Amazing Women

I am so blessed to have a number of amazing women in my life.

I have two best friends. I met one when I was in seventh grade, and the second when I was in eighth grade. Lately I have not been able to see either as often as I'd like, and tonight both were supposed to come over to hang out.

Well, this morning my toddler woke up with a fever. Once I realized that he was ill I gave him ibuprofen (generic, given the current state of things), and I figured things would be fine. Well, just as my friends were supposed to arrive I discovered that my toddler's fever had skyrocketed, and I ended up canceling with them to take the monster to the doctor.

Amazing woman #1, my mom, ran over to help me with the boys, and offered to keep the little one while I ran out with the big one.

Amazing woman #2, a best friend, offered to do the job mom already volunteered for, and then popped over to say hi to mom while I was gone.

Amazing woman #3, other best friend, popped into the exam room bearing my favorite coffee and two cookies for the monster. She kept me company while we waited for the doctor, and then ran out to meet up with other best friend.

Having such caring people in my life is amazing. Nights like tonight confirm that.

I am a mom of boys

I am a mom of boys. I have bruises on my legs, and joy in my heart. My living room and ears are full of "cars!", and "be gentle with your brother!" is always on the tip of my tongue. There is dirt to be dug, paper to be colored, and animals to be pet. Dances are free and wild, alligators are dinosaurs, and books are treasured. I have little arms around my neck, little hands on my lips, and big eyes laughing at me through long lashes. I am a couch, a bandaid, and a form of entertainment. My favorite words in the world are "heeeyy baaabby!" and "mommy!", because they are spoken with honest love and joy by my son. I call them monsters, but only because I want them to be wild and free. I am a mom of boys, and my boys bring a joy to my life that I never imagined.

Creative Use of Space

My family lives in a small, but very comfortable, home. For years I've lamented our close neighbors and lack of back yard, but recently I've learned to really enjoy the space we have. The basics that are most important to us are covered: we have separate bedrooms for our children, 2.5 bathrooms, and an open floor plan that allows us freedom of movement. Lately I've been focusing on making small repairs, and each little change makes me happier and happier to live here.

First of all, I rearranged furniture, and moved my desk from the living room to our bedroom. It's not necessarily conventional to have office space in the bedroom, but it takes up no extra room, and opens up the living room to allows for more room for our boys to play, as well as a very comfortable reading nook. I hung a banister, and suddenly our stairway feels more finished. I hung shelves in our kitchen that opened up some much-needed cabinet space, and allows me open access to my tea goods and cook books. I hung bird feeders on the windows to attract birds for the boys to watch, and I got the ball rolling on installing closet doors.

But my favorite change so far has been the creation of a vegetable garden. One of my most frequent complaints about our house has been the lack of yard, and my desire to have a vegetable patch. Sure, I'd still like to be able to let my dog out without walking him, and I'd really love to be able to let my toddler run in the sun, but I realized that I can make better use of what I have by expanding my front garden.

So, where I would usually plant useless flowers, I now have thriving tomato plants and green beans. I've added containers with cucumbers, zucchini, peppers, strawberries, and four kinds of raspberries. I planted broccoli and onions between some dahlias, added a row for basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, and oregano, and created space for garlic and spinach. Our front yard gets plenty of sunshine for things to grow, and each bed is surrounded by stone to mark the area for the lawn care company. Just seeing my new garden makes me smile, and I take special delight in watering my plants once or twice a day. I look forward to teaching my toddler to water and weed, and I can't wait to feed my children good food that was grown right in front of our house.

There are several more repairs I'm hoping to work on this summer, but as it stands our house feels like the home I really want for my family. And I'm so grateful that we have such a place to call home.