I'm tired.
I want to go to sleep.
I'm trying to stay awake because my Big Human is supposed to come over tonight.
Yeah, I'm still "working" with the twins. But I miss my husband! So anyways, this is all you get tonight.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Heavenly
This week, I've been pulling double duty. I worked my regular job Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday while also working a nanny job. It's with the family that I used to nanny for on a daily basis before the twins started kindergarten. Whenever the parents go away on a trip, I stay with the boys. This week, it happened that the boys had Thursday and Friday off from school. So I mentioned to the mom and dad that maybe we would do a day trip to D.C. to go to the Natural History Museum. They offered to get us a hotel room so we could make it a two day trip. So here I sit, in a Heavenly bed, in a Westin hotel room with my belly full from room service. Ahhhh, traveling on someone else's dime makes it even more like a vacation!
The struggle for me though when I do things like this with the twins is that I always end up feeling:
A. Regret that my kids aren't experiencing this
and
B. Sadness because I miss my family
It's also a struggle because I feel like it's a good thing that I am exposed to this type of living but at the same time, it's as if Pandora's box has been opened. I know what it's like to fly on a private jet. I know what it's like to just grab your swimsuit and head to the country club and not have to worry about sunscreen or towels because they provide it all. I know what it's like to be tired from a fun day of exploring and swimming and just pick up the phone and order what you want to eat. The problem comes in that I want to be able to give those experiences to my kids as well and unless I hit the lottery one of these days, that isn't happening.
But for tonight, I will enjoy the Heavenly shower, the Heavenly mattress and the Heavenly pillows.
The struggle for me though when I do things like this with the twins is that I always end up feeling:
A. Regret that my kids aren't experiencing this
and
B. Sadness because I miss my family
It's also a struggle because I feel like it's a good thing that I am exposed to this type of living but at the same time, it's as if Pandora's box has been opened. I know what it's like to fly on a private jet. I know what it's like to just grab your swimsuit and head to the country club and not have to worry about sunscreen or towels because they provide it all. I know what it's like to be tired from a fun day of exploring and swimming and just pick up the phone and order what you want to eat. The problem comes in that I want to be able to give those experiences to my kids as well and unless I hit the lottery one of these days, that isn't happening.
But for tonight, I will enjoy the Heavenly shower, the Heavenly mattress and the Heavenly pillows.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
On Making Friends
I've been making a concerted effort recently to make more friends. More girl friends specifically. I don't really have any girl friends that are close to me, geographically speaking, and I feel as though that is taking a toll on me spiritually.
I've been working on my relationship with a girl we'll call C. C is the girlfriend/partner to one of my Big Human's friends/former coworkers. In the past, we have only hung out when our male counterparts have gotten together. I've hung out more with her boyfriend than her simply because my Big Human would be hanging out with him and I would go meet up with them. But in an effort to cultivate my lady friendships, I've been hanging out with her doing other things. She is pregnant and so we have been going to pregnancy meetings and she has asked me to be her birth partner/doula. I've never served as an "official" doula but it is something that I have been toying with in my head so since I have to start somewhere, C will be my first "client". I'm not charging her and I won't be able to use her birth towards my accreditation but it will be good experience. Doing this for her is bittersweet. I had kind of shut myself off from the birthing world because it was too painful for me to be involved with based on the bleak prospects of me ever birthing myself. But I can't hide from one of my true passions. I have loved birth and learning about birth and watching birth since I was in middle school. I can't deny it. So in working on my friendship with C, I have had to dive back in to something that I love so dearly. I really missed it. I'm glad that C has forced me to open that part of my heart back up.
I'm still looking for more lady friendships. I wasn't prepared for it to be so much work. In high school and college, you became friends simply because you were with these people every day. In the grown up world, it's work just like any other relationship. Whew!
I've been working on my relationship with a girl we'll call C. C is the girlfriend/partner to one of my Big Human's friends/former coworkers. In the past, we have only hung out when our male counterparts have gotten together. I've hung out more with her boyfriend than her simply because my Big Human would be hanging out with him and I would go meet up with them. But in an effort to cultivate my lady friendships, I've been hanging out with her doing other things. She is pregnant and so we have been going to pregnancy meetings and she has asked me to be her birth partner/doula. I've never served as an "official" doula but it is something that I have been toying with in my head so since I have to start somewhere, C will be my first "client". I'm not charging her and I won't be able to use her birth towards my accreditation but it will be good experience. Doing this for her is bittersweet. I had kind of shut myself off from the birthing world because it was too painful for me to be involved with based on the bleak prospects of me ever birthing myself. But I can't hide from one of my true passions. I have loved birth and learning about birth and watching birth since I was in middle school. I can't deny it. So in working on my friendship with C, I have had to dive back in to something that I love so dearly. I really missed it. I'm glad that C has forced me to open that part of my heart back up.
I'm still looking for more lady friendships. I wasn't prepared for it to be so much work. In high school and college, you became friends simply because you were with these people every day. In the grown up world, it's work just like any other relationship. Whew!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
An ode to charting
I love to chart.
I love to talk about charting.
I love to teach people how to chart.
Charting? What is this charting? It's also known as Natural Family Planning (NFP) or Fertility Awareness Method (FAM). It is a way to control the size of your family without the use of artificial contraception such as hormones or barrier methods.
I didn't realize how much havoc the artificial hormones were wrecking in my body until after I stopped taking them. Now that I have learned more about them, I can't think of a single good reason why any woman should take them. Seriously. If you want to take them for birth control, charting works great. If you have some sort of medical condition such as painful periods, excessive bleeding or irregular periods, then the reason for those things should be figured out and not just treated with hormones to make them "disappear".
If you are interesting in learning more about charting, I suggest reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. This is where I started and it's sort of the bible for the charting community. To give you an example of the efficacy of charting, I am on my 26th cycle of charting to avoid (CTA) and in that time, there have only been two "incidents". Now those "incidents" came about for a reason and went away for reason but that's for another post on another day. Needless to say, they were due to user failure and not method failure.
To give you an example of what a chart looks like, and also to introduce you to a great online charting tool, I present: MY CHART. Enjoy!
I love to talk about charting.
I love to teach people how to chart.
Charting? What is this charting? It's also known as Natural Family Planning (NFP) or Fertility Awareness Method (FAM). It is a way to control the size of your family without the use of artificial contraception such as hormones or barrier methods.
I didn't realize how much havoc the artificial hormones were wrecking in my body until after I stopped taking them. Now that I have learned more about them, I can't think of a single good reason why any woman should take them. Seriously. If you want to take them for birth control, charting works great. If you have some sort of medical condition such as painful periods, excessive bleeding or irregular periods, then the reason for those things should be figured out and not just treated with hormones to make them "disappear".
If you are interesting in learning more about charting, I suggest reading Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. This is where I started and it's sort of the bible for the charting community. To give you an example of the efficacy of charting, I am on my 26th cycle of charting to avoid (CTA) and in that time, there have only been two "incidents". Now those "incidents" came about for a reason and went away for reason but that's for another post on another day. Needless to say, they were due to user failure and not method failure.
To give you an example of what a chart looks like, and also to introduce you to a great online charting tool, I present: MY CHART. Enjoy!
Monday, November 2, 2009
Tippy Toes
Day Two...wonder if I can keep this up? Anyways, I'm here now and that's what counts, right?
Here's my observation for the day: Dads don't know how to have quiet feet. I'm staying with a family this week that I used to nanny for. The mom and dad left this morning to go to London until Saturday. So I came over last night to spend the night so I didn't have to arrive at the butt crack o'dawn. But the dad decided at 5 AM, right before they left to go to the airport, that he absolutely needed something from the kitchen. And proceeded to walk the wood-floor hallway IN HIS SHOES to the kitchen and back down to the garage. Which woke me up. And the twins.
Now I have witnessed this type of behavior before, namely in my Big Human. He thinks that yelling whispers, briskly shutting cabinets (as opposed to just letting them slam shut) and blowing his nose (which he does very loudly BTW) is all reasonable behavior in the living room/kitchen and will not wake our children. Yeah, right. I have perfected the ability to shut their doors without making a sound and I have even figured out that if I crank down the HVAC long enough for it to turn on, it will mask the noise of shutting the bathroom door. That last hour of sleep is precious and should NEVER be disturbed!
So now I am in bed and ready to call it a night and it's not even 9 PM yet. It's been a long, sleepy day.
Here's my observation for the day: Dads don't know how to have quiet feet. I'm staying with a family this week that I used to nanny for. The mom and dad left this morning to go to London until Saturday. So I came over last night to spend the night so I didn't have to arrive at the butt crack o'dawn. But the dad decided at 5 AM, right before they left to go to the airport, that he absolutely needed something from the kitchen. And proceeded to walk the wood-floor hallway IN HIS SHOES to the kitchen and back down to the garage. Which woke me up. And the twins.
Now I have witnessed this type of behavior before, namely in my Big Human. He thinks that yelling whispers, briskly shutting cabinets (as opposed to just letting them slam shut) and blowing his nose (which he does very loudly BTW) is all reasonable behavior in the living room/kitchen and will not wake our children. Yeah, right. I have perfected the ability to shut their doors without making a sound and I have even figured out that if I crank down the HVAC long enough for it to turn on, it will mask the noise of shutting the bathroom door. That last hour of sleep is precious and should NEVER be disturbed!
So now I am in bed and ready to call it a night and it's not even 9 PM yet. It's been a long, sleepy day.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Alright, I'm game
I'm going to give this a shot...the whole write every day in November Napboelsinwo or whatever it is. I'm not putting a linky, blinky bloggy thing on my blog. I'm just going to try to come here every day and write.
Let's see where we end up, o.k.?
Let's see where we end up, o.k.?
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