Precious Moments…

February 1, 2012 by · Leave a Comment

 

 

… ahhh, those ‘rare’ precious motherhood moments, when all the stars align, the kids eat all their vegetables, and skip to bed without complaining…

and then there is reality.  Those ‘more often’ precious moments where you wonder how in the world you are going to survive this gig called motherhood.

Let me take you inside one of the latter…

It’s a Monday.  I have offered to babysit for a dear friend so she and her hubby can go to a work function and have a much needed date night.

In an effort to not miss our own family home evening (the night in our church that we set aside to have a lesson, songs, and activity), I devise this ‘wonderful’ plan (read:  ’wonderful’ = insane-what-was-I-thinking-plan!) to have all of our kids come with me, have hubby meet us there after work, have our family home evening, then have him take our kids home while I stay with their kids the remainder of the night.  Sounds simple enough, right?!

As the FHE activity, hubby decides to help our kids learn some service and has the 3 olders go out with him to shovel their driveway.

which leaves me inside with 5 youngers (from age 4- 3 months old) who are all very tired and ready for bed.

still doing okay.

I get friend’s two olders ready for bed, in between holding the 3 month old and fending off my bouncing-off-the-walls 2 year old and tasmanian devil 4 year old.

… I have just finished putting down their second child, and am walking down hallway to pick up crying 3 month old

- oh, did I mention that in said hallway, they have a corner GLASS cabinet, with GLASS shelves, housing a collection of GLASS precious moments dolls, collected over years and years??!!

….  yes, I did hear your collective gasp, and yes, you do know where this is going…

Just as I scoop up 3 month old, I hear that gut-wrenching glass upon glass shatter sound…

and turn to see 4 yo in a sea of precious moments bits.

… first and foremost – no, he was not harmed (at least by the precious moments!).  He had pulled one glass shelf down onto another shelf, shattering about 85% of the precious moments collection.

. Wow.

If I had my wits about me, I would have snapped a picture of the whole thing.

I did NOT have my wits about me.

Seriously – what do you do in a moment like that??!

After thorough investigation, there was no hole in which I could bury myself.

I tried to super glue some of the not-so-shatteried heads back on – no luck.

So I carefully placed the decapitated heads next to the jagged bodies,

wrote a big fat check,

and waited for the dreaded moment of return of the friends.

The worst part was, they walked in so happy because they had come home to a freshly shoveled driveway…

and I got to shatter that feeling, letting them know what their shoveled driveway had indeed cost them.

Lovely.

Being the amazing people that they are, they were very gracious about it (they really are next in line for sainthood!!), but it still did little to relieve the utter anguish of this lovely,

precious motherhood moment.

Filed Under: Featured Posts, Motherhood

Christmas O.D.

December 30, 2011 by · 1 Comment

I have been shying away from writing this post for the whole week now. It has been very hard for me to process how I have felt this Christmas, and if I even wanted to share these raw, uncut feelings… in other words, reader beware, very weird post to follow.  Consider yourself warned…

This Christmas was really different for me.

Don’t get me wrong – I LOVE Christmas.

I love the traditions.

I love the memories it instills from my own childhood.

I love seeing my kids faces light up at the magical wonderland that replaces our living room for a brief moment as they experience the magic of Santa and gifts and toys.

I love having lessons about the birth of Christ, and the potential which that lesson holds for all of us.

In fact, I usually fire up the Christmas music about august and let it play clear up until Christmas day has come to an end.

 

… This year started out similar

With music

and traditions

and secret service elf projects for the kids

and lessons about Christ

and ‘sightings’ of reindeer

and all of the magic that Christmas enfolds.

By the end of Christmas day, however,

I felt really…

different.

Kind of like the feeling you get right after Thanksgiving dinner, knowing full well that you shouldn’t have eaten that extra bite of pumpkin pie, or potatoes, or stuffing, or … well you get the idea.

Only this feeling at the end of Christmas was with stuff.

Because in the end, that is what all of the gifts and toys and stocking stuffers amounted to be.

Stuff.

I can’t blame it on the kids, they actually didn’t ask for much

I can’t blame it on over spending, because a majority of what I found was a product of sales, coupons, closeouts, etc.

… well, maybe that was part of it now that I think about it – throughout the year, there were so many things that I picked up for our ‘gift box’ that were on such great closeout deals, that I ‘ear marked’ for Christmas, that by the time everything was laid out, it just seemed to be overkill.  And that was even with keeping back a whole 2 boxes for birthdays throughout the coming year.  With coupons, I failed to follow the simple rule given by a wise college professor:  just because something can be done, doesn’t mean that it should be done. (or in my case, just because a deal can be made, doesn’t mean that is should be made).

I ended the day feeling like I actually did a disservice for my children in teaching them about what Christmas is all about.

… Maybe it was that they didn’t quite show the level of excitement that I was anticipating (perhaps from being a little bit overloaded by ‘just one more’ toy being added to their pile??!)

… maybe it was that by the time we got to our big family gift, it was kind of a ‘monty python’ rejoicing moment (read:  a bit underwhelming)

… maybe it was that my shoes were too tight, or my heart was 2 sizes too small…

Whatever the reason, I just went to bed that night feeling,

overstuffed

with stuff.

In the end, a picture that has been floating around the internet just following black Friday (a day that I usually LOVE, mind you!) kept coming to my mind and haunting me:

For some reason, I can’t seem to get this out of my mind.

Nor get the punch out of my gut.

I have physically seen similar faces to those on the children in the left.

And as hard as it is to admit, I have seen myself in the picture on the right all too many times.

How can I teach my kids about true service when I am constantly stocking us up on stuff??

 

… Usually these types of posts come with a plan and a resolve to change the world, or start some new plan of action, something that will suddenly teach my children all about world-wide service and unselfishness.

But not this one.  I haven’t gotten that far yet.

For now, I am just letting it stew.

The uncomfortableness.  The fullness.  The need to change the game plan just a little bit. Or maybe a lot.

I’m not sure what that game plan will be, exactly.

Just that I know it needs to change.

And it will.

But for now, a Merry Christmas to all,

And to all a good night!

Filed Under: Deep Thoughts, Motherhood, Random

an apple a day…

October 13, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

 

… or two, or three… may just keep the sanity away in some cases!

Let me explain…

Last year, I got a chance to pick a whole slew of apples

(well, okay, I loaded up the kids and we ALL picked a whole slew of apples!)

Then had visions of a years worth of applesauce running through my head…

It was all a very beautiful plan, really, as all plans begin.

We picked, washed, cut, boiled,

Sauced, bottled, and canned.

and after a HARD days work,

I had a whole slew (we’re talking 30+) quarts of good, ole fashioned, homemade applesauce.

I could see it now,

The praises, the admiration,

the mother-of-the-year-award…

So I opened the first bottle (in hindsight, something I kinda, maybe shoulda done right after the first batch!)

and lovingly dished it up for my kids (who LOVE applesauce, BTW!)

and after the first spoonfull,

as if on cue,

they all made that scrunchy-what-is-this-vile-thing-that-has-dared-to-cross-my-lips face

and asked, “Where is the normal applesauce??!”

(scratch the ‘hail to the chief’ intro to the mother-of-the-year award… )

And so, as apple season has come upon us once more,

and I sit here a year later,

and a year wiser,

I still loaded up the kiddos,

still picked a whole slew of apples,

still sliced and diced them,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but this time, I poured ooey, gooey sauce over them

and turned them into:

Apple Pie Filling!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

… lots and lots…

of apple pie filling.

 

So c’mon over, sit a spell -

I’ll whip up a hot apple pie just for you!

… and even offer it with a side of applesauce

(because we also have a years supply of that, after all!)

 

Filed Under: Deep Thoughts, Motherhood, Random, Recipes

What’s RIGHT with this picture??

September 29, 2011 by · Leave a Comment

I mean, really, there is plenty to discuss over what is wrong with this picture…
like the lack of pants…
Or the yet-to-be-wiped-off chocolate on her mouth…
Or the fact that she is so enthralled with the TV that she won’t look at the camera…
Or even the fact that she is eating in the family room…

But wait… lets just get over the eating in the family room, and hone in on what she is eating in the family room…

Yes, it is upside down,
But did you get that??

She is eating…
FIBER.
Straight.
No added sugars, no candies hidden inside.
Just pure, unadulterated Fiber.
Of her own accord,
Straight from the pouch
(that she opened herself)

So, on this momentous day, where there were oh-so-many things wrong…
Let’s take just a tiny moment and witness a little miracle:

yes, there is something very RIGHT with this picture after all!

Filed Under: Motherhood, Random

let dirty dishes lie… and other wive’s tales debunked!

September 9, 2011 by · 5 Comments

At one of my bridal showers, some sweet, well-meaning woman gave me this advice, “Don’t ever go to bed angry! Talk and work things out.”
And we tried.
and tried.
and tried.
But it seemed that for us, with any argument that came up, regardless of how small it was, if we tried to stay up and iron it out,
the only thing that happened was
we got more tired
and more grouchy
and more fighty
After a few years of this (I said we tried and tried!) (or maybe it was that we just plain got too tired to stay up anymore!)…
We started to just go to sleep.
smoldering.
still angry.
but sleeping.
By morning time, 9 times out of 10, we both looked at each other and said, “I’m so sorry!” almost simultaneously. Sometimes we even wondered why we had gotten so bent out of shape over really small things.
For us, this method works. We have found that our energy levels are at their peak in the early morning hours, so those are the times that have morphed into our ‘deep thought’ moments.
I am fully aware that this doesn’t work for everyone.
But it works for us.
I just wished someone had told me that not ‘everyone’ stays up to duke it out at night many years earlier.

… in fact, this philosophy works across the board.
One question that I pose in my nutrition seminars is, “what is the best time of day to exercise?” I get many different responses, depending on what studies people have heard about exercise and health.
What we then discuss is the fact that this is a trick question.
The best time of day for you to exercise
Is the time of day that you WILL exercise.
In other words -
If you are not a morning person, DON’T set the alarm to ring at 4:00 am and expect to bounce out of bed and do a quick 5 mile run. That plan is going to last as long as it takes for you to reach over and find the ‘snooze’ button.
Find YOUR rhythm.
Know YOUR body.
We all have different peak energy levels at different points of the day. Don’t fight yours, learn how to utilize your peak hours, and give yourself a break on your ‘off’ hours.

… which brings me back to the dirty dishes.
Well, as with my marriage, I have found that my kitchen is another area that I can best work in the morning.
In many circles, it is often heard, “oh, I can’t go to bed with dirty dishes, it is such a mess to wake up to – I have to wake up to a clean kitchen.”
… and I have fallen victim to this thought pattern, thinking that if the ‘other moms’ do it, then it must be the way it should be done.
So I have spent many nights cleaning my kitchen.
Being very tired
and grumpy
and yelling
and not snuggling the kids
and not reading extra books
because I had to go to bed with a clean kitchen!

… but I have in recent years started applying this ‘go to bed’ scenario with my kitchen.
And guess what?
It works!
Not for everyone, mind you,
But for me…
Leaving this:

(don’t worry, I did put the hamburger in the fridge!)

right where it is,
and heading off to bed
is the best thing for me.

You see, when I get up in the morning, and I am once again greeted by this:

(only minus the hamburger, I just didn’t take another picture – deal with it :) ).

I instantly have something tangibly productive that I can do.
And I dive in. It kind of becomes a rhythm
and me cleaning the kitchen,
lets the kids know that it’s working time,
and they start doing their chores.
and by the time we head off to school,
I get to feel so productive because my kitchen then looks like this:

(okay, maybe not ALL the time when we walk out the door, but I’m creating the mo-jo here, so just go with me!).

… and instantly I feel like the day has been a success.

So I invite you to site back,
Do a little introspection,
and if it works for you…

Let the dirty dishes sleep :)

Filed Under: Deep Thoughts, Featured Posts, Motherhood
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