Sunday, August 15, 2010

Here we go again...

I started back to work this week.  Don't get me wrong, I don't mind working, some days I even like it.  What don't I like about working?  My house seems to fall apart.  The laundry is always behind, I usually leave in the morning with dishes in the sink and there are "to do" piles EVERYWHERE!  There just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done (or that I want to do).  And the kids will start back to school soon, so we will add on homework and after school activities.  Geez I sound whiny huh? 

Oh well, if your a "stay at home" or "work from home" mom enjoy the few precious hours that will be coming your way soon!  And if your a "work outside of home" mom like me...enjoy that your kids will soon be stuck inside a building like you, instead of off doing fun things with their grandma!  *insert evil laugh here* 

Saturday, August 7, 2010

I think 37 is gonna rock...

So the first day of my 37th year on this beautiful Earth, was one of my best beginning's of all birthday's.  The day before my sweet husband loaded all of us up in the truck and drove to New Braunfels for a little tubing, a little shopping, a little sight seeing, a little eating.  But the first item on the agenda , after Bucee's of course, was to stop and buy this...

Um, hello??? Can you say tuber heaven!  This is the granddaddy of the tubes, double tube with a headrest and cooler in the middle.  Me and my girl were floatin' in style!!!

Of course, the Princess is a daddy's girl and was a little fearful so she made him ride in the double tube first which gave me the opportunity to ride solo down the shoot, yeehaw!!!

Of course directly after my "Yeehaw's!" and "Whoopee's!" of this shoot came another shoot, a shoot that held large rocks, and as I rode over the rocks yelling back to my family, "Lift your butts up!" I mistakenly didn't 'lift' high enough and endured a rather large, really nasty looking bruise on my left gluteus maximus!  Nice!!!  See what a good mom I am, always looking out for them!  I was told that other members of my family also hit rocks though I see no physical evidence so I assume they are just trying to make me feel better. 

I spent 2 1/2 hours on that river enjoying watching my children ride the river for the first time each  and thinking back to the last time my sweet husband and I rode the river together.  We tent camped with another couple, it was miserably hot but oh so fun.  Of course I was very young (early 20's) and not sure how much I actually remember.  There are pictures somewhere, hopefully they will never surface!

This would be me trying to figure out how I can do this on a daily basis, being paid to float the river, sounds like a good job to me...hmmm

Beautiful, wonderful, day full of fabulous memories but it wasn't done.  After my bath, where my daughter insisted on sitting on the stool and talking with me (who wants to relax and read in the bath anyway?).  I came out to find the house on fire.... 
not really but geez all those candles really lit up the kitchen.  Yes my sweet husband made the cake and decorated it with pink hearts and XX's and OO's!  I feel loved!

37 just might be the best year yet!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Cutting it close...

My daughter is on a dance team, this you may already know, and each year they have dance camps where they get cute dance t-shirts and learn their team dances.  At the end of each camp they have a 'show off' to show the parents what they have been learning and to ensure us our well earned money is being put to good use.  (Still waiting for that.)  So my daughter comes home and shows us her cute new shirt and says, "I want to make it into a halter!"  Now here is where my sweet husband shakes his head wondering why we are willing to cut up a brand new t-shirt.  But ever willing to do this for my daughter I grab a pair of scissors, a few old t-shirts and get to cutting, it doesn't turn out so well. 

So here is where you come in...if you know how to take a perfectly good, brand new t-shirt and cut it up in an "appropriate" style for a girl to turn it into something "all the girls are wearing" could you let me know how?  Send me a link, give me step by steps, show me pictures!  Help a girl out!  Thanks ever so much!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Did you hear, it's my birthday?

Today is my birthday... ;0). 

But seriously, here is the thing about having a birthday in the time of social networking, you feel so so loved!  To wake up and have 27 emails before nine o'clock in the morning wishing YOU a happy birthday, I mean WOW!  Now some of you may be saying, "Ummm, didn't that always happen to you?".  The answer is NO!!! 

Okay so here's my world of birthday's.  First I'm an August, but you knew that when I so blatantly announced it was my birthday TODAY! (Over it?  okay?)  Well when your an August birthday, there is no school.  Should be a good thing right?  But imagine, all year long everyday hearing on the announcements "Happy birthday so and so!" and then having to sing to so and so or having people tell them ALL DAY LONG.  And then the mom comes in with pizza for lunch and a special treat, blah blah blah.  Don't get me wrong, my mom did it up RIGHT for our birthday's.  Spoiled rotten we were but she's your mom, she's supposed to!  On your Summer birthday you wake up to only your mom being excited for you, dad's already left for work and sister could care less.  No excitement until your actually party which let's admit is only fun for a few years then your over the whole party thing. 

Jump forward about 30ish years and your a mom with three kids, do you really think anyone remembers your birthday?  Ummm, not unless you write it on the board with the schedules in the kitchen were they are sure to see it cause they are hunting for snacks and seeing what fun things we are doing on this hot summer day.  (Now would be the time for me to tell everyone that I made my OWN birthday cake last year but we won't get into that will we sweet husband?  hehe) 

So, your kids see it on the board and they quickly write happy birthday on a piece of paper and present it to you with love and affection.  And you oooh and awe over it like it's a masterpiece, when what you want to say is, "That's so sweet honey!  How long did that take you?  Five seconds?".  Okay so I sound a bit bitter huh?  I'm not, seriously I'm not.  I'm blessed beyond belief.  I cherish the quickly written cards, and the hugs and kisses just cause I wrote 'MOM'S BIRTHDAY' in big block letters on the calendar and the subtle hints that "I sure did enjoy the cake I MADE FOR MYSELF LAST YEAR!" 

But June, July and August birthday people I have good news that I would like to shout from the rooftops!  Summer birthday members we can now be one of 'those' people!  The ones that have tons of people saying "Happy Birthday!" over and over!  And do you know why?  Because you were smart enough to put it on the wall of your Facebook page and you know that this will happen because the other 364 days of the year you write "Happy Birthday so and so!" on your 400 friends walls.  But still when it happens, when you wake up and groggily check your phone (which you don't do holding coffee but that's a post for another time) and you see 27 emails and none of them are Spam, they are all for you!  I mean Wow!  Summer birthday's, this is OUR time to shine, no longer do we have to be sad because no one celebrates our day, we can join in the mass celebration of school year birthdays!  Thank you Facebook for giving us, the Summer birthday's, the chance to be like everyone else!  "sob"  And to my Facebook friends, thank you for taking the time to write on my wall...Oh...there's another ding!  Yea me!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Wonder Mom? Wonder Kids?...

So today at 7:00 a.m. my boys went out to the garage (where we keep the dog food) to feed the puppies (again...I realize they are full grown labs but they will ALWAYS be the puppies).  It is now 8:28 a.m. and the puppies have just now been fed.  Why do you ask did it take an hour and a half to feed the dogs?  Well that would be because there was a "GIANT ROACH IN THE DOG FOOD BIN MOM!".  Okay, now here's the thing, I don't like roaches, who does right?  But these are two boys, two growing boys, they are supposed to take over the "man" role when they're dad's not home right?  Well, clearly my man children are also fearful of roaches and didn't want to stick their hand in the bucket to scoop out the dog food.  (I really don't blame them.)  So after countless phone calls and texts to their father who basically told them to man up and an hour and a half of discussion and finger pointing over who's job it really was I intervened....no I didn't stick my hand in the bucket (that would've been so cool though!)  I actually just instructed them on how to tip the bucket (from a safe distance with a shovel) until the roach scurried out then they could proceed.  I feel very Earth friendly with that suggestions, no dead insects (are they insects?) and full puppies.  Anyway, so after the triumph of finally getting the dogs fed, I thought back to something I wrote forever ago.  Enjoy...or don't...

Wonder Mom


I have a confession. I want to be Wonder Woman! It’s true, I had the costume growing up, complete with head and wrist bands. I was so cool, I would spin around in circles until I got completely dizzy and then run off to conquer the World with my cape flying in the wind!

Now I am just a mom. I no longer have the cape or the headband, and spinning around in circles is something I do daily while trying to dress my children and get them off to school. As for conquering the world, I would be more than happy just to conquer having the whole house cleaned in the same day.

So that brings me to the question; what makes someone a hero? Is it Spiderman, Superman and Wonder Woman, fictional characters who take on a whole new look before they conquer evil? Is it Bible Man who uses the sword of truth to fight sin? Is it the real life firefighters and policeman risking their lives to keep us safe? Is it the child growing up in a violent home and deciding that as a parent they will break that cycle of abuse? Is it the single mom, raising three children and wondering if she will ever have a man to share her life with again?

My youngest son loves the Rescue Hero line of toys, and I am excited about this. I love that these toys are based on real life people who live their lives to do good every day! I love that this is who my children believe in as heroes. However, I must admit, I am a little sad also, because as mom, I want to be the hero in my children’s eyes.

But I am just a mom, a mom of two little boys and one little girl. And, although I do put out fires every day by deciding who gets to pick the movie, and I keep the peace by not letting sister put makeup on her brothers’ dinosaurs. I must wonder if they see me as a hero. Do they look at me and see the cape tucked under my stained sweatshirt and worn out jeans? Is the jeweled headband peeking out from under the hair I haven’t even had the chance to brush yet? Probably not, but I remember the one day I was a hero. One day the crowd roared and yelled my name so loudly the windows shook, the animals hid and I stood with my hands on my hips and my cape flying proudly behind me!

You see I don’t like bugs, but with children you must pretend and so I point out long squiggly worms on the driveway and call their attention to the tree frogs stuck on our back windows, the geckos hanging by our front porch and the armadillos that run by our back patio every morning. But even a superhero loses their cool every once in a while I am sure, so when it comes to snakes and roaches, I am anything but super.

But this one day while getting my children quickly dressed to run out the door, my oldest comes in whining that there is a roach in his bedroom. As I go in to bravely conquer this creature, I see my daughter crawling quickly behind me. I know that she would probably be able to catch it quicker than I could, and with the lack of fear that babies have it would be the baby edition of Fear Factor. Not that I was worried about her eating the roach but we couldn’t have HER being the hero, now could we? So, I block the entrance of the room with the baby gate and grab the first aerosol can I find in the cupboard. As I spray this very determined bug, I realize that Lysol is not going to kill him, although he does now smell good and is slightly less germy. Not wanting to crush him on our brand new carpet, I go back to the cabinet and grab the only other aerosol can in there. I climb up on the bed and bravely aim the can toward the roach and wish the spray would go farther. In the background I hear chanting. They are saying something, something I recognize, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!” It’s my name! The crowd is chanting my name! All of a sudden I am in a coliseum full of people with my red cape held out before me battling a huge snarling bull. I see the bull scratch his foot back sending the dust flying making me cough (or was that the smell of the Off?). I hear the stomping of the crowd. I raise my hand and roar, “We will, we will rock you!”

Okay, so maybe it didn’t happen like that, but the roach rolled belly up and my three little fans screamed and cheered and jumped up and down because their hero battled a beast that day. As I shook hands and signed autographs, I kissed the baby and finished getting my kids ready for school. I beamed all day. The laundry folded itself, and the dishes reflected my smiling face. Then I picked them up from school, and they recounted the cool new things they learned that day. I tried to recall the goodness of the morning by reminding them of their fearless mother but to my sadness I was met with, “Mom, it was just a roach!”

My fifteen minutes of fame were up. So after dinner and baths, I went to my closet and hung up my cape and donned my warm robe. As my freckled face babies laid their weary heads against the worn out fabric that had been through pregnancies, all-night nursing and various illnesses, they looked up at me with sleepy eyes and said, “Thanks for getting the roach out of our room mom.”

So maybe I am not Wonder Woman but for a brief shining moment, I was a hero in the eyes of my children!

“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Romans 8:37 (NKJV)
 
© Kimberly www.coffeeandfaith.blogspot.com 2010