7 Quick Takes Friday, #18

1. I feel blah. Most of this whole week has been blah. Aren't you glad you stopped by today to witness my bundles of joy?

2. Last night, I made a sourdough bread pudding - one of the bright spots in this week. My husband was out of town and I'm not ashamed to admit that I've eaten more than half the pan by myself. Have I introduced you to my sweet tooth?

3. Before we had kids (and for the first 10 months of Mia's life) Justin traveled for work. He'd be gone for a couple weeks every month, leaving me free to lounge around in my granny panties with no worries about him seeing me in such a state. So when he told me he'd have to take an overnight trip for work, it shouldn't have bothered me; I'd be fine on my own - history was proof. But I found myself bothered anyway. What would I do if a bug showed up? What if I heard a burglar snooping in our shed? Who would make sure the house was closed up tight before bed? Where would I stash my cold feet if not against his warm legs?

Though I know I can stand on my own, and take care of business around here by myself if necessary, it's good to be reminded that I don't want that. I need my husband. And not just in that 'thank goodness you're home, here are the kids, I'm going to sit down for a while' way. I need him in the 'thank goodness you're here with me to fill up all these gaping empty spaces that show up when you go away' way.

Maybe absence does make the heart grow fonder, even when you didn't know it could grow any more. Even when your heart's been full of such a vast expanse of love for so long that you think you'll burst if it grows any more.

And now I'm stopping. The sappy sap is obscuring my keyboard.

4. Maybe I'm hormonal. Number 1 and Number 3 are indicating that all signs point in that direction. I'd say Number 2 too, but I always overeat sweet soft carbs.

Do you smell donuts, or is that just me?

5. It's nearing time for me to get a haircut again, but I find myself torn. (As usual - I have hairstyle amnesia. Always hoping for a different outcome with the same input, and never being satisfied that my limp stringy hair won't magically transform into a smooth flowing sheet of locks.) I'm just able to pull it back into a ponytail and OH MY GOSH the feeling of hair being pulled tight away from my face and neck on a hot day is like a drug. It feels cool and calm and fuss-free. It feels like putting on a brand new pair of clean, snug socks. It feels like quietly slipping into a glassy smooth body of water on a starry summer night. It feels like burying my face in the crook of my husband's neck and inhaling until my lungs are full.

So I'm not sure I'm ready to give up my new drug yet, is what I'm saying.

6. Check this book out of the library for your preschooler: Daisy Comes Home, by Jan Brett. (This is our first experience with her books, but I hear they're all wonderful.) Mia is loving it. We've easily read it 10 times and we've only had it 3 days. The artwork is beautiful, the story is sweet, and best of all, Mia's full of conversation about it. Questions, observations, ideas - she talks about the story all day. We're up to our pigtails in reading comprehension over here. It's one billion times more entertaining than, say, Dora's Musical Rescue.

Does anybody else think books about TV and movie characters should be outlawed? Banned from existence? I appreciate a well-timed cartoon DVD as much as the next toddler-mama, but to have them filling up our books too...seems cruel and unusual. Those books are always a struggle for me to actually get through without imagining them sprouting wings and flying to the nearest recycle center.

This is something I never thought about before I had kids.

7. Oh yeah - all that sap from a few numbers back? I think it stems from the fact that this weekend is the 6 year anniversary of a beautiful day when Justin and I vowed to love and cherish each other until parted by death.

We plan to celebrate by creating our third child.

KIDDING! (Sorry mom. Hurry and wipe the spewed hot tea off your computer screen before dad sees and tries to convince you to buy a new one.)

I think I mentioned something earlier about being hormonal? Well that stuff bleeds over into humor, too. There's really no controlling it.

For more (hormone-free, I'm assuming) quick takes, head over to Conversion Diary. Have a wonderful weekend!