply or anything), the sun suns out the stains, and brightens them up.
• Short sleeved shirts for every member of our family. It’s the first time the boys have been in short sleeves since probably October. Forest was very distraught, as he is every time we change clothes for the seasons; "Momma! Someone ripped my sleeves off!", as he stretches his short sleeves down to his wrists. I have a feeling when he sees the shorts that he will have an even more emotional reaction.
• My boys and their golf clubs out in full swing (haha pun there,and I didn’t even mean to). Speaking of which, just a couple of weeks ago we found 2 golf balls in the field behind the house that had been out there the entire winter. Forest giggled until he thought about how cold those poor golf balls must have been.
• A walk to the Tasty-Freeze down the street. Love that place…. ice cream for kids under 5 is free. So hubby and I can get sundaes and the kids can get ice cream as well and our bill is always less than $4. They also have a fenced in play area and the kids love that. (Even though our play area at home is better… but of course it’s the whole novelty thing.)
• Sunscreen. Every winter I think that putting sunscreen on every day (or more than once every day) would be easier than dressing them in layers every time before we leave the house. However every Summer I decide that putting them in layers would be easier than holding a screaming child down while they swipe at your hand as you try to put sunscreen on them. Then they smear it in their eyes and scream bloody murder. It’s not like you are trying to do them a favor to prevent a burn or anything.
• My realization that I need a decent pair of sunglasses. That pair from the Dollar Store have been sat on one too many times.
• Opening the windows throughout the house and just letting the breeze and smell of fresh air blow through the house.
• Mud puddles and rain boots. Actually, they’re more like small dam in the back parking lot, rather than mud puddles. But the boys adore them. They throw rocks in them and everything. Being the good parents (haha) that we are, hubby and I put their rain boots on them and turned them loose. We both had moments where we gasped and then held our breaths as we were sure they were both going down. Especially Warrior who looks precarious enough walking on flat, dry ground, let alone running in water up to his knees. The rain boots did prove to be water-proof, however we decided we probably need hip-waders, especially for Warrior, who’s boots were not tall enough (his little knees are not tall) and filled up with water. He thought it was very amusing that he could slosh with every step he took, and was even more amused at the water that he poured out of his shoes before we came inside.
• Dirty, sweaty boys at the end of the day that insist they do not need a bath and it could not possibly be bed time because "…the sun is still out. See, it’s still morning!".
• That wonderful feeling of a warm breeze blowing, and the sun on your skin (but not hot enough to feel as though it is sapping the life out of you), after a long Winter. Kinda just reminds you that all is well with the world, and it will still keep going as it always has. No matter what worries you have taken on in the past months of the cold season, the sun kind of just suns them out, just like with the cloth diapers I sunned out yesterday. It just has a way of making you feel fresh, new, and stain-free. Warm weather after a long cold season is pretty much a hug from God, and a reminder He’ll never let us freeze to death.

I’m totally going to cheat here. I’m in one of those periods where I feel boring and can’t think of anything witty or intelligent to post about. So I’m going to put up some filler. heheh

My husband and I have a saying. Can’t remember which one of us started it really. But when something feels really, really heavenly and good, we refer to it as "Marshmallow Heaven’. Marshmallows are squishy and soft and heaven is good. So Marshmallow Heaven is all of those things. It’s definitely cheesy and a little fourteen-itis-ish, but what the hey. So I’m going to tell you ten things in no particular order that make Marshmallow Heaven for me.

1. A night where the house is clean, dishes done, kids are sleeping, and hubby and I have a good movie or television show to watch.
2. Going to bed at night. Laying back in my bed after a long day. And hearing the breathing of the 3 people that I love most on this earth.
3. A long hot bath with bath salts and a good book.
4. Eating, but not having to cook it myself.
5. Sunny, warm, but not hot, days.
6. Shopping. But with someone else’s money. (okay, so that has never happened to me, but I imagine it would be really, really good.)
7. Crossing the last thing off of my list
8. Christmas Shopping
9. My kids doing something expectantly exceptionally generous or nice.
10. My husband telling me I’m beautiful.

So, what gives you Marshmallow Heaven??