They Are ALWAYS Worth It!

At fifty years old, I can look back with so many questions…

There are so many people, places and time expenditures that I could really ponder and come away shaking my head, BUT… The one area of my life I will NEVER regret…the one enormous investment I will never wish I had poured LESS into, is the one I’ve made into my children.

Thank you God for Lindsay, Katelynn, Caleb, Hannah and Judah! I am eternally grateful for each and every one of them…

Counting my blessings…!

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J A N U A R Y……

Every year at about this time I start getting antsy for Spring.  Apparently it doesn’t matter if we have a freezing cold winter with endless snow and ice, or fairly mild temperatures and minimal white outs. By the last couple of weeks of January I’m done with winter and ready to move on!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the holidays!  Thanksgiving left me chubby.  Christmas left me smelling good in my new jammies.  New Year’s left me with a mess of confetti, and party hats…  Honestly I just want to go outside and breathe in the  clean scent of warm potting soil.  Alas it’s January 25th and the only organic smell whiffing up my sniffer are those from ancient potatoes which have sprouted arms in my veggie bin while  I was busy staring out my window yearning for signs of Spring.

How do you best survive the weeks between New Year’s Day and when the crocuses begin to polka dot your yards with their brilliant yellow and purple faces?

Peace and Joy!

It’s Better To Laugh

Since there are six people who live in our home, and I home-school the kids (meaning my house is rarely if ever people-free) I almost always find myself overwhelmed at the amount of continual mess that surrounds me.

One day I was on the phone with daughter Lindsay, and I was spewing fountains of aggravation at the state of my home.  I started walking through each room, telling her what I saw in front of me.  This, unbeknownst to either of us at the time, has become one of our favorite games to play.

On a particularly messy day, when you feel like screaming your head off because your house looks like a cross between Lily Muenster’s abode and something you might see on The Hoarder’s TV show, try playing our little game.  I guarantee, you will laugh rather than cry.  It’s easy to play… just call your girlfriend and tell her what you see all around you.

The following are some of my favorites:

• An athletic cup on the dining room table
• A “How To Remove Head Lice” handout sheet in the middle of the living room floor
• Two different kid’s socks stuffed into a toilet paper roll on the kitchen counter
• Three regular guitar cases and a bass guitar case lined up in the hallway next to a partially finished Lego Castle which just happened to be set up perilously close to a flowery pink tea set complete with plastic doughnuts, spaghetti and pizza wedges. A fine “welcome” for one and all…you must agree!

Is there anyone out there who can begin to compete with that? Let me hear from you! I could really use a good laugh today!

Peace and Joy…

You Did What???

“Guess what Mom?  I just peeled my eyes out!”

“You just peeled your eyes out… What does that mean?”

Holding a Lego guy in his hand he said, “I just kept looking for him until I
peeled my eyes out and he was there!”

Practicing my best Sherlock Holmesian kid-talk interpretation skills I reviewed all
of my clues…

“Ah ha! You mean that you kept your eyes peeled for him?”

“Yep, I kept my eyes peeled until I found him!”

Whew, for a second I feared he had watched some kind of LASIK surgery on the PBS channel…

Words…

I’m in the process of writing my second book, and here is something I’ve discovered about myself.  The word “process”  isn’t necessarily one of my favorites…  I tend to prefer words like, “immediate,” “perfection” and “ADORED BY ALL!”

Anyway, a precious friend, and published author, was reviewing my manuscript (which of course is in process) and she commented saying that possibly my choice of the word “challenge” would not be understood by my reading audience of young children.  Taking her comment to heart I immediately asked Judah, my five year old, if he knew what the word, challenge meant.

He said, “No, what does it mean?”

I said “It’s something that doesn’t come easily, a difficult thing…something that might  take a lot of effort,” and then trying to use the word in context, I said, “You know, it’s kind of like if I asked you if you thought jumping over the bed would be a challenge.”

To this, he simply answered, “No.”

“No, what?” I asked.

“No, I don’t think it would be a challenge.”

I guess there are two ways to look at this interaction.  The first is that Judah now knows how to incorporate the word challenge into his vocabulary.  The second is that he is somewhat delusional about his super powers…

Peace & Joy!

Beauty Is Fleeting…

There’s a new iPod app called the “AgingBooth.”

It’s designed to let you see yourself as a decrepit old person, complete with wrinkles, jowls and the lot.  I tried it and laughed.  My friend tried it and was so horrified she deleted not only the picture, but the entire app!

I thought it was interesting.  She’s still so young and beautiful that it scared her.  I on the other hand, felt relief that I still had a light in my eyes and a smile on my face…

I heard it once said that many of the lines in your face develop from the expressions you use most often.

I’m going for crinkly eyes.

Peace & Joy!

Give ’em Your Guts…

I know, I know…It sounds really gross.  Let me explain.

If there is one thing truly worth passing on to our kids, it’s not necessarily our eyes or our brains or our money.  It’s the stuff that’s in our gut. I’m not suggesting that we puke on our kids… I’m suggesting that we find ways during the course of our plain old ordinary day to convey the really important things.  Not preaching at them, but talking with them…eye to eye and heart to heart.  Not just right and wrong.  Right and wrong are important though,  they are an outline.  Go ahead then,  fill the picture in with living colors.  In a way that’s age appropriate, let them see into you. Let your kids know you. Who you are,  why you are and what it is that makes your heart pound with passion…

Legacies begin with time spent together being real.

Peace and Joy!

A housewife I’m not…

I don’t know who came up with that term anyway! I’m married to my husband, not my house!

I love my home as much as the next gal I suppose, but I’m not going to obsess over it when every little detail isn’t, “just so.”  Okay… actually, I might, but I want to stop it.  Why? Because there is only so much time in a day, and because that house doesn’t adore me, but my husband does.  It doesn’t wait for me to come play with it or talk to it or hug it’s neck, but my kids do, and hopefully yours do as well.  It’s a sad thing when a woman’s children don’t want her around…

I’m going to spend more time looking at the people that matter and less time looking at the crushed Christmas cookie crumbs in the corner of the TV room.  I will be quicker to notice the opportunity to do Lite Brite with my child than a counter,  piled high with dishes and those ridiculous socks that forever need to be matched and put away, will just have to wait!

I know from experience, they will be there tomorrow…

Peace & Joy!

What Color Is It?

I’ve always been a “color freak…” A brand new box of crayons, a glorious sunset, a vibrant peacock feather…even a yummy new tube of lipstick was enough to send a chill of excitement up my spine!

It wasn’t until I turned that EPT stick the  loveliest shape of magenta however that I became interested in the weird stuff… I guess it’s my darkmother side, the truly freakish side of this color freak.
It’s the side that asks weird color questions and requests my toddler bring me his used Kleenex so I “can see.” I’ve been known to analyze just about every other body secretion as well. The grossest question I ask has to come after hearing a kid cough in the other room. What color is it?” I say. Ewww…
Okay, I know I’m not alone, and I know I have good reasons, but  honestly I’d prefer to feast my eyes on a brand new box of Binney & Smiths.  Somebody pass me “Cornflower Blue.”    I really need to get out more…

Inspiration? Yes please!

I came up with a theory last night around 3:00 am, which may also explain why I can’t find my purse, the grocery list that was “just in my hand” or the name of whichever child is standing in front of me.  Now wait..what was I telling you?

Oh yes, my new theory…I rely on my five senses to tweak creativity.  Anything from the sea-washed hue of my Beloved’s eye to the coating of crystals on the bony fingers of a tree…Beauty is inspirational…I can soar to new heights on the wings of a song, be motivated to reproduce by sniffing a random newborn, and the hot spray of an early morning shower can prove to be the wholehearted difference between delight and disaster.  My senses indeed, inspire me.

Could the majority of Americans be so thoroughly uninspired by the 9-5 lives they lead, that their big chance for inspiration comes in the form of spicy bean dip on a frito, simply because Taste is the only sense that they are actually feeding?Hmmm..What inspires you?