love affairs

I’ll be honest. This photo is somewhat ancient. But, I still wanted to share. So, here it is… our first snow of the season. Which leads us to our topic for the day: Love affairs.

I am in love with this weather we’ve been having. Loving the cold. Loving that nip in the air. Since newly harvested cotton is the closest thing to a newly fallen blanket of snow we will ever see here in the deep South, I am enjoying creating my own little almost-winter wonderland in my mind.

I am really loving having the title of “Mom” this week. Not like I don’t love it at any other time. But this week has seemed different. I firmly feel that it is a new outlook on life that has wrought about this change.

I really love embracing this new “classic” lease on life. I’ve never considered myself a June Cleaver… maybe a Lucy Ricardo (she at least wears pants sometimes). I may be a stay-at-home-wife-and-mom but I’ve never really connected with these icons and how they encompass the term “house-wife”. Even though I have been told that I could totally pull off retro. But anywho… I’ve been working on a family album that I am assembling using my great-grandmother’s recipes and I have had quite the realization this week. I have been reading article after article that my dear great-grandmother had saved. Articles that were obviously targeted for something that I will describe simply as the “house-wife generation”. Women who received the greatest of joys from having a full cookie jar. Women who received the greatest of thrills from packing that perfect lunchbox. Women who received the greatest of pleasures from a properly balanced home.

It has been from this study that I have learned that while I may be a house-wife… I am far from a home-maker. Remember that old saying, “A house is just a building, but a home is a place of love.”? I use this same comparison when comparing house-wives with home-makers. A house-wife is just a vessel of work. A home-maker is someone who emanates love… and someone who truly loves the task at hand… someone who is the glue of the home, so to speak. This concept has brought me a lot of joy this week. While I may not have enough counter space for a cookie jar (even though I did make… and eat… some cookies yesterday); while I may not have to put together any lunchboxes yet; while my townhouse isn’t quite the balanced home I would like to have – I am slowly learning the art of being a home-maker rather than just a house-wife. There is a difference. And my little aha-moment has made a difference in me already.

And, to end my rant on love affairs, the day has finally come… and gone. Twilight. My friend, Kira, and I went to see it this afternoon. Life had other ideas for me after I had made arrangements to go to the midnight showing with Brian. But, I was glad to go with my pal. It’s been years since we’ve been to a movie together. Something that was once an almost every week occurrence is now a thing of the past. We had a nice chuckle as we remembered back to that last time – who we were with, who sat where, what we saw. It’s funny how you remember so clearly the good times.

We decided to be groupies today, but not crazed-groupies. I, of course, wore my “Team Edward” t-shirt. She wore my “Team Edward” pin. And, inevitably, we took pictures. We enjoyed the movie; however, it wasn’t what we expected. I think you have to totally divorce it from the book. But, still good… still worth it. And I shed a tear. While I did let out an exasperated sigh when the girls next to me started giggling when Edward (… and Carlisle, and Emmett, and Jasper… well, everyone for that matter…) came on screen… I can’t deny that I was just a little excited, too. I would actually love to see it again… once the hype dies down just a hair… just so that I can try and catch all those little things you miss during that first viewing. But, I was so glad to be able to see it at all. Thank you for going with me, friend. Brian, thank you for keeping an eye on the bug. I’m already planning a Twilight-DVD-release-party at my house… let me know if you want to come…

After a nice chat with Kira in her car (oh, how I loved the non-what-do-cow’s-say-? conversation), I made the journey inside. I sat down, told Brian about the movie, and just processed everything. It was then that I started to feel very depressed. Depressed because it was over. Simply put… it’s over now. Nothing else to look forward to… apart from the next movie(s). But, I feel as if some part of me has died. I must keep it alive… I must! I’ve connected with this story more than I have with any other. I have connected with the love of Bella and Edward than I have with any other love story. I have decided that I will just have to have a never-ending love affair with vampires. And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.

A very good week, if I do say so myself. Even though I am battling a cold and Ammon is trying to cut more teeth. Brian accepted a promotion and slight raise at work. He is also getting his ducks in a row to start graduate school at the first of the year. Next week we celebrate Thanksgiving… Brian has the entire week off. And just how much do we have to be thankful for this year… quite a lot, in deed.