I wanted to tell you all about a fabulous event I attend once a month, it’s called “mom’s night out”. It basically is held one night a month at a different restaurant at 6pm. No kids. No husbands. Sound fun? It is!
I’ve had people say to me that this ‘night out’ must consist of a lot of gossip. I mean lets face it, there are usually 5-15 women out for dinner. We must gossip all night right? How about I tell you what Mom’s night out means to me, and you tell me if it’s all about gossip….
First things first, Dinner out at a restaurant. Who doesn’t love that? You get to choose whatever you want to eat/drink. You don’t have to cook it or clean up after it. Dinner out is always fun even with the kids. BUT, when you don’t have kids, it’s even funner! When you are a mom, out for dinner with your kids you have ample to keep you busy ~ Do they have to go potty? (usually just as your food arrives) did they soil their diaper? Are they being to noisy for the other diners? Are they making a mess? Eating nicely? You order fries as your side, but really you’d rather a salad ~ but kids like fries. Our girls are very well behaved, however they can get to be a handful because well….restaurants are boring for kids.
So dinner out without kids is fun. Dinner out with the husband is fun, however really if you are a SAHM like me what do you have to talk to him about? he listens to me every single day. It’s nice to have a fresh set of ears to ramble on to.
We talk about our kids. Yup we do. Is that gossip? I don’t think so… We talk about milestones they made/missed, struggles in school, at home, etc. We all give advise and comfort one another in the decisions we’ve made. It helps to know you aren’t such a bad parent after all. We talk about work, school, housekeeping. I found out I’m not the only person who makes lists to do everyday! Nice to know I’m not as weird as I thought I was
Sure you know, I’ll admit it. Sometimes gossip does come up. I think rather rarely. I mean really, can you see 15 ladies sitting out at a restaurant gossiping? Rather hard to do. We are human so gossip pops up, usually though, just if you are carpooling and you need some advise on a relationship.
I’ve heard some ladies say they don’t want to come, just because they figure it will all be gossip. I feel sorry for them. They are missing out on a web of friendships. I find after Mom’s night out I feel uplifted. Alive. Ready to face whatever life throws at me for another month.
I thank Jamie who organizes and reserves the place and time. All the fabulous ladies who attend, and help me with all my life throws at me. And of course my Fabulous husband who takes care of our precious beautiful little girls. Thanks Hunny!
If you are a mom living in my town, you don’t have to attend our Church to attend our Mom’s night out! Just pop me a message and I’ll email you the info (when I have it) for the next one! We love having new ladies to make connections with, it’s a friendly environment and you’re sure to have fun!!

Oops. I’ll back up before I’ll explain my oops moment.
Today has been one of those, test your patients, drive you nuts, is it over? kind of days. The only thing that helped me through was knowing that tonight is Mom’s night out. A night that mom’s from our Church (and their friends ~ out reach opportunity) get together and enjoy a hot dinner without the hubby or kids. It’s nice. It REALLY is. Well the boys just got picked up so I started to get ready. Well Joy and Olivia started begging for a snack (sad to say it that way, but they sound like they are begging). So I sat them up with some Cucumber and Tomatos to munch on until Orlund gets home and makes them dinner. I also told Joy that once she was done the veggies then she could have some Cheese. Well I went to the bathroom and got myself ready, makeup on, hair done, dressed. Joy came in and showed me she was chewing a cucumber (yummy), so I followed her out to the dining room. Figured she was telling me she was eating it. Well I wish I had of had my camera. I came in to discover OOPS I didn’t buckle Olivia in! She was sitting cross legged in the middle of our dining room table! She had found a pencil and looked like she was looking for a piece of paper to draw on. Guess I was to excited to get ready and get going! She is now happily eating her food, safely strapped into her highchair. Joy is harassing me asking for more cheese….sigh…. 2hours… just 2 more hours…

Well after my last post I should write that today was a much MUCH better day Thank you Jesus!
Last night I found I couldn’t sleep. I was wide awake. WIDE awake. I haven’t felt that wide awake since before I got pregnant with Joy!! It felt great…. the only problem was it was after bedtime. I couldn’t make any noise. I couldn’t use this wide awakeness for progress. (yes awakeness is a word in Jenn Land). We went to bed at 11pm. I stayed up wide awake until 1:30am. I made a prayer list (specifically of babies, mommies and pregnancies ~ the devil sure has been attacking). I prayed over the list as a whole and individually. I spent some time with the Lord. Then surprisingly enough I was still wide awake (you know what I mean if you’ve ever tried to pray before falling asleep, you usually fall asleep before you say Amen). So I turned my computer on in hopes mom would be online. Nope. So I emailed her. puttered around online. The girls were up a bunch of times, so they also kept me going. Finally I decided I should try going back to sleep. And I did rather quickly, and slept GREAT!
This morning the girls and I went in the back yard, hoping to play in the pool ~ ice! So we came inside. I thought I had the boys at 10am, but nope, it was 11am. So I baked bread. Today was my day to take a meal to some new parents in our Church (Baby born on Tuesday! He’s so cute!). Once the boys arrived I made lunch while baking a desert (turns out using whole grain flour doesn’t work so good in squares). I gave Sol a bunch of time outs but over all it was a good day with them.
My Dad popped over just as the boys were being picked up. So I scooped his car to drop off the meal, then returned to enjoy dinner with him and the girls. (Orlund went on a hike with buddies until 10pm). Then we enjoyed a coffee and he headed home just as I put the girls down. They went down surprisingly well. Bonus! Then I went to have a bath, and decided the tub REALLY needed a scrub, so I scrubbed it. It was draining slow, so I dug out gunk from the drain. While I was doing that my mom called on the phone! It’s always an extra special treat when she calls. We visited then decided we should Skype as it’s free. So we did that, while I enjoyed a bubble bath (I know weird to do, but whatever. I needed the bath). So after a rather short soak, and a good visit with mom I decided to watch a movie. I didn’t like any of the choices I had, but decided on “how to train your dragon”. It’s a ‘kid’ show. My kids wont watch it until they are like 13, but none the less my brother gave it to me. And I like it! It’s cute! Orlund came home, he’s looking at his hiking pics, and all in all it’s been one of those days that at the end of, you wouldn’t mind repeating tomorrow…..Tomorrow will be even better!

Random, but cute. Our little helpers.

~~ I learned a few new things this week, 1- before promising a meal to someone, make sure you have the car to deliver it. 2- not everyone can be so last minute as me (which is completely okay!). 3- it’s more work than I thought to plan the meals, but I think next time I’ll be better prepared……Wish me luck! I do truly LOVE being able to bless others in this way, it’s just been a BIG learning curve for me these past few days.