Shopping, Anyone?

Look what I found at the local farmer's market. Looks to be quite ripe, too. I'm thinking it'll need a good rinsing (may have to throw in a little soap for good measure), but I'm quite certain once cleaned up, it'll be very sweet.

This will be a post formulated of lots of odds and ends from our week. I haven't had much time to blog, because my husband has been sick with some throat virus that has had him in bed since Tuesday. He's just starting to bounce back, but he's pretty tired. Taking care of the kids, as well as him has kept me on my toes.

There is one positive aspect to it, though. I think I've learned the key to marital bliss (or at least satisfaction). No, I don't recommend poisoning your spouse so that they're constantly sick in bed (How cruel do you think I am?). His being in bed all week and unable to help out is what has helped me to learn this. So, are you ready? Get out your pens and paper to jot this down...

The key to marital bliss is to act like your not actually married. Don't actually depend on your partner for things. Please don't take that the wrong way. I don't mean it to sound cynical. What I mean is that in the last week, I've done every chore around the house without complaint, because I knew he wasn't up for any of it. In most families, there is some kind of division of labor (she does the laundry, he takes out the trash - or whatever). It's the same in our family. There are certain chores I kind of expect him to do. The problem is he's really busy running his own business. I'm pretty busy taking care of the kids, too, but I don't have special expectations for the things I want me to do for me. If some chore of his doesn't get accomplished for a while, I have to start nagging, and then I get irritated. If it goes on long enough, you know I'll get resentful. If you remove the expectations, though, there's not much chance you'll get resentful. And, my guess is if you're married to a decent person, and you're not asking much of them around the house, at some point, they're bound to help you on their own. If you're not married to a decent person, well, that's a whole other problem you may want a therapist for.

Then, there's another way to understand this idea (pretending you're not married, I mean). This could be taken to mean you should pretend you're dating. Most people would agree it's an exciting time they'd like to get back from time to time. I'd have to agreed I like to think back on those days. They were nice. He always seems pretty hot to me, but he seems quite a bit hotter when I've sat for a while thinking about the good ole days.

Another little side effect of this pretending I'm not married (actually acting like a single mommy much of the time) is that I run a tighter ship but without the exasperation that often comes with a day when I've been longing for him to take over my job in the evening. The kids get fed earlier, which means there's actually time for a puzzle and a story before bed. And, they're even clean, because I found time to slip in a bath. I'll admit I get a little less time for myself, but I somehow get that worked into my day most of the time, too. I'm going to try to continue and see if this pretending I'm sort of single has more benefits to it (don't worry, I have no intentions of cruising the local bars for some action). I've already noticed that it seems to make him much more likely to help me when I ask. I got some help with housecleaning a bit yesterday, and this afternoon, he happily hung some clothes on the line when I gave him the choice of either doing that or taking over the iChat with my parents and the kids for a few minutes (Hmmm, you don't think there's some other reason he'd prefer to hang clothes instead of talking to his in-laws, do you???).

Okay, enough of the self-help chatter. What else is there going on around here? Well, I'm making a purse. It's a bit slow, because it'll have lots of pockets and features that I've never made in a bag. I'm hoping it'll turn into the ideal purse for me. So, there's a lot of planning going into it. I'll post pictures once there is something interesting to look at.

We've also spent lots of time at the beach this week. There's a nice one only 20 minutes from our house (considering it takes us 10 minutes to get to school, that's pretty close). I've taken the big kids there twice this week in the mornings when they didn't have school. They can be pretty loud, and that's not really what you're after when you've got a splitting virus-induced headache and can think of nothing better than a nap. So, I shoved them out the door and onto the sand so Daddy could take a nap with the baby. I suspect we'll be doing much more of this once school lets out for the summer. It's a great way to keep them busy for part of the day, not to mention an apparently wonderful way to meet the parents of their friends. Both times we went this week, we bumped into kids from Lambchop #2's class. They were each with their daddies, and it was really nice to get to meet the fathers of my boy's friends. Today was actually a real treat, because one of Lambchop #2's favorite people was there, and the kids had a blast while I got to learn a bit about the girl's family. Maybe, if we're lucky we'll be seeing some of Lambchop #1's friends too someday.

This is getting a bit lengthy, which should come as no real surprise to you if you've read this blog for any amount of time, but I'll try to stop for now. I'll leave you with this image...




The baby bed mysteriously never made it over from the old house. I've not had any complaints about it, because I don't really mind sleeping with babies and neither does my husband. I'm thinking it's nearing time to make it happen, though, because this awaited me the other night. Don't you think it looks suspiciously like she's actually trying to take up the entire bed? Not sure about that? Take a closer look...

... at the clearly triumphant fist raising action. She obviously thinks she's won some kind of battle here. Is it time to teach her a lesson by sticking her in her own bed... with bars and all?