16 May 2006

I’m in the kitchen and I call out to Emily (4 1/2) “Em, I have a treat for you!”

She’s excited, she comes in and I hand her a bowl of strawberries, blueberries & whipped cream. Yummy!!

Well, she looks at me like I’m a total idiot and says, “Uh, mom, I’m not really impressed.”

Gave me a good laugh – she was dead serious too, and when I started laughing she was quite frustrated with me.

29 July 2006

My office is in the basement and Emily has her tricycle down here, riding in circles and singing. I just decided to type up what she was singing.

Keep in mind, she’s four, and she sings with passion and feeling. Here are the lyrics:

I don’t understand
Why did you let go of my hand?

And my name is Lover,
My name is Lover.

I don’t understand,
I won’t let you down,
I will understand you too.

I won’t get you hurt,
And all that I am saying,
That I do not hurt you today.

Tooooooooooooo-DAY!!

I promise I wont get you hurt,
I promise I won’t let you down
I won’t hurt you anymore
If you again do the same
Won’t you do the same

If we’re the same we’re still friends
A nice family together,
Together my friends.

…she’s going on & on. It’s pretty funny!

Jul 14 2007

Last night Joe & Emily were taking a bath. Em was washing her “parts” and she looks at me and says:

“That is the meaning of life. Mommies washing pee pees and wee wees.”

LOL – if only it were that simple! Though I’m glad it’s NOT!

Yesterday we’re driving through town and Emily (6) sees a flock of pigeons.

She thinks for a moment and says, “I bet if those birds didn’t have legs and couldn’t fly, that I could catch them!”

Emily aka “Honesty is the best policy”

She’s playing on the computer and starts laughing and says, “I’m having so much fun that I’m forgetting about my family!”

Should I laugh at that??

Joe aka “Manipulator”

Today he fell off of his tricycle, which the kids ride in the unfinished part of the basement. I look over and he’s laying there with the bike on top of him, all tangled up. He’s bawling so I pick him up and cuddle him and do the “You’re okay” thing.

Finally he calms down.

A few minutes later he goes for his bike again and, just as I turn my head, I see him lay down on the floor, pull his bike over on top of himself and start crying!

That little turd!!

Feb 14 2006

When I was younger — probably from the time I was about 10 until I was probably 19 — I was an avid horse rider.  I was part of a 4-H club that went on a lot of trail rides.  I showed horses for awhile, then when I was 14 I started to do junior rodeo.  I really sucked at it, but they boys were cute, so what the heck!

All day today I just felt creepy. I just reeeeeally wanted a shower, but there was never a good time. Kids were wandering, baby was crying, someone was hungry…there were crickets…the dishwasher was running, laundry was going, expecting a phone call.

Lunch time came and went, and I’m still creepified. Phone kept ringing. Baby kept crying.

That was it. I’d had it. Let them cry, let them draw on the walls. The phone…the answering machine does serve a purpose. The crickets can’t live forever. I HAD to shower!

So, I put Joe downstairs on the computer to play Wow Wow Wubbzy games. Emily – plopped in front of the TV watching her “big girl” cartoons…Kappa Mikey or something similar. Elaina – in the crib. She can’t fall out and crying is great for the lungs, right?

In the shower I went. It was WONDERFUL! And as I stood there under the hottest of hot water I thought, “THIS is why they call it ‘taking’ a shower.”

That phrase was obviously thought up by a mother. Because mom never “gets” a shower. No one ever gives her a coupon for an unadulterated shower. It isn’t gifted to her. Nope. The founder of this phrase did just that. She “took” her shower.

At 3:00 pm today I took a stand…and a long, hot, blissful shower. And my kids survived it.

The End

August 9, 2006

The other day Emily did something she does just about every time she sits down to eat. She spilled her juice. I, as always, said “Clean it up!”.

Little Emily was sitting there, her hands in the air as the cold juice soaked into her pants, and she looked at me and said, “That wasn’t the nice way to say it Mommy. You should say it like this, her voice heightened a bit, ‘Emmy, will you please clean that up?’”

We work really hard to teach our kids manners – Joe is still learning and bound to be a challenge, but Emily is an incredibly polite little girl. So you can imagine that I felt like a big jerk after this, but she was right. I didn’t speak nicely the way that I’ve taught her. I corrected myself and said, “Emmy, will you please clean that up?”

Then you know what she did? She commended ME on a job well done. “Good job, Mom, that’s the nice way to say it.”

I think we can all name a time or two when our kids have taught us a lesson, but my specific topic is the way we speak to our children. We cherish them, but does our voice reflect that? We expect them to be polite, but are we polite? It’s so easy to yell, but does the situation really call for yelling? Would Christ raise his voice at us if we made a mistake?

My daughter has been on this earth for less than five years. How long have your children dwelt here? The little ones are still learning the ropes, yet we tend to snap at them at moments when we could be teaching them.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s so true and so important. Maya Angelou mentioned once, and not verbatim but this is the idea, that the way you look at a child when they enter the room illustrates to him/her how you feel about them. Do you look at them with an expressionless face, or not at all? Do you look at them with the happiness you felt when they first entered your life?

Make that your goal. When your child enters the room, remember the day they were born, or they day you first held them in your arms. Adults are complicated beings laden with stress on a daily basis. We know we love them, but if we don’t express it with our words and expressions, how do they know we love them? Saying “I love you” is never enough.

Children don’t understand sarcasm, and as much as we (myself included) enjoy it and find great humor in it in certain settings, it truly has no place in a relationship with children. It may satisfy our instant need for a laugh, but it often leaves a sad little soul in it’s wake.

Children misbehave, they sass, they lie…but speak to them as if they are the best version of themselves and you’ll notice that eventually that is what they’ll strive to become. They long to please you and there is no gift that you can give your children that would equal the warm feeling of your kind, loving words of approval.

“I … beseech you … with all lowliness and meekness … to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers …

“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Eph. 4:1–3, 29, 31–32.)

August 1, 2006

I was watching a Maroon 5 video the other day and noticed something that seems to be a common occurance in make-out scenes.

WHY must the man smear off the woman’s bright-red lipstick during the make-out??? That doesn’t make her feel pretty…in fact, this very song’s lyrics state “I want to make you feel beautiful”. Well, if that’s the case, I don’t think it helps that you just rubbed Kelly Preston’s lipstick up to her eyebrows.

I really just don’t get it. Men, get a clue! We buy smudge-proof lipstick because we want it to stay where we put it. Quit TOUCHING it!!

July 31, 2006

…that’s all actors are. They get paid to pretend. Paid to lie if you want to be brutal.

So, in light of that, what business do they have “representing” our country? Um, Sean Penn apologizing to Saddam “I think rape and murder is okay” Hussein for the behavior of America?? Ooookay, that makes sense. Timothy Robbins, Susan Sarandon, Danny Glover, JANE FONDA….the list goes on and on.

I really don’t want career pretenders to pretend to represent ME and MY political views, because with the exception of a few, they don’t. And the ones that DO believe as I do, you’ll never see them on the news. For one, network news doesn’t want to hear what they say, and two, they’re not big jackasses that think that their money makes them some sort of expert.

Back in Shakespearean times actors were considered scum of the earth. Funny how things change,though some of them are still grasping at those dark-age roots I guess.
The End