Renewed

I've been looking forward to my little trip tomorrow with some of my girlfriends. We are going to Las Vegas for the weekend. One of my closest friends and I have been talking the past three weeks (probably a little too frequently) about how we can't wait to get away from everything and just relax and play around. Which has led me to wonder if I need to relax on a more frequent basis. To be honest during this time she has had one daughter break a wrist, one daughter break an arm, a husband who has been ill, and a daughter who has had a sinus infection. While I have had two daughters with bronchitis and a husband who is still recuperating from a virus that ended up making him have pnemonia. It's been 3 weeks now and Ken has enough energy to work, but I totally know that I am a High Maintenance Wife and still want him to take care of me. So there may have been just a few things stressing us out:-) On top of all the normal craziness, plus I just have to say I am still cranky about my kids being in school. You would think 6 weeks later I would have adjusted, but we still haven't gotten a comfortable routine down and I just plain miss them.

Anyway, I've been feeling like I need to make sure that I am renewing my spirit on a daily basis. And I've thought about a few things that I really, really enjoy about being a mom and wife. These are the things that I really LOVE, not the things that I do because my kids love them. It's for me and when I do them I feel happy and on top of the world!

I absolutely love my morning cuddles with Ginger. I love when she is just waking up and still trying to keep her eyes closed. I love holding her and nuzzleing that soft, warm neck. She is so beautiful and I feel like I can breathe her in while she just melts in my arms. It is the best feeling and a wonderful way to start the day! It works out prefectly too because Ginger isn't normally a super cuddly girl. Plus, she is totally a Night Owl so she is slow to get up in the morning. I can get in at least a good 30 minutes of cuddle time.

I totally love when Rose lets me hold her close and whisper everything I love about her as I look into her pretty blue eyes. Rose has a personality like a cat, she loves to be petted. It's like you can hear her purr and she goes into her happy place. Except lots of times it has to be on her terms. So it's totally a treat when she makes eye contact with me and drinks in everything I say to her. She'll let me do it probably one out of every dozen times I pet her, which is probably about once a day. Seriously she really is like a kitty:-)

Okay, so the next one is probably pretty bad. But I LOVE that my girls totally cry "I want Mommy" when Ken takes them off to bed. They do it every single night and I totally do things that make them fight hard for me. Like giving in and lettting them have extra hugs and cuddles every night. It makes it hard on Ken because he has to spend 5 minutes calming them down before he can read them their book and tuck them in bed. And quite often after that they will still come down for one last hug. But I totally LOVE it! Well, except for when I don't but that is only like once a week. But I know it can be hard on Ken when they reject him.

Nathan is also a Night Owl and a Cuddly Boy. He always has been. I love that when I wake Nathan up in the morning by cuddling him that he will pop up out of bed and say, "I love you Mom!" When I don't cuddle and kiss him awake, he is a grouchy bear and stretches and doesn't want to get out of bed. I also love that when I go to check on him in the night and give him a kiss he will mumble, "Love you too" in his sleep. Nathan always expresses love, that is totally his personality, so whenever I need a pick-me-up I can go to him and he fills me right on up! It really is his personality at his parent teacher conference his teacher remarked that she has never seen a 5th grader who is as kind as him.

Something else that makes me so happy is late night re-caps with my boys. Like after we throw a party or they come home from a party and the house is still and we can chat for an hour or so about what they liked or whatever really. It's a special time when my boys aren't thinking of something else to do and they are chatty. Like this weekend after Ken and I got home from a date, Nathan and Ginger had fallen asleep before we got home and Rose crashed in the car when I took the babysitter home. It was just Ken, me, and Darin eating our take-out dessert and talking. Moments like that are magical!

Speaking of dates...the one thing in the world that always makes me feel renewed is going out with Ken. I'm looking forward to going out with my girlfriends, but Ken is my Best Friend! There are so many things going on in my/our life where I have thoughts that I can really only share with Ken. Not anything super serious, in fact most of it is dumb and silly, but who else would you ever say them too if not your best friend. Plus, there is so much stuff that I want to share with him without all of our kids spying on us. We have so much fun together and I have been missing our dates this past month with Ken being sick and us being too busy. So much so, that I decided we were going to get caught up before I left and I planned 2 nights in a row of 5-6 hour long dates! After the two nights it really just felt like we had gotten back up to maintenance level. I could spend all my time with him and never get bored. Actually we do since he works from home. But it's different when we are out on a date.

Anyway, now that I am feeling renewed and rejuvenated I am excited to go on vacation with my girlfriends. I am glad that I had a few weeks to regroup and started focusing on the moments that really matter to me so that I can go away feeling unburdened. It was really bothering me that I was thinking of "escaping" my family because that's not me. I may joke about it but that's even pretty rare, and I don't really feel that way. I am so blessed to have such an amazing family! It's a dream that I get to stay home with them and take care of them everyday. It can feel like a huge job at times, but it's my dream job!