Quiet Moments

The work week always seems difficult for me as a mommy. I am blessed that I can do my 40 hour work week from Monday - Thursday, giving me a 3 day weekend to focus on being a mommy, and of course, get stuff done around the house, errands, etc. However, because of my Monday - Thursday, I only see Flora for about 1 hour each of those days. When I leave in the morning she's still sleeping, and then she goes to bed about 1 hour after I get home in the evening. This morning I was fortunate enough to have a few extra minutes so instead of my quick checking on Flora and giving her a gentle sleeping hug, I sat next to her while she slept and I ate my breakfast quietly. It was a peaceful and loving way to start the day, and even though she probably never knew I was there, it helped me get my mommy time in. I foresee getting up a little earlier now so I can have my breakfast with Flora. :)

Get well.

For three days now I have been attempting to fight a really bad head cold. I came down with it on Sunday morning and as of Tuesday, still feeling it pretty bad. I didn't go to work for the past two days, and being home by yourself is really boring...even when you sleep half the day away. Being sick makes you realize the freedoms you have when you are healthy. For instance, the freedom of physical contact. Even though I'm living in the same house as my excellent husband and wonderful daughter, I haven't been touching either of them in effort to keep them germ-free. I feel physically neglectful. It's amazing what physical touch can mean to your body and mind. The only cuddling I have is with my furry pals - Quigley and Cora. Another freedom when healthy is being awake :) I have slept so much in these past three days I feel like a lump of uselessness. I have been doing everything natural that I know to get well. Taking my all natural immune booster pills, elderberry for anti-viral, sleeping, drinking hot tea with honey. Either I'm missing something, or this bug is extremely resilient. Next, blending kiwi with orange juice...a Vitamin C kick in the butt to this cold! Any other solutions? Help!

Game/Reading Night

When Flora was born, we felt our days and nights completely change in pace. As it was, we didn't do much TV viewing during the week. If we are watching the TV, it's either Thursday night "Office" or a movie we've rented from Netflix. But, sometimes we would find we had a moment, and the tv would go on for lack of better things to do. Now, we have a better solution: Game Nights! We are finding that it didn't work to say that these nights are always Monday and Saturday, but we have been trying to spend at least one night a week playing a game together (usually after Flora's sleeping...she's not into Scrabble - yet.) Games are fun, and generally require some thought. Both good things :) We usually end up playing our favorites - Scrabble, Sorry, Spite and Malice, Farkle....this last weekend we played Monopoly for a change of pace. First, I kicked Tim's butt, and then he kicked mine. Here's a snapshot of how the first game went. Me on left, Tim on right.

We hope to keep this up as a family tradition - games, at least once a week! Having wind-down time is so important when it seems like all there is to do is working, running errands, and keeping busy one way or another. Games have been a way to unwind, while having fun, not just sitting in a vegetative state in front of the tv screen.