Housekeeping

Bloggable things happen but I’m out of the habit of capturing them and then quicker than a Seattle snow storm, they disappear and when I sit down TO BLOG… nothing. So here are a few tidbits from this weekend before they melt.

One – Wanda brought me a bottle of mustard during choir practice. It was at our house today and I opened the mustard, not bothering to wonder why she needed mustard during choir practice. She ran happily off, one pigtail up, one pigtail down, both pigtails adorable. We found her after choir, nursing a sparkly butterfly cup of ketchup/mustard mixture, slurping it from a spoon, “Because it tastes so GOOD!”

ketchup and mustard

Two – One of my favorite hobbies is telling my kids to clean up their crap off the floor. In fact, to a fly on our wall, it may look like telling my kids to pick up their shoes, backpacks, rainbow loom bands, books, wimples, crisping pins, etc. was my favorite thing ever. It is not number one but maybe in the top eight. Well, today I called Wanda and asked her to put her shoes away. She gave me a response I had never heard before, nor had I thought possible, especially from a four-year-old.

The most frequent response from my kids is a sigh. Second most frequent is an eye-roll, often accompanied by laser eyes of rage. What Wanda did was run into the family room, grab her shoes, smile up at me and say, “Thank you for reminding me, Mom. I forgot.” Then she ran and put them in the shoe basket. I’m not making this up. I am not that creative.

Three – Sometimes I help Wanda do things. At church today they asked the kids what their parents help them do. One of the three-year-olds I teach said his mom helps him turn on the train show. When I asked him what else she does for him, he said, “Turns on the play-doh show,” and continued listing all the shows his mom lets him “watch.” His mom is a great mom and a domestic goddess, btw, so I knew he was omitting a few key items from the list.

That’s why, when the head teacher asked Wanda to share with the entire kid congregation what her mom helps her do, I sat with bated breath, praying she wouldn’t expose me. “My mom helps me become resistant to cranky rants,” or “My mom helps me drink ketchup and mustard,” were possibilities. But no, she said, “My mom helps me clean the kitchen and set up my Thomas train tracks.” Boo-yah! Best mom ever.

Usually Wanda cleans the kitchen by herself but every once in a while I help. And today I got credit for it.

Posted in food, Honesty of Children, kid stuff | Comments Off on Housekeeping

A Partial List of Things It’s Harder to Do When the Sun is Out in Seattle

1. Back out of my long driveway
2. Use my tablet outdoors
3. Deny the mountains exist
4. Conceal the fact that I am 86.5% of the way through my transition to becoming a PNW vampire
5. Yell at my kids
6. Hide under the covers all day
7. Control my maniacal laughter
8. Remember to do anything productive
9. Open the blinds fast enough
10. Consider ever leaving this Garden of Eden

Posted in around town, weather | 2 Comments

Pressing Reset

I’ve got a new post up over at HowDoesShe.com about pressing reset in your family relationships. It’s a sweet little trick that’s worked well for me.

Posted in Random | Comments Off on Pressing Reset

Gearing up for the Second Coming

We weren’t gonna watch the game. We’re not football people. We hadn’t watched all season. Sundays are more a churchy day than a sports day for us. We were not jumping on the Seahawks band wagon on the day of the Super Bowl as though we could name even one player on the team, as though we had somehow earned those Lil’ Smokies or the guac and chips.

But the 12th man flags started to get to me on Friday and by Saturday morning, I had decided we’d better jump on the train as it zipped by. Church was a sea of blue and green, with the lone Broncos fan conducting the meeting boldly in his orange tie. I didn’t see any actual Seahawks gear but it was obvious that people had extracurricular activities on the brain.

So, after church Dan and I sat the kids down for a lesson in the rules of football and we all watched their first game together. Luckily, I’d just turned the cable back on for the winter Olympics. Squee!!

We didn’t teach the kids every possible rule of football and of course the first thing to happen was a safety. What?! We got to explain a lot of fun things that night and the kids came away die-hard Seahawks fans.

Tomorrow the boys in blue and green make their triumphant return to Seattle and there’s going to be a big parade, which we will not attend, and a bunch of families are playing hookie from school, which we will not be doing. But Seahawks fans and wanna-be Seahawks fans will be wearing their football gear tomorrow. I didn’t think much of this until I picked my kids up from school today and saw the staggering number of kids wearing Seahawks shirts and jerseys. And today is only Seahawks Eve!

So, since this bandwagon makes stops at Target, I just thought I’d “look” and “see” what they had. And many dollars later, I walked out with 5 Super Bowl championship T-shirts. Magoo and Wanda are elated.

Wanda has been obsessed with The End of Days lately, asking me when the last day will be and whether the sky will turn all silver. It’s slightly creepy but makes for interesting conversation and I told her that the last day will be when Jesus comes again, and not in a manger but with angels and fanfare and all that jazz.

So today, she was talking about how much she LOVED her Seahawks shirt and how she would wear it tomorrow for the big parade that she’s still not convinced we’re not going to and then she said, “But then you need to wash it.”

“Okay.”

“Because on the last day, when Jesus comes again, I want to dress like Seahawks.”

“Alright.”

Dan says she’s the first person he’s ever met who has her outfit planned for the Second Coming.

seahawk wanda

And she will look amazing.

Posted in around town, faith, fashion | 3 Comments

Book Review: 12 Weeks to Greater Peace, Joy & Love in Your Family

When Jennifer Jones Smith approached me about reviewing her book 12 Weeks to Greater Peace, Joy & Love in Your Family on my blog, I was excited to read it. Who couldn’t use more of love, peace and joy in their most important relationships?

There were several things I enjoyed about this book. Jennifer Jones Smith is sincere and passionate about families. Her words feel like a labor of love, the compilation of years of experience as a wife, mother, and friend who knows what it takes to make home more heavenly. The book has a striking religious component to it, which I was not expecting, but which I identify with because belief in God is such a strong part of my family experience.

I really appreciated her focus on self-compassion and empathy and how we need to love ourselves and learn how to act in spite of fear in order to build our families. She cautions against comparing ourselves to others and encourages compassion to be turned outward as well.

Many of my favorite quotes from various religious and other leaders and speakers were spread throughout the book, providing an added layer of perspective that I enjoyed.

I have yet to try the 12 weekly assignments that she suggests at the end of each chapter but several of them rang true to me as exercises that would bring greater peace and joy into my home.

One thing that intrigued me about the book when she first contacted me was that Jennifer is an Energy Healing Practitioner, a profession that fascinates me and about which I would like to learn more. Alas, the book is less about energy work and more about common sense practical ways to improve the feeling in your home and the connections within your family. Energy work is mentioned and a few of the exercises focus on energy manipulation, but I still feel like I need to do quite a bit more research to understand the basics of this form of healing.

With the launch of her book this week, Jennifer Jones Smith has provided a link to bonus content for readers who purchase the book February 5th on its launch day. Here is the link. Enjoy!

Posted in I can read, Reviews | Comments Off on Book Review: 12 Weeks to Greater Peace, Joy & Love in Your Family

You Never Need to Ride a Bike

“If there’s one profession that can fill you with pride and joy one minute and then make you feel like a total Jerk-Nugget the next, it’s motherhood. It’s okay though, because another moment is on its way in which you will feel righteous anger, over-tear-filled-whelming LERVE, or complete bafflement.

No emotion is off the table for parents. We’re very much like humans in that way.”

[read more at HowDoesShe.com]

Posted in parenting | Comments Off on You Never Need to Ride a Bike