Whew, you ladies are AWESOME!! I am so excited about how many of you have signed up for The Challenge. I can’t wait to see where we all are at when this challenge comes to an end. I suspect we might be able to end this recession ourselves cause our hubbies are going to start solving all the world’s problems they will be so happy.

I had such a lovely blogging break. Thanks so much for coming back around. We had a great Christmas filled with way too much food, way too many toys and, fortunately, more giggles than should be humanly allowed. Believe it or not, I was actually sad school was starting up again this week. Give me a few more days and I will probably be looking for a boarding school, but for now, I am lovin’ all the family time.

And the hubby had both weeks off of work. Can I just tell you how delightful that was. Life just got out of the way and I was able to fall in love with him all over again. He is such an amazing dad and I love watching him with the girls. Note to future husbands: the bar is set high gentlemen. I wouldn’t even bother trying unless you are bringing a whole lot and then some to the table. When he went back to work today, I nearly grabbed onto his legs and begged him to stay home. Instead I just cracked open a bottle of wine and got back to parenting as usual. Letting Dora do all the hard work while I eat bonbons. Of course I am kidding. I can’t eat bonbons on my New Year’s diet.

Seriously, we are stepping up the exercise and cutting off the feeding trough that was the holidays. Why is it that is takes 11 months to take it off and 1 to put it back on. My hubby jump started his weight loss with a fabulous case of food poisoning. If it was the stomach flu, I would have licked him cause there is nothing like a good case of the flu to drop a few pounds. Either way, ladies, we all know how this little weight loss journey is going to end. Me starving myself and losing a half a pound. The hubby eating anything he wants minus a handful and losing 25. Never start a weight loss program with a man, it will only lead to a general hatred of the opposite sex.

On a completely unrelated and pathetic note, I caught the first episode of The Bachelor tonight. I have never really watched this show and I am just saying I am hooked by the train wreckedness of it all. And the crazy, crazy women they have on that show. Pretty sure this show single handily has set back the progress of women about 150 years. But the show on afterward….genius. True Beauty. I set the DVR to record them all. Shallow, shallow TV for those nights when the hubby has a work dinner. He is actually sitting next to me pretending to be disgusted, but I know deep down, everybody loves a little trash TV.

So to sum up I will be back to bloggin, trying to eat better and exercise, watching lots of trash TV and sexin’ up my hubby (sorry Dad). This is looking to be quite the start to 2009. How bout you?

  Oh yeah, its back. Cause I don’t know about you, but don’t you just need a reminder, a refresher, a support group of women who are jonesing for some marital hokey pokey? I would love to tell you I have come up with a whole bunch of new challenges to put a spark back into your marriage, but I am not that good. So I am starting at the beginning and we are doing them again. I will tweek them a bit, and if you have any fun ideas for a challenge, I am more than happy to add them in. If your new, perfect, join on in. If you’ve done these the first time around, I am betting you could still stand a second go at it. And I thought I would be nice and start your New Year’s Resolution list for you. I’m such a giver.

Are you in? Your husband wants you to be…

There has been a ton of focus in the Christian community on the Proverbs 31 women. What is not to love? She cooks, she sews, she spends money wisely, and her children and husband love and obey her. I am not trying to mock the verses; it is a standard we Christian mommies should strive for. However there is another verse for Christian mommies we are quick to overlook.

So do not deprive each other of sexual relations. The only exception to this rule would be the agreement of both husband and wife to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time, so they can give themselves more completely to prayer. Afterward they should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt them because of their lack of self-control. (1 Cor. 7:5, NLT)

Yes ladies, I’m talking about sex. Or more accurately, the sad lack of it that is going on in many marriages. When I told a friend I was going to be blogging about sex she responded, “But you have a Christian blog.” This is where we Christians are seriously missing the boat. Did you see the scripture reference at the end of the quotation? God talks about sex in the Bible. And not just to tell us not to have it. He is telling married people to have it regularly. Now this commandment made not have made it in to the top 10, but it was important enough to make it into the big book. So why is it often overlooked?

I talk to a lot of mommies. A lot of women post-kids complain about losing interest in sex. Some regard it as a chore, some as a duty to just get over with, some as something done once a month during ovulation to try and procreate. At best, some regard it as something that sounds nice, but they’re just too dang tired to enjoy. Ladies, God gave us sex as a gift to enjoy with our husbands. Don’t believe me? How about a quick anatomy lesson? Women have something even men don’t when it comes to sex. An organ devoted entirely to sexual pleasure (if I lost you, it rhymes with Delores). So why aren’t we enjoying it more?

Let me pause for a moment and say…Mom stop reading my blog for just a minute. It will be safe to come back tomorrow. To my single friends-I know you think this premise is crazy. If you are staying pure, waiting for Mr. Right, you may find it insane that there are married women running around complaining about having to have sex. I could give you our excuses: the kids are making me tired, I don’t have the body I used to, Grey’s Anatomy is on, he doesn’t bring me flowers anymore… but the fact is, we married women often drop the ball (does this make you giggle, no, sorry).

So here’s the deal. Every Monday, I will be posting a challenge on my website to encourage us wives to step it up to improve the sex in our marriages. It will be tasteful (pretty much), it will be fun, it will be great for your marriage, it will be pleasing to God. What more can you ask for? Let me be clear, this is for the MARRIED ladies and their HUBBIES. The rest of you have to sit this one out

For those ladies who are already rock-stars in this area -kudos to you (and your lucky hubbies)! I suspect however that the bulk of us need a little encouraging. So are you brave enough to jump in? If so, leave me a comment. I would love it if you would reference the challenge on your blog, twitter, Facebook, skywriting whatever works. If you want to post the button linking to this contest in your sidebar, I can give you the code. Also, I will be setting up a P.O. Box for all the thank you cards (preferably with cash in them) that your hubbies want to send.

Are you up for the challenge?

I got to ring in the New Year smoochin’ my hubby. And I think that is a pretty fantastic thing. It is currently competing for my favorite moment of 2009 with the fact that I slept until 9:30 this morning. I am sure you will all agree that is a toss up. I hope you are having a great start to your new year. May 2009 be a year heaping with God’s blessings.

*Don’t forget to come back on Monday for a spectacular re-launch of a certain “Challenge”. Let’s all make 2009 the year we knock our hubby’s socks off