Of Coughs, Crafts, Woody & Wirey Hairs

Howdy Ho, Neighbor!

I decided it was time again to flip on the lights, put a pot on and throw open the door of the Coffee Cottage. I am so glad you came back to visit!

***

Just A Few Things I learned over the Christmas Season:

MEN COUGH WITH THEIR ENTIRE BODY
The second of December week everyone, but myself praisetheLord, was down and o-u-t with a cold. None the worse than my husband. Let me say here that he legitimately had quite the doozy of a cold. That being said, I cannot deny that I may have asked him several hundred times if he could perhaps keep it down by coughing a little more quietly. How is it that the male cough (and vomit for that matter) mechanisms seem to start down at their toes and reverberate through any structure they happen to be languishing in? To save face, I did make him a nice hot cup of tea. Twice.


DON'T SHRUG. GIVE A TUG.
If you see long, black wirey hairs protruding anywhere on your face, particularly very visual areas like the lower cheek bone, do not be flippant and shrug them off assuming they are remnants of your blush brush. Tug at them, and if your skin lifts at the motion, reach for your tweezer. Otherwise, you will go through the entire Christmas season looking like a prime example of why it is easy for people to believe we evolved from apes.


THE FUNNY BONE
To a four year old male (and subsequently, three year old female), the best, most funniest four letter word in the world is : POOP.
Just drop it in any sentence, at any place, at any time and with any audience and
you (the four/three year old) will be guaranteed at least one hysterical, if not sometimes fake, laugh (which would be your own).

THE URGE IS GONE

I held my gloriously adorable niece quite a few times over the last few days, and during one of those times, I was asked if it makes me want another one.

I paused for a nanosecond, recalling my teething twins and responded with an honest 'No!'.
I surprised myself.
I am gratefully happy with what we have. I suspect somewhere along the way, we will have friends of our children living with us if and when they need it. But God tends to gleefully laugh at our 'plans'...

CRAFTS BRING OUT THE FEMALE DOG IN ME

But I like to feed my pride by taking pictures of them and posting them on my blog so that my children can recall (to their future therapists) that their mother took time once a year to allow their creative yearnings to be fulfilled. (If somehow you missed that the proper name for a female dog rhymes with 'witch', you might be a tad confused at this point. I prefer to use pleasing language in the Cottage, and so I tried to go about it discreetly. But I really am 'one' when glue sticks, cotton balls, construction paper and several small children are involved).

GIVING IS BETTER THAN RECEIVING.

Never truer in my life than this year, when happiness burst forth in the receiving.

WEDDING PREP IS WORTH THE STRESS.

We attended the elegant wedding of my cousin on Monday night.

Getting the children ready for the sitters and me ready for the wedding

was akin to a root canal sans Novocaine.

But was it worth it?

I would have said 'Probably not' during the day of...

...but after a meaningful reminder of the beauty of marriage, a delicious dinner (that stayed hot while I was eating uninterrupted) and time with my hot date? My answer was undoubtedly "YES!".
(Pictures taken with a 'smilemaker' booth at the reception)

WHY WOODY?
When the creator's of Toy Story crafted the first legendary film of said series, why oh why did they not consider 'Tex' or 'Silver' or something, anything, besides 'Woody'???
My son insists that I not refer to this new talking toy of his as a 'doll', which leaves me and my junior high brain doing gymnastics when referring to the gangly cowboy.
"Go play with your Woody!"
I still can't say it without feeling awkward. Even to the innocent.


CONFIDENCE IS BEAUTIFUL
No other explanation needed.

DO NOT CURSE THE GATE THAT SPARES YOUR CHILDREN
I found it aesthetically unpleasing. However, when I turned the corner to our living room (after fetching the boys their bottles for 35 seconds) and found it upholding our tinseled, brittle wonder of a Tannenbaum, I was quite grateful.

I suppose what I continue to learn is how much I do not know.
What I do know, however, is that my gratitude for my family, our friends, our neighbors and the God who shows us how to LOVE runs deeper with every day.

Thank you taking time to catch up. I would love to share more, but i have a child throwing a sleep-deprived temper tantrum in her bed and can't ignore it any longer without doing any permanent damage to my nerves.

Goodnight, friend!