Monday Randoms

-Mike and I got into a fight yesterday over something stupid. I was totally ashamed of myself afterwards. I have always tried to fight fair and I've always been proud of the fact that I don't ever use low blows. Yesterday I failed. I insulted Mike as a father to Laney when it was totally unrelated to the argument at hand. I knew it was the easiest way to hurt him. Mike and I forgave each other last night, but both of us still feel bad about the way we treated each other. Why was it so easy for us to argue like that? It was so untypical of us. It was all selfishness. We were both angry with each other from the start of the day and Mike is usually the first one to apologize. He didn't. I didn't either. I felt God really convicting me in the afternoon and telling me to apologize. My response was to ask Mike if he was going to apologize. That is what started the fight. I'm thankful for clean slates and forgiveness. I don't think a marriage would get very far without it. It's all good now.

I love my husband. And for the record, he is an amazing father.

-Laney is dropping weight percentiles. The doctor told me to try and get her eating more food and drinking less milk. It is not easy now as Laney has picked up on a bit of signing and constantly is asking me for milk. It is so cute I can't say no. She also still has a bad cough and we are monitoring it in the next little while. Apparently her lungs were clear. The cough really gets bad at nighttime. She is still her happy little self though.

-I've really been thinking lately about giving. I can't fathom the thought that 30,000 children die every day from starvation or preventable diseases. I am not doing enough. I have way too much. I am sickened at the thought that I need to lose weight because I eat too much and there are children out there who do not have enough food to survive. Mike and I have been having a lot of conversations lately about increasing our giving. As we make more money we want to increase our standard of giving, not our standard of living.

 -Wow. I didn't intend for this to be such a heavy "random Monday" but I guess I need to unload a little bit.

-How's this for random. One day last week our city was the second coldest place on Earth. Here I was feeling all guilty for thinking it was too cold to bundle Laney up and take her outside. Then I saw the news. The only place colder on that day was Antarctica. We were colder than Siberia. Colder than the northern territories in Canada. I will stand by my decision to not take Laney outside in -33 C/-27 F weather. Just so you know, it is much warmer this week.

I snapped this from my window. I did go outside to shovel the walks while Laney was napping, but that was about the only time I stepped out all week.

Thanks for letting me get that out.

laugh your way

I managed to do it. I left Laney with Mike's parents for the first time. Maybe I can relax a little about going to work part-time now that I spent a day away from her. We left her so that we could attend a marriage seminar on Friday evening and Saturday. It was called "Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage."

I'm not going to review the whole seminar. It is available on DVD and we thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing. Besides being entertained, we learned a lot of things that we can apply to our marriage.

The best part about the whole thing was having some uninterrupted time together. I actually forgot what it is like to go for a walk with Mike and just be able to talk together without focusing on anything else. Sure, we can do that at home when Laney is in bed, but there are always other things that seem to prevent us from actually sitting down and having conversations. We tend to keep busy or even just have the television on in the background (or at least Mike does).

I feel renewed.

This weekend also reminded me that I need to make my husband's needs a priority. I tend to get so focused on taking care of Laney that I don't really make a huge effort with Mike. I'm not just a mummy, but a wife too. And I don't want to forget that.

How do you feed your marriage when life gets busy?

Shiny Sink

This is a boring post. Just so you know, I am writing about my kitchen sink. Now that I've put this disclaimer out there, I don't need to worry about you being annoyed with me for wasting your time once you've reached the end.

With that being said, if you knew me well, you would know that my house is not squeaky clean. I think I do a decent job of keeping it clean most of the time, but it is not unusual to see dust on the furniture, crumbs on the floor, and smudges on the glass. So keep that in mind when I show you what I did.

I got my kitchen sink a-sparklin' using these instructions. Mike was thoroughly impressed. I actually overheard him bragging about it twice since then. I know it's vain, but I secretly like hearing Mike talk me up. Even if it's over my kitchen sink. It is nice to know that he notices things every now and then. It makes me want to try harder and it makes me want him to be proud of me as his wife.

I love my husband. And yes, I know I'm a dork.

Being a good wife

Am I the only one who, after having a baby, tends to put my husband's needs in low priority?

My husband (Mike) is a huge soccer fan. He played in college and has played every season since he was a child, until this year. So with World Cup fever running high, he asked me if we could host a world cup party. I said yes.

Because of this, I spent the evening prepping food and fixing up the house. Mike helped tons. I really appreciate this about him. He is always (almost) willing to help me when I ask him to do something. I really need to work on doing the same for him.

I am cheering for Spain tomorrow and he is cheering for the Netherlands. To encourage a little fun rivalry, I made sugar cookies with gingerbread man cutouts and kitted them up! I couldn't resist giving the Netherlands team sad faces and the Spanish team happy faces.

We also have a bet between us. If Spain wins, I get an evening where he will give me a good back massage and we will watch any movie I choose. If the Netherlands wins, he gets me cooking his favorite meal, chicken lasagne rollups, and a back massage. I really hope I win. I am going to pick the girliest movie that I can!