Entries from February 2009 ↓

Today I found myself amidst an argument with my five year old. We were walking (it hit 48 degrees and I could not help but break free!) and he insisted that if we went a street over it would be shorter. In his mind, the straight stretched looked really, really long. “I can’t even see my house at the end”, he kept whining. He whined, whined, and whined some more. He thought if we went another street down and took a lot of turns that it would be shorter (because the road was shorter). About 4 minutes into the conversation,  and he was insisting for the  4,289th time that he was right, and I had insisted for the 4,289th time I was right, I finally decided that I had indeed lost perspective. What in the heck was I doing in a passionate argument with a five year old? Seriously, people. Staying at home with my children and watching them grow into little people has more benefits than I can list, and I’d truly have it no other way, but one of the downfalls is losing perspective at times. I decided that I definitely had at that moment. I took a deep breath and ignored him. Only problem is, he’s as stubborn as they come and keeps going, even if there is no one there to argue back with. I seriously swear he could join a wine of the month club. Oh wait, that would be that needs that, after he does a Whine all month club. Age five has been a wonderful age for us, and he’s growing up a lot, but holy smokes, this whining stage is whipping my butt!

We’ve been watching Survivor: Season 9 - Gabone, via the CBS website. Season 9 is actually already over, and they’re currently airing season 10 on television. I don’t mind though. In fact, it has it’s perks; we can watch them at our own pace. Two in one day even, if we’re dying to know what happens in the next episode! The downside though: if you’re dying to talk to someone about the recent events, you can’t. Everyone else is watching it. And as much as I like to peek at the endings of books and most reality shows, I actually do not want to know who wins this one. (There are so many good players!) So I’m constantly worrying I am going to come across who the winner is.

Forest is actually a little Survivor fan. I don’t let him watch all of it — but he does enjoy the challenges so! He’s 100% boy and just loves himself a good competition, and he thrives on participating in them, as well as watching them. He has already picked out a player he loves.

Watching the episodes online, they play minimal commercials. However the commercials they do play really stick in your mind, because they tend to play them over and over. The one on CBS seems to be for Blackberry. Forest actually knows so much about Blackberrys (or would that be Blackberries? I know for the actual berries it would be berry, but what about for the phone? Hmm….) that you’d swear the kid has one! He even knows the Blackberry commercial is coming on by just hearing the opening note of the song that accompanies the commercials.

Out of curiosity, I went to our cell phone carrier’s (we’re on my parent’s family plan - cheap!) website to check out the price — expensive!!! They have great features, but I don’t think I would pay $200 for a phone, even if it did have great features. Since buy.com seems to have everyone (and most of it on sale!), I decided to check what the price there was. Holy smokes — it ships out for $119. A 39% savings! Once again, I am duly impressed with buy.com. I should be their little poster girl. Seriously, check them out if you are looking for anything! I’m betting you’ll be surprised!

I’m on episode 10 right now (out of 14) and I seriously am holding myself back from watching another one right this very second. I must sleep. But I have to know what happens next. Did anyone else out there watch the Gabone season? If so…… please tell me it has a good ending!

Ahhh, a child that loves to read as much as her mom:

Leaning down for a closer look:

Holding it up for a closer look:

You can see this and other Wordless Wednesdays at Five Minutes for Mom.

  I’m pretty sure the best thing about gifts isn’t actually what the gift is. It’s the fact that you didn’t have to ask for it - it was freely given. Being given a gift makes me get that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

   Today I was given a gift that gave me that very feeling. The best thing - I didn’t have to ask for it, and it was *exactly* what I needed. Someone’s been apparently paying attention to me, to find such a perfect fit.

  I’ll give you some background… As you know, Luke is a full-time college student this semester. He has classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with one Internet class. He’s gone from early morning until late night on his school days. While at school he can get a great deal of home-work done, but by no means all of it. That has to come home with it. Along with homework at home, he also has an Internet class he does. Aside from school, he is also attempting to work Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (24 hours a week plus commuting time). Throw 3 small children into that mix, friends, family, and other obligations and you’ve got a *really* full plate.

   I’ve been feeling slightly disconnected from my husband for the past couple of weeks. I was getting frustrated that I didn’t feel like he was managing his time the way I would have, I felt disorganized, slightly left in the dust, etc. Instead of being grown up about it and approaching him, I started feeling a little combination of ‘Poor Me’ and ‘I can do this all myself, just don’t get in my way’. I was probably pretty cranky too. It wasn’t intentional, and I didn’t harbor any bitterness or ill feelings towards him. I just felt overwhelmed and lonely and instead of letting myself become vulnerable, I started building my walls faster than the best Mason you know. You know, I was doing the stereo-typical woman thing — it should be completely obvious that living this way makes me sad, and if you don’t, I’m certainly not going to point it out.

  Last night I decided enough was enough. If I spent two years building these walls and not coming to my husband and allowing him to know I needed him, we would really be in a sad, sad state.

   I feel stupid that it took me a couple of weeks to come out with it. But to be completely honest, I have a hard time being vulnerable. I’m afraid of it.

  Long story short, last night we spoke. As usual, my wonderful husband was caring, non-judgemental, and vowed to do everything within his power to fix the problem. (See why I love him?!) We had a long talk, and I felt like we had the start of a pretty good plan. Somehow though, I still felt less than peaceful, and like something was missing.

  Tonight a friend and I are going to the movies, so I decided to nap the boys so they would be able to stay awake later. So I get the kids down (which they did without a peep!), and Fancy went to sleep too. That’s rare my pretties, rare! So I’m online checking my e-mail, and I saw a blog comment that needed moderated. I have no idea why it needed moderated, as this person has posted on my blog many a time. However, it did. As I went into the admin panel to approve it, I saw their IP address was connected to a church. Out of curiosity, I clicked the link to the church. It took me to a church website. I clicked on this banner at the top (adorable, by the way), and it brought up this video of this Pastor and his wife speaking about parenting small children. It wasn’t the typical “this is how to raise your children and make them behave” message. It was more of a session aimed at parents and how you feel during that period of your life. It gave practical tips on reconnecting and encouragement. It was exactly, exactly, exactly what I needed right now in my life. There was nothing brilliant said (not that the man wasn’t well spoken; he was), just all common-sense stuff that made perfect sense. But I just needed reminded, just needed to still my heart and really listen.

   I’d say it’s bizarre that it all added up the way that it did - that I worked up the courage to speak to my husband last night, that the kids took a nap, that the comment went into the moderation que, that I clicked the link, that I clicked another link, that the sermon was to people exactly like me. But it’s not bizarre at all — with a Father like I have - why would I expect anything less than a perfect gift?

(This is a post where the healthy food eaters/the sugar police need toclose their eyes and sing *lalala* as they pass this post by. I will ration this stuff out to my children, I swear it.)

4 boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch (their favorite sugary treat cereal)

Bic Comfort 3 Adance razors

2 pkgs Kotex

2 pkgs Reese’s Miniatures

2 boxes of Lucky Charms (my favorite sugary treat cereal)

10 Soy Joy bars (barf! But my sister loves them.)

2 pkgs of 4 pk. GE Lightbulbs

1 Garnier Fructis Shampoo

Before coupons/sales/rebates:  $75.45

Out of pocket spent: $9.98 (after rebates)