This post is a shout out to my girl NATALIE.
Click for shenanigans.
SNS: Balancing Act
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Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
More acceptance...
I am addicted to Shellee Coley's new album, "The Girl the Stencil Drew"...but, what makes me smile with the most delight is the last song, "Happy", which ironically is about not being able to make people happy all the time.
LOVING IT.
I love that the idea of not making people happy all the time makes me HAPPY!!
This acceptance thing is feelin' good today.
If you want info on the cd, shelleeinfo@gmail.com . Order one, you won't be sorry! I have been listening to it since Thursday, and every time it ends, I wonder why there aren't any more songs...
Shellee. I am happy because you exist!
:)
I am addicted to Shellee Coley's new album, "The Girl the Stencil Drew"...but, what makes me smile with the most delight is the last song, "Happy", which ironically is about not being able to make people happy all the time.
LOVING IT.
I love that the idea of not making people happy all the time makes me HAPPY!!
This acceptance thing is feelin' good today.
If you want info on the cd, shelleeinfo@gmail.com . Order one, you won't be sorry! I have been listening to it since Thursday, and every time it ends, I wonder why there aren't any more songs...
Shellee. I am happy because you exist!
:)
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Acceptance.
We've been learning how to deal with comments about our school lunches in 6th grade this year. It's been fun. Let's give a short list of what 6th graders say:
"Ew. Your mom makes you eat that?"
"What is that?!"
"Um, just eat some meat, it won't kill you."
"That tastes like vomit!"
"That looks like poop!"
Luckily, we're a little ahead in our emotional maturity over here (nah, nah, nah, nah!) and we're just being strong enough to stand up for what is right, without retaliating (retaliating would be bad, right? Right, that's what I thought. Just checking!) If we were Jesus (and funny, you know, funny Jesus?) we could turn their lunches into sardines and crackers (fish and loaves...bar har) and then see who's lunch tastes and smells like vomit. But we're not funny Jesus.
It's hard to explain to a 6th grader who wants to be surrounded with good, fun friends, that kids can be mean. And, that if they act that way, day after day, even after you have asked them to stop...there is no real reason to keep subjecting yourself to emotional abuse. So, you have to move tables...
"Just try moving," I said, "and see what friends follow you. I know you want to be part of the group, but at what cost? If you are confident in God, and in yourself, then it won't matter if you sit at a table alone, or with 12 friends. You will be happy within yourself."
Ug. Who wants to hear that?! Who wants to face a life alone? That's the ONLY reason we put them in school!! FOR COMMUNITY.
So she moved. And, they followed. The lunch hecklers. *sigh*
I should have known that acceptance was sneaking up on me. My kids seem to bring my life lessons to me faster than I am ready for them (please keep this in mind when you are considering having children...some days you send them out into the yard to play only to have them return with a big stinkin' mess squished into their shoe for you to clean up. Still, they are cute.)
Acceptance was the word that found me last week in a way I had not known it. I met acceptance, like a 2 year old: stubborn, sticky and ready to ...well, not accept it!
But Acceptance is my next vocabulary assignment...and rightly so after expectations and responsibility...does anyone else find it amazing that God has been working the 12 steps with me and I didn't even know it? It's pretty crazy.
Why can't I have the "challenge" of acceptance in the positive sense of the word, as in: "your manuscript is accepted!" "please accept this check for $1,000,000!" "your children have been accepted to the finest Waldorf School in Europe, and you have been granted a full scholarship!"
Alas, I have a deeper sense that acceptance is going to be a little tougher than I expect...and, I can accept that.
Growth!
Oh, and my 6th grader? You will be happy to know that last week she told me, "Yeah, they are still saying stuff, but it doesn't bother me. I can't even remember what it was...that is how much I don't care."
When the going gets tough...
We've been learning how to deal with comments about our school lunches in 6th grade this year. It's been fun. Let's give a short list of what 6th graders say:
"Ew. Your mom makes you eat that?"
"What is that?!"
"Um, just eat some meat, it won't kill you."
"That tastes like vomit!"
"That looks like poop!"
Luckily, we're a little ahead in our emotional maturity over here (nah, nah, nah, nah!) and we're just being strong enough to stand up for what is right, without retaliating (retaliating would be bad, right? Right, that's what I thought. Just checking!) If we were Jesus (and funny, you know, funny Jesus?) we could turn their lunches into sardines and crackers (fish and loaves...bar har) and then see who's lunch tastes and smells like vomit. But we're not funny Jesus.
It's hard to explain to a 6th grader who wants to be surrounded with good, fun friends, that kids can be mean. And, that if they act that way, day after day, even after you have asked them to stop...there is no real reason to keep subjecting yourself to emotional abuse. So, you have to move tables...
"Just try moving," I said, "and see what friends follow you. I know you want to be part of the group, but at what cost? If you are confident in God, and in yourself, then it won't matter if you sit at a table alone, or with 12 friends. You will be happy within yourself."
Ug. Who wants to hear that?! Who wants to face a life alone? That's the ONLY reason we put them in school!! FOR COMMUNITY.
So she moved. And, they followed. The lunch hecklers. *sigh*
I should have known that acceptance was sneaking up on me. My kids seem to bring my life lessons to me faster than I am ready for them (please keep this in mind when you are considering having children...some days you send them out into the yard to play only to have them return with a big stinkin' mess squished into their shoe for you to clean up. Still, they are cute.)
Acceptance was the word that found me last week in a way I had not known it. I met acceptance, like a 2 year old: stubborn, sticky and ready to ...well, not accept it!
But Acceptance is my next vocabulary assignment...and rightly so after expectations and responsibility...does anyone else find it amazing that God has been working the 12 steps with me and I didn't even know it? It's pretty crazy.
Why can't I have the "challenge" of acceptance in the positive sense of the word, as in: "your manuscript is accepted!" "please accept this check for $1,000,000!" "your children have been accepted to the finest Waldorf School in Europe, and you have been granted a full scholarship!"
Alas, I have a deeper sense that acceptance is going to be a little tougher than I expect...and, I can accept that.
Growth!
Oh, and my 6th grader? You will be happy to know that last week she told me, "Yeah, they are still saying stuff, but it doesn't bother me. I can't even remember what it was...that is how much I don't care."
When the going gets tough...
Monday, November 09, 2009
Tampooned **NOT SO MUCH A GUY POST**
yes, it's a new word. i made it up to describe a very blushing incident.
we have lived at our house for a little over 3 years, and with this house, we adopted a few stray kids. :) we love them all, and all the lessons we learn from our brothers and sisters that go home to their own houses.
it's rare, if ever, that we see our other children's biological parents. when I say rare, I mean that in three plus years we may have seen/spoken to one set about 6 times. yet, their children have had at least a dozen sleepovers. and it's the same for the other set of parents. i don't say that to pick on them, just to be honest, and to further explain the soon to be revealed embarrassing incident.
after the halloween trick-or-treaters were home sorting and counting their stashes, our back door neighbors decided to hang out for a little bit after walking for miles (we have a LARGE neighborhood). We asked them to sit down (yes, we moved over the clean laundry mountain that i was planning to fold in between trick-or-treaters, but misjudged the amount of time it would take to doll out candy with a 14 month old who wanted to sit at the door the entire night). We were all chatting nicely about our houses, what we hope to update, while watching a very happy baby doing his usual baby tricks to get laughs and claps. (He's really good at stealing the show).
i don't know how it happened, but i suppose he left the room and went into the bathroom for a little scavenger hunt because as i finished saying something to the dad, he pointed at the baby and said, "what is he chewing on?"
...
all four of us adults, and two little girls looked at him to see him chewing on a tampon.
yes.
a tampon.
aren't you glad you read this far?
if you have ever been 'tampooned' i want to hear about it.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
A prayer for All Saints Day, or my son's 9th birthday, so I changed it up a bit as a blessing on his life:
God surround him by cloud:
Faithful witnesses who have gone before--
Those who have loved where he would have hated
Those who have healed where he would have hurt
Those who have spoken out when he would have remained silent
God may he walk in their footsteps
Learning courage from their sacrifice
May he learn to give so that others may receive
May he learn to love so that others may be set free
May he learn to die so that others might live
God may he join that cloud of faithful witnesses
Treading paths of loving obedience
Leaving footprints that others desire to walk in
God may he, too, lead a kingdom life.
Amen
He is such a good boy. I am so, so lucky!!
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