Why Don't You?

I ran into an old acquaintance at a party last weekend. It had beenabout a year since I'd last seen her and I was delighted to meet her again. She's always been a warm woman, who seemed to love to play with my babies. So, I was a bit — ahem — surprised at our exchange.
"You look tired," she said.
"Ah, I am," I replied with a wink. "I'm getting  kind of old for this." I rubbed my growing belly.
"How old are you?"
"Forty-two."
"Why don't you take the pill?"
Gulp. Um. My well-rehearsed treatise on the Culture of Life and openness to God's gracious goodness completely evaded me there in the kitchen between the bar and the buffet.
"It's against my religion." That was lame, I thought,  as nothing else sprung from my mouth.
"Well, then why don't you just tell him to stay away? Tell him you'll come find him when you want him around. Tell him to leave you alone." Read the rest here...

She's got everyone wrapped around her little finger

Karoline gives Nicholas and Stephen pedicures. And they let her.

Yippee!

If you love the crisp pages, well-written pieces, and sharply edited features of Faith and Family in the print version, this is your luckiest cyber day yet. Faith and Family finally has launched the Faith and Family Live, an interactive website that has all the polish of the print version, plus a dynamic group blog which features writers you already know and love. The magazine will be archived there, so  we can all part with our dated stacks now. Visit today, bookmark it, and make it a daily stop. See you there!

Well said

I have to admit that when I first was made aware of all the negative (even condemning) opinions published by folks who appear not to like our plans or planning or people who plan, my first thought wasn't really for me. It was for the people who have stuck themselves out there with me and made our plans public. I've been fried online before and as much as I had hoped I never would (because I think sensitivity is a gift), I'm developing a thick skin. But it made me sad that these other women who have given so much of themselves were met with criticism and speculation that their houses must be a mess and their husbands and children neglected. Because I know that not to be true. My stomach did a little flip when I read this, as I munched my salad this noontime:

I feel as though I've made myself quite vulnerable in the sharing of all my planning thoughts lately...

Do click and read the rest. Every word is worth the time.

The Daybook-Simple, Abbreviated, Preoccupied Version

***

From the kitchen ...
Everything will be simple and eaten on paper plates. My painting project, which took two hours last time we did it, took all weekend and still isn't finished. Five coats of paint later, it's still not covering. My husband has been the model of patience. And then, last night, around ten o'clock, he screamed from the kitchen. Imagining spilled paint everywhere, I raced downstairs. Gallons and gallons of water were pouring from the dishwasher onto the floor. It didn't help to stop the dishwasher; it didn't help to change the cycle; I had to turn the water to the kitchen off completely. We moved pretty quickly, but the water flooded the kitchen and seeped through to the ceiling of the finished basement below. I'm just grateful he was down there. Usually, turning on the dishwasher is the last thing we doing before turning off the lights at night. If he hadn't been in the room, we'd never have known. The water would have run all night.

***

Around the house ...
there are three unassembled bunkbeds in my living room. A neighbor who is moving gave them to us this weekend. Mike was so preoccupied with the paint that he didn't get to them. My big boys are all gone this week and Mike won't have another day off before the end of the month. I'm going to get used to seeing the beds there. Not a thing I can do about it. The rest of the house looks like we spent the weekend preoccupied with the kitchen while four children fought a virus that looked like strep and acted like strep but wasn't strep. I know this because I also visited Urgent Care over the weekend.

***

I am hoping ...
nothing exciting happens today. We've had some major changes in our extracurricular plans for the children and I need to spend some time on the phone information-gathering before tomorrow. And then there's that aforementioned house tending...

And that's it for now. I'm headed for the kitchen, now a cheery shade of yellow (sort of). Stuff happens. Often, it's not the "stuff" I planned.