Oddly enough, i started this Sunday. but things happen. distractions. not bad, just not this.
Saturday I spent the day washing laundry and putting it away (most of it anyway). It’s a bit overwhelming at times. Once upon a time I would wash dishes and laundry every night while Sam would play. I would finish up about the time he was needing a bath to get ready for bed. I just felt as though I was missing out on so much. I started putting it off until he went to bed, and then the baby came. I’d go to bed not long after the children, because I knew if I didn’t, she’d wake up, and I’d regret not getting the rest when I could. Fourteen months down the road now, and we’ve recently past a major teething period. She’s back into her routine of going to bed between eight and eight-thirty, Samuel close behind. I have no idea why I’m blogging on household chores and the sleeping patterns of my family.
PD worked on the truck a bit and the kiddos played on my pile of clean laundry (to-be-folded). That night PD and WM went to the men’s fish fry at church. One hundred pounds of fish! Before college you couldn’t pay me to eat fried catfish. As a child, fried catfish meant a very ill evening for me. Even now it’s on a very rare occasion that I eat it. They had a good time, PD came home with pictures of fish and friends. That night we decided that I would cook a roast for Sunday lunch. The next morning I woke up before church and started throwing things into the Crockpot.
Sunday was the start of the Pastor’s class. It wasn’t as large of a turnout as I anticipated, but the faces I did see there made me very happy. Some old friends, a current one, and I even managed to make a new one. The new one, a young couple with children the same age as my own. They returned that night with their son to attend AWANA and the evening services. She observed quietly as her son watched the other kids sing, say their memory verses, and he said his own for his book and vest. I had a feeling they would be hanging around for a while. She was standing in the doorway just before we let the kids out to play and I asked if she was going to start helping out, she said she would. I’m really looking forward to getting to know her. She and her family look so familiar to me. I wonder if her children didn’t go to the same daycare Samuel use to attend. I guess only time will tell.
Sunday afternoon, when PD and I opened the door to the apartment a wave of pot roast rushed past us. It was like I was walking back in time to my Gam’s house, it made me smile. We weren’t home long before WM and his daughter accepted our invitation to lunch. I actually set the table! When everything was ready I went back to my room to change and from the front I heard the voices of my family. Even now it’s hard to contain the joy I feel when Home sneaks up on me. I had this conversation not long ago, that Home isn’t really a place for me right now, it’s more of where my heart is. And it’s not that my husband and children aren’t Home for me. I come from a large family who would get together very often (seemed to anyway when i was a child). Things change, we all grow up, and go on. We lose track, we find ourself without a Home to come home to. Something in the conversation made my friend laugh and say he didn’t consider me “homeless” but, that’s how it feels sometimes, with my family far from Home. My aunt was down a couple of months ago, visiting at my uncles house. She looked around the room at her husband and my cousin playing with my son, to my aunt, her daughter and my sister talking. I was standing there with Libby and she looked over and said, “now this feels like Home.” I’m so glad I’m not the only one who feels that way. It’s why I always try to surround myself with lots of friends, why family gatherings are so important, why putting my children in a loving environment is so important. It’s where I feel loved. Home.
I have no idea why I’m going on so much about it.
I assume that when I have a home, and my family and friends come to visit. Perhaps that will feel like Home. And when my children come Home with my grandchildren…
Now, it’s not like knowing a place, it’s carried more on the inside, I guess.
But! My mother and oldest sister are coming down for a visit in April, and I’m sure we’ll all be over at my other sisters house. The kids will grab onto the legs of their uncle and he will drag them around. Libby will cry because Khaki got too close and Sam will find anything he can to get into. One of these days my dad and step mom will come in town and, I’ll know be told so, we can visit. I had some friends say they were going to come down the end of February pending good weather. The weather really hasn’t been that great, but its getting really beautiful, and hopefully will stay that way. It will be really nice when we can all get together again.
I need people.
For the first time in a while we were actually invited to go out for lunch after church. It felt really good. And for the first time I didn’t mind having to say no. That felt pretty good too. Being able to say no because you already had dinner cooking at home, and not because we couldn’t afford to eat out. I was open to cutting the roast off and meeting them, but PD said he really wanted roast, so roast it was… and an extended invitation to my friends. I really did have a better time with them than going out. Otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this.
extended ramble.
I was going through pictures to upload to the album and I ran across one of my kids and my sister-in-law’s children. I looked over at PD and said “I want this…” Before, we never really saw how it could be possible, but with the way things are moving now, we can actually see a future like that. I’m not saying I’m planning for five children, but I would love at least one more.
PD starts school this summer, in a few years he’ll have his masters with a concentration in special education. We’re in a year lease here, but I already have my heart set on this one house. I know, I’m a glutton for punishment. It seems like all of my friends are growing up around me. But all I can think is, I’m only 28, yes a good deal of people have it all figured out by then, but not everyone. PD will be 34 in August, and to me, we’re still very young. He has his carrier path now and is working toward it. I have mine in the back of my head, but it changes daily. I’ve reschedule my exams once again. I haven’t put forth near enough effort for my A+ certification exam. I can make all the excuses in the world, but the truth of the matter is, I simply have poor time management skills and my priorities are out of order. Or at least, the exams are not at the top of my priority list. They will however be reaching the top very quickly, as the A+ exam format will be changing in June. Not to mention the CCNA exam I have scheduled for April I need to study more for, and Network+ I haven’t even studied or scheduled, but that one can wait a bit longer.
Sam’s class has been practicing Grand Ole Flag song for their patriotic program on the sixth. I actually had to find the music/lyrics online because I had never heard it before. He knows every word, without my singing along. The sixth is also our snack day, so I’m trying to think of a patriotic snack, or patriotic looking.
It’s a little hard to understand, but if you listen hard, he’s singing the song. I’ll probably get him to sing it again.
**Super Sam video added to Mommy’s Happy post
Last night we found a new phone for PD. He has been toting around an LG for three years now, and frankly, it stinks. He’s been wanting the Motorola SLVR. We had tossed around the idea of porting his number to a land line and cutting some costs, just to turn around and get cable/inet somewhere down the road. There isn’t really a need for any of that right now. I figured with him starting school, I’d really need to keep in better contact with him. I’m still under contract, and we had thought he could carry mine, but then thoughts of, what if I go out with the kids somewhere and need it while he’s away. Yeah, we’re just going to stick to the two cells and we bought a SLVR on ebay. It was a little more expensive than renewing a contract and getting a phone with our carrier, but less expensive than buying a brand new phone, and this way, we stay out of contract. When my contract is up in November, we’ll have the freedom do go where ever we wish. Not that we don’t love our network… our problems are mainly centered around our phones. I’ll probably end up getting a new phone somewhere in the maybe not so near future, but before November. *fingers crossed*
Today we take Libs for her 12mo shots. We got a little behind last year when she came down with RSV. She such a tough little thing though. When we went in August she only cried on the last shot (of four) and in October, she didn’t cry at all. It’s a good thing she’s got such a high tolerance for pain, living with PD and Sam. Saturday, those two were wrestling in the living room and Sam came down on a stool and busted his lip. He wears the scar like a proud war wound. He only cried a little at first. Through the tears PD and I hear “I got bleed!” I couldn’t help but laugh at his fat lip. As if his lips weren’t large enough already. Don’t get me wrong, I think he has beautiful lips, but the new injury definitely accentuated.
