Oh no

Last week I started to dream again just a little. I haven't felt all that great this winter so I've pretty much eliminated my usual exercise routine and removed my usual pressure to accomplish things all day long. This has left ample time to play with Brooks and while he is sleeping - dream - when I should be washing the piles of stinky baby clothes or making baby food as I have been doing the last few months or coming up with a plan to get back that exercise thing.
It started last week when I made a board of dreams. Right when you walk in the side door you can't miss my DREAM BIG IN 2010 board that housed all of our Christmas cards for the most recent merry season. Something must have slipped into my water last week and I realized it had been an eerily long time since I had dreamed up any adventures, crazy business ideas or future trips with Brad or even a party to host. I even started dreaming for Brad since he wasn't home and I wrote some dreams I thought he should dream too - train for a half marathon together or pick up a new hobby anyone?
I don't look at the board everytime I come in because it had already taken up so much time last week that I didn't come close to doing anything productive in the house and now Brooks is wearing his pj's around all day - and not just because it's cold outside as I would tell you. But I do glance at it when making the trek to the laundry closet and it gives me just enough pep in my step.

Then this weekend I went to Charleston. I lived in Charleston, South Carolina during the summer of 2002 with several of my favorite and first real girlfriends and the whole summer was heaven. Seriously, if I have closely experienced heaven on earth it was that summer where we all worked any job we could find just to be together in our small Charleston house and drink lemonade and dream about our future husbands and all the trips we would take over the years to come. We played games at night, laughed contagiously and I can confidently say we left a mark on the city but not quite a mark as big as the one the city left in our hearts. So anytime I go back to visit I automatically start dreaming again of the things I can do if I put my mind to it and of the pure, simple, joy that can come from the company of good friends. Good friends plus nothing. We didn't need anything else but eachother. So all weekend I continued on with my ethereal thinking and forgot about any sickness I was feeling or things that needed to be tended to at the house. More so, we spent Saturday wedding dress shopping for one of my soul mates who also enjoyed that surreal summer with me. What a better way to dream than to marvel with your friends over beautiful dresses and a beautiful bride to be along side of a glass of champagne! In heaven I think everyday you'll feel like you do/did on your wedding day. Just watching Ashley glow in each of the gowns she tried on made me remember the same girly, floating feelings I had just a few years ago. We came home from a day of shopping and doing everything girly to the boys who had been babysitting all day (sounds like a dream, too, right?). Somehow I felt like a new bride again too and I couldn't keep my eyes off Brad and I couldn't keep from smiling like we were just dating without a responsibility in the world. This recent string of flamboyant thinking is both dangerous and energizing for my marriage but I'll take the consequences and so will the dishes!

Lastnight while I anxiously turned the pages of a book that two dear friends have recently recommended Brad sat in his man chair and read over old emails we had sent each other during our extremely short courting period. It's safe to say he was happy reliving those silly old emails that we would die for anyone else to see and I was happy getting lost in a book with the perfect cup of hot chocolate and a warm fire near by.
The dishes were still dirty and the bed has yet to be made from last week but like I said - I think this has been so good for us. Unfortunately, today I promised myself that I wouldn't turn the page until something was checked off the to-do-now list and it's now nearly noon and we are all still in our jammers, dishes still waiting for some attention and the bookmark in my book is nearly to the middle. I forget how much I love to become a character in a good book. Today I am Skeeter in my book called The Help and Skeeter doesn't do the dishes or worry about the laundry....she just dreams about how she can change things.
For my family's sake I will finish this book soon, jump off my cloud, and face reality but lucky for me - I have a few more days of bliss! And I just added to my dream board to READ ATLEAST ONE BOOK A MONTH! Happy dreaming Big today......