Buying: matching Christmas pajamas for the entire family. I bought a Christmas ornament in Maine so I’ll be ready to party as soon as November rolls around.


Reading: First Women, the Grace and Power of America’s Modern First Ladies, by Kate Anderson Brower. Four stars. A thus far unachieved goal of mine is to be First Lady so I read everything I can about the position. I’ve offered my services to Melania Trump is she ever wants to take the day off but I haven’t heard from her yet.
Church of the Small Things by Melanie Shankle. Five stars. I’ve read Melanie’s blog for years and own all her books. They’re on my book shelf in the ”bloggers who write books” section. I really enjoyed her book on friendship but CotST might be my new favorite. I love how she writes about life with humor and adds bits of scripture and truth without being preachy. 


“Deep down we struggle to believe God is going to lead us to what is best for us. It’s our internal voice that whispers we will never be enough, so we work and worry and feel like we must do something big, something huge to prove our worth and to make sure our life matters. We have to host a conference, starts a movement, adopt fifteen kids, or fight human trafficking to really matter. Which are all great things, but thinking this way can cause us to lose sight of the small things that can also change a life: bringing dinner to a sick neighbor, smiling at a waitress who’s having a bad day, reading to your kids before bed, and simply praying for someone going through a rough time.”  


I love that quote because I always feel like I should be doing something more impressive with my life. I love listening to podcasts but sometimes feel so insignificant because these women start companies, build orphanages and flip homes while homeschooling their 10 children and feeding them a hormone-free diet. I can’t even remember to take the meat out of the freezer in time for supper. I’ve always said it doesn’t matter to me if my kids are famous (although an olympic figure skater would be nice) as long as they’re good, kind people who love others. If it’s true for Annabelle than I should believe it about myself too.

Googling: Do puppies lose their baby teeth? It came up in a book AB and I were reading and she wanted to know if it was true. Not being a veterinarian I had no idea. The world wide web says they do. 


Excited/beyond sympathetic for: Kate Middleton. In case you live under a rock or simply don’t care about the life of the royals (like he who shall remain nameless but to whom I am married), you probably heard that Kate is pregnant again. I am beyond excited. I pay close attention to their goings on and am delighted there will be three royal children. I COULD NOT be more sympathetic to how she feels. I dealt with hyperemesis once and it took me more than two years to even begin discussing the possibility of having another child. Kate has been through this three times in five years. Unless you’ve thrown up 10+ times every day for months, been hospitalized for dehydration, too weak to take a shower and thought it a real accomplishment to keep down a quarter of a muffin in 24 hours you cannot begin to understand how she feels. 


Writing: my autobiography. Before you roll your eyes, know that I have no plan of publishing my book. I do not live a highly interesting life nor am I a First Lady, but I do have stories I think would be fun to pass down. I don’t claim to be a grate a riter of stuf but maybe my great great grand daughter will enjoy hearing about how I embarrassed myself in aisle 16 of Lowes. My past writing career included the beginnings of an opera about a ruler (male), a stapler (female) and a kaleidoscope (male). The ruler and the kaleidoscope for fighting for the affections of the stapler. She couldn’t chose between the more boring yet straight and dependable ruler and the fun and flashy kaleidoscope. It’s exactly the type of story Shakespeare would have written. Needless to say that opera was never published.    


Beginning to be embarrassed by: Annabelle’s questions about body parts. We were at music class this week and everyone was singing the counting song. Most people there didn’t know the song so it was a quiet group. Suddenly Sesame loudly says, “How do mamas nurse their babies? What part of their body to they use? Is it this part?” and she very enthusiastically starts patting my boobs. I have no problem with her wondering about nursing, but I don’t want to get into the mechanics during music class. Later we were sitting at the playground and she brought it up again. I explained it to her and she poked her nipple and said “Do they use a mipple?” NO FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS. I babysat a little boy today and she wanted to watch him use the potty. I did not allow that. I can’t deal with any more anatomy questions this week. “Mama, does he have a bagina?”