portals

You know the phrase, "When God closes a door, He opens a window."   Well, my friend posted something about that on Facebook today so it got me thinking.  (I know!  What is that?)  My concluding deep thought was: (drumroll) Certainly, you can have a lovely view through a window, but it is pretty difficult to actually get anywhere (you could fall on your head as you try to maneuver your way out, for example).  Really what you need is for the door to open again or an alternate entrance.  Okay, I really should stop thinking, because now that I've actually typed it out I can't really see how that was helpful.  I read The Geography of Bliss and concluded that not thinking was really the way to go, so I'll try that from here on out.


Since as of this moment I've given up cogitation, I will avail myself of a list of pros and cons I found yesterday that we had drawn up a few months ago when considering whether to add another child to our family.   You may notice that the pros list is considerably shorter than the cons.


Pros

1. Heavenly Father told me
2. People will think we are going the extra mile (like 3 people)
3. A new person to love -- babies are pretty cute
4. I get to find a name -- my absolute most favorite part
5. Buy baby stuff
6. Not have to be RS president (ha!)
7. Spend the winter in bed (ha, ha, ha!)

Cons

1. Don't want to gain weight and have to lose it again -- the eternal struggle
2. People will think we are crazy -- um, yeah
3. I would have to actually be pregnant
4. I will have to go through labor again (I know I teach natural childbirth classes -- I'm a complete fraud)
5. Our house is already too small
6. We'll need a bigger car
7. Our sanity will be compromised
8. Diapers (even though I love cloth, no diapers is still superior in every way)
9. Have to potty train someone again!
10. No sleep -- I really like to sleep
11. Have to get a baby to sleep through the night again!
12. I'm getting too old
13. Nursing again -- I just figured out that I have breastfed for almost eight entire years of my life!  Hopefully I will be more excited when I'm actually holding the baby because it seems a little unreal at this point
14. Pushing our luck -- we have five healthy beautiful children already
15. Drawing out our parenting by three more years -- we had figured out that with Phin we already had 17 years of early morning seminary and that number has now been pushed to 20 -- it's enough to almost make one consider moving to Zion!
16. Going out with a bang -- my last two have been pretty mellow and I just don't know if I could handle an extremely fussy baby again -- it is quite troubling to contemplate

That was the list I compiled in a few short minutes one day during lunch.  If I wanted to actually think again, I imagine I could come up with one even more comprehensive and detailed.  I'm not normally a list maker, but you can see that this one was particularly helpful indeed.  It made all the difference.  Now can someone help me out this window, because I don't think I'm going to fit.