some thoughts

You know what I miss?  Paper fliers in the school backpack.  For real.  I need some papers that I can hold in my hand and read.  I skim over and delete most district wide emails.  I rarely open the eBackpack.  Momma needs some old fashioned paper fliers.  Ones that I can hang up on the bulletin board and then let the kids use as scratch paper later.

I've been thinking a lot more about going back to work.  Not that I'm planning on returning quite yet, but when the kids are in school.  I've been out of the classroom long enough that I only remember the good stuff.  Convenient how memory works like that.    I renewed my license this fall and when it arrived in the mail its 2019 expiration date seemed both extremely far off yet right around the corner.

We quit our small group soon after James was born.  We'd been with them every Tuesday night for like seven or eight years.  With early bedtimes for James, early school days for Madeline, the craziness of having three children, and a twenty-five minute one way commute it just doesn't work in this season of our life.  But I miss it a lot.  Tons.

She cages me.  I break one lamp and she restricts my freedom.

I did start going to a Thursday morning bible study that I like.  We're doing a Beth Moore study and it feels like a return to the basics for me.  There's a large group of women ranging from their 20s to their 70s (?) and I really do enjoy it.

One of the prongs on my engagement ring broke about two weeks ago.  So I had to take my ring in and leave it to have it repaired.  They had given me a date that it would be ready, but I didn't hear back.  So I called today.  The clerk said that yes it was ready yesterday (also election day and we get TONS of calls) and there was a note on the account that a child had answered the phone each time and hung up on them.  Guess who.  About a month ago Audrey developed an interest in answering the phone.  She's now my secretary and takes most of the calls.  After she handed me a few recorded messages I told her that she could hang up if it's a recording or if no one answered back.  I had grown suspicious over the last few days when she'd answer the phone and promptly hang up, telling me sweetly "there was no one there".  I'm on to your games, child of mine.  We stopped by the jeweler today to pick up the ring and when I introduced Audrey as the child who kept hanging up on her, she just laughed and said "oh, you look way too sweet for that!"  Lady, you have no idea who you are messing with.

My excuse for carrying an extra thirty or so pounds of baby weight is approaching fifteen months old.  When Audrey was about the same age, I got serious and lost the weight.  Conveniently as I started to fall off the wagon a bit, I got pregnant and it all went out the window.  I love going to the Y and taking a variety of classes, but the bottom line is this: I eat junk.  A facebook post inspired me this week and I'm back on the wagon.  For now the wagon is: drinking a ton of water daily and recording what I eat on an app I like.  After just two days I already feel like moving more and making smarter food choices.  

I took the kids to run some errands on the other side of town this afternoon and we ended at the mall eating in the food court {brilliant, I know....especially following the healthier eating blurb...}.  We  used some coupons and bought some soaps and lotions and candles at the "sparkle" store where the salespeople always offer to put glitter spray on the girls.  Then we played at the play place for a little bit.  It was really simple, but something about it makes me realize how fortunate we are.

And those are my thoughts for today.