A couple of weeks ago, a couple of days before Christmas, I was frantically finishing up some Christmas shopping at Target late one night. It was almost 11, and I was tired and a bit unsuccessful as I exited the store and headed out into the cold parking lot. Then, I saw something that cheered me up.

It was my brother! He was on his way in. Now, my brother only lives 20 minutes away from me. We see each other plenty. But we NEVER see each other alone. He has 4 kids, I have 2, he's not into blogging, I'm not into hunting - it's not like there's much occasion or time for the two of us to just hang out. But when we were teenagers, we did used to hang out a lot! We became friends then, and we still are, but on a different level now.

So, we took a few minutes to hang out in the Target parking lot. Just talking and goofing off, enjoying the novelty of the moment. (Why we did not go back into the warm store, I will never know!) We made each other laugh. It was fun!

I am very thankful for those few moments with my brother, and I think I am going to try harder to make the time we spend together with our families a bit more substantial.

People, please tell me WHY I think I need to make my kids’ birthday cakes again? WHY?????

I just spent the last 40 bajillion hours making cupcakes, making icing, and decorating cupcakes! Sophie’s first party is tonight ( I guess, since it’s the wee hours of the morning right now). Yes, we are having two parties. We are having friends gather at a local pizza place tonight, and having family over to our house on Saturday. Two parties does seem a little extreme but we can’t fit everyone in our house and the first birthday is so special, we didn’t want anyone to miss it! So anyways, for the friends party, I decided to forego the big cake (which I will do for the family party. I will not reveal its identity until after the party!) and just make cupcakes.

Decorated like Sesame Street characters.

Which I thought would be easy.

I am so gullible! They were a pain in the butt!!

But now they’re done, and I can go to bed, and despite my aching feet and back, I am happy. Happy that I never have to do this again. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Just plain store-bought frosting and sprinkles sound REALLY GOOD about now!!

I’ll show you pics of the finished cupcakes tomorrow, but right now I just want to show you pictures of my kitchen counter post-cupcake-a-palooza:

Oh yeah, and here’s my other kitchen counter:

Ok, I’m going to go pass out now!

My son Joshua is almost four years old. He’s a happy kid and he was a really easy baby. Spoiled Bobby and I rotten. He never got up more than twice at night and started sleeping through the night at 9 weeks old! So when I got pregnant again, I figured there was no way we’d get another baby as easy as Joshua. And I was right! The first trimester of my pregnancy was awful, but it got better. Then our beautiful Sophia was born. The first couple weeks were ok, but when she was about 3 or 4 weeks old, she started really giving me a run for my money. So on the advice of my cousin Emily, who had a fussy girl herself, I got Dr. Harvey Karp’s book The Happiest Baby on the Block.

Dr. Karp is an advocate of swaddling, a process whereby you wrap your baby really tight like a burrito. He has very specific standards for it to be done “right”. His reasoning is that even though the swaddling is extremely restrictive, babies actually like it, because it reminds them of being in the womb, where their movement was also extremely restricted. Fortunately, Bobby and I had purchased a swaddler called a Miracle Blanket (www.miracleblanket.com) that made swaddling really easy and made sure you did it right. After we started swaddling Sophia religiously, she calmed down at night and slept for longer stretches. When Bobby would wrap her, she’d kind of struggle at first but then as the wrap got tighter, she’d settle down. Because her arms and legs were bound, she couldn’t smack or kick the sides of her bassinet and wake herself up. She couldn’t jerk and startle and flail her limbs either and wake herself up that way. She was wrapped up tight, safe and secure with the physical boundaries we’d given her. She finally started sleeping longer stretches for me.

A couple of weeks ago I was sitting in church during praise and worship time, when a friend whispered in my ear that she’d like me to pray for someone who was there with her family. So I started praying for this person whom I knew was going through some really tough stuff in his life. And I prayed that God would wrap him in his love. And God brought to my mind the image of Baby Sophie wrapped up tight in her Miracle Blanket. Wrapped tight, so tight she couldn’t move, yet totally at peace. And it hit me so hard, that’s why God gives us boundaries. That’s why he gives us rules and standards to live our lives by. Not because he’s trying to kill our fun, or repress our spirits, or any crap like that. He just wants to keep us safe. To give us that blissful, peaceful feeling of being protected from head to toe. Swaddled in his love. Safe from the consequences of the bad choices we might make if we struggle free of the swaddling clothes he’s wrapped us in, the rules he’s given us to follow.

It was really a blessing for me to get a little bit of a glimpse of God’s design working in our everyday lives. I’m so thankful He shared it with me, and I wanted to share it with you. It’s just too beautiful to keep to myself.

Well, folks, I’m totally over Halloween already, and like the department stores, ready to gloss over Thanksgiving and head STRAIGHT for Christmas. I’m already obsessed with having all my shopping done ASAP, and fortunately I’ve got a fabulous holiday gift-giving idea that works for anyone on your list. It’s a great idea for that “special someone” or even for that someone you don’t know very well but are obligated to buy a gift for. Here it is: FIND OUT WHAT THE HELL THE PERSON WANTS!!!

Seems simple right? It does indeed, but it has been my experience that many people just guess what the hell it is they think I might like, or worse yet, get me something that they would like me to have. The latter has resulted in some pretty heinous gifts, and trust me, I’m the last person who needs more crap sitting around her house. To help you better understand how to shop for the people on your gift list, I offer you two case studies.

Case Study #1: Giver: Me

Giftee: My husband’s “new mommy”
My in-laws are divorced and my father-in-law is remarried to a woman we don’t know very well or see very often, yet must purchase a Christmas gift for. I affectionately call her my husband’s “new mommy”. She’s nice enough but I don’t know whether she’s the type of gal who likes beanie babies or beauty products. Whatever can one do in such a situation?? How about ASK SOMEONE WHO HAS A CLUE. So I ask my father-in-law, “What would _ like for Christmas?” He replied, “I think she would like something like a Christmas candle.” Armed with this helpful information, I went to Bathy & Body Works and bought her a lovely scented oil warmer in the shape of a gingerbread house that uses tea lights and came with two scented oil flavors, gingerbread and peppermint. Not exactly a Christmas candle, but something like a Christmas candle.” Voila! The gift was given, she seemed to like it, yippee yay Merry Christmas HO HO HO!

Case Study # 2: Giver: My husband’s original mommy (aka my mother-in-law)

Giftee: Every member of her entire family
My mother-in-law is a serial offender when it comes to horrendous gift-giving. She doesn’t seem to care or even think to ask what you might actually want to receive or what you could use. She just gets you whatever the hell she wants to. I present to you our last two Christmases: in 2005 she got all her five children and their spouses a Santa Claus head that looks like it’s made out of a tree. Apparently, you are supposed to attach it to an actual tree in your yard so that all who behold it think that you have a Santa Claus living in your tree. I don’t even know where the thing is now. I hope we tossed it ‘cause as I mentioned, I don’t need any more JUNK lying around. But that Santa-face was a treasure compared to what she got us last year. When we celebrated Christmas with her, she presented us all with matching sweatshirts embroidered with a bunch of birds and a Bible verse. (Now I love Jesus but I also love fashion and I do NOT, repeat, DO NOT wear shirts with embroidery and/or Bible verses on them!!!) That’s right, even my manly husband got a bird shirt. And let me just tell you, my two-year-old son was THRILLED with his shirt. I mean, why not? A shirt is sooo fun to play with! Then she informed us that she got one of these shirts (actually she had them made) for every member of the family, adults and kids alike, because we are all part of her “flock”. Umm… apparently we’re not people, but animals. Who knew? Maybe this year we’ll get shirts with sheep or cows on them or something. One can only hope.

Anyhoo, as you can see, she gets people what she wants to. I can’t resist throwing this in, either – last year my husband turned 29 and what did she get him for his birthday? You guessed it! A lawn ornament that is an otter holding a fish. Her reasoning? That he did a school project on otters WHEN HE WAS TEN. It’s sentimental. Or something.

So remember this, gift-givers: no matter what the occasion, you can make someone’s holiday or birthday special with just four simple words. That’s right, “Here’s your bird shirt.” Just kidding! “What do you want?” are the magic, magic words. Use them early and often. Or just get a gift card. Or CASH. Cash works. Jenny likey. It might also help to remember that it’s not really the thought that counts if you haven’t thought about whether or not the receiver would actually like the gift. If you can’t give anything nice, don’t give anything at all!!

On My Own

It's 10:47 P.M., and I'm on my own tonight because my husband is out of town for a training for work. This only happens once every couple of years, which is good, because the kids and I sure do miss him. So tonight, in addition to all day, I was on my own with the kids . On my own getting their pajamas on and teeth brushed. On my own getting their sweet little buns tucked into bed.

Now they're asleep, and I'm truly on my own, and I'm grateful, because it's a state I rarely get to enjoy. I live with three people (and two cats) who want to be on me in one way or another all the time, and tonight it's nice not to have to meet anyone else's expectations or worry about meeting anyone else's needs.

I'm tired, and I should be asleep. My daughter will most likely be awake and hungry in about three hours, and it's always hard for me to go back to sleep after she awakes. On any normal night I would probably be in bed by now, but I'm up and awake just reveling in my solitude and its accompanying freedom. So for the next few minutes, I'm going to do some things on my own. I'm going to have a snack I don't have to share, watch a television show that's not appropriate for children, and maybe take a shower without my kids being in the bathroom. After that I'll finally haul myself into bed, though I suspect I'll have a hard time getting to sleep without my hubby in the house. But that's just fine. It's a price I can pay for one glorious, selfish, luxurious evening all my own, on my own.