Catching Up

For the past month or so I have been meaning to write a couple of blog posts, but because I had put my blog link in a different folder it was "out of sight, out of mind" and I never remembered when I was actually at my computer.  It's now back where I can see it all the time, and now I'll take the time to catch up with what I've been meaning to write about.

First of all, I want to say a few things about the last blog post I wrote.  What it says now is how it should have always been written, but that's the edited version.  My first version had negative and, as my husband put it, "snarky" comments about the LDS church, and it offended him... and he's not easily offended.  As soon as he told me how he felt, I edited out more than half of what I wrote.  But it wasn't soon enough-- his sisters had already read it as well, and after reading it they deleted my blog from the list on their own blogs.  When I saw that all three of them had removed my blog from theirs, it hurt a lot; I took it to mean that because I voiced some of my opinions about the church-- of which they all are members-- that they no longer cared enough about me or Mc or our kids to keep reading my blog.  One of them explained in a comment why she would no longer read my blog, and it made me cry-- not only because of what she said but because to me it meant that our family was no longer important to her because of my views on the church, and I thought her sisters felt the same way she did.

Another of his sisters called me tonight and we talked for a while.  I haven't spent a lot of time around the three of Mc's sisters together, and because I know they are alike in many ways I mistakenly thought that they all felt the same way about my post and that together they had decided to reject me because of my anti-Mormon-sounding opinions.  But I was wrong.  Mc's sister explained to me that, for different reasons, all three of them decided separately that they didn't want to read my blog anymore, and she explained her reasons to me.  I was very glad to hear that for her it had nothing to do with not caring about my family anymore, that she still very much wants to know how we're doing.  It was nice to talk with her and to understand where she was coming from.

And I realized that I need to be more considerate of the people who might read my blog, because I don't want my thoughts or opinions to come across as harsh or confrontational or offensive.  I'm not a confrontational person, but it's easy to get too opinionated about something I feel strongly about, especially over text.  So I've decided to keep this blog as a place where I write updates on our little family and I'll mix in some other things here and there that are on my mind, but I'll be considerate of readers while I do it.

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So, what's been going on with us?  I'll go down the list.  :)

Mc

He still likes his job and the people he works for.  He's very good at what he does, and the people he works with recognize that.  He still gets to work from home one day a week, and that's really nice for all of us.  The kids love to play with him and on him, and he makes them laugh.  He's a really good dad.  He and I still like to play video games together when the kids are asleep, and it's nice to have this hobby that we share together.

Me

In a week and a half, I'll be starting a cooking class at a culinary school.  It's called the "Practical Series" and it's one night a week for 24 weeks, and I'll be learning techniques for cooking all kinds of food.  Last year Mc's work set up an afternoon where they went to this culinary school and learned how to cook a few things from the owner of the school, and the guy really knows what he's talking about and Mc was impressed.  I won't go into it here, but I hate the degree that I graduated college with, and I realized a few months ago that if Mc were to die or somehow not be able to work, I have no practical skills that I can fall back on to help support our family.  So we'll all benefit from these cooking classes right now and forever, and if I need to get a job sometime in the future, I'll have something I can actually do.

Baby Girl

She is growing up so fast, and she's happy and healthy.  She will be 3 years old next week, and I'll post about her birthday next weekend if I get the chance.  She's learning to read, and I can tell she has such a desire to learn, it's amazing what this kid retains!  She has memorized 2 Strawberry Shortcake books that I've been reading to her for the past couple of weeks at night before bed, and she now recites them to me and I only need to occasionally prompt her when she can't remember the exact wording.  She has been a really picky eater the past 7 or 8 months, but maybe my cooking classes can help with that.  She's such a smart, talkative, sweet, affectionate girl, and we love her very much.

Little One

He is such a strong little boy.  He's 20 months old, and he loves to spend his time climbing and running and jumping.  He's a very good eater, and he's a happy and content child.  The problem, and what has been very hard for Mc and me to deal with lately, is that his communication skills are basically nonexistent.  And while he's not bothered by it because we know what he needs and we give it to him, it still bothers us that he's not talking yet when we know he should be, and that he doesn't engage us in his play.  So Mc and I are going to take some classes that will teach us how to help our little boy communicate with us.  It's going to require a lot of work on our part, but it'll absolutely be worth it.  He's a sweet, funny, strong, active boy, and we love him so much.


The Family
For the past couple of weeks, the weather has only been in the 90's, and so pretty soon we'll be able to let the kids play outside during the day and we can start taking walks in the evenings again and taking the kids to the park.  Growing up in CA, I never knew what it was like to live in a climate where you don't leave your house during the day because of the heat.  Now I know, and my question is: why do so many people live here?!