Wow!  It's been 10 days since I've posted anything, and even then it was a link!  Whew, we've been busy.  Mostly, we've been doing school, and whenever I'm online, I've been planning our trip to Disney!  The people at WDW-DINE have become my best friends lately, LOL.  I've made more phone calls to them this week than to my husband.  If you're not familiar with the Disney dining system, basically their restaurants book up very quickly.  The "window" for making reservations is anywhere from 180-365 days, depending on the restaurant!  I'm a little closer to our trip than that, of course, and so I'm doing some scrambling trying to make arrangements.   They actually don't even take walk-ups at any of the table service restaurants *at all* anymore, so I'm trying to arrange one meal a day at a nice spot and then we'll do "counter service" for another and one at the foodcourt at our resort.  This really feels almost like it's our first trip to Disney in some ways, because it's the first time we've gone just as our family *for more than one day*!  The littlest kids are very excited because our dear friends are going to be at the Magic Kingdom with us for one of the days and they are just dying to ride together on everything!  We're even doing a character breakfast with them.  My dear friend is the Queen of Disney; she goes all the time with her kiddos and knows everything so she'll be the perfect tour guide--and I'm thinking we will have to sneak away for a girl moment at some point!  It's going to be an absolute blast.  They have 200 restaurants (no, that's not a typo, it's 200!) so it takes some work, I tell ya!  I have reservations for a few of the very popular spots with characters and everything so we're all very excited.  The funny thing is that I've really seen what an obsessive planner I am.  My husband is not one for crowds and craziness (yet he lives in my house--what was he thinking, LOL?) and so I really am working to make sure HE enjoys our trip.  I really love to plan!  By the way, if you have a Mickey trip in your future, you have to try the services at www.tourguidemike.com .  He spent years as a VIP tour guide at Disneyworld (betcha didn't know they had those, did you?  Sure thing--and it's only $750 a day!  Yup, it's a Disney economy thing!)  and now has a website where you can pay around $22 to get advice personalized for your trip--least crowded park days (so you know which park to hit on which day of your visit), resort advice, dining advice, even touring itineraries.  He tells you which rides to hit in which order so you'll never spend more than 10 minutes in line all day long!  Now *that* is worth $20 for sure!

But enough about Disney!  I'm also preparing for my weaning weekend, heading out for that women's retreat.  I'm so excited because I feel like God's got me set up once again to really hear from Him, because I was in the Christian bookstore the other night looking for something specific and didn't find it, but I DID run across this wonderful little book which I'll also highly recommend called Five Little Questions by Dannah Gresh.  The subtitle is something like "finding the life God designed for you" and it's fabulous.  She's a very open and honest writer and I'm finding myself challenged by what she's saying in some uncomfortable ways!  The book is about looking at your life and determining if there are things you need to let go of in order to move into what God has for you, and I think that's definitely true in my life.  I believe I'll be learning more about what those things are over this weekend, and I'm really looking forward to it! 

I won't have a clingy nursing baby anymore after this weekend!  My little pumpkin is such a dumpling and the cutest thing ever--when he toddles around on his fat little legs with his curly hair I can't even stand it.  It will be very nice to actually sleep through every night, though; and to have my bed to myself (well, I guess I'll let dh back in eventually, LOL--he'll sleep with Moo for a little while in his new bed to help him get used to it, but in the meantime I'll have my squishy king all to myself! )  I've noticed that around this age with all my children, it's seemed they've gotten cranky and it's felt as if they want me all the time and can't be calm unless in arms and usually nursing.  Then when I take a few days away and daddy helps them through weaning, when I get home they're happy as clams!  I think it's because they do want to be independent and yet something clings to being an infant, too.  Anyway, I know it's one thing the "experts" tell you not to do when you wean--doing it cold turkey and especially mom going away--but it works so well for us.  I'm really looking forward to being able to just hold him and have him cuddle on my shoulder; something nursing infants seem to do with everyone *but* mom.  You know that scripture, "I have quieted myself like a weaned child with its mother"?  That's so true!  I think of it every time I'm living with a little one.

The ranch they hold the retreat at is gorgeous.  Over 500 acres of rolling hills in Arkansas.  Every time I'm there (okay, so it's been twice, and it was 10 years ago--eeek!)  I've been so impressed by how much I'd love to have such a setup, myself, someday!  I'll really enjoy it.  Peacefulness and alone time--I haven't gone away alone, well . . . ever!  So this will be interesting!

All right, it's been 20 minutes and I'm burning up my alone time for this morning.  Just wanted to pop in and say hello.  I'll try to write more later today or tomorrow.  I need to take my laptop with me on the trip!