A Little Piece Of Heaven

Or a little peace of Heaven...either way. We sat out under the stars, swinging on the porch swing, listening to the heavy breathing of our two sleeping girls. Happy Anniversary, I love you with all of my heart.

Mamma Mia

Brent and I went to see it, and despite the fear it would be beyond campy (which it so was), we really enjoyed it. Except now I have all the ABBA songs trapped in an endless loop in my head. Who needs an IPod?

I have to confess though that I may be the only person that has ever cried through most of "Mamma Mia". Who does that? I was just so caught up with watching this mother sing about her time with her daughter as a young girl being over, and with the whole pure loveliness of being young... I mean smooth skin, body parts up where they belong, being able to jump and move and sing without inhibition. I know, it's a completely idealized view of being twenty, but I was still nostalgic for something I probably never was. It was kind of a bittersweet thing, watching what I once was to some degree and watching where I am heading. Granted, Meryl Streep is my goal of aging beyond gracefully. I think she is amazingly beautiful and talented and boy, I hope I can be that in a few more years.

Anyway, once you get past the first few minutes of "What are we watching" is what thoroughly enjoyable...go see it! Bu be prepared to be humming "Waterloo" for a few days afterwards.

Yeah, What She Said...

I love Catherine, not in that way, but you know.

Speaking of which...yesterday I went to my friend's ultrasound and before I met up with her I went to the gift shop at the hospital. I decided I would get her a pink hat and a blue hat. You know the hats I'm talking about, right? Those newborn hats that, really, do they ever fit a baby's head? I did not think my children had freakishly large heads, despite the episiotomies (which is a post for another time and another place), but I could not get one of those hats to stay on either of them. They just would slide up, up, up their forehead and POP! Off they would come...the hats, of course, not the heads.

Anyway, I digress. As I took the hats up to the lady at the counter she commented on the two hats and I replied "We're going to find out the sex of the baby today", which, since I am not pregnant made it sound like it was 'our' baby. My friend and I. Who is another woman. And while at the risk of sounding like that Jerry Seinfeld episode (not that there's anything wrong with that), I had this driving need to clarify what I meant to the woman I didn't even know. I started backpedalling while at the same time having a "how do I explain this without sounding homophobic/narrow minded and snotty" conversation in my head, which I am sure made me look like I was having a seizure. She then (with a look of fear in her eyes) tried to talk me down by saying how many pregnancies there seems to be around lately (HELLO? I know that) and I replied that "Yes, a lot of my daughter's friends are pregnant"...MEANING that their friend's mothers are pregnant. The lady looked confused and said, "Oh is it your daughter's ultrasound today?" And I then ended the conversation by shooting her.

No, unless shooting invisible laser beams from my eyes counts. I just said "No, just a friend of mine" and left barely able to stop myself from shrieking "DO I LOOK THAT OLD?!?!". Of course, I then sat down, opened the newspaper I also bought and read about a 47 year old grandmother who was having a hard time covering her medical costs. That woman is only 6 years older than me. Indeed.

My Heart At Home Daybook...

Outside my window... is a warm, humid night.

I am thinking... that I am really excited to post this and put my name on another blog for the first time. Maybe I should have said I am thinking I am needy/nerdy?

I am thankful for... my girls being sound asleep.

From the kitchen... I have some leftover hash from my mom. Thanks, Mom!

I am wearing... capris because my legs need to be shaved.

I am creating... a Tivo list so I can cut down on television watching.

I am going... to go to bed soon...next time I'll do this Daybook in the daytime.

I am reading... "The Encouraging Parent"

I am hoping... that I have more patience and energy tomorrow.

I am hearing... the static of the baby monitor that I still use to hear the girls even though they are no longer babies (at least not according to everyone else besides me)

Around the house... are things to pick up after the company tonight.

One of my favorite things... are raspberries fresh from the garden and we got some tonight!

A few plans for the rest of the week: going to my friend's ultrasound (and wishing it was for my own), finishing swim and music classes for my deprived, unsocialized, home schooled children (yes, I am being sarcastic), and preparing for family to visit.

Eating

Another successful dinner party (actually a potluck). A relatively small house with 40 people invited is seemingly a recipe for disaster, but once again everyone fit in, laughed, brought and ate AMAZING food and all I had to do was provide the space and tidy up a bit before and after...which is a very good thing.

It was an odd day. For the first time in my memory since having children, we had a day without them. Daughter One wanted Nanny to drive her to her full day music camp and Daughter Two wanted to go with Nanny and spend the day with her. Nanny agreed! It was a great opportunity to tidy the house, but very weird. The strangest part was when I would clean up a room, it stayed clean! Imagine, no one behind me taking it all apart.

They are both sound asleep now, seconds after going to bed with sticky popsicle mouths (I forgot to wash faces- how bad a mother am I?) they were asleep. I do love those lovely girls.

To Everything There Is A Season

We went on a weekend camping trip to visit my relatives and just arrived home an hour or so ago. The girls had a great time playing with their only cousins and took over the campground, jumping in the river, running though the woods, all the things you would want your children to do and keep memories of. I often think that...these times with these small people seem so intense, how could they not remember all these adventures, the tastes, smells, feelings? But, of course, I have few memories of my time when I was that young, so chances are good we will all be saying in s few years "weren't we here before? Was that six or seven years ago? Was that the time you saw a fox?" and so on. Insert melancholy sigh here, because we wouldn't want it to be a happy little post about a beautiful flower or a ripe garden or forever young and innocent children.

It did grieve me to see my uncle growing so old. Here are my children visiting my uncles and aunts the exact places I did so many years ago, and until this weekend I so appreciated how their childhood was, in some ways, some very good ways, mimicking my own. But, of course, it is many years later and these same parents of my cousins whom I thought of as old 'way back then' when they were not much older than I am now, are indeed old and growing closer to the end of their visit here on earth. I could always make myself feel even worse by remembering that we never who or when someone will be lost, and I say that in the most sarcastic of ways, but, if all goes as it 'should' my children will be losing people they love on a fairly regular basis on their trip through childhood. I have very few options to offer them...I am a child of a youngest (by far) daughter, Brent is the youngest (by far) in his family. The cousins the girls are growing up with are actually third, fourth, maybe fifth or 'removed' (what does that mean?) and the aunts and uncles are either their great aunts and uncles or are really old enough to be (in some circles) their grandparents.

And here I am wanting another baby to live among the wrinklies of our family...parents included, to judge by the mirror some days. I draw a lot of comfort from Antique Mommy.

Anyway, it really was, overall, a wonderful, tiring trip. The girls barely made it into their beds tonight before falling asleep, the nighttime prayers were all ones of thanksgiving for the weekend of joys and family. God is so good, he's so good to me.

Summer Daze

I do this to myself every time. The kids seem able to stay up, so we stay up late and then the next day we pay and pay and pay... it was worth it though to see an outdoor performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The girls wore their wings and we had a great time under the moon watching Puck's antics.

Off to the beach for our daily swim lessons. The house is falling down around our ears with all of this going out every day and the girls are not on any sort of a regular schedule. I plan on getting on top of it during rest/nap time...or maybe I'll read a new book on the porch swing. Hmmm.

I love summer.