7 Quick Takes - My First!

-1-

So, first things first, because I know everyone (yes, I am in denial that nobody reads this blog) is dying to know if I really did jinx myself with the previous post regarding my boys and their most angelic and saintly behavior, or if they returned to their true run-wild-through-the-house-nekkid-and-screaming-selves (this only happens after bath times.  Honest.), the answer would be a resounding....yes!   Consider me jinxed.
I don't think I even got that post finished before Joah awoke from his nap way too early with a serious case of bed head and an even seriouser case of bad attitude.

And as if I needed any confirmation of the fact that I had been delusional, the following day, the cashier at Walmart, after following the standard script ["Are they twins?"  No.  "How Old Are They?" Three] decided to really boost my optimism by dramatically and emphatically stating "Oh,  three years old is the hardest age!"   I think she was trying to be sympathetic, and maybe her comment might've been ever so slightly prompted by the fact that the boys were at the time having their version of a pillow fight with the two bags of miniature marshmallows I'd put in the cart with them, but it kinda just killed any glimmer of hope I may have had that this next 6-12 months was going to be a tip-toe through the proverbial tulips.   Anyhow,  to answer the question "Does One Week Make A Trend?", the answer would be Nope, Nunca, Nein.   But all you mothers out there already knew that didn't you...
\

-2-

Keeping with the flow of the first quick take...miniature marshmallows.   I could pretend that the reason I made a very rare and very dreaded solo sojourn into the world's largest retail store with the boys was to get food for my best behaved and most loved kid.   That is, our dog, Sage.   But that was really just a cover for my newest addiction that really fueled the journey.   I needed to get more supplies for rice crispy treats, or as Joah says "Kwis mus tweets",  which for the longest time, had me thinking he was asking for more Christmas tree. Thank goodness I was wrong because I wasn't looking forward to putting up that tree again  and hanging Easter eggs on it (although they do that in Appalachia, only the trees are growing in their front yards, so the idea isn't that far-fetched.  No, I'm not making this up).

When I was a kid, my mother made rice crispy treats but she never really mastered them...they were always kinda soggy and she always put peanut butter in them, which I'm sure made them healthier, but also left me longing somewhat for the true, sugar-fat-and-starch-only version of the original.   I made my first batch a few weeks ago, not following a recipe, of course, because I hate taking direction (just ask Tom) and they turned out just like my mother's, sans the peanut butter of course.  Chewy. As in not crisp.   So, apparently there was more to it than I realized.   I begrudgingly forced myself to follow the recipe that just happened to be on the side of the box (how did they know!) and the outcome was sticky, crispy! perfection.   The boys (and maybe their mother) can't eat them fast enough.  
And just for the record, my mother may have never mastered kwis mus tweets but she made up for it with her pies!

-3-

Tom has been gone all week to some kind of ski-part-time, work-part-time conference in Utah.  Yeah, a dirty job.   Reminds me a bit of when I was in the government and there were a lot of "conferences" and "seminars" planned in January and February in places like Orlando or San Antonio or Phoenix.
I am lucky that Tom doesn't travel much but in some ways, that makes his being gone even harder to deal with.  I guess you could call him my "crutch" and I mean that with the utmost endearment.
So, to make his being gone more bearable, I decided to make a list of all the pluses to being home alone with just the boys.   Here's what I came up with:

a) I get to eat lots of "girl food", e.g,  salad, avocado, kiwi fruit.  You know, green stuff.

b) I get to sleep in.

Well, the latter didn't really happen, but it seemed plausible considering Tom usually (inadvertently) wakes me when he goes to work at 5:30 a.m. so with him gone, I imagined I could at least make it until 6:30 or maybe even 7:00, which would've been divine.  But Joah had my number this week when he decided to re-vert back to co-sleepng each morning between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. and when you are sleeping next to Joah, it's a bit like being too close to a foraging armadillo...lots of snortin' and thrashin' and showing no awareness whatsoever of its surroundings.

And as far as the pluses, to Tom's credit, that was all I could come up with.  And after a week of salad, I'm kinda ready for some meat, so hurry home, Tom!  I need BBQ.

-4-

The most traumatic point of this week would have to be scheduling Joah for a tonsillectomy in March.  I was totally on the fence about this decision but the poor kid has tonsils the size of miniature marshmallows (trying to stick to a theme here) and he sleeps like..well, you already know.   The doc says they need to come out, and the sleep study confirmed it.   So, it appears inevitable.  I am starting prayers now for our little guy, in hopes that the 2 week recovery period the nurse told me to prepare for is more like 2 days, but yeah, I'm probably dreaming.   Feel free to add your prayers to the kitty.

-5-

Has anyone besides me just stopped looking at the weather forecasts altogether?   I mean seriously, how much more can a southern girl stuck in the midwest take?   If you read this post, then you know the woodcocks were due back any day, and sure enough, the day after that post, we heard the familiar "peent" in the backyard.  Joah just loves watching them.   I wondered if the birds would display when the temperatures were below freezing and Joah and I can confirm that yes, they do.   They will display when it is 21 degrees actually and in a blowing snow.  A fact that I wish I didn't know from experience, mind you. Woodcock love must be a powerful thing. 

-6-

So, I thought I'd do this 7 Posts in 7 Days thing, and had a good start until Tuesday, when the internet gods (aka our cable provider) decided to kill our internet service for 18 hours starting around 7 pm Tuesday evening. So, I was off the hook!   I hope I didn't disappoint my one dedicated blog reader out there.   Maybe next time.

-7-

Last, but not least, I've been working on our infertility story.   It has been a bit of an emotional journey as I write it and I still have mixed feelings about sharing it because it is so personal, but so many others have shared their experiences on their blogs and their stories really have helped me, so I figure maybe I can give a little back.   I will probably post it as a series during Lent.   Seems appropriate because those years were really the Lent of my life, so far.

And that's it!  Except, it appears I need to practice the "Quick" part of "Quick Takes".  
Have a great weekend.   Looks like we'll be watching it snow...again.