Facebook Vs. Blogging

A great debate. People I know and love are all over my facebook account. People I really know, as in, I could drive to their houses and visit. Family members who would never blog are on facebook. Church friends are there. Even a few bloggers I have met whose full names I actually know. My kids are on there. It is all the rage. Which twilight character are you? Who should you watch a movie with and who should you never watch a movie with. Some people I know are positively hooked on farmtown and thankfully are earning money keeping up with my farm since virtual farming does not appeal to me(But real earth turning...ahhh, be still my heart.). I can see pics of my friends with their families. I can get a glimpse into the lives of people I know and love-a very tiny glimpse. A glimpse I have to search for through many many friends. I have alot of friends. Mostly, this is because I am old. I have many facets of my life. There are friends from high school, friends who have moved away, relatives, friends of a friend, out-of-town family, etc.

OR, I can read blogs. Blogs which are so emotional and intense that sometimes my eyes water. Blogs that make me think. Blogs that help me understand people who are not like me and people who are. Blogs that are spiritually uplifting and encouraging. Blogs that are so funny I almost pee. Blogs that can tell me when a real life friend needs a card or a 'care package'. I can make a snarky comment or give a cyber (((hug))).

So really, for me, it is a no-brainer. I love blogs. They fulfill my need to read and write. They give me that raw honest footage that I crave. So when I have to pick and choose because our summer is crazy busy...you are far more likely to find me here venting, disclosing too much information, begging for affirmation or telling something funny or mundane than you are to see me super-poking. (It sounds like so much more than what it is!! heehee)

Snitty Sunday

All in all I have had a pretty good weekend. It isn't at all as I would have planned it, but that is just how we roll most of the time-me having a general plan and then altering it a bazillion times.(Man plans, God laughs.) So much has happened since my last post...bullets to get you caught up:

• Kayla now has purple hair. I finally gave her permission to do what she wanted to do more than anything. She picked the color-Lusty Lavender (LOL!!)-and I colored it for her. It is really more lavender than purple. She could not believe I was letting her do it. I'm a little surprised myself but in the end, it is only hair, right? Choose your battles and all that jazz. She also got it cut in a non-cyclops looking style and so we are happy to see both eyes no matter the hair color.


• I have been a decluttering fool and I am loving it. 4 bags of things went to goodwill. It is hard to believe how much stuff we have stored about in our small home. So much more than we need. I wish my darling husband could get on the decluttering track with me. Just one of the many tracks we don't share...but that is a whole other blog post.


• One of my good friends is in the process of selling her house and buying a massively huge fixer upper. I am torn between feeling happy & envious of how much space she will have and feeling very sad that she has sooooo much work to do to get her new home livable. It will be gorgeous when they are done!! I wish she would do a home makeover blog just to show how it's done!!


• I visited with my mom and my sister today. It was a really good visit. I also spent time this afternoon with just Erika. It was so nice. My kids are so different when I spend time with them one on one. It is just so rare that it happens. I should make it happen more often.

This evening, I have really needed an attitude adjustment. I have been snitty-hence the post title. When Erika and I got home, the house was a mess. I worked hard all afternoon and night yesterday. The house was fairly neat but the living room was very clean and even *gasp* dusted. Something in me just snapped when I came home and it had all been undone. I am usually pretty oblivious and accepting that all chores come undone pretty quickly around here-especially in my absence. The fact that it happened in less than 4 hours and everyone was so blase' about it just really set me off. The girls worked together to get it back together.

Sometimes being a mom, wife, cook, maid, taxi-driver is the hardest job in the world. Today was just one of those days for me. I am ready for New Mercies Monday-both giving and receiving!!

Better Late?

I used to be a timely gal. I was always either on time or 5 minutes early. Sometimes I might have to drive like a bat out of you know where to accomplish this goal-but the goal was most important. In my mind, it was important to never disappoint other people. Being on time was critical. I would tease others who were habitually late.

Many years and three kids later, life is different for me. I consider most time to be a guideline. There are times that I make being on time an absolute priority and usually am early-picking up or dropping off my children to be cared for by another, trips, any time that my being late will inconvenience someone else. Other than those examples, it just really isn't that important. If I am 5 minutes late for church or a birthday party or even a movie will anyone besides me suffer? I don't think so.

This revelation came to me one day as I was zooming down the road on my way somewhere. I had gotten behind a slow elderly driver and I was irate. I had been on time until I got behind granny. I did what any road rage sportin' driver would do. I rode granny's tail until she had to pull over. Ha ha, take that granny. As I sped past her, recognition clicked in my brain. I KNEW that granny. Then, I put myself in her shoes. What kind of stress must I have put her through. I knew she didn't drive often because it made her nervous. No wonder, with drivers like me constantly riding her tail.

It was an instant cure for my road rage. I have never been the same as a driver. I go out of my way to be polite on the road. I have not encountered granny on the road since then, but rest assured, if I have to be a little late and travel a little slower to help granny feel safer on the road, I will. BECAUSE, in the big picture of life, kindness trumps timeliness. At least in my opinion.

A Review: Jungle Jack's Wackiest, Wildest, and Weirdest Animals in the World (Hardcover)

Just to let you know where I am coming from, I am a lifelong fan of Jack Hanna. I used to love it when he would appear on the Johnny Carson show. He and Johnny had such an awesome chemistry and that plus the inevitable animal faux paus made for some priceless TV comedy. Of course, to be fair, I was far too young to be up watching and most of the humor probably went right over my head. Fast forward many years, I was so excited to see this book available for me to choose for my kiddos. The circle of life. I can now pass on my love for Jack Hanna to my children!! This book is so fun. The large life-like illustrations captivated all three of my children's attention. Weird and unusual animals are featured on each page with a complete lesson about each one. Want to learn more about the duck-bill platypus (who doesn't?)? Want to learn about an animal so slow it literally grows moss?

I highly recommend this book for anyone. The price is perfect to be a birthday present and is suitable for a boy or a girl. Since Erik and I both read and enjoyed it, I think it is safe to say it is fun for any age. Purchase this book OR for you economizers, like me, urge your library to purchase it!!

Amazon features this book at this link.

Tough Tuesday

Yesterday I conquered the world. We went to a playplace to visit with friends, visited a friend(more specifically-returned her children to her), walked through another friend's soon-to-be-theirs, oh-my-what-a-project house(It will be so awesome when they are finished!!), picked up yet another friend in a neighboring town and went blueberry picking.

JAM packed fun with friends. Soooooo, today, I was a tired little girl. I did some laundry, washed and froze blueberries, tried a new recipe and now we are visiting some more friends tonight.

I LOOOOOOOOVE summer vacation. Less than a month remains. GRRRRRR!

May I Rant?

OBAMA SUCKS! SO DOES CONGRESS!!!

I wish I could say I feel better.

Call or email your senator yesterday and get this stupidity stopped!! Hat tip to Amy for the graphic!! We all need a foil hat!!

Ketch-up Anyone?

• Wow! I have really been unplugged lately. No blogging, no keeping up with facebook, not even keeping up with emails. Very unjanjanmomlike. That is the longest word I have ever made up. There is no big crisis or anything, I just haven't been turning on the computer most days. It CAN happen and the net world just goes on without me, that ain't right. My reader is going to be awful. I went ahead and posted without reading them all because Rome was not built in a day...I can't read and post.
• We went to see fireworks on Thursday at a different location than usual because it was the only night our whole family would be together. They were awesome and it was good to not have to go anywhere else or worry that rain would cancel. (My overachieving self originally planned to try to go see all the local fireworks but my underachieving self slapped her silly.) We also got to meet our friends Steven and Ashley after the fireworks at a local dairy bar for milkshakes. Fireworks, good friends, good dairy-who could ask for anything more??
• My garden is weeded and looking good. WAHOO! Now, if I can only maintain it!!
• Our pool is finally looking good. It is our best year ever for leveling and Erik and I have worked really hard to get all the bugs out. Easy set pools are so bad about bugs. I just don't believe the filter/pump is large enough to keep the pool as clean as 'real' pools.
• I have fully digested the phrase, "We are not going to let our girls babysit." They had yet another babysitting gig on Friday. I have changed the phrase to, "We will only let our girls babysit for close friends." PS. They are now 'official' babysitters as they completed a babysitter training class during their week of service camp.
• I missed church today because of a late night rendezvous with acid reflux. It kept me up most of the night and I slept like the dead while my family was at church. Then hubby woke me up with my favorite Chinese food. I will resist the urge to make this a weekly ritual however tempting it may be-the Chinese food, not the reflux.
• I'm sure there is much more, but I am tired and need to get some sleep. Have a great Monday!!

Parenting?

It started for me almost as soon as I had conceived. The constant worry that haunted me then and still does today: Am I a good mom? I began reading various parenting books and magazines, any that I could get my hands on. I was obsessed. I would break the bad patterns of parenting passed down from my own parents and I would be SUPERmom, the kool-aid mom, June Cleaver, and Claire Huxtable all rolled into one. I was constantly searching for live parenting mentors. I quit watching TV shows where the parents were not good role models for me. I had one all-consuming passion: being a good mom.

I wish I could say all that is different now. The literature is different. The mentors are different, but the obsession is the same. To somehow be a good mom.

AND THEN IT HITS ME UPSIDE MY HEAD, this is another PRIDE THING. Because it isn't all about God or my children, it is about the perceptions of the people around me. It is about me.

• What would people say if they stopped by and saw my house looking like this?
• What would people think if my child has a temper tantrum?
• What if my kid is a brat?
• What if my kid isn't smart?
• What if my kid is a bully?
• What will people say when they see the outfit my kid has on today?
• What if my child does not grow up to be a Christian?
• What if my child grows up and never wants to visit me?
• What will ____ think about how I discipline?
• What if _____doesn't think I am a good mom?
• What if _____ talks bad about me or my kids?

And the root of all of these questions...my PRIDE. People might think poorly of me. POOR ME. I want to always be thought well of by everyone. How God feels about me, the relationship I have with Him, the relationship my kids have with Him, and the relationship we have with each other are the only things that matter.

It dawns on me that only one of these questions REALLY matter AND I have no control over that. None. In fact, there are no guarantees in parenting. You pour your heart and soul into a child and there may not be any return on your investment. I have seen wonderful children come from the most broken and dysfunctional homes. I have also seen broken people come from adoring 'normal' families. I have really been having some serious prayer talks with God lately. They go something like this:

Me: God, I have no clue how to be a truly good mom. I come from such broken-ness and I am still quite broken myself. I don't know what I am doing here, I think I am blowing it.

God: Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Me: God, I really can't handle this. It is too much. I worry that my children will not 'turn out'.

God: Matthew 6:27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

God is so good, so faithful to equip the called not call the equipped. The very fact that I am broken will work things out if I can only lose the pride- admit my faults and weaknesses to my children. They are not concerned with a SUPERmom. They just want a mom that loves them and makes them feel loved. They want parents that love each other and them. They want a home that is a sanctuary from the hurts of the world. They want boundaries that are clear and that keep them safe. They want grace and mercy.

In short, they want the very same things from me that I want from my Father. AND, with His help, I can be a good mom of good kids. We will be far from perfect, but then, aren't we all?