Welcome to the fabulous and sometimes insane life
of a working mother who is trying hard not to
let her whole existence be determined by her
cute little munchkins, yet continues to be drawn
in by the adorable and sometimes annoying tiny people!

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

I am So Glad We are Rushed


A few weeks ago, my husband and I got into one of those silent, but so mad, but not talking about it, but so frustrating, but can't let the other one know you are so mad that you could scream and tear all of your hair out...discussions.


I had noticed that he was constantly in a bad mood on Sunday. He wasn't grumpy or yelling or mean. He was just not very happy and stayed quiet most of the day. When I asked him what was wrong, he pulled "the girl card" and said "nothing". I swear he uses that card more than I do. Maybe it is because I am so unbelievably tired and stressed that I don't have time for games and if I am mad about something, by goodness you are going to know it!


Anyway, I finally got it out of him and then quickly wished I had not. He said that he was in a bad mood every Sunday, because he did not like going to Sunday School (pause before you think badly of him and wait for the rest of it). Then he left and went to a football meeting. And needless to say I fumed and obsessed over his statement all day long.

 When he got back and after we put the kids to bed, I asked him Why? I mean in my head I was thinking that if he didn't want to go to church then that was it...it was a deal breaker....and why had it taken almost 12 years of marriage for my to see this side of him?
Alas, my crazy, obsessive, "snake's in the head" mind had made it totally into something that it wasn't. The truth was...he didn't like going to Sunday School not because he didn't like Sunday School and by extension (in my crazy head) God, but because of how rushed we were. It stressed him out, made him feel out of control. We got up at 7:30 ate breakfast, got three kids and ourselves ready, made it to Sunday School usually late, went to church and battle kids to sit still and behave, gathered everyone up to get in the car, went to Wal-Mart (only day there is time), rushed home to prepare and eat lunch, clean up and started the endless laundrey, and then he left at 1:30 for his weekly football coaches meeting. 

Okay....I can see where he is coming from. Just typing that made me tired and feel like my chest was closing in on me. I completely empathized with him. I totally get it! I do....But then I stopped and thought about why we are so rushed.

We are rushed because we have been blessed with 3 beautiful daughters.
We are rushed because those 3 beautiful children are completely healthy and active.
We are rushed because those 3 beautiful children are 3 beautiful dancers who are good enough to be on the competition team.
We are rushed because we have good jobs.
We are rushed because we have good jobs that pay good money that allow us the ability to take weekly trips to Wal-Mart to fill our pantry.
We are rushed because we are lucky enough to live in the great country of the United States of America where we are free to worship our Great God.

Yes we are rushed, but I am So Glad We are Rushed. We are truly blessed beyond measure!

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Hannigan's Shenanigans

It is that time of year again! Our favorite Elf on the Shelf, Hannigan, is back. The girls are so super excited. He zipped into our lives yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving. We arrived home after being at my parents' house to find this....

My oldest had written him a letter before we left. She told him that he went "crazy" last year dating all of our Barbies. You can see his response.

Then this morning we awoke to these shenanigans:


Our comfort in this mess is that he appears to be an Alabama fan. Which is good on this Iron Bowl Day of rivalaries! Roll Tide Roll!

I will keep you up to date on Hannigan's Shenanigans throughout this holiday season.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Take Control of Your Life

Last night I had the privilege of being able to speak to members of Off Broad Street Centre of the Dance Arts' members of the The F.I.R.M. dance company.

Why me? Well, because the motivational speaker canceled and Mrs. Dana was desperate. I jokingly told her, " I could do my 'Are you stupid class' where I talk about all of the stupid things teenagers do to mess up their lives." I was not serious at all. When I get frustrated with the stupid things kids do, I always say that I should teach a class about HOW stupid the stupid things teenagers do are!

Well, the joke was on me, because that was exactly what Mrs. D. wanted she wanted someone to talk to them about self-respect and always representing your family and the dance company to the best of your ability.

So I toned it down a little and called it "Take Control of Your Life". It focused on the 1st two Habits of Sean Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teenagers:

1. Be Proactive- Be in control of yourself and your choices. You can not control what happens to       yourself but you can control how you react to it. It is the habit of choice.

2. Begin with the End in Mind- Think about how you want things to end up: be it at the end of a test, at the end of a semester, at the end of high school...at the end of your life. What do you want to accomplish? What kind of person do you want to be? How do you want to be remembered? Now, what do you need to do to accomplish these endings?

Here is the PowerPoint Presentation I used:
(Beware: It is not for the faint of heart. It was meant to honestly communicate with teenagers when they need it the most. I did not sugar coat anything. I honestly spoke with them in hopes of maybe getting through to one or two of their pretty little heads!)

Take Control of Your Life

As I went through the presentation, I talked to them about being in control of their own lives. It doesn't feel like you have a lot of control when you are a teenager, but you do. It is about what you do with the control you have that determines how much control you get. So what did I say to them about these topics that most of us don't want to talk to our children about?

1. Drinking: (paraphrased) I know you are going to drink. I am not going to tell you not to. I wish you wouldn't but I am being realistic. I just want to explain to you why it is a bad idea and why you need to be safe if you choose to drink. There is a reason why the drinking age is 21. It is because the human body is not equipped to deal with the effects of alcohol until it is developed completely. That is why evertime I drank in high school I spent the next day throwing up and feeling like I wanted to die. I told them about the only time I ever drove after drinking and how I prayed to God the entire time to help make it. I discussed horrible decisions that I made because of alcohol.


2. Stunts: This was pretty simple. Are you stupid? Do you not value yourself more than to try to be cool to the point that you are endangering your life? Think about everything you do and how it could go wrong. Is it really worth it?

I spoke to them about drugs (all kinds) and sex (how to understand that everytime you do something you are losing a special piece of yourself that you can't get back.) We talked about reckless driving and how you need to slow down and how that text can wait.


Choosing to Love Yourself: This part focused on changing the way you think about yourself, boys, bullies, and friends. We did an activity where they sat in front of the mirror and for every negative things they thought about themselves they had to write something positive. It was amazing to see a whole wall of mirrors full of turning the negative thoughts they thinking about themselves into positive ones.

  Near the end, we focused on Beginning with the End in Mind. I asked them to think about what would happen if on the way home they were killed in a car accident. What would one of your team members say for your eulogy? Then they spread out around the room and wrote the eulogies that they would hope someone would read at their funeral. They were asked to think about whether or not they needed to change to be that person.

For our final activity, the students lined up along the wall with a piece of paper. They wrote their name in the center of the paper. They left the papers in a line and then they rotated down the line of papers until they had wrote one positive thing about each person. When they returned to their paper, they had a positive comment from every person in the group. It was awesome to see their faces as they read the good things their teammates said about them.


  Here are the videos I showed them: