sugar buzz ramblings

It is 10:35 p.m. on Thursday in East Asia.  Glory is in surgery in Little Rock.  Daniel is perusing the town with his buddies.  I told him to go, so he wouldn't hear all of the intimate things we ladies sat and talked about over frosted brownies in my living room this evening.

I shamelessly ate two of my own brownies.  Is it terrible to like your own baking?  Aren't we supposed to be too self-critical for that?  Maybe its a sign that I'm moving past self-criticism.  Maybe that happens in your 30s?  Or maybe I just really like chocolate and it matters not how I get it.  Or both.

I just have to say that I LOVED our Women's Time tonight.  We meet ever-other Thursday evening, and it really is time invaluably spent.  Tonight, however, was sweeter than I'm used to.  A new woman has joined our ranks, and we are thrilled because she is 60 and knows about life beyond raising gradeschoolers.  My pen was racing across the back of my printout as I scratched down nearly everything she had to say.  There is nothing like the wisdom of those who have lived longer than we have.  Not to mention she is an adoptive mother of two kids who came to her from Russia in 1996 and were nearly teenagers at the time.  This woman has been through it, and has lived to tell about it.  Somehow I feel like I'm going to make it, too.

I am looking at the back of my printout right now, and I will share the top three tidbits from the evening (not necessarily from our new friend, but mostly spurred on by her presence, I think).
1.) PROBLEM: We (moms of young children) feel like we've lost ourselves.  Where did I go and who is this bedraggled, used-up, butt-wiper staring back at me from the mirror?  Why don't I get to go out every day like my husband and feel the cool breeze lift my hair?  ANSWER:  Perspective.  Choose to say, "Thank you, G0D, that I GET to stay home with these kids!  What a privilege.
2.) PROBLEM:  I find myself stooping to their (the kids') level.  ANSWER:  I am a woman, and women are gifted with empathy.  In this case, it is a bad thing.  I am taking on the anger of my four-year-old.  Wow!  How enlightening is that?!

Snapshot just taken: ready for surgery.  xoxo

3.)  PROBLEM:  One of my children needs a heart-issue addressed, but I am changing an explosive diarrhea or I am baking brownies for Women's Time (hopefully not simultaneously).  ANSWER:  Carry a notebook around in my pocket and write down whatever needs to be addressed so that I can come back to it with that child at a better time.

Well, now that my sugar-buzz is wearing off, and Daniel seems to have found something really fun to do out there in the streets of our fair city, I think I'll go check the progress of Glory's operation on her Facebook page and then wash my face and climb into bed to read another chapter of THE HELP (thanks again, Lance and Leah) until my eyelids get too heavy and then I'll pray for Glory and go to sleep.  I hope that when I do, I'll be thinking about the 4th tidbit I would have shared if I would have shared 4:  G0D is faithful, and he has never, nor will he ever, take his hand of guidance from me.  Amen and good night.