Archive for the 'bad housewife-ing' Category

Update on the sickies

April 05th, 2008 Comments(5)

Noah

Noah is feeling much better. He’s on strong anti-inflammatory medication and it’s doing its job.

Someone mentioned it to me that it was quite cruel of me to make Noah bring me a diaper for Liliana when he was feeling so badly. Okay, so maybe that was a mistake. I can be a bad wife sometimes.

Liliana

So you didn’t know she was sick. Surprise!

On Thursday, her babysitter told me that she snuggled with her for half an hour. That was my first clue. Liliana does not snuggle. It goes against everything that she believes in. Thursday evening she had a fever, became whiny and did not want to be put down. That also is not I’m-so-independent-leave-me-alone baby.

Luckily, Noah has Fridays off so he could look after her while I worked yesterday. She pretty much cried, whined, snuggled, and slept the whole day. And had a fever and the runs. She did not want to eat. She also fell asleep in my arms and almost fell asleep in Noah’s arms. This has not happened since she was a newborn.

Today she’s a little better. This morning and she was still whiny, snuggly, sleepy and runny, but earlier this evening she actually went crawling and walking. Apparently she’s feeling a bit better.

I really don’t like it when my kids are sick, but I have to admit that I’m really enjoying the snuggle time I’m getting today.

We’re having about 25 people for dinner tomorrow night, so I’m hoping Lili’s feeling a lot better by then.

Moving On

February 22nd, 2008 Comments(8)

In four short months, my family and I will be boxing up our stuff and moving on.

lili in a box

We will be leaving the town I grew up in, the town both girls were born in, the town Noah and I were married in, and moving to the prairies.

wedding party

We’ll leave behind (and will miss) friends, memories, and my family, but we look forward to new friends, new memories, and Noah’s family.

There are things we will miss, and things we will not.

Things we will miss:

  • The lighting in the bathroom across from my office. It makes my face look un-fat, un-red, and un-splotchy.  It’s a magic mirror.
  • The lake.
  • The mountains.
  • Our church.
  • Warm-ish winters.
  • Small town life.

Things we will not miss:

  • Horrid small town drivers.
  • Shopping at Wal*Mart.
  • Rainy summers.
  • Slushy winters.
  • Everyone knowing everything about everyone else.

Things we look forward to in Saskatchewan:

  • Stores!
  • Concerts!
  • Sun!
  • The ability to see an entire train.
  • Seeing the sun rise ahead of me, while pure darkness is behind me.

One of the biggest things I am looking forward to in Saskatchewan is staying home with my girls. Of course Kaylie will be in school, but my baby Lili will be at home.

I worked full time or went to school full time since Kaylie was 6 months old (besides my 7-month maternity leave with Liliana) and I don’t want to do that again. God provided me with an amazing job here that I love, and amazing women to care for Liliana while I’m at work, and if my Lord decides that I need to work outside the home after the move, then I will do that. But, if He somehow allows me to stay home and earn an income at home, I will be forever grateful.

I worry a lot though. I worry that we will not have enough money to pay for Noah’s college, our loan payment, food, shelter, clothing, transportation … you know, the things of life.

I just read this article by Crystal of Biblical Womanhood, and I was totally put in my place.

There have been many thoughts swirling around in my head regarding the college discussion. I appreciated many excellent points which were brought forward. I hardly feel like I need to say much more, there is one thing I want to finish this discussion with, though…

I think the bottom line is this: How big is your God?

Is He big enough that if you step out in faith and follow a path which may seem contrary to the world’s way of doing things, you can trust Him to provide? My God is that big!

Is He big enough to care for you if your husband dies and you are left with 12 mouths to feed? My God is that big!

Is He big enough to take care of you so that you can live on one income? My God is that big!

My God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. If I need anything, He can supply it.

Keep reading the rest of the article.

Is my God big enough to provide for us?

Yes. He is more than qualified.

Noah tells me that if I am to be a full-time mom/housewife, which he fully supports, then I am going to have to learn (re-learn?) how to clean.

He was not being cruel, I have just become a bit lazy. During his three-month parental leave, Noah was the best house husband I could ask for. Actually, he was better. He cleaned bathrooms, he washed dishes, he vacuumed, he washed floors, etc. The only thing he did not do was cooking and laundry. Because I wouldn’t let him.

Before I got huge and ginormously pregnant, we split the duties pretty good. But, since the whole me-being-a-beluga-whale, having a baby, going back to work thing, I have kind of been slacking off. (Besides last week when we had SIX house showings and I was cleaning like a crazy person.)

So? I have some work to do.

It’s not like our house is in bad shape, it’s completely the opposite. It’s just that Noah is doing more than his share of the work. And that’s not fair to him.

He never complains about it, because he is the best husband ever, but I need to take over some stuff that he does.

Tomorrow the laptop is not being opened (by me) at all.

It’s amazing the things that happen when it is closed.

It’s after dinner, and my jeans are still on

January 08th, 2008 Comments(7)
On a regular day, I’d have been in sweat pants long ago. But, Noah keeps telling me that I look great in anything that is not sweats. I took that as a hint that wearing my fleece pants he got me for Christmas every day might be a little too often. What can I say? It’s cold here and my fleece pants and slippers are warm and comfortable. I like warm and comfortable.
I’ve been looking out the window for the mailman (actually we have a mailwoman) since I ordered these and these from Carole Axium Designs after I won the contest that OMSH did with this. (I don’t think I’ve ever linked that much in a sentence. Ever.) I absolutely love them. I can’t decide which pair I like better, or whether or not I’m going to be able to part with them and give them as gifts.
Just after Christmas, I received these from Secret Agent Josephine’s Etsy shop. I love getting Etsy packages in the mail. Those are good days. After I came home from the most horrible place on earth Wal*mart this afternoon, I was not in a good mood. All I had to do was check out my pretty earrings and read some nice reader comments and I was alright.

BUT THEN. I started dinner. The plan was to make burgers with fries and potato salad. When I started heating up the oven, it started on fire. Just a little one that was easily put out and did not do any damage, but it cancelled the fry idea. Then, I forgot to make the eggs and forgot to buy the celery for the potato salad. FINE. We had grilled cheese. I burned three out of the four sandwiches even though I was watching them closely. Let’s just say that I’m staying away from my kitchen for a little while before I burn the house down or have a nervous breakdown, whichever happens first.

AND THEN I linked all the links above, then added pictures to this blog. When you add pictures in blogger, they all go to the top of the script window. I cut the text I had written (and linked!) and pasted it above the pictures. ALL the text took the link of the first picture. I was so mad. Blogger does not have an “undo” button. I hate that. It also saves automatically every 2 seconds, so I was hooped. After this blog, I’m going to bed. I don’t know what I can do wrong there. Before I do that though, I’ll give you some picture love, even though the pictures made me angry when they unlinked my links.

Last night, we had a family party in our bedroom. Kaylie was watching a movie (on the TV that is supposed to belong in the basement but gets relocated to our bedroom if Noah needs to record a football game), Noah was on the new computer, Liliana was playing around with anything that she could get into her mouth, and I was using my neglected-for-2-whole-days camera.
Liliana thought it was a good idea to help Daddy with his Scrabulous game against Miss Sue.

Daddy tried to get her to stop drooling on the new keys.

But she was convinced she had a really good word.

And would not give up.

Until Daddy looked away for 0.3 seconds and she had full reign.

After Daddy finally found a word to play, we headed downstairs for a picture of the girls. I tried to teach Noah how to use the new camera, but he didn’t like the fact that the viewfinder did not show the picture he was taking. I still need to read the owner’s manual.

Liliana and Daddy were racing around the room.

Until Liliana saw a spec of dust and decided to chase it and eat it.

After the dust was eaten, Liliana taught us CPR so that this would not happen again.

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Crazy Christmas Cards

December 14th, 2007 Comments(3)

I started writing Christmas cards on December 1st with the intention of sending them out by the end of the first week of December.

That didn’t happen.

I actually like sending Christmas cards. There’s a picture of the kids, a picture of our whole family, a Christmas letter, and a generic Christmas card. It’s fun to update our family and close friends on how and what we are doing.

The problem? I’m a hardcore procrastinator. Seriously. I’m the worst. Just ask Noah, it drives him crazy.

The I’ll-do-it-tomorrow-s turn into the I’ll-do-it-next-week-s and then by the time you actually get around to getting that stamp on, you’re in a rush to get them out before Christmas.

So, if you’re a relative of mine, you’re getting a card. It just might not be on time. And I haven’t even mailed my brother and niece’s Christmas presents yet. (Sorry!!) I pulled my brother’s name this year, and we just always buy for each other’s kids. kids are fun to buy for. No pressure at all. Having spent some time with my brother recently, I knew exactly what to get him. No pressure there either.

I just called Noah and he again stressed to me that we have to get the Christmas cards out before Christmas hits. Pressure. Pressure that I put upon myself by procrastinating.

A wise woman once said, “A procrastinator’s work is never done.” How true is that? I hate that quote and love it at the same time. It explains why I’m always rushing everywhere and why I’m such an airhead.

One day, if I ever want to curl up with a book again, I’m going to have to kick this procrastinating habit. I love reading, but I never have time. Why don’t I have time? Because I’m rushing around doing the things that I should have done yesterday, last week, last month … Our “guest room” is still filled with boxes from when we moved. I’ll get around to it one day.

I always get these great ideas to get the whole house in shape and laundry done on the weekends … then the weekend comes and I’m still catching up on stuff I was supposed to do during the week. Good plan gone sour.

So. This weekend. I’m cleaning up that room. Today. I’m sending out the Christmas cards. Tomorrow. I will stop procrastinating.

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