The Talk

Based on some of the responses I got from my last post, I am going to be brave and ask a question...

In the next two weeks I am talking to a MOPS group about sex. (Insert scream here!) So here is my question...if you were attending what information would you like to hear?

I will be sharing the hour that I have to talk with a doctor. I get to talk first and the doctor is supposed to talk about the physical aspects of sex.

So, any suggestions???

I'm Getting Old

There are things that happen often that make me feel old. My thirteen year old daughter being just 1/2 inch shorter than me is just one example. I remember her as being quite small still...

Last week when the creator of Gumby died and I shared the news with my family, my children all said, "who's Gumby?"

I remember my mother driving me to school when I was in elementary school. she would put in the 8-track and listen to her favorite music. I thought it was boring old lady music. That's the music I listen to now...when I'm allowed to listen to the music I like.

Side-tracked note: Am I being a totally uninvolved mother if I let my children listen to their music, and then put my mp3 headphones in so I can't hear it?

Last week I went for my wonderful annual visit with my gynecologist. I was being a good girl - it had only been 18 months since my last visit. However, as always I was required to fill out new medical history information. I wish there was a box to check that said nothing has changed since the last time! and skip answer questions about if I've ever had arthritis or emphysema or any other horrible disease. Never mind the fact that all of my medical records are on file here since I don't have any other doctor.

I do love that I get to skip the family history questions since I was adopted and have no medical information about my biological family. The only thing we have figured out is that there are blue eyes somewhere in the genetic code since even though Mike and I both have brown eyes our first three children all have blue eyes!

At the bottom of the form are person questions. I've always gotten a chuckle out of this part of the form. They ask questions about whether I smoke or drink or use drugs. A few years ago they added some sexual questions. A few years later they stopped referring to "spouse" and substituted "partner". This year this part was revised again. Here are the questions they asked...

1. Do you smoke? yes or no How many packs a day? Are you smoking now?

Ah, hello, there is a no smoking sign above my head so I hope not!

2. Do you drink? yes or no How many oz. per day? When did you start drinking?

Do people really measure their alcohol? Since my drinking consists of a 4 oz glass once every two months, I just said no.

3. Do you use IV drugs? yes or no When was the last time you used them?

What about other drugs? Don't care so much to know about them?

4. Are you sexually active? yes or no Have you ever had sex? yes or no # of partners?
Male/Female/Both Do you use contraception?

WHAT????? Did that just ask me if I have sex with males/females/or both????? I was shocked!!!! and disgusted...I admit it. I try to have unconditional love...I know that God's word says that God sees sin as sin...and I try...but this was so unexpected that it threw me. I did pull it together enough to circle male. And wondered what the gray-haired lady sitting next to me would think when she got to that part of the questionnaire. Lord, I hope she doesn't have a heart attack, because I just about did!

But then the questions continued as if it was just a routine question...

5. Do you exercise? yes or no How often?

Wait a min...that was a heavy question and we just moved on like it was nothing...

6. Do you feel safe? yes or no Are you afraid of your partner? Does your partner force you to have sex?

It was tempting to answer yes. Oh I kid. I love my husband and he would NEVER force me to have sex. But you gotta admit, men and women look at sex differently. Men NEED it. I would be happy if my husband just hugged me and did the dishes.

So I am old...old-fashion...I like my slow-and-softer-so-I-can-understand-the-words music. I think sex is for marriage between a man and a woman. And apparently I have reached an age where the gynecologist starts talking about menopause.

Hello 2010

I say hello today, because the kids just went back to school. So now is the official start of the year. And the official start of resolutions. Do you make new year's resolutions? I do. I'm a sucker for them. Growing up I made them and I still do. The usual: exercise more, read more, eat less dessert...and my favorite, remember everyone's birthdays and anniversaries. Every year over Christmas vacation I fill in my new calendar with all the important dates. I organize my cards and I start sending them. I usually do pretty good until the end of February. So if your birthday is in October, you are out of luck! Thankfully the invention of Facebook has made keeping that resolution easier. But there is still something about getting a card in the mail as opposed to a Facebook, "Happy Birthday - hope you have a great day!" [Submit] Just not as personal...I'm just saying.

So this year, my resolutions aren't that different from previous years...
1. journal what I eat and eat less sugar and more veggies
2. read my bible every day
3. be organized about cleaning my house
4. meal planning and prep
5. exercise three days a week
6. blog more often
7. remember birthdays and anniversaries with cards

Seven...because it is the number of perfection.
1. already have the notebook for this year and ate oatmeal for breakfast
2. one day behind already
3. making a plan today
4. ditto
5. tomorrow
6. yipee
7. missed my aunt and uncles anniversary yesterday - belated card from the store today

Ahhh, well, I'm in for the long haul this year, not the perfection of everyday only to fail come mid-Jan.

oh, and my picture a day site - I want to get back to that...I miss that. Maybe I'll cross off the exercise so I still only have seven! :-)

Christmas Games

Every year we look for new games to add to our family collection or to give to our "game friends and family". I came across this blog reviewing two that will not make it into our list for this year.
Joel Osteen's Your Best Life Now and a game from Taiwan called Rich Daddy God. I know, real winners. Read his review here.

Crazy Kids

Jeffrey: Mommy, I need apples and cherries to make my famous chocolate milk!

Morgan: Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o
And on his farm he had a pig, e-i-e-i-o
With an oink, oink here and an oink, oink there
here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink, oink
Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o

Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o
and on his farm he had a moose, e-i-e-i-o
With a moose, moose here and a moose, moose there
here a moose, there a moose, everywhere a moose, moose
Old McDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-o

Warm, Melted Wishes

Yesterday, before bed, I asked Morgan to pick up the Little People Nativty and put it by the fireplace. We have a beautiful stone fireplace in the living room. We hardly ever light a fire in it, because it is a corner and very open to the room, but I like to decorate it and every year the nativity that the kiddos can play with gets put at the corner (really to distract them from playing in the fireplace).

So Morgan was very obedient and picked up all of the pieces so she could watch a short video before bed.

About 15 minutes later I smelled something hot...like burning plastic. I immediately sent the kids looking for what the smell was. Mikalah yelled that she found it in the basement.

See, we also have a wood stove in the basement. So when I told Morgan to put the nativity on the fireplace she did just that.
Joseph and the camel suffered 3rd degree burns on their feet and the creche is no longer standing. However, I am happy to report that Baby Jesus escaped without any marks. I'm sure that had something to do with the angel that was standing on his head at the time.

Now, hopefully we can replace this set before next Christmas!

Little Things

You know there are times when I go all out and rearrange a room and drastically change its layout. Sometimes that can take hours or even days...or longer...to ever reach completion.

Then there are times that I do something little...something that takes just a few minutes, but makes a big difference in the room or just in my attitude about the room.

This project is a little of both. I found these picture frames at IKEA (oh, how I love and miss IKEA) and had a fun idea to put pictures of my family eating in the frames and hang it in my kitchen. I gathered pictures, but fell short of the nine pictures needed to fill the frames. I don't remember what happened, but after Meredith was born, I quickly gathered pictures of our family - really any pictures and filled the rest of the spots. That is how the frames stayed for the next FIVE years!!!

Here's the killer part, even after we moved I still hung them in my kitchen knowing that one day they would contain food pictures. But every time I walked past them (a million times a day) they would just whisper to me, "still haven't finished this project." or "see just another project you started but haven't finished" or "so you have pictures of four children - six children are too many for you to handle". Silly how a picture frame can breed such guilt!!!

Well, I am here to say that last week I took 10 minutes of an afternoon and finished my project. I know, ten minutes. Seriously, all that grief for just ten minutes.

The difference? I had to give up. Give up my original idea and allow God to give me a new idea. How many times do we hold on to an original idea when God has something better for us to experience? Too many in my life!

The end result...

...those are my six beautiful children that God gave me and intended for me to be the mother of, all eating their first birthday cake. The spots in between are some of our families favorite recipes or recipes written in someone special's handwriting.

There is my dad's mother's meatloaf recipe; my aunt's Sweet Potato Souffle; my mother's mother's Scotch Shortbread; my mother's BBQ sauce; my Texas chili; and my friend Elaine's banana bread. Not to play favorites, but my favorite is my grandmother's shortbread. As far as shortbread goes, it really isn't very good. In fact it resembles my play dough recipe. But she would make them into balls and press them down and put a red or green m&m in the middle. I would eat around the m&m and save it for the last bite. And the recipe is written by her. I'm sure she is now making Christmas shortbread cookies for Jesus!

And tonight, I made my other grandmother's meatloaf. It just says comfort and homey and is perfect for this cold day with fresh snow on the ground.

A simple project, made complicated by me.