Phew! Christmas is over and everyone is happy!

 

Here's a pic of our kids and my sister on Christmas Eve (she'd kill me if she knew I posted that pic on here, we have a tendency to get very goofy and laugh in very unflattering ways!). We had a blast. And ate SO MUCH FOOD, for 3 straight days. Lots of new toys to find homes for. Happy, over-tired children who desperately need their teeth brushed.
No births in the last 3 days! So happy about that. I've been doing birth work for 6 years straight-thru and haven't missed Christmas yet (on a couple occasions I had other midwives to thank for that).

I'm off now to make an attempt at forcing more leftovers into the refrigerator.

Hope you've all had great holidays however, or if, you celebrate them!

What's been shakin'?

Getting ready for the big Christmas festivities. Finished up shopping, delivered little things to my favorite neighbors, made some cookies, bought myself some new bras and underwear (Merry Christmas, darling. I love you.), got a haircut that my husband doesn't like so much, but I'm happy with, am obsessing over a Time-Life music collection, 10 soul CDs from the 50s,60s, and 70s. It is amazing and I want it.
Then I want to plan a fabulous soul dance party complete with good food, lots of friends, absent children and alcohol.
HA!
Not for another 4 months or so for any alcohol. Ah, the life of a midwife...always putting off those all-night soul parties. Sigh.

And now a word or two about sex...
I had an interesting conversation this week with a friend who is the same age as me. We've both had babies and nursed them around the same time. We both finished up with the nursing around the same time, but then she got pregnant again and did it all over. Thankfully, I didn't. Well now she's done nursing that one too, and we both admitted we think there is really something to that mid-30s Women Get Their Libidos at Full Force theory/myth. I've always enjoyed sex, especially before the children came along. We got through the co-sleeping for years and nursing for years and now that my hormones are all mine once again, my libido is huge! And what's even better is that, unlike my young 20s, I feel very happy in my skin (even though there's a little more of it and it has some stretch marks). This means I can enjoy sex with my whole being, not just sporadically between thoughts of what my butt looks like from that angle, or what the time is for fear I'll only get 4 hours of sleep before work in the morning (ahh, young 20s sex).
During the co-sleeping/nursing years, we had big leaky boobs, extra pounds I worried about and those anxious we-have-no-money-to-pay-our-bills thoughts during sex.

Now, I feel like a 16 year old boy. Who cares about what I look like?! Who cares if meals have to be very, very creative because buying groceries might make things a little *too* tight this week?
I'm really digging this! I feel like this is a nice little bonus streak between pregnancy/nursing and menopause.
Let's just hope I don't get pregnant with all these reckless hormones shooting about.

But then, dear husband has been working 12-16 hours a day this week, and 6 days a week for months. Sigh. I've finally hit my stride and the man is either gone or too tired to do much more than eat dinner and go to bed. If I had a cute pool boy around, I don't know what evil I'd be contemplating.
If I had a cute pool boy around, I would not be living in Michigan in the winter.

Besides raging (good) hormones, life is good. Getting over a cold, all of snow has melted but it's fah-reezing (12 degrees) today with high winds.

S got her ears pierced yesterday. Quite a rite of passage! She's so pleased. We had a lot of talks before this occurred about what it means to her to get her ears pierced, if she was mature enough to take care of them, etc. She's so happy, but bummed that she won't be able to show her school friends for 2 weeks.

Off now to prepare for tomorrow's C. eve party that will be here with my side of the family. Hopefully the impending babies will not take me away from the family at the important times, but if they do, then prayers that the births all go well.

Happy holidays!

 

I found this in my friend's photo album this morning. What a treat! A picture I never knew was taken of wee little E when he was about 1 1/2, nursing. I borrowed it to scan it. I don't have very many nursing pics with him.

snow! a lot of it!

 



We've been hit by this massive snow storm. Judging by what is piled on my car, maybe 6-8 inches right now. It's still snowing and the wind is blowing too, so a lot of drifting. Little E is up with me and says the snow is scary. I was excited to show him but he's not so into it. S will be thrilled when she wakes up. Once she gets up I'll be out there shoveling the drive way.

Poor G (who works in a rail way shipping yard) had to drive to work this morning at 6am, and will have to try to load cars onto trains in this crap. Even though G has worked there for 14 years, my mother asked me if G would be working inside or out today. This made me and S laugh.
I said, "There *is* no inside! It's a huge 2 mile parking lot and a set of about 6 train tracks."
S said, "Yes there is, Mom. There's that guy who works the gate in that little box!" (The guy who allows the semi carhaulers into the yard. It's a 3X3 shanty with a space heater.)
Of course there is an office for the managers, and a breakroom with bathrooms, but essentially there is no inside work.

I must admit how I laughed at myself seeing how crappy my photo of the snow was. Last year when I worked for Mr. Senior Guy, I helped sort through *years and years* of photos. There was a stack of "snow" photos from every winter he's been alive for, I swear. I couldn't throw any of them away. Instead I had to use a magnifying glass to see the teeny tiny date in the corner and then put them into photo books according to the year. A whole book filled with driveways before and after they'd been shoveled, and poor Mr. Senior Guy's cat year after year, no doubt thrown into the snow for the photo just so the viewer could see how deep the snow was in comparison. (Like the coin next to some strange object to show proportion.)
The funny thing is, I know why he took them. They must have been very impressive snow storms like the one we're in right now. But unless you've got a really nice camera (and know how to use it), trying to capture how deep, or how lovely the snow is is just about impossible. But I did it this morning. Guilty, just like every other Michigander who is truly impressed, year after year, with the big dumped-on snow storms.
It's a good thing we got rid of the cats. I could be getting silly with the camera.

Stress, PMS or is it just December?

I can feel that inner bubble of anxiety and frustration rising again. PMS or the holiday season?

Even though I'm thoroughly against spending a load of money of presents, that extra money is never budgeted. Plus, we have 5 family birthdays immediately surrounding Christmas, so it always feels like more.
We also have to renew 3 cars on January 4th, which is around $300.

My stomach is just knotting with all the, "Oh, we need to pay this! Oh crap!We need to pay that too!"

I hate being the responsible one sometimes. But despite my venting occasionally, I handle this stress far better than my husband, who is such a fatalist at times I just want to slap him and say: "Snap out of it, man!"

In other news, someone stole the mail from our mailbox Monday afternoon. I was in and out all day but when I came home from a prenatal, I noticed the mail in our box was gone (we have a small, stuck to the house box) and nothing new in the box. It was too early for the mailman to have come. About a half hour later the mail man did come. I asked if he had collected our mail already and he said he hadn't, he just started on our street.
My mom, who somehow always just heard about X,Y, and/or Z on the local news said she had just heard about stolen mail, as thiefs are looking for gift cards or money around the holidays. Thankfully, I didn't have any gift cards, money, or bills going out. This thief was treated to 6 holiday cards with pictures of our kids on them, 2 birthday cards, and my daughter's letter to Santa. I hope the thief enjoyed them, although I imagine they're somewhere in the Huron River now.
I called the police just to give them a heads up (because for a small, understaffed city, the police are amazing here and are very involved in the community in good ways). The woman asked if I wanted an officer to come to the house. I asked, "Why, so he can look in our empty mailbox? No, we don't need that."
Hours later, as we're all hanging out watching AFV reruns together, I see bright, all-over flashlights on the front lawn through my living room curtains. I roll my eyes and wait for the loud BOOM BOOM BOOM of police men knocking in their menacing way. G says, "What the hell is THAT?"
"I got it," I sigh and go to the door.
Sure enough, 2 officers come in with a note pad and smiles, taking a proper report. I have to remind one of them to shut the door since it's cold outside. While one is asking me questions, the other guy is asking me where we got our ceiling fan. "Is it one of those kind with a remote? Those are nice."
Me: "Yes it does have a remote. We really like it."
Other officer: "So what kind of mail was stolen, mam?"
G, from the other room: "We got that fan at Lowe's. It was the last one and on clearance. It's a beautiful fan."
Me: "Nothing important just cards. I'm sorry you had to come out here tonight. Not much we can do now."
Officer 1: "I need to get one of those fans. That's a great sofa you have..."

Oh dear.
Very nice police.
I'm just a little pissed and left feeling violated after someone took the pictures of my children from my mailbox.

Back to holiday complaining too:
And annoyed with my husband who will actually buy the book he wants when it first comes out and not wait until its in paperback.
Annoyed that I don't just get what I want when I want it but instead, rationalize why I really don't need it or can make do with some lesser object.
Ack. These holidays make everyone hate money.
And I'm not crafty enough, nor do I have the type of family who would appreciate home made gifts. I've given them enough over the last 10 years that I have honestly run out of ideas. No one wants my cookie mix in the jar, bath salts, soap, or hard-core homemade stout as a repeat.

On a more positive note, I'm taking a Karen Strange neonatal resuscitation class in early January that costs a lot of money but I'm really looking forward to. Hopefully the ladies with the babies will allow me to get there!

Now to begin our day and get everyone fed, clean and dressed. I WILL be a nicer person now that I've complained here. And today is actually a very freed-up day, so I'm looking forward to hanging low with little E.

Still at peace with Santa

Both still believe and neither are afraid of the man with the white Barbie doll hair beard.

Sweeties.

The lice treatment went well. Besides the 3 of us looking like Curt Cobain for 24 hours (think: clumpy dirty blond hair), no one was miserable and no one was itchy. Only S was slightly itchy. I only saw 2 louses on her head before the big wash down/comb down on Tuesday. We have to do some preventative maintenance of the same routine two more times, 7 days apart.

Little E had his Christmas pageant at school where he and the rest of his preschool class sang O Christmas Tree, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Deck the Halls.
Very cute. And no seizures on stage, thank God.

My friend K set up a myspace page for me. I'm only slowly getting it. I still don't see the point so much. I have it set for private, and don't see what I'm supposed to do with it. I do like changing my music selection and adding photos here and there, but, I just don't get it so much. I'm getting old.

But hey, it's Saturday night. Time to go do an herbal chemical peel with my Arbonne exfoliating scrub mask. It feels like bleaching your face (that same lovely burning sensation one gets when bleaching their hair~ you old punk rock mamas know what I'm talking about. Gets your endorphins going!)
Leaves my skin baby smooth, and a little sunburned-looking for 30-40 minutes.

SHIT!! My kid has Lice!

AAAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!
Lice has been a slight epidemic at S's school in the past month or so.
She hung out with a school friend Saturday and by Monday morning was itching like mad. I couldn't see anything and put it down to not rinsing out her shampoo properly. She took another shower and seemed fine... Until this morning.
I saw 2 little louses. Ack!!

Now everything her head has touched is being washed in scalding hot water. I'm waiting for the sun to come up so I can go to the store and buy Cetaphil. Apparently there is a new and more effective treatment for lice other than Nix (the hardcore pesticide). Cetaphil is an over-the-counter soap for sensitive skin/ acne. The method is supposed to be better.

We shall see.

getting ready for Christmas

The wind is BLOWING so hard today.
I had to pump gas today after prenatals and was cussing and moaning to myself about this Wizard of Oz wind. I could barely open the car door to get back inside. It's about 30 degrees today, but with 45 mph winds, it feels like 18 degrees or so.
My poor husband is working out in this stuff all day. His face will be so red and wind-burned by the time he gets home.
Sigh.

I'm making one of chickens; roasting it whole. I don't like chicken off the bone, but it will be good. It took 3 days to defrost in the fridge because the damn thing weighs 10 pounds. Was supposed to have it yesterday for dinner but it was still fairly solid.

My MIL spent the weekend with us. Had a yummy dinner Saturday at Tower Inn. I forget that place even exists, but it is good. Sunday we went shopping with little E. Bought some Christmas and birthday stuff.

The kids big ticket items this year will be new Leapsters. S received one from my MIL last Easter, but little E left it outside in a terrible rainstorm this summer and it no longer works. S didn't play hers all that much, but E loves it. If I didn't get one for S, she'd be upset, even though it's not really her thing.
My MIL bought the Sunday paper yesterday so we could look at the toys in the ads.
So much of it is crap. It's always been crap. Usually I can find a small number of things that I think: Hey! The kids would love this!
This year, not so much.

I think they'll be getting the Leapsters, new books, some games and that's it.
All the toys for girls in S's age group are extreme crap. They totally promote the brain-mush twists of: Math is hard; I love bling; Look at me after my makeover! ETC