Slow takes, on a wednesday

1. MK has been sick this week so we've spent lots of time at home. I've felt differently at the end of these last few days. A touch of cabin fever, yes, but mostly I've felt some semblance of satisfaction in this vocation of motherhood/wifedom. I've felt uncharacteristically happy in this home making business, the making of beds and folding of clothes (NOTHING is in my dryer right now. cray cray), and even (pigs flying high here) the preparing of meals. I've always been better when I'm busier so maybe this sick toddler and needy newborn are good for me. Stay tuned next week when I'm on the edge of the cliff again. I wonder if this forced slowing down helped. Could it be that I'm happiest when I'm doing the job I know I was created for? Cray cray again.

2. We had a wonderful thanksgiving. With no offense at all to our amazing families, I kind of abhor traveling with children. Need I re-post for the 3rd time the pic of MK's locked legs and arms screaming for 3.5 hours after our trip to Savannah in April??  I've resigned that our families may talk smack about us when we're not there, but mama just can't deal. Come see us. anytime. But Lawd please don't ask us to  come see you. Anyway, we did travel this Thanksgiving because my husband asks very little of me so I pack the car every November for the relatively short trip to greenville as a gift to him. I realized that as kids get older and their rookie mamas start to chill the hell out,  it does get easier to be in someone else's home. Yes, they'll always sleep a little less great in a pack-n-play knowing their beloved Sha Sha is downstairs just willing them to wake up, but it does become a big help to be with these people who love these babies like you do. I found myself missing my elder gremlin by Sunday because she was always off somewhere, with someone, being cared for by someone else, and surviving it all quite well. I'd say we'd start traveling more but I have birthed a 2nd carseat hater. God dislikes me mucho.

3.I am just finishing Choosing Joy by Dan Lord and can't recommend it enough. Thanks to the aforementioned toddler wrangling during Thanksgiving, I spent many a baby feeding reading this little gem. As someone who kind of sucks at experiencing joy, this was a new take. If I can get my act together/get a baby on a nap schedule, I'll come back with some of the highlights.

4. I know I just talked about feeling all warm and fuzzy about domestic life over here, but I couldn't leave it all warm and fuzzy. I've written before about how 'glass half full' my husband is and how it takes a WHOLE lot to get that guy down. Since it takes a WHOLE little to get me down, I've been trying to make those first few minutes when he walks in the door a little less "pick a diaper to change. now. please (if I remember the please.) It is so not cool that the time dad gets home coincides with the hour all children turn into hungry wolves because these hard working menfolk really do deserve to come home to something other than wolves and angry mother wolves. So while I may be up for most improved in the domesticity department, I'm still getting a big, fat Needs Improvement on being someone my husband wants to come home to. How do you girls do it? How do you manage to have a semi-clean home, food on the table, kids looking un-homeless and not cuss within 5 seconds of your husband's arrival? And furthermore, how do you manage to stay awake for more than 10 minutes after the last needling (credit for best word ever to Grace) is in bed?  I watched a great 60 minutes piece on a couple who spends 16 hours a day together in a car filming lions in Botswana. When Lara Logan asked them how they spend that much time together, the presh husband said he never wanted a job where he worked 12 hour days and came home angry, grabbed a scotch, and got to spend 1-2 hours with his wife. All I could think when I heard that was that Ross would be happy with a half hour of semi-sane, happy wife. I guess there's a reason there are 4,245 books on putting your marriage first because it ain't easy with these little creatures demanding to be fed/bathed/prayed with at every turn :)

5. If anyone has an extra dose of self-discipline/ "shut up and do it-ness", please pass along. Thomas is 12 weeks. I think. Maybe 11? Whatev. He'll be 3 months old in 12 days which is plenty of time for me to have put down the 5 whoopie pies (thank you Sha Sha) and picked up the running gear. I was supposed to start Tuesday. But Mary Kate is way sick and Ross has a stooopid schedule this week. So we try again tomorrow. Must stop drinking diet cancer and start fueling with stuff that will give me enough energy to stay up for at least one round of Jeopardy with my hubs. Anyone want to sign up for an expensive race with me? About the only thing that could motivate me to train right now is the thought of spending and then wasting money. Or maybe the promise of a cupcake and dc at the end...

6. Please go fill your heads with some un-narcissistic ramblings. I just had 20 minutes and what does one do with that much time if the dryer is empty?  I did just empty Ross's cell phone pics onto my email so come back soon for some adorableness with a side of narcissism again!