I was thinking of Sheryl Crow when we rearranged our living room yesterday.
“A change, a change, would do you good.”
Now, you’re singing it, too, right?
Even though we’re anticipating a move in what we hope is the near future, we decided to move our furniture around, clean and pack up living room stuff before decorating for Christmas. My thinking is that we won’t have to get the stuff back out that we packed up. Might be wishful thinking.
Anyway, the change has done a lot of good for me mentally. We’re still in the same house with the same problems, with too much stuff and too little space, but I’m refreshed by the new look. A little change with a big mental impact for me.
This week was full of changes for us. Our son turned 3 on Sunday. And we are now fully engulfed in the preschool years. I can’t call either of my kids babies or toddlers anymore. They are little human beings now. (I mean, they were always human but now they’re more like small adults.)
As I write this, our daughter, 4 1/2, is teaching her brother about how babies are born while they play with their Little People nativity set. I guess it’s time to start talking about where babies come from!
She’s also drawing pictures that look like things now. She drew this for me yesterday. I’m pretty sure it’s her and not me.
Two days this week I got to leave the house. (Did you here the “Hallelujah!” where you are?) By myself. Without kids. For large chunks of time. Grandparents were in town, so twice I accompanied my husband to Lancaster, where he works, and spent the day doing whatever I wanted. One day, I hung out at Panera and Barnes and Noble, reading and writing. Then we all ate together at Chick-Fil-A as a family. Then my husband and I got a mini-date night at a coffeehouse. The next day, I got to spend hours catching up with a friend. Both days it was fun to ride with my husband and just be together. And to order a drink from him at his place of work and sit and read while waiting for his shift to end. So refreshing. A taste of what may come when the kids start school, if I’m not working a job myself.
More highlights from this week:
The 3-year-old and his orange shades. 
Yep, it’s bedtime and he’s wearing them while brushing his teeth. When I asked him what he wanted Santa to bring him, he said, “Orange glasses. Because I only just have my orange shades.” Mark my words: He’s going to choose a college based on their colors, and if orange isn’t one of them, no deal.
The girl and her brain. On a day when they watched Super Why, Sid the Science Kid and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, I asked which one she liked the best. (I’m personally fond of Super Why, and Sid is growing on me.) She said, “You know how much I like Sid? 12 plus 14 plus 1.” Huh? Oh, well. Math skills, here we come!
And a box of love landed on our door Friday. We always love boxes of love, especially though, when they are filled with such awesomeness as:
pirate eye patches (new house rule: one pirate eye patch per person at meal times)
Ugandan coffee
fun cups and bowls
Lush bath product
and clothes for the kids, including some cool winter coats that the kids wore out of the house 30 minutes after we opened the box. Life isn’t about stuff, but it’s the love behind the stuff that we love.
That’s my favorite part of Christmas: not the getting of stuff or the giving of stuff but the showing of love in ways you can see and touch and hold and use.
Smilin’ today. Now if only I could find an extension cord so I can light the Christmas tree!
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