I'm It

Meredith tagged me, and not to sound like a total blog loser, but this is my first tag, and I'm all kinds of excited! So here we go with...

FIVE THINGS I LOVE

1. QUIET TIME. Let's face it--it's summer and the kids are all up my backside all day long. So far they've mostly done quiet time without too much fuss (save for Caroline who is out in the hall kicking the floor right now, but no, she's not overtired or anything). And every day, for about ten minutes, it's completely quiet. And I can do whatever I want without having to answer any questions or break up any fights or answer any questions. Did I mention I don't have to answer any questions during quiet time?

2. My two favorite food moments of the day. I know this is two things, but these are the beginning and end of my day--the morning coffee and the evening ice cream. Mmmm. A day isn't complete without these. Okay, sometimes I can skip or sub the ice cream, but there must be coffee.

3. Ibuprofen. Because sometimes the coffee doesn't come soon enough. I'm very caffeine sensitive, so I try to have my one (and a half) cup(s) at the same time every day. Any deviation (or too much PMS chocolate) will result in a migraine. So, I buy the large bottles of ibuprofen because they're my friends.

4. Crafts. Just this year, I've begun to see a distinct similarity between me and my Dad. Some of my childhood can be categorized based on Dad's phases. There was the rock climbing/canoeing/camping phase, the horse phase, the tennis phase, the painting phase, and most memorable of all, the BANJO phase. So when I scrapbook, do yoga, sew, etc, and do so obsessively, I just know I'm following in Dad's footsteps. (He's deep in his Springer Spaniels phase now.) I took up knitting on Monday.

5. Watching my children sleep. Rob almost never checks on the kids before he turns in for the night, and it boggles my mind. I cannot go to bed until I have checked on each child. I just love watching them at rest. Their faces are so sweet. Sometimes their arms are flung about all crazy. Sometimes they've kicked off the covers. Sometimes they open their eyes when I kiss them. Occasionally I'll get a mumble or two of nonsense before they go back to dreaming. Whenever we fly (which is rare these days), I picture their sleeping faces to calm me during takeoff or landing or turbulence. Checking in on them at night is how I punch out on the parental time clock--for only a few hours.

And now quiet time is just about over. Poor Caroline is still so tired, it's all shouting and tears and drama today. So I need to pick five people to tag, here. Not sure who--lots of my readers don't have blogs. But you can email me your five loves if you want to play. I'll tag Colleen, Brenda, Mandi, my brother Mike and his "special lady friend" Mrs. Lebowski, uh, Katrina.