Memorial Day 2010

 

 

 

 

Today is Memorial Day.

Last year, we joined a program at a local high school that supports that band program. Every patriotic holiday, they place a amazing, beautiful flag in our yard. I love this program...the high schoolers come and install the flag early in the morning, and pick it up before night fall.

Emma has loved the flag in the yard the past two holidays. But this holiday, i tried to explain the best way i could to a three year old about Memorial Day. The surprising thing is, what i told her, she has remembered and will tell me when we see a flag.

Honor our veterans, our servicemen and women...and their families. Because of them, we have the most precious thing:

Freedom.

I scream....

...you scream
...we all scream
...for play-doh!

For lack of sanity things to do on a rainy day, Emma and i played with play-doh together for the first time yesterday.

Yeah.

I know.

What was i thinking?

She loved it, though, and i silently prayed that the play-doh would stay on Emma's play table and not be found grounded into the carpet somewhere.

Because my sweet husband would probably scream, lol, and it wouldn't be from excitement. :)

Photo Friday...

...all taken at my FAVORITE place: Bates Nursery here in Nashville.

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This is another favorite photo from Bates Nursery.

It's a "Hen & Chicks" plant....

The colors on this one plant were so beautiful...so beautiful that this plant now has a home with me. I'm still trying to decide what to pot it in...but i've come to believe that with a plant this beautiful, the pot won't matter too much.

Kinda like the reverse with a person....if the inside parts, the soul of a person is beautiful, the outside is just window dressing. Oh, i'm sure that it's nice to have amazing beauty on the outside, but isn't a loving soul and a grateful heart the most beautiful part of a person?

We, as people, are different than plants in that way. You look at a plant, see how beautiful, how colorful, it is, then decide that yes, this IS the "one".

Can't do that with people.

We should look more "into" a person, don't you think? You miss the very best parts of a person when you don't...outside beauty can sometimes be so flashy that you miss the inside beauty.

And that would be a terrible shame...

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....taken at Bates Nursery.

I love that place....so many beautiful plants, trees and succulents. If you want something "different", they will have it, along with advice on how to take care of it.

Parenting....

 

...is like nailing jello to a tree.

I wonder if any first time parent understands parenting. I've read the parenting books. I've taken notes. Heck, i've even memorized quite a few things that i think are important. But honestly? Those books really haven't helped too much. In fact, i don't know if they have helped at all. Which is amazing because those books were written by really smart folks. I wonder if those folks actually had children?

Don't misunderstand me....the technical stuff, how to see if your child has a fever, when teeth will show up, or when you should let them eat honey, is really good stuff. And pretty much on the mark. But the other stuff?

Not so much.

It's almost like parenting is a on-the-job-training thing. No book, no amount of advice, no Internet searches can ever make you feel like you have a freakin' clue to what you are doing. Because, really, you want to do this right. It's the most important and amazing job you'll ever have and how you do it, well, truly will effect the outcome of your child.
You don't want to "damage" your child by my your ability not to have a clue. It's a huge responsibility.

I worry constantly about being a Mom. I mean, CONSTANTLY.

C.O.N.S.T.A.N.T.L.Y.

Am i doing this right? Why is she upset? Why is she crying? Why is she eating dirt? Am i doing this right? Why isn't she potty trained all of the way yet? Why doesn't she like carrots? Why doesn't she like shoes? Why is she crying? Is she mad? Is she happy? Am i doing this right? Why does she try to eat the plastic sweet peas and eggplant in her kitchen set? Is something wrong with her? Is there something wrong with me? Is she sleeping? Is she breathing? Am i doing this right? Does she understand me? Is she ignoring me? Is that a bruise on her arm? Is she hurt? Or is that bruise cancer? Why is she upset? Why is she crying? Did she just eat glue? Is she too cold? Is she too hot? Is she hungry? Am i doing this right? Why does she smell everything?!?!

You get the picture.

I so want to just relax. To breathe and enjoy these moments of parenting. To be confident in my ability to be a good Mom. But this being a Mommy-gig is sometimes the hardest thing i've ever done. Nothing has ever tested me, made me question myself, made me laugh at myself, made me loose my patience, and make me question my sanity more than becoming a Mommy has. No wonder my parents would smirk at me when i acted like i knew it all. They knew the truth....i knew nothing. I didn't have a clue and they couldn't wait till i figured that out!

Emma is smart, funny, intelligent....and a challenge some days.

And truly, i wouldn't have it any other way.

Really.

I just wish that i had a clue on how i was doing. That's all. Maybe like a hint? Some days, i think that i'm the most brilliant Mommy that ever walked. Other days, i'm ready to turn in my Mommy badge. I wonder if my Mother ever worried about this stuff? I wonder if other Mommies worry about this kinda stuff?

ah, i hear my little tot now....

....she is coming towards me, wearing a pair of pants on her head, singing, completely naked, holding Pachi.

Yep, i wonder if i'm doing a good job? :)

A cold? Really?

 

 

How can Emma possibly have a cold?

ah, yes, last Thursday was her last day at school, so i guess that's my reward, eh?

So, sniffing, snotty, cute Emma and i will be hangin' out at the ol' casa today....

...trying to chase her cold away.

Bakin' cookies....

 

 

 

 

....earlier in the week was really a lot of fun. I was a little worried because this recipe that i had found, well, didn't have any butter in the cookies.

The recipe had margarine instead of butter.

And since i had no butter, well, i was all ready to use this margarine. Besides, isn't margarine suppose to be more healthy than butter? Since i was baking chocolate chip cookies, i needed a "healthy" ingredient! (ha...)

As i measured, mixed, combined and stirred, i couldn't shake off the feeling that i had made these cookies before. I kept wondering why i felt that way...as i tasted the batter.

...and finally figured it out when i tasted them.

This recipe off the back of a margarine box was THE SAME RECIPE that my Mom use to make!

Just to be sure, i pulled my recipe notebook (oh, come on, now, doesn't everyone have a recipe notebook with a gazillion recipes to do or try or keep? No? Really?) to check. Sure enough, there it was. The EXACT recipe.

And it made me smile. Because my Mom had made these for me....and i had just made them for Emma.

Emma, of course, like me has no patience when it comes to waiting for cookies to cool. She and i gobbed some up right away after they cooled for a whole second with some milk.

My husband, however, with much, much fancier taste buds, noticed right off that the cookies didn't have butter in them. He deemed them "okay"....not to be bothered, Emma and i continued to eat these yummy cookies. Because, well, they WERE yummy.

I should bake more often....but i need to get whatever it is i bake out of the house quickly and to a neighbor's house. Otherwise, well, bad things can happen. Like me eating all of them. :)

Crafting for Dummies....

 

 

....or, Crafting by Isabel. :)

Next to playing my Nintendo DSi, my other guilty pleasure is seeking out crafting blogs. That's what non-crafty-gals do, we seek out nifty crafty blogs to see if anyone has any crafting ideas that we could possibly do. I truly love the idea of me doing crafts. Really, i do. But last year at MOPS when we had "Craft Day" and i hot glued my craft to the table, i realized that i'm never going to be a REALLY crafty girl. I can fake it by copying trying new ideas, but the chance that it's going to be successful, well, is pretty hopeless.

I saw on one crafty blog this done with twine. They look neat bottles and basically glued twine around them.

One retailer had two awesome twine-wrapped bottles made into candle holders! I LOVED them...but just didn't have the extra $79 (yes, you read that price correctly, folks) laying around for me to buy them.

So....i made my own.

hehee....oh, yes i did.

All it took was a old wine bottle that i saved because i liked the color and the label of the bottle (you know, i swear that i could turn into a hoarder if i wasn't careful, sigh.....), some twine and glue.

Can you believe it? I did it!!

All i need now is to find my candles.

I just may be craftier than i thought.... :))

May 18, 2008

 

 

 

 

Looking thru my photos today, i thought it would be fun to see if i could find any photos taken on May 18...you know, because today IS May 18.

These are the photos that i found. They were taken on May 18, 2008. Emma is a little over a year here in these photos and this is the first time she fell outside and scrapped her knee.

What was i doing, you ask? Taking photos of her falling, like a nit-wit.

Today, at school, Emma walks in, holding my hand, like such a big girl.

"Bye, Mama! See wuf waiter!!" she says to me as i leave her classroom and she runs off to play.

I have a toddler now. Not a baby, but a toddler. A toddler who is learning how to think, act, speak and dance.

Amazing.

Simply amazing to watch her grow and learn...