Baby Talk

"Take me down to the little white city....."  That's SJ's version of Paradise City by Guns & Roses.

Gratitude --- MORE

I'm behind on my list!  Somehow I got SO busy I didn't post for two weeks.  Well, here I go again...

27.  I'm so thankful that SCHOOL IS OUT FOR THE SUMMER.  If this list is still going in August, you will see an opposite post where I'm thankful that school is about to begin....but for NOW this is it!

28.  FRIENDSHIP - I won't name them here, but you know who you are!  You are the ladies who have been my friends through thick and thin, who have given my encouragement through the ups and downs of life (sometimes daily), and I truly love you.  I'm incredibly blessed to have you in my life!

Happy Mother's Day!

Do I enjoy being "talked awake" early this morning by the world's most talkative child?  Do I enjoy hauling my cookies across town to watch my 90 year old grandmother slave away in the kitchen making lunch for the family?  Not especially.  But I'm reminded on this auspicious dawn of a day devoted to moms how very fortunate I am to have these people - sometimes inconvenient people - in my life.

I have friends who have lost their mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and even their own sons and daughters.  I'm confident that each of them will spend time today not just celebrating the life of these beloved ones, but also mourning their losses.

It is with each of these friends in my heart that I will celebrate Day 4 of the Gratitude Challenge by loving the mothers in my life!

17.  My Mama - She taught me to cook and sew and laugh and what to pack on a picnic.  She taught me spontaneity and the value of planning.  She taught me to drive and how to buy groceries.  Where once she was a battleax full of useless opinions and advice, she is now a trusted friend and confidante.  Love you, Mama!

18.  Polly - My MIL is a dream among MILs.  She is more of a listener than a talker; more of an encourager than advisor, and I enjoy spending time with her.

19.  Nannie - My 90 year old grandmother looks and acts at least twenty years younger though she tends to move a little slower these days.  She showed me a model of what a woman could become all on her own LONG before it was cool. 

20.  Carol - My aunt Carol is unbearably cool, hip, fun and stylish.  Many mornings when I get dressed, I wonder if Carol would wear this outfit or how she would accessorize it. 

21.  Nancy - My aunt Nancy, like Nannie, was a role model of a self-made woman.  I remember working with her one summer when downtown Greenville was still a slum and not the thriving metro it now is.  We shared many meals at the Woolworth's lunch counter that year!

22.  Ruth - Auntie Roo married into the family when I was a obnoxious pain-in-the-ass precocious tween.  She somehow managed to ingratiate herself with me by flopping on my bed and discussing hairstyles and boys, and I've never forgotten it.

23, 24, 25, 26.  My great-aunts Hazel, Pat, Ina (RIP), and MaeVan (RIP) are Nannie's sisters.  Between them, I've learned the value of family and extended family.

So what if I had to get up early?  So what if I have to watch Nannie wilt in the kitchen this afternoon?  I have A LOT of "Moms" to thank God for today!  I hope you all have a wonderful day with your "Moms"!

Gratitude Day 3 (AKA Motherhood)

It's Mother's Day weekend so you can easily guess what is high on my gratitude chart!  Today, it's simply MOTHERHOOD (#16).  If you know me well, or have followed my blog for a while, then you know that becoming a mother was no small feat for me. 

I married the Mr. Wonderful when I was 34 and we struggled with infertility for years before deciding that adoption was right for us....and then the adoption took almost two years from start to finish.  By the time we brought sweet Sophia home, I was literally a bundle of raw nerves popping anti-depressants and swigging Russian beer.  Quickly, we settled into a routine that revolved completely around the child [hmmm...this hasn't changed much] and opened my eyes to REAL unconditional love. 

Before becoming a mother I thought I understood what love was, but my definition was skewed.  Now, I am not certain that you can love another adult unconditionally.  If my husband were abusive and neglectful and another twenty adjectives describing a crappy spouse, would and could I love him unconditionally?  I'm not sure, but I doubt it.

I have friends I love and have loved dearly.  The one who stabbed me in the back? The compulsive liar?  The crazy drug addicted one who gets on my nerves with her constant neediness? Not still my pals. This certainly isn't unconditional.

Pets?  I've loved pets through the years.  I've tolerated litter boxes, fur on my bedspread, and mangled corners of furniture.  And then there was Skittles 2.0.  You remember the cat who thought it was fun to pee on every surface in my home?  I had his ass gassed.  Sure, it was a great excuse to get a new sofa and replace rugs, but unconditional?  Um, no.

Parent/child relationships are different.  Parent screws up; kid moves on; relationship grows and vice versa.  Every day she hurts my feelings and causes me to question my motives - and my sanity - but would I STOP being her Mama?  Never.  My heart is overflowing with the love and affection I have for my daughter and as we approach the adoption of #2, I am praying that I'll grow up to be the person Sophie already thinks I am.

Happy Mother's Day weekend!

Gratitude ~ Day 2

6.  Hearing - I LOVE music and would be sad if I could never hear the voices of those I love.  This morning I was regaled from my porch with a symphony from the birds.

7.  Roomba - That's right.  I'm thankful for a vacuum cleaner.  Actually, I am only thankful for this vacuum cleaner that works withOUT me!

8.  Dishwasher - Again, I am not thankful for chores, but for appliances that do them for me.  I despise washing dishes and do not ever want to live without an automatic dish washer.

9.  Air Conditioning - If you live in S.C. where the average relative humidity is 12,486% you already understand why.

10.  Hot showers

11.  A good mattress

12.  My ridiculously expensive pillow that helps me sleep like a kitten

13.  My cat who eats the rabbits who eat would like to eat the lettuce in my little garden

14.  Black mascara - I have been blessed cursed with blonde eyelashes.  Mascara keeps me from looking like a corpse.

15.  Mrs. V - My daughter's kindergarten teacher is a dream.  She starts every day with a smile and has helped SJ build a wonderful foundation for learning.

Baby Talk

Prayers tonight :: "God, help Nana to have a good birthday in Heaven with a party and cake and everything."

Gratitude Challenge

My sweet friend Traci posted a comment on facebook today challenging us to name 1,000 things for which we are thankful.  Rather than journaling at midnight all alone, I've decided to focus my blog on this and see where it goes.

Day One ~ I am thankful for (in NO particular order!):

1.  My husband - JB is thoughtful and generous and good-natured.  He's honest and dependable and responsible.  He CAN be a pain in the butt, of course, but since he's willing to overlook my sass I guess I'll let his slide as well!

2.  My sweet daughter - SJ is the very light of my days.  She makes me smile and laugh and cry and scream and pull my hair out, but I wouldn't want to live any other way. 

3.  Coffee - You do NOT want to be around me until I've had my morning java which usually consists of at least 4 cups!

4.  My Bible - OK, my BibleS.  I have many interpretations and they are priceless to me.  I love that it is so relevant to my life.  Who wouldn't want a manual on how to best do life?  Not me!

5.  My home - I like my house, but it's the HOME part I'm most thankful for.  It's the little things like a picture of my great-grandparents, Sophie's first outfit, my wedding shoes and, most importantly, the PEOPLE in my house that make it a home.

More tomorrow.....

~Gina~

Mistaken Identity

As you probably know, we are in the process of adopting another child and Sophie has taken the liberty of choosing her sister's name. Thank Heaven she actually picks pretty names - last month was Miriam Elizabeth; today it's Liz Ann. One time she did pick "Namo" pronounced with a long A...as in "Bingo was his NA-MO." I nixed that one.

Anyway, today she brought up names again and we were discussing the name Ann which I like because it's a family name. Sophie told me that her teacher and her Nannie were both named Ann. I responded that also her Granny Smith and her Aunt Mandy both have the middle name of Ann. And THAT'S when Sophie's eyes bulged and her mouth hit the floor.

"You mean Granny's name is not really Granny?" Um, no. You know my name is not really Mama, right? Same thing. "You are kidding me Mama. Her name is not really Granny?" Repeat question and response about 8 times. And that's how I spent my afternoon ;)

Live & Learn

Suck up. Not "suck it up". Suck up.



At my age (over 40, oh nosy one) and as the parent of a six year old "suck up" is something I thought was a LONG way behind me and a LONG way ahead for my daughter, but alas, the fine art of cozying, cottoning, fawning and (my personal favorite) bootlicking is alive and well in the "Let's act like we're in middle school even though we've got crow's feet" crowd.



On the one hand, I would love to list my grievances and the guilty sycophants, but that would be wrong. Oh sure, it would be fun, but it would plop me into the aforementioned "middle school" category and spawn a dozen comments quoting James 3:8. Instead, I will address bootlickers in general and the temporary insanity that prevented me from knowing a suck up when I saw one.



You see, I wasn't always this stupid. From the time I was young, I was a fairly good judge of character; not a perfect track record, but pretty good. I've had the same best friend since I was five so I'd say I get more than a handful of points for that alone. In general, I've usually been able to weed out "so called friends" from the real deal. Even as a teen, I could pick out the chick who wanted to borrow my clothes, the kid who needed a ride, the one who wanted to borrow my ID or money. Whatever IT was I recognized it. I'm not saying I was always prudent in my choices (insert guffaw and snort here), but the point is that deep down I KNEW I was being used. I've never been hypersensitive so it wasn't THAT big a deal. (Well, there was that one time when my entire family forgot my birthday. That was bad. OK, that was REALLY bad. But since then, I've never been hypersensitive.)



Flash forward a few, er, decades. In the meantime, I've married, divorced, remarried and held down numerous jobs and had a pretty successful career. During the course of life in the rat race, I have maintained friendships with many former coworkers, employees & employers. To be honest, there are many more whom I've totally forgotten and couldn't pick out of a police lineup, but that's another blog.



Recently, I had the privilege of working on staff at my church. From the moment I was hired, I recognized that many more people sought to talk to me and spend time with me than in the past, and I attributed this to my being more visible to and active within the congregation. During the time I was on staff, I worked really hard to build and maintain relationships with the volunteer base and considered several of them to be good friends. And THAT's my problem.



When I chose to resign, I found that literally overnight some of my "friends" not only were no longer "friends" but now couldn't be bothered to speak to me or even make eye contact when I dropped off my daughter for class. People who had been in my home and welcomed me into theirs now considered me some kind of pariah. While it's true that I'm guilty of many things, I didn't (and don't) deserve that kind of rejection. I'll certainly take any blame for things I've done or said that offended them and take any blame where I've acted out of line or let my pride seep in.



But honestly, I believe I'll just have to chalk this one up in the "Live & Learn" column. And I think I'll put an asterisk by a couple of those names just so I'll remember who and what a big suck up is.

Superbowl Contest

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It's been a while.....

Hello blog. I've missed you. It's been a busy week (OK, it's been nearly a YEAR).

Let me start by saying that I am so excited to be working from home as a consultant for Thirty-One Gifts. It's a great way to earn money while making my own hours and allows me the freedom to stay at home with my daughter. My website is http://www.mythirtyone.com/favoritethings because, well, these ARE a few of my favorite things!

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Bedtime Gem

"...please help Violet not to blow up like a blueberry. Please Jesus."

Can you tell we've watched Willy Wonka 7 times in the last five days??

Christmas -- Day 2

On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me --
2 soy lattes, and a cat climbing in the Christmas tree.

Coupon links & online codes

In case you are interested in freebies, take a look at http://www.dealblabs.com/. Great online coupons and coupon codes FYI.

My own version of a Christmas classic.....

On the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me....a new kitten that climbs the Christmas tree.....

Is it FROZEN FOOD MONTH yet?

I just prepared my daughter's breakfast. Chocolate milk and a frozen waffle. Let me rephrase that: chocolate milk and a waffle right out of the freezer STILL frozen. I am taking a moment to think of her other favorites and am realizing that this child has a real affinity for cold foods. She doesn't just like for her cooked food to cool off. What the child loves is frozen foods right out of the freezer! We discovered this quirk when she was about three and just mastered opening the freezer door to get her own popsicles (a monkey on her back, let me tell ya). She asked sweetly if she could have one, and when I said yes, headed for her beloved Frigidaire. A few moments later I found her sitting on the kitchen floor licking a frozen ravioli. I watched, and as the ravioli thawed a little, she bit right into it and savored every morsel. Amazing. And gross.

In fact, we had a frozen ravioli dinner last night which was preceded by a cold pizza lunch. I know it looks like I'm in dire need of nutritional and/or parenting classes, but I did serve a fruit and vegetable with these entrees. Tonight's special is organic spinach ravioli a la ice crystals with a side of garden fresh cucumber slices. Our dessert du jour is french vanilla yogurt with fresh raspberries and frozen (of course) chocolate chips. Seriously. I wouldn't go back to this restaurant.

Last night, I made the terrible mistake of COOKING THE LAST FEW RAVIOLI which brought about the horrific "WHY?". "WHY?" for those for those who don't live with four year olds is not, in fact, a quick three-letter word denoting a question. "WHY?" is actually a nineteen syallable, ear-splitting sound which begins in the child's nose and ends in the mother's spine. If you think nails on a chalkboard are bad, then you've never been "WAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIed." At least I was able to serve an icy breakfast. I just can't take the "WHY?" before noon.

Baby Talk

Yet another moment of sweetness from my darling daughter...

As she was jamming on my 80s playlist, I overheard the following:

- "Love sticks. Yeah. Yeah." (aka "Love Stinks" by the J. Geils Band)

- "the deep police are a coming for me." (aka "Dream Police" by Cheap Trick)

Ode To My Fellow Multitaskers...(or Are We Really Uber-Efficient or Plagued with ADD?)

I shall start by acknowledging that "Pride is Folly." Yep, I know it to be true today. I generally pride myself on my ability to do multiple tasks simultaneously. I consider myself to be quite efficient this way, and, frankly, I secretly suspect that single-taskers aren't quite as smart as I am. There, I said it. Don't be angry my beloved family of single-taskers. I reluctantly admire your dogged focus to "see it through" whatever "it" might be.

Today, my to-do list resembles the Dead Sea Scrolls which, unfurled, drag the floor. As I scurry from task to task, I come to the hall bathroom which I have just cleaned and mopped. Only a few minor tweaks to check this baby off the list: wipe counters, clean mirrors...hmmm...those soap dispensers look gross. I think I will toss them in a sink full of water and get them squeaky clean.
* Plug sink. Check.
* Add soap dispensers. Check.
* Fill with water. Check.
Dash to master bath to begin cleaning it. Scrub shower. Check. Wonder what that running water sound is. Check?

Oh. My. God. Water. Running. Bathroom. Sink.

I pause for a whole two seconds to utter a prayer as I head down the hallway toward a sink that only plugs properly about half the time, "Please Lord. Let the stopper not be working...." Enter hall bathroom and realize there is no point in finishing THIS prayer. Water, water everywhere.

I can't help but laugh and try to look for the bright side. Thank God I had already mopped so that, while wet, at least the floor isn't wet AND dirty. Thank God we live in a ranch home so I don't have to worry about falling through to the kitchen downstairs.

I start another load of laundry (towels this time!) and ponder my utter INefficiency today. Too funny really and I'm still laughing as I walk past another pile of towels intended for the laundry and head off to finish cleaning the master bathroom...

Is that the sound of water still running in the shower?

A Clothing Coup

You probably already know that my sweet girl is VERY opinionated when it comes to her clothing. She refuses to wear pants without pockets, long sleeves, turtlenecks, and anything with a "ruffle" (the little "gathers" on sleeves). Shopping with her is about as fun as a root canal, and she's only four!

Nonetheless, I had a wonderful experience buying school clothes this year. I took the latest Lands End catalog and removed every page except those which had clothing I liked. I explained that the clothes in this catalog were the ones she needed for her new big girl school. Then I gave Sophie the catalog and a pen telling her to circle the things she wanted. Easy peasy.

I figure I can keep this up until she can actually read!

Good for a Laugh!

I just LOVE this definition of "deface" from urbandictionary.com: To remove a 'friendship' from facebook due to having either accidentily [sic] adding him/her as a friend or actually adding them and reconsidering later.

"Yeah, there was this guy in my network who added me. I thought he looked ok, but his updates were really cramping my news feed, so I had to deface him."

"I went on a date with a girl I met a week before and like the day after our date she changed her status to 'in a relationship.' I defaced her."