A Good Reminder and A Lesson In Love

First, I want all you wives and/or mothers to go read this:
http://www.thecoffeeshopblog.com/2010/10/how-i-dont-do-it-all-and-can-live-with.html

Secondly, go watch this video:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=430598599645

Third, I've been in quite a funk the past few days and I'm finding it hard to get out of it. It scares me to be perfectly honest, because it reminds me of who I used to be: the girl with depression. I've been doing my best to not let it get me all the way down, but I'm still in that funk. What are some things you do to help yourself feel better when you're feeling funky?

Luvs and Huggies,
-Marie

Life Goals v. Game Goals

I often get annoyed at myself for the amount of time I spend playing games on my computer. This was happening again while Hubby has been home recovering. Then one night I realized something. The games I play may be fun, but whenever I meet a goal in a game I don't feel very satisfied. But, if I meet a goal that I've made for the day, such as doing laundry or the dishes, when I accomplish that goal I feel much more satisfied. I'm also a more pleasant person to be around. It drives me nuts when Ethan comes in and bugs me while I'm trying to do just one more thing in a game. Ethan starts to act out. I get angrier and angrier. Nobody wins in that situation.

So, this past week I've been trying to remind myself of that whenever I play a game. It's been much easier for me to walk away and accomplish a 'life goal'. I get less angry at Ethan. Ethan gets more attention from mommy. Everyone is happier. (And I still get to play my games!)

Before, when I was depressed all the time, it was all I could do just to get out of bed and drag myself to my computer chair. Now, I have so much potential that I need to work extra hard not to fall into old habits.

Things I'm getting better at:
- doing the dishes every day
- making the bed every day
- remembering to snuggle and tickle and play with Ethan

Things I still need to work on:
- wiping off the kitchen counters every day
- cleaning the bathroom every week
- vacuuming much more often

What are some life goals you are working on?

EDIT:

My friend Monica posted this on her Facebook status today and I thought it went along so perfectly that I had to add it here:

‎"In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it." - Robert Heinlein

Hubby's Surgery

Do you know what a claw toe is? A claw toe is a claw-like deformity of a toe. Looks something like this:

Or this, in my hubby's case:

It causes pain from rubbing against shoes, and blisters or callouses. So, he had it removed. Three weeks ago today in fact. It was a fairly brief surgery, but we spent a good deal of the day at the hospital doing lots of waiting. (Big thanks to Hubby's grandma and grandpa for taking care of Ethan during that time!) He pretty much took the week off of school since he has to use crutches to get around, and last week was fall break so we had a nice two weeks where he was at home. I tried to be the dutiful wife and do things for him, but most times it was like pulling teeth to get him to let me help him! *Somebody* has a very independent streak!  ;)

This Thursday he goes back in to have the stitches removed and hopefully he won't need the crutches anymore. It was kind of funny, but there was only one person on his surgery team that asked me how I felt about it. Big picture: It's just a toe. He doesn't need it, hasn't needed it for some time. It causes problems. If he's willing to let me get my boobs 'undone' (as I like to say), then who am I to say he can't get a problematic/worthless toe removed?
Little picture goes more like this: EWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's going to be a VOID where his baby toe was!!!!!!  It's going to look SO GROSS until it's fully healed!!!!!! *shudder*  I don't want to even LOOK at his foot until it looks semi-normal again!

I literally get the heebie jeebies every time I think about it. Now, if it had been me who'd had the toe removed I'd be morbidly curious about it. Go figure. I'm just weird like that I guess. It's like when I get blood drawn at the doctor's office, I have to watch. I have to know what's causing the pain/discomfort and to know when it's going to end. When the hospital admitted me when I was in labor with Ethan they took me up, got me all settled in, and asked if I still wanted an epidural. I was like "HELL YES! HOW MUCH LONGER DO I HAVE TO WAIT FOR IT?!???" And when the doctor finally came to administer it I wanted so badly to watch him stick that needle in my back, but I was a bit preoccupied with some intense contractions. Probably a good thing too because I'm not sure which hurt worse.....but I'm going to say it was the contraction.

Anyways, here I am going off on a tangent. I will try to post a picture of Hubby's foot once it looks 'normal'. But for now, try not to have too many nightmares of decrepit toes.

Luvs and Huggies!
-Marie

Catharsis

I don't know why I keep putting this off. I need to blog. Get it out of my head so maybe it'll stop pounding against it. I need some catharsis. Catharsis or katharsis is a Greek word meaning "cleansing" or "purging". (Wikipedia)


To start, I'll go back to what I should have posted a few weeks ago: My day out with my good friend, Taryn.

Taryn lives about a half an hour north of me and has a daughter just a few months older than Ethan. We all needed a playdate, so Ethan and I packed up and headed up to their house. Taryn and I also both had errands to run so we did them together. We dropped her car off for some repairs and then headed to the mall. Ethan needed pants and socks so we went to Gymboree. I love their kids' socks! The boys' usually are 5 for $10 and they work really well for Ethan. They have non-skid bottoms and they never fall off (by themselves). After that we went to Carters and I bought a nice fall jacket for Ethan, a shirt, and a couple of cute little outfits for Taryn's soon-to-be-born baby boy. I *love* Carters! They always have cheap prices or sales or both! AND I had three awesome coupons! What would have been about $60 ended up only costing me about $20! YAY!

After Carters Taryn and I were both craving this:

New York Cheesecake pancakes at IHOP! OH. MY. GOODNESS. Talk about HEAVEN IN A PANCAKE!!!!!! I think I actually spend a great deal of time thinking/dreaming about these pancakes. See those chunks in the pancakes? Those are chunks of real cheesecake! They don't just make them taste like cheesecake, they put REAL CHEESECAKE CHUNKS IN THEM! Smooth and creamy these pancakes are just to die for! If you have an IHOP near you, you MUST go try them. Seriously. Be prepared to overfill your caloric intake on this one meal though...

After lunch Ethan was acting really tired so we dropped Taryn and Joryn off at home and headed back to our house. Ethan took a nice little nap on the way. Ok, gotta rewind a little bit. Before we went up to Taryn's I had checked the mail. We received two checks. This whole thing made me cry because we were running out of money and didn't know when we'd be getting more. One was from my mom, and one was from hubby's Grandma in Oregon. I felt so touched that they'd felt our need and decided to help us out. So, after Ethan and I arrived back home we picked up hubby and went shopping at WinCo for some much needed groceries. For some reason I can't remember we went to WinCo before depositing the checks. I kept the checks in their filled-out deposit envelope in my purse. We got our groceries, paid, put the groceries in the car, and headed to the bank. It was only when we got to the ATM to make the deposit that I realized the envelope was no longer in my purse. We parked in the bank's lot and I searched frantically all over the car for it. My purse had been sitting next to Ethan in the cart at the store and he had been rummaging through it (even though I'd told him not to). I was really upset by this point and told Ethan if he'd taken it out and dropped it he was going to be in BIG trouble. We quickly headed back to WinCo to see if by some miracle we could find it. It wasn't near where we had parked so hubby dropped me off and I ran in to ask Customer Service if (again, by some miracle) anyone had turned it in. And someone had. It had fallen out of my purse while *I* was carrying it on our way out to the car. Whoever found it was an angel and instead of keeping it (all the information was filled out and could have been deposited pretty easily by anyone) they turned it in. I think the nice lady behind the counter could visibly see the relief in me when she asked for my I.D. and how much the deposit was for. I thanked her heartily and with the envelope grasped firmly in my hands, walked back out to the car. We went back to the bank and deposited it. Returning home I felt extremely blessed, grateful, and tired.

Has anyone ever exceeded your expectations like that? A friend, family member, or even a stranger? I'm so grateful that there are still decent people in the world, even in my city.

Words of Wisdom

I know I'm way overdue here, but bear with me. It's been a busy week, and I learned a few things today, but tonight I just want to share with you something my best friend told me. Mariah writes a blog about her wonderful and sweet son, Miller, who is Autistic. She posted a new entry tonight and I commented on it. This is the little conversation that followed:


Me: More parents ought to be like you ^.^ (including me!)


Mariah: aww, thanks. You're a great mom too! ^.^


Me: Thanks, I try. I fail a lot, lol, but I try. :) Love ya!


Mariah: It's not failing, it's trial and error ;-) With a very large learning curve


I just LOVE that! So many times as parents we get caught up in all the things we feel like we're doing wrong and forget to give ourselves credit for the wonderful things we do for our children. And this can be applicable to more than just parenting of course! Those of you who aren't parents (yet), do you give yourself enough credit for the wonderful things you do in your marriage? How about at school? Work? Next time you feel like beating yourself up for making a mistake, just remind yourself of everything you do right, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you.  :)


Luvs and Huggies,
-Marie

Coming Soon

I have *tons* to blog about, but it'll have to wait. It's been a very long day and my head hurts. Hopefully I can get it up tomorrow.  Hope ya'll have had a good day  :)

Luvs and Huggies,
-Marie

Bright New Day!

I'm practically giddy right now! Once again, Ethan did *not* whine at me this morning(!), I get to go spend time with one of my good friends today(!), AND, we finally got paid!!!!!!  It's *SO* nice to see our account in the black again! And it looks like we even got enough to pay all our bills this month!

So, I'm off for a *much* needed day out! Hope ya'll are having a fabulous day and I'll check in later!

Luvs and Huggies,
-Marie