This little nugget is also from several months ago.
Me: Now that she’s done napping, Cora is currently in her crib dancing and making out with Eeyore.
Derek: I always feared that my daughter would end up dating a jackass.
Overheard in the Household – Volume 3
Overheard in the Household – Volume 2
This installment of OHH is brought to you by a child named Logan:
A while back, Logan ran into our front room where Derek and I were sitting in order to ramble off some completely random fact he felt important enough to share with us. (Because it’s been several months now, I can’t remember what it was exactly.) Before he sprinted back into the family room, we had the following conversation.
Logan: (Insert random knowledge trivia here.)
Me: Wait, wait, wait! What made you think of that?
Logan: My brain just thought of it. I had a brainstorm!
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From this past weekend…
Logan: Guess what? We have a new student in our class!
Me: That’s exciting! Are they nice?
Logan: Her name is Amelia. I introduced her to myself!
Hooray therapy!
I’m unsure of where to begin. I had my regular therapy appointment this morning, and since then I’ve had the urge to write about some pretty remarkable things that have happened in the last few weeks.
Prior to seeing my current therapist, I was seeing my neighbour (only, neither of us realized we lived next to each other for many weeks). In my therapy sessions with him, we played around a bit with hypnosis – a technique I certainly had my doubts about but was willing to participate in – if it meant that it provided some measure of relief from the issues I was attempting to conquer.
Even after our sessions (and ultimately, after our sessions concluded permanently), I had serious reservations about how much the hypnosis truly helped. You see, for both issues I sought relief from were far from my mind at the time therapy ended.
But, a few weeks ago, something magical happened. I met up with some girls (a couple of friends, in addition to a couple of new gals) at a coffee shop. While the atmosphere was grand, it left a lot to be desired. So after about an hour or so, we found ourselves at a karaoke bar. One of the new girls talked about how she had a fear of singing in front of “strangers.” I did my best not to laugh in her face as I recalled the hypno-therapy session in which I hid the *very* same phobia of singing in front of anyone in a lighthouse.
Surely, these “old” friends and new, couldn’t begin to understand my reservations. In that moment though, I took a leap of faith and pretended that I knew that they did. I’ll just say, that before the end of our first song, I felt right at home. Our “talent” meant nothing, and instead, what was important was the overwhelming lack of judgement, combined with the overwhelming abundance of support, friendship, and (dare I say it?) love.
What I found most incredible was, while I had my reservations, I did not experience abject fear. I did not shrink against the wall in horror.
I participated! WILLINGLY!
Folks, if that isn’t progress, then I surely don’t know what progress is. In fact, that acceptance I felt at the karaoke bar translated into seeking out karaoke bars with my best friend, Tia. And we found one where we sang (terribly for the most part), but redeemed ourselves in the end with a Tiffany song from the 80s. So much so, that people got up and started DANCING. I swear to everything that it’s completely true.
Don’t get me wrong though. There’s still room for growth. I’m certainly not “cured.” But I did something that I thought I’d never do, and to me, that’s pretty freaking amazing.
A Very Merry Un-Valentine’s Day to You
There are (still) so many times that I am completely overcome with this love I have for you that it brings me to tears. I’m not sappy enough to allow you to witness it nearly as often as it occurs, however, it happens much more than you’d probably think.
When you carry our daughter, wrapped up in her towel, out of the bathroom to where she can proudly show me that she’s brushing her teeth, I am overcome.
When you roll around on the floor of our family room, clapping and smiling with our son, I am overcome.
When you agree to run to the grocery and take one or more babies, I am overcome.
When you come home from work after what has been a long and hard day and (gently) tell me to go and rest, even though I know you are just as exhausted as I am, I am overcome.
When you take my hand as we are sitting on the couch in our front room, in our house, with the family that we’ve built, I am overcome.
When you coyly look at me in our bathroom while we are getting ready for bed at the same time, I am overcome.
When you write messages of love on our bathroom mirror, knowing that I won’t see them for hours, I am overcome.
When you press your forehead into mine, exactly how you did on that fateful night that eventually led to both of our worlds changing, I am overcome.
I am overcome each and every time I pause to marvel over what we, you and I, have created together.
You make the sun set and the moon rise.
You are my best friend, you are my lover, you are my partner in crime.
You are my everything.
I love you furiously Derek Marshall Dukes.
Always have. Always will. (Yes, still.)
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This Is the House That Love Built
I cancelled all of my appointments on Monday so I could go over to a new friend’s house to work on crafty things that I otherwise would not have the time to devote to.
There are so many stories behind this piece of work. The frame was procured from an urban exploration adventure that my eldest daughter and I went on back in November. This frame was on its last legs but it still had the original glass and backing – a testament to its age and fine handcrafting.
My (new) friend Nickie gave me some Old English to see if that would restore the wood from the outer piece of the frame. While I diligently painted the oils onto it, she just as diligently washed the glass for me. Then, after the white acrylic paint I brought with me was a bust, she decided white spray paint was the solution for the backing. I had my reservations but after a few thick coats, it worked!
But then it was time to lay the photographs out and after arranging them I realized – I didn’t have the centerpiece! I knew Derek would be unhappy that I was driving all the way home just to get “something.” (At the time he had no idea what I was working on.) But I snagged the last picture needed (the one of us in the middle) that I’d been hiding and away I went, back to Nickie’s house to finalize my masterpiece.
And I couldn’t have been more proud of how it turned out. All of the girls were amazed. Truthfully though, I was more amazed than all of them combined.
Behold, my masterpiece: 
.
Of course, as soon as I brought it inside and showed my husband, he was awestruck. And I promptly placed it on the wall of our Family room. Because, no matter where we all may reside, *this* is the house that love built.
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2012 Closing Ceremony
Tia gave me the 2013 Incredible Life Workbook as a gift for us to work on together this year. I fell in love with it and the idea instantly. I’ve never been one for making New Year’s Resolutions, except this year I feel compelled to own some. The workbook begins with a series of questions to be answered as part of a “closing ceremony” for the (now past) year. The questions (and my answers) are posted here.
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There is no cure for curiosity.
Benjamin Franklin, in a 1773 letter, expressed regret that he lived “in a century too little advanced, and too near the infancy of science” that he could not be preserved and revived to fulfill his “very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence.”
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You have NO idea…
How much I want her to marry this boy. (Once they are both in their mid-thirties or so.)
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Serendipity.
When I think about the world and how big it can seem, I know I can get through it all with my best friend right next to me.
We started out as little kids and watched each other grow, and anywhere I went with you I felt like I was home.
We won’t worry about our future, or fret about our past.
We’ll enjoy our time together knowing that this quietness will last.
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A Repost from January 29, 2009
This was something that my best friend, Tia, said to me years ago. This was a few months after my two eldest children had come to live with me, after having lived with their father in England for about 3 years. The issues the children were facing after moving back (and sadly are still dealing with), may not have been so bad had his remarriage to his second wife gone better. Further, the emotional damage his remarriage, in addition to, his second wife caused has always affected Glynnis far more than her biggest-little brother, Todd (who thankfully doesn’t remember nearly as much because he was so young), is something she (and we as a family) *still* deal with to this day. My best friend said it so succinctly back then. Unfortunately, the words she shared with me that day are still current, so I feel that reposting them is in order:
“If you don’t think you’re secure enough to handle a man with a previous love/marriage/kids, then why get involved in the first place? This is certainly more effective than falling in love with someone whose situation is beyond what you can deal with and wrecking some kids’ lives in the process. The problem is, that no matter how wonderful you do your children now, you have to know that they’re always going to have some issues due to this. I think about that with my own daughter all the time. Glynnis is so magical, but we both know that she’s gonna have her ass on a couch for fifty-minute hours.”
Well said, lovely. ♥
