Perspective: From the eyes of a 9 year old

MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND:
I had the best, easiest, relaxing weekend in as long as I can remember.  My husband drove us 2 hours away to satisfy a pregnancy craving for Fazzoli's, bless his heart.
The day before that I had brought home a broken, old wooden rocker that I picked up off of city wide  garbage pickup.  Instead of nagging about the junk that I brought home, he just chuckled.  He knew it was another one of my "projects".  With the help of the nice neighbor man, it was fixed & rocking again!  Woo hoo!

Just before we went out to eat we made a stop at the spam museum for a little family field trip.  The kids had a fun time exploring & playing there.
  After we had eaten we drove around for about a half hour looking for a Goodwill that I had visited once before and so loved.  GPS led us all over town & had us both frustrated, but my guy did not give up.  Once we found it, the greatest thing happened, he spent an hour and a half in there with the kids & I.  We ended the evening with pizza and visiting with my father in law.

Sunday was filled with flowers being planted, spending time as a family & ending the evening with putting together our new firepit and enjoying hamburgers and smores.  Delightful.

Even with all the goodness, later that night I felt bad.  Selfish really.
I was just getting ready to wash the smell of the smoke from the fire off in the shower when I caught a glimpse of my growing belly in the mirror.
My first pregnancy I was thrilled with my expanding midsection.  This time around it's tougher to be excited about stretching out, because I know it's never the same afterwards.

My 9 year old princess comes in the bathroom to say goodnight & smiled "aww you're getting stretch marks!  That's exciting, it means the baby is healthy and growing".

Exciting?!?! I took a deep breath, looked at the joy in her eyes, I smiled and said, "yes it is".
I chose not to be a joy sucker.  I chose not to whine about how those were left over from nearly 5 years ago when her brother was growing in my womb.  I didn't tell her that those would always be there & that I'd probably even get more in the coming months.  She said good night & went on her way. 

After she left the room, I got in the shower & decided to take on her perspective & leave mine behind (because mine stunk! & hers was beautiful).  Thank you little girl, for reminding me I'm who God made me to be, & he made me perfectly. 

I'm stretched out from carrying my babies, & that's okay.  I love my babies, no matter how old they get, they will always be my babies.  These marks really don't cause me any harm & I'm thankful to be alive and well enough to enjoy my family each day.  That is what I will focus on, the good, because there is just so much of it!

Declutter: Magazines

The neighbor just stopped down for a few minutes.  While we were all talking in the kitchen I sort of mindlessly started a recycling pile of store ads & magazines from around the kitchen. Isn't it funny how you realize your messes so much more in front of company. 
It wasn't a terribly big stack, but I knew all those papers were holding me back, & making me feel guilty that I hadn't yet dealt with them, so they got tossed into the recycling bucket.  After he left, instead of trying to skim the magazines I decided to leave them be.  I went to lay on the hammock & blog.  I enjoy this activity much more.  & I'm sure what ever was in the magazines wasn't all that important anyway.

What material thing is holding you back or dragging you down, even if just slightly?  Make a point to deal with it before the next week begins.  The sooner the better.

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Be blessed!

Simple is good

Sometimes the most simple lunch is the best.  Today it's a plate full of tomatoes.  You have no idea what joy it brings me to be eating tomatoes on a warm day like today.  The only thing that could make it better, is if it could have come from our garden.  Currently our garden is so overcome with weeds that we are thinking of using roundup on it before we plant.  You know its bad when I am even considering using that, beings I'm such an anti-chemical freak.

TV Free Summer?

I'm thinking out loud tonight and wondering what it would be like to go the summer without TV.  I mean like actually unplug the TV for the summer & buy a weather radio. 

Woah!  Did I really just say that?  Well yes, faithful blog follower, I actually did!  You're thinking I'm crazy, & I slightly agree with you!

The main concern I hear seems to be that we wouldn't be able to know if bad weather was coming our way.  I just disagree though.  I have a smart phone and have signed both my husband and I up for weather alerts from the local news station.  So in the event of poor weather we get a phone call to let us know what is coming our way.  So that issue is taken care of, for the most part.

I really have a strong desire to "unplug".  But I wonder if I'm being unfair to my husband.  He uses TV in his down time to relax and be entertained.  But truthfully, he doesn't even watch TV most nights in an average week.  He's good at occupying himself with other things.

I'm not too worried about the kids, I mean that's a big part of the reason I want to do this.  To help them explore more, and not be sucked into meaningless shows strictly for entertainment value. 

Here's where I struggle though...  There are so many times that I'm guilty of letting the kids watch a show.. or two.. (okay, a whole afternoon!) just so I can get some rest or tackle a project without the two of them fighting over what to play with, or who had the toy first.

I wish watching the tube was a special treat and not the default option as soon as someone feels bored in the house.

I think summer is a perfect time to try this, because the weather allows us to spend more time outdoors. 

In my dream world the kids would help me for hours (rather than minutes) in the garden, they'd play in the yard and in the evening we'd all go inside and enjoy dinner together followed by several board games & laughing the night away. 

I'm going to keep dreaming.  & if our entertainment center that I posted on craigslist earlier in the week sells, I'm going to do my best to make this dream a reality!  Of course, after my husband and I agree on  the terms of being "unplugged".

Would you ever consider this?  or have you done it?  We've gone TV free for almost a month before, it wasn't so bad at all, but this time I want to actually take the TV out of the living room, which is a whole different ball game.