Just Writing

When I first started this blog, way back when, my life seemed small and manageable. I was busy, sure, but busy with small things. Busy with one child and one infant, busy with a small house and a postage stamp yard, busy with a few good friends and family only a few hours away. Our life was quiet, orderly, predictable, malleable.

I must admit the possibility that at the time it did not feel this way, it's perhaps just the looking back that makes it seem so.

Back then I had time to write. I wrote, I read, I commented. I also crafted, baked, gardened, taught, babysat and other things.

Today, I feel like my life has gotten BIGBIG. There's a pre-teen, a child and a toddler in my house now. They are busy. They are loud. They each have a life of their own. There are five lives in my house now. My big house, my big yard, my big van. Our trees are big, too-- and now there are four trees, instead of two. And then there's a pool...

Even our city is big. Our friends are here, there, across-over-there and our family is farfar away.

I feel a bit stretched out. A bit thin.

"Like butter spread over too much bread."

Now all my time is taken up in just being. Getting from here to there. Feed, clean up. Feed, clean up. Laundry.

I miss blogging. It was my chance to make a little mark on the world. Something that would still be here, just like this, in the morning. Not used up, not dirty-again-already, not eaten. I need that back again.







Linking up with The EO for Just Write again.

Profound Thoughts

"The key to being a good friend is to know when to Sympathize, when to Galvanize and when to simply keep your Mouth Shut."

~~Me. May 29, 2011

I thought that up in the shower tonight. I think up lots of profound thoughts in the shower. I also write a blog post every. single. night. In the shower. I do most of my best thinking and writing in the shower. Probably because it's the only time I'm ever alone. And quiet.

So that's my excuse for my recent blog silence. Now that Jamie's crawling and pulling up and scooting and practically walking, I have No Time to do more than think up the post. I take the pictures, but never download them. I compose the posts, but never write them down.

Also, my laptop died a sad and violent death. One day it was chugging along its usual faithful way and suddenly it started to hum loudly, the screen went all colored-y lines and wavy-ness and fizzzzzzz and it burst into flames! (not really that last part-- that was for dramatic effect). The loss of my laptop has compounded my lack of time and space to think. I can no longer prop myself up at the table with the laptop in front of my plate and furiously write while the children eat lunch. Or turn on an "educational" movie on the PC, for the kids, while I write a quickie post. Or take them to the library and blog while they read.

Nope, now I have to actually sit, in a desk chair, at the desk, my back to the children (warningwarningwarning!!) and use an actual mouse if I want to get any writing done. So. Basically, that never happens. Ever. But I really love my blog, so this isn't a lead up to a dramatic goodbye or anything, just your basic, run-of-the-mill excuse post-- trying to justify the waste of a place in your blogroll. And also to beg your patience and continued readership, which I treasure, despite my recent delinquency.

See y'all again soon, I hope!

Heartbreaking.

From the friend of a friend of a bloggy friend.




Would you go here, buy some coffee and help my friend bring home her boys and start putting their hearts back together again?

Perfect.

Laying it out a little

I've given up Facebook for Lent. Mostly because I've found that, since we moved here, FB has taken a greater and greater chunk out of my daily "free time". That is, time when kids aren't immediately in need of me. And I've become far too dependent on it as a crutch to get me through a rough day, when what I should be doing on those days is 1) a better job of loving my (albeit, cranky) kids, and 2) praying for wisdom and patience. Since James' sleeping habits (or NON-sleeping habits) are not changing for the better, those rough days are becoming more and more frequent and I just found myself fleeing to the sympathetic ears of my FB friends more and more.

So. Forty days ought to break that habit. I hope. If not.... *sigh*

I would like to take this opportunity to quickly mention something that's been plaguing me (and keeping me from blogging regularly) for some time. Sometime shortly after Christmas, someone (who shall remain nameless) mentioned to me that someone ELSE (whom they did not name to me, so... also nameless) mentioned to them (this is definitely how rumors get started) that I whine a lot on this blog.

*letting that settle*

Well. That took the wind out of my sails, let me tell you. Not that it's news to me. I mean, I've flat out stated it here on this very blog that whining is one of my besetting sins and something I've passed on to my kids and struggle with daily. But it hurt my feelings that, 1) someone noticed it here on this blog, and 2) it made enough of an impression on them that they'd mention it to someone else as a feature of this blog.

So I've spent the last two months second-guessing and editing and waffling about everything I post. Which means most times I just don't post at all. I have at least a week's worth of posts languishing in my "unpublished" folder, waiting for me to decide if they're worth posting.

But as I've done all that thinking and second-guessing and waffling, I've come to a conclusion. This blog is an expression of myself, with all my faults, honest and unpretentious, with no claim to superiority, or greater wisdom and virtue. I am not writing here because I consider that I have something vital to say every day. I don't write to instruct my readers, or to admonish them from a position of authority.

I am writing because that's what I do. I am writing for the love of words. I write so I will remember-- good things and bad. I write so that the people who love me and my family and who are far away, will feel that they are still, in a way, part of our daily lives. I write because the words buzz around in my head and only form into coherent, peaceful thoughts when my fingers hit the keyboard. I write so I can think clearly. I write hoping that people who read might get a little something out of it.

And so, if you are reading, I hope you are reading, not to learn anything profound, or to see "how it's done". I hope you aren't expecting to hear the daily musings of the perfect Proverbs 31 Woman. I hope you don't come looking for a daily lesson of some sort, or always expecting to be uplifted by the contents.

Rather, if you come and read and leave laughing, or feeling a little better about the day you're having, or if you read something that helps you cope a little better with the DAILYNESS of mommy-life, sometimes even if you cry a little and definitely if you go hug your babies a little tighter, then that's everything I could ever ask from a little blog like this.

So, I've got no great resolutions about improving the content, but I've come around full circle to feel comfortable again in my own, often-whiny bloggy skin. Here's to four more years of Herb of Grace, the blog!




PS. Since I"m FB free for Lent, would y'all click on over and comments here, instead of leaving your comments on the auto-post on Facebook? Pretty please?

Our church home group is studying The Screwtape Letters, by C.S. Lewis this semester. It's been a great read, full of convicting passages and rousing conversations. In particular we discussed something tonight that pertains to this blog. Well, it directly touches my parenting and friendships and, I suppose, indirectly pertains to this blog.

We were reading and discussing the tenth letter from Screwtape to his nephew, Wormtongue; the one in which Screwtape is "...delighted to hear... that (the) patient has made some very desirable new acquaintances..." Those new acquaintances turn out to be of the bad company sort that tend to corrupt good morals-- particularly those of a new Christian.

The passage that provoked my sudden return to the world of Real Blogging (as opposed to the pics and video that have been passing as "posts" here lately) is this:

No doubt he must soon realize that his own faith is in direct opposition to the assumptions on which all the conversation of his new friends is based. I don't think that matters much, provided that you can persuade him to postpone and open acknowledgment of the fact, and this, with the aid of shame, pride, modesty and vanity, will be easy to do. As long as the postponement lasts he will be in a false position. He will be silent when he ought to speak and laugh when he ought to be silent, He will assume, at first only by his manner, but presently by his words, all sorts of cynical and skeptical attitudes which are not really his, But if you play him well, they may become his. All mortals tend to turn into the thing they are pretending to be.

Take just a minute to think about that passage and the areas and way it may play out in your own life. No? Only me? Well then...

I know that this is something I struggle with often. I want to be liked. I want to fit in. I want to feel a part of whatever group I'm in at the moment. I want people to think I am whatever they think is awesome.

And here's how it applies to my parenting and, indirectly, this blog. If you've read my posts about Attachment Parenting, Babywearing, homeschooling, birth, and health, you know that I'm a pretty crunchy/hippy mama. I'm comfortable with that. Matter of fact, I really kinda like that image of myself. My friends back home are also hippy mamas, to a certain extent.

But then there are our ideas about child training. And the whole married-to-an-English-Teacher-Classical-School thing. And the tech-to-human ratio in our household. And my children eat stuff like Chicken Nuggets and cheez curls. And we've seriously considered attending an Anglican church. Or Episcopal. Or something similar also involving incense and chanting. Oh yeah, there's also now a mini van....

So, you see, I have one foot in each camp. And it's very tempting, when conversing with fellow members of either camp, to pretend that the other side of me doesn't exist. That I really am simply a dyed-in-the-wool Hippy Mama-- co-sleeping, delayed vax-ing, non-circ-ing and all. Or, on the flip side, that I'm the intellectual wife of an intellectual, who values "high" conversation, attends a high church and wouldn't dream of breastfeeding a two-year-old.

But the truth is, both sides have valuable truths. And I have good reasons for adhering to some of the various tenants of both stereotypes. Either extreme has it's problems, but a good balance of the two is exactly what I want in my life. The problem arises when I am reluctant to truthfully represent my actual beliefs out of intimidation and a desire for acceptance.

As I read that passage and pondered it, and as we discussed it tonight, I began to wonder about my new friendships here in Orlando and whether or not I've done a good job representing, unashamedly, my convictions. In particular, in the areas of mothering and... oh, wife-ing, or whatever you call it. I didn't come to any grand conclusions, but just a general sense of needing to renew my commitment to certain key issues and needing to be more bold in vocalizing my convictions when the opportunity arises.




PS. In case some of you who Know were wondering if I'm also thinking about Political Views in this conversation, you know it! But I'm totally not going there on this blog. Been there, done that. Not doing it again. No politics.

A little giddy :)

I'm guest posting today for Ordinary Sarah!

When Ordinary Sarah first asked me to write a guest post for her (while they move into their new house, hooray!) and suggested that I write about my favorite place in my house, my first reaction was skepticism. Let's face it, folks, we live in a tiny, two-bdr apartment in the middle of the city-- no yard, no space, too many neighbors right up in our business, and the kids aren't allowed to draw on the sidewalks with chalk. I thought to myself "My favorite place in this "house" is NOT-IN-THIS-HOUSE!" I want out of here so badly, I dream about it sometimes.

Go on over there to read the rest!

We'll be right back after theeeeese messages!

So in a complete change of pace from the last few posts, I want to take a minute to give a little pep talk about Swagbucks. I know some of you guys are tired of my spamming my facebook page with this stuff, but bear with me for a minute. I really don't get into a lot of the internet advertising junk (you notice that after three years of blogging, I still don't have ads on here), and I'm the LAST person in the world to knowingly sign up to receive spam. BUT. This here Swagbucks thing is a good gig. I'm telling you!

At it's most basic level, Swagbucks is a search engine that earns you points that you can then trade in for Stuff. Doesn't sound real good on the face of it, which is why I resisted my friend Cristen's spamming on facebook for so long :) (no offense, Cristen!). But what you might not realize at first glance is that one of the Stuff you can get is actual cold, hard cash. Well, VIRTUAL cold, hard cash, actually. In the form of Amazon.com gift cards and Paypal money.

Once I figured that out, I signed right up! During my first month of using SB, the points just craaaawled in so slowly, I kinda gave up on it. But then Laurie B. gave me a swift kick to get me going again by giving me some tips on how to work that search engine! And also by telling me how often she was raking in those $5 gift cards! (which I can't remember at the moment, but it was more than I was getting, anyway) And in the month or two since she got me going again I've earned SEVEN GIFT CARDS. That's almost (but not quite) FIVE DOLLARS A WEEK. Just for my internet usage.

Ok, so maybe that doesn't sound like an awful lot to some of you. But let me tell you, for a stay-at-home mom to get paid $5 a week to fool around on the internet during naptime.... Well, people, that's like paying a teenager to smoke dope!

And of course, as with paying a teenager to smoke dope, it does come with it's own set of problems. The week that they came out with Swagbucks TV, I earned three gift cards in one week by endlessly looping those stupid videos. With the sound off and the screen covered, of course, but still... it become an obsession.

So I had to get a little more disciplined about my Sb habits. I will take tomorrow's post to explain my daily SB routine! In the meantime, why not click on the link below, sign up and start on your way to $5 off your next package of diapers? Yes, Amazon sells diapers AND I can get free shipping, since I signed up for Amazon Mommy Prime-- also for FREE!!

I love that word.

FREE!

Norah Jones

I recently had the privilege of joining One2One Network's promotion campaign for Norah Jones' new album:



I received an early release copy of the album several weeks ago and the kids and I tried it out. We loved it! I've always said that I enjoy a wide range of musical styles and this album is a perfect representation of that. What a variety show! I've always loved her music and this album pairs her up with some other really great artists.

I had intended to post about this much sooner (especially since today is the deadline for posting our reviews. doh.) and in much greater detail, but for now, suffice to say that Norah Jones has done it again-- stellar album. The kids and I give it two thumbs up!

Climbing back in the saddle again. Kinda.

I love writing. I really do. You wouldn't know it from my blog recently, though. The thing is, writing is like exercise for me. When I'm doing it regularly it's AWESOME. I enjoy, the words flow, I'm in a rhythm, it makes me happy. I love getting comments and commenting on other blogs. But then something happens, like moving, or having a baby, and I get out of the rhythm. And it's sooooo haaaaard to get back to it.

But a bloggy friend asked me to write a guest post for her and everyone knows that writing guest posts bring extra traffic back to your own blog. So somehow, by hook or by crook, I've got to get some decent (and recent) content on here so greet my potential new readers.

So this morning I am determined to write a new post-- no matter how "sore" it makes me and hopefully, I'll soon be back into the rhythm of that daily "exercise.

But right now, I have to go. There's a supercute chunkalunk layin' beside me and trying to get my attention!

Supercool Internet Things

I found some cool thing online this week I'd like to share with y'all :)

First off, here's a link to a blog/website for and about handmade businesses. It's mostly geared towards childrens' stuff, but has a ton of great info, links, hints and articles. I've subscribed to their feed and am loving their photos! So inspiring. Can't wait to put some of what I've learned into practice in Jamie and Judah's new room-- whenever that happens!

From that site's linkage, I discovered another awesome site. It's run by artists from all over the place who donate prints for free download and printing. Some of them are simply gorgeous! I can't wait for the new house to start trying some out-- so I'm totally printing a few today! Goodness knows frames are cheap enough at Goodwill and Salvation Army..

So, how about y'all? Did you find anything fun online this week?

Well, I am still here, in case you were wondering. But I've just been doing other things than blogging. Obviously. I haven't even been READING blogs, which is highly unusual. Most of the time, even when I'm not writing on my own blog, I'm at least reading all of yours. But this time I've completely dropped out of the blogging world. I've no intention of quitting altogether, but people keep having babies and birthdays and then there's this thing called Christmas and I've been sewing and crafting like a mad-woman for the past month now and I still haven't caught up.

I've been wanting to show pictures of what I've been making, but I keep finishing them only just as we're about to run out the door to the birthday party, while shoving the thing (whatever it may be) into the gift bag. Hence, no pictures. I really have been quite productive, though. I promise.

And there's no end in sight, either, since we're having friends from college this week for a Christmas Party/game night and I've got a few house projects to finish up first. We see these people on a fairly regular basis, about every...say... four to six months and I have this compulsion to have a little something more done on the house every time they come lest they think we've given up on the thing. So far I've managed to keep it up for..what? Five year now? Don't know how much longer I can hold out! This time I intend to finish up the last of the trim painting in the dining room and (hopefully. possibly.) paint and replace hardware on the final bank of cabinets in the kitchen. I canNOT believe this is the week Susi decides to conveniently be "out of town". Blah.

Plus, going back for a moment to my excuses for not blogging lately, I've got a lot of serious stuff on my mind right now that I'm not yet at liberty to mention here. The fact that I can't talk about them here yet has the effect of making those topics the only thing I can think of when I sit down to write. On that note, you can be praying for our family. We have some major life decisions to make in the next few months.

Be assured, as soon as I can I will reveal all here on the blog, but in the meantime I may not be as regular with my posting. But please keep checking in on me! You never know when I might post some pics of the cutest kids in the world ;)

...And I'd also like to thank....

I just wanted to drop a quick post in here are thank all y'all for your encouraging comments on the last few posts about child-training. It's such a great motivater to hear that y'all think I'm on the right track! I'm greatly inspired to keep on working to bring my children up in the Lord and I do hope that the Lord continues to show me the way to do that. I will happily share with you what I learn along the way and I'm sure some of that will come from all y'all's blogs as well. I thank the Lord for all of you who encourage me in my mothering-- both bloggy friends and those IRL. It's such a blessing to have a community of like-minded women (and a few men, too) to provide support and encouragement.

THANK YOU!

Wow

It was fun to see that a couple of you actually had some great ideas for posts :) I'm saving Laurie's for later, 'cause it takes a little more work, but I've been cogitating over it...

Septembermom, about helping you son's reading comprehension... You say he's very visual and has trouble keeping his mind on his reading? Is this only with school related material, or also with "free reading" type things-- ie, fiction? If it's reading of all kinds, I'd recommend that you try out some graphic novels. Obviously he does eventually have to learn to read regular books, but perhaps motivating him with a more graphically exciting genre will lead to more proficiency and interest in reading in general. And you might be surprised just how much great stuff there is out there in graphic novel format. For example, did you know that the classic Boxcar Children Series is now available in graphic novel form? There's even a graphic version of Cinderella!

If he reads fiction fine and only has trouble keeping focused when he's working on non-fiction reading, then my solution would be to try having him read out loud. Not as much fun, but will certainly help him stay in touch mentally with what his eyes are seeing. This is the problem I have. I love to read fiction! As long as the word pictures are flowing through my (also very visually oriented) brain, I'm good, but as soon as things start to get technical... whoo baby. I'm gone! :) Any time I have to follow directions or memorize facts, I HAVE to either say it out loud or graph/outline it with a four-color pen. A Bic Four-Color pen is the only reason I survived freshman history. And economics. And calculus. Blech.

Hosanna asked about our trip pictures... Well, I did post as many of them as I could. Crappy hotel internet and all... I have tons more as well as a super cute little button that Dawn made me (thanks, Dawn!) and I'd planned to post all the pics and link up all the posts to that button in my sidebar, but.... I just got un-motivated (sorry, Dawn...:( ) Perhaps your request will motivate me once again! Who else is interested in seeing more pictures?? Anyone?

A small change

Just wanted to let y'all know that, in the interest of making your lives easier, I've disable the word verification feature for commenting. This means that in addition to not needing a Google profile, you now no longer need to decipher and type in those weird, crooked and fuzzy letters.

See? It's so easy to comment you've got no excuse not to anymore!

I'm all about making your life easier, baby.

Ooo, guess what??

My bloggy friend, Dawn, is going to design a button for me to use on my Vacation Vlogging posts! And you guys get to pitch in! I need some ideas for a catchy title. So far the only thing I've come up with is "Herb of Grace Goes Roading". And then I wiki-ed it and found out that "roading" is not actually a word, so there goes that idea... I also though of "....Goes Walk-about", but I'm sooo not Australian, so that's a bit presumptuous. So here I stand, back at square one, waiting for help from all y'all

Speaking of 'help from all y'all', thanks so much for your input on the photo submission choice! It's so nice to have other opinions pitching in! I plan to put up a post in the next week some time with the "narrowed down" list and see what y'all think then.

Two Women, Two Toddlers and a Drama Queen

The countdown has started! In just 14 days, we begin F. Road Trip 09--The Long Journey East. I know you think I'm about to warn you of my absence during that time, but ah...no... au contrair, my dear reader. As the true blogger that I am, I could not pass up this opportunity for (what I am sure will be) a rich source of blogging material. I intend to bring you regular updates from every Starbucks we stop in along the way. Or wherever I can find the neccessary wifi.

And to make it even better, I intend to vlog! Yes, that's right! Herb of Grace, the blog, is going cutting-edge-21st-century on you! I will be live vlogging our journey across this great country.

Mom, I hear you groaning about your dial-up and how you won't be able to watch the vids and all, but take heart. I will do my best to include some written accounts as well, for the less techie among us.

First, to pique your interest, I want to share with you our itinerary!



Each of those little blue flaggies is an overnight stop, and that blank bit is 'cause we don't know where we'll stop along in there, 'cause it's West Virginia, for pete's sake.

Now, to make it even more fun for y'all and for us, won't you chime in? What should we see and do along the way? Have you been to any of these places? Do you have any favorites spots along our route? What do you want us to check out for ya? What do you want to hear about on the Vacation Vlog? Got any good tips for traveling with kids? (besides the Benadryl thing, Laurie...)

And does anyone want to help me design a cool header to display during our road trip vlogging days? Pretty please? I'll put in a good word for you and you can think of it as free advertising! You can email me...

My first blog Award!!

My dear friend, Hos, over at Happily ever After, selected me for the Honest Scrap Award at her horsey blog, All the Pretty Little Horses. Thanks Hos!! It's very exciting :)

So, now I have to tell you 10 things about myself that you might now know, and then pass on the award to 10 other bloggers :)

1) It's sad, but true, I just spent ten minutes searching back through the links of people who given and received this award, and I STILL can't figure out what "Honest Scrap" means. I must be blog-award-title-challenged.

2) It's also sad, but also true, that I don't even care that I don't know what it means, I'm so thrilled to get my first blog award that I'll put it up and pass it on anyways!!

3) I have a blog-inferiority complex. I really do. I'm convinced that only people who are related to me or have to face me on a regular basis and answer the question "So, did you read my blog this week?" are reading at all. Much less regularly.

4) Sometimes I dream at night that my blog gets discovered and I go from nothing to a million hits a day over night and Dooce emails me to ask for my autograph.

5) Obviously. This is never going to happen.

6) Sad but true, yet again, I will never stop dreaming this. This is because somewhere along the way, my personality missed the message that I am a confident, individualistic, natural leader oldest child, and instead switched to attention-craving, insecure-but-faking-it, do-anything-for-a-laugh second-born or possibly-youngest mode. I think my sister stole my birthright at some point.

7) This blog-inferiority thing is sooo bad that I'm almost embarrassed to pass on a blog award to ten other bloggers, because I just know they've all got better things to do than accept an award from me...

8) Last week, I got so bored a painted my finger nails (which I never do, because...) now I have not had time to re-do them and you can just imagine what they look like now. Yes. Not at all like the hands of a mature, 30-year-old professional and mother of two.

9) My hands look like the hands of a nervous attention-craving, insecure-but-faking-it, do-anything-for-a-laugh second-born or possibly-youngest and likely only about eight-year-old.

10) I don't really care that much.

Maybe there is some of that oldest child in there after all....






I would now like to pass on the Honest Scrap Award to a sampling of my favorite blogs (this is not an exhaustive list, by any means):

Mama Kat: Because one of these days I'm actually going to enter her Writer's Workshop. And because she's FUNNY.

Stand and Deliver: This is my go-to blog for natural childbirth info and resources. This woman is a genius.

Better in Bulk: Oh the pictures... the lovely, lovely pictures....

Ordinary Days: Because the Hot Mama Revolution is a wonderful idea and has saved my sanity on more than one occasion.

The Monkeys and Me: Oh geez... the pictures, the Tot Talk Tuesdays, the cute kids, the homebirths, the insightful posts... It's all good.

Mom by Faith: Because I love her honest and God-fearing posts and she follows my blog! See? It pays off, people...

Keyboard Revolutionary: because she's a kindred spirit when it comes to natural childbirth AND she's a blogger I've actually met IRL AFTER I started reading her blog.

Fullness of Joy: because I owe her for years of friendship and lots of babysitting

Our Little Valentine: because her son is aaaalmost as cute as mine ;)

Toddled Dredge: because she's read "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" and occasionally rants about people who don't train their kids to behave :)

Each of you can now swipe that cool graphic over there, put it on your blog and pass it on to your top ten blogger friends. I may have skipped a few deserving blogs. Let me know if you think I have...

Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Boojiboo Flirty Apron GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Oh my WORD!!



Aren't these adorable??



Can you believe she's giving one away??



I super-duper WANT one!!



Don't you?

I may be a wee tad bit fickle

I know I was just claiming a new BFF the other day, but now.... I dunno... This lovely lady and her Etsy Shop, Blog and Playlist may be my very newest, bestest Internet BFF. Go ahead. Go check it out. There's nothing to see here today anyways....

I've been un-blogspired (oo look! I just made up another word!) around here these days. I need some quiet time in a cafe with wi-fi to recharge the muse. That's what we do to muses in the digital age. We recharge them. Bronte and Austen probably fed their muses with food celestial, but we recharge ours with caffeine and wi-fi. At least I do.

But today, instead of a quiet cafe and wi-fi, I have bored children and a messy house. The messy house is my fault, but the bored children is totally J's fault. He's at "guy's weekend" in Manassas for the weekend. Every five minutes I have to answer the following questions:

"Where's Daddy?"

Out at Mr S's house

"Whyyyyy???"

He's having a fun weekend to visit his friends

"But why does he have to go sooo long??"


Well, his friends live far away. We visit our friends too, right? But our friends live close by so we have short visits. But Daddy's friends live far away so he has to take a longer visit.

"Whyyyy??"

*sigh*

Not that I begrudge him the time. I really don't. These are good friends from college, and I love it that we are all still in touch. It's great to have friends that we've known since we first got married. It keeps us grounded. Gives us perspective. And besides, J always comes back feeling bad for having left me over the weekend with the kids all by myself and it's good for a few shopping trips without the kids in the next week or so ;) And oh yeah, he owes me a girly movie, too since I watched this one with him the night before he left. So I've got a girly movie night and at least two trips out without the kids coming to me in the next week. I can handle a day or two with bored kids and a messy house.

Oh yeah, baby!