What I've been up to lately...

Huffing in the garage...

making jewelry for shower prizes...

baking a towel cake...

wrapping silverware...

wrapping candy bars...

These are words of advice for the soon-to-be- married couple. I'm going to spraypaint some tree branches and hang these from it.

Well, we officially have less than one month before the shower. Gettin' the show on the road...thankfully I kept awesome notes from Jordanne's shower less than a year ago. So far so good. I really do feel like I'm on track right now...

...Except that the rest of my house is suffering. I've still got Christmas ornaments to put away!

Gotta get back to business... Having the times of their lives and I'm not going to miss a minute of it by stressing out. I took on the same attitude for Jordanne's wedding too. These are truly times to cherish. You can never get lost minutes back...

That's some fine reading, Mrs. Peale!

I have been reading an interesting book again lately...something I read many years ago. It's called the Adventure of Being a Wife. A book that Ruth Vincent Peale dedicated to her husband, Norman.

Now in this day and age... this book has all but disappeared off the library shelves. A book published in 1971...when I was a mere child of 8 years old. The notion of marriage being an "adventure"...a wife dedicating her life career to her husband during an era of women's liberation? How absurd!

Mrs. Peale held the opinion that,

..." marriage was the greatest career a woman could have...a woman might have other stimulating and important jobs, but none was so difficult and demanding , so exciting and potentially rewarding as the job of living with a man, studying him, supporting him, liberating his strengths, compensating for his weaknesses, making his whole mechanism soar and sing the way it was designed to do."

When challenged by a young woman saying modern marriage is a fraud and a mockery, Mrs. Peale responded,

"I consider myself one of the most fortunate women alive. Why? Because I am totally married to a man in every sense of the word: physically, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually. I need him and depend on him completely. He completely needs and depends on me. We're not two lonely, competing individuals. We're one integrated, mutually responsive, mutually supportive organism...It's the greatest of all adventures, but you'll never know it...if you maintain the attitudes and the code of conduct you've adopted."

The young woman responded, "Why can't a man-woman relationship be just as meaningful outside of marriage as in it?"

..." because it doesn't have the key ingredients. It doesn't have the commitment. It doesn't have the permanence. It can never achieve the depth that comes from total sharing, from working together toward common goals year after year, from knowing tht you're playing the game for keeps. Do you think my husband and I have acheived the relationship we have just by thinking happy thoughts or by waving a wand? Don't be absurd! We fought for this relationship! We hammered it out on the anvil of joy and sorrow, of pain and problems-yes, at time of discouragement and disagreement...we never thought of marriage as a trap...we thought of it as a privelege."

Wow. that's some pretty heavy stuff, Mrs. Peale.

I wonder how many women these days look upon marriage as an "adventure"?


I'm just sayin'...

So from this day forward, we are starting an adventure... Thank you for the incredible insight, Ruth!

WOO HOO! It Zipped!

Well I was on a roll working around the house and Jennifer called and asked me to run out to the bridal store so she could pick up the bridesmaid's dresses. Harrumph. I had great plans to get things accomplished.

ANYWAYS...She's been working hard at losing a few pounds before the "big day" and wanted to see if her wedding dress would zip. You see, when the dress came in, it wouldn't zip. Now it's not that Jen is a fatty boombalatty by any stretch. The dress just fit her so perfectly that when it came in they neglected to remind her that a zillion bodies had previously tried that dress on and it had been stretched out a bit.

Well it's not that they can't let it out a bit...she just wanted to put it on and have it zip before alterations...it's a little mind game we girls play.

It was a great feeling for her...so we went out to celebrate with margs and fajitas. Now I'm going to have to start playing that little mind game so I can lose a few pounds before the big day.

I can't believe it's coming so fast. 3 months
and 5 days! Oh boy.

Ah, how I love Mondays!

Something random about me:

I LOVE MONDAYS!

I really have to laugh though...my mother-in-law used to wear a raggedy old cleaning shirt that said "I HATE MONDAYS!" across the chest. I never quite understood why a mother of ten children would hate Mondays. I love them! Mondays give me the same feeling as the New Year brings...or the beginning of a school year. It's a fresh start- a clean slate...a new chance to make it right. Kids go back to school, husband goes back to work...it's just me and the dog left HOME ALONE. I love it.

And let's face it...after the crazy week we had around here last week...I'm all about getting a new chance to make it right.

Jen's car is in the shop so she took my car to work this morning. She dropped me off at Center Courts where I meet my walking partner. I got my 50 minute power walk in and got dropped off at home. Sometimes the days when I'm STUCK at home without a car are my most productive. I'm hoping that today is one of those days.

You see, I love the idea of being one of those 50's housewives with the amenities of 2010. Gotta go start the laundry...yep, I'm puttin' on the apron now as we speak.

ta ta for now.

Week in review

Phew. Glad that's over. Man I would do anything to rewind time and start my week over. It was a baaaad parenting week...and it started out so good.

Last Saturday was so much fun, shopping with Jennifer, picking up stuff for the shower, putting together favors, writing out envelopes, embossing, etc. Pat and Jacob moved all of Jen's stuff out of the photography studio. It was so sad after all the hard work we did to make that place sparkle and shine... but closing the chapter, means starting another one...and I'm so excited to see what lies ahead for her. It's an exciting, yet scary time in her life.

But just as you can be happy for one child, you are at the same time feeling the pain of another child. The older your children get, the bigger the problems...teenagers getting bad grades, young men being challenged, college students struggling with grades, money, relationships, and finding direction for their lives. It's so difficult to see them hurting and struggling to make their way in life. As a parent, we want to fix the boo-boos... prevent them from making mistakes...

The rollercoaster effect is multiplied by the amount of children you have in your family... and mine has been multiplied by five...unfortunately this week happened to be exceptionally challenging. I often wonder what people without God in their lives do to get through these challenging times. I can't imagine my life without my faith in God...it's so comforting to know that we can leave it all in God's lap...to allow HIM to work out the details and know that HE is in CONTROL.

With all that being said...I sit here this Saturday afternoon, wishing for another fun Saturday like last week. Rewinding the past week really isn't an option... but hopefully we can move forward knowing that God is in control.

Progress!

wrapping silverware...

tissue paper flowers..,

favor cuteness...

gourmet jelly beans... (Jen's favorite candy)

Aging process reality

Yep, there you have it...not only did I wait 46 years to ever have my eyes tested...I found out I need glasses with BIFOCALS! Yikes. I'm having a hard time adjusting to the progressive lenses...I'm not convinced I like this new phase of life, although I must say things sure look a lot crisper. (when I'm looking through the proper spot on my lens.)

I was doing the "happy dance" yesterday after I passed off the Hockey program over to the printers. Woo Hoo! I'm so glad to have that out of the way. Now I'm in major panic mode to get the bridal shower plans underway. It's going to be on February 20th. I need to order these invitations ASAP so I can mail them out 2-3 weeks ahead of time. I already have some of the stuff picked out but I am certainly way behind. How did this happen?

We already have the menu figured out. I have bought a lot of the prizes and paper products. I have crocheted a lot of dish cloths...thankfully a lot of the stuff from Jordanne's shower is re-usable...glad I kept my notes.

Well, I'm off to go huff in the garage. (just kiddin' I'm spray painting flower boxes for the tables) Gotta get a move on.