Puke Driving. It happened.

 

Ever wonder to your self, "Self, I wonder what it would be like to puke while driving?" Why of course not! I daresay thinking like that would drive you insane or as the fancy-english folk say- "mad."

But on that infamous Thursday of last week, Two Thousand and Thirteen, I no longer have to wonder what that situation would be like. Because I lived it.

Yes, countrymen and fellow humans, I barfed while driving my CR-V last week.

While some of you might be gasping at my crassness this morning, you know there are some of you that are secretly a little jealous because that means I've got mad tactical driving skills now.

And I forced my husband with his crazy good drawing skillz to comic-ize the whole thing for me.

I promise, I had made several attempts to pull over and my innards tricked me- "Oh body-master we are fine now. Just keep driving! ({"Oh we will show her!!! tee heee heee! She's afraid of sneezing while transporting- but we will make her fear our bilious sludge - yes we will!!!"

It came out of nowhere like the twinkling of an eye. Thankfully the innards had quasi-warned me 2 miles back so I had grabbed a foil pan. ANd thankfully I'm a lazy sort who doesn't clean out her car until I need to hold something else in it- so I had that foil pan in there which, embarrassingly had old cookies in from a service project. Wait!!!!

You have to understand. I will allow 4-5 sweaters and books to stay in the vehicle but I HATE FOOD IN THE CAR so that was actually a freak deal I wasn't aware.

So I dumped the cookies/marshmellows out of the pan and held that pan like a baby with one hand. I guess I wouldn't one-hand-hold a baby but you get the point- and then I drove on trying to make it back to the homestead.

And then I hit the Whole Foods/World Market area and HELLO STARSHINE UP COMES well you know- ALL UP IN THE BABY PAN!

And now, I blogbrag- brog- about it to anyone that will listen.

Thank you for listening.

My Kid is a Worry-Wart...

I worry that my kid worries.


And I just got done blabbering on yesterday about a lesson on how not to worry for the sweet group, Lovely Girls Club.


The best part of the lesson? The pointing to God's Word:
Genesis 50:20: Dr. Young (our church's pastor) calls this the "50:20 Rule"
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
And
Phillippians 4:6:
 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  

Parents, please listen to what your little girls are worried about:
I was shocked at the responses of the girls when I asked them what they were worried about (Mind you Kindergarteners through 5th graders):
-"Not having my homework in my folder and getting a mark"- my kid we are going to get to that in a moment...
-"Benchmark testing" --the 4 hr long tests that determine your public school career apparently? Don't know much about this trial yet... But this was a major worry of the girls.
-"That my mom and dad will get a divorce or separate."
-"That my friend won't like me anymore."
-Something about a brother scaring one of them like he was a robber??  
Most of the stuff they said was centered around school and relationships with family. I'm not trying to break the confidence of these sweet ones, I'm trying to share an insight into the minds of our little girls in hopes that we see what they are already apt to be entangled with. 
  
Full disclosure: I only have a 6 yr old and I only have one and so far our schooling experience has been very wonderful. To translate that into military-mom terms, my rank is probably a Private.
  Not besmirching any rank in the military as ALL RANKS ARE AWESOME. DGMS on the military and my heart for our troops!!!

So when I tell you what we are trying with our daughter, you can scoff at it and think, "Easy for her to say with her one-kidedness!" Or just stop reading altogether and grab a snack. There's no shame in that.

But even with the awesome-blossom school loving we have going on around here (We ADORE Creech Elem!), Leelah has her freakout sesshes at least 2-3 times a week about her dang homework folder and other various things.

She actually gets up out of bed and checks her folder to make sure she hasn't forgotten anything. She also has major freakouts/anxiety at school when she forgets little things like her lunchbox. Anyone feel me on this?

Like sweet teachers and front office staff (Have I said I love Creech Elem, yet?) will actually stop what they are doing and call or email me with something like this:
"Leelah was very upset today because she left her lunchbox in the cafeteria and came in my room several times crying about it. We found it and I gave her lots of love."- Or something similar to this.

I told you Creech was filled with saints!

Here is what we have found to help our child with her little anxiety bouts:
1. First off, we are not ghoulish, horrible female Disney villains that shame Leelah or yell at her for mistakes. So this whole anxiety thing is self-driven. We try our best not to ever shame her.

2. We remain calm even when she is not. That's parenting book 101 right there.

3. We realize that whatever she is freaking out about might not be a big deal to us, but totally is to her. Again, no real amazing discovery for you there.

4. We have initiated Daddy & Daughter talks every night.
Every night at bedtime, we pray together and then I go do my things and John and her have like 5-20 minutes of conversation time in her room. Leelah will not let us forget to have this time. We started this for several reasons:
-Dads or father figures are essential, critical, huge in a little girl's life. 
They are the example of Jesus. Single moms, take heart - you get to show Jesus in a mom and dad way with God's strength!!! You rock my world - do not grow weary or lose heart!
-John lets her run wild with the convo and listens. 
And you know how kids are: "What if a dinosaur ate only ice cream and lived with unicorns and I was the queen of that land called Reclenth! I'm scared of losing my coat at school and no one talks to me at recess..." She totally lets her guard down mid convo and shares her heart with a daddy that will listen. And it teaches her that daddy will always listen- just like Jesus does.
-We want her to have a husband like this someday.
That will listen and think her world is important. So if she sees John doing this, she will seek out someone who does the same to be her hubby. We don't tell her this, we just pray this will happen. It's totally a subconscious mind melding Vulcan technique.

5. The Dream Bucket. 
Got a kid that doesn't go to bed easy? A sweet, precious mom in my Moms in Touch prayer group gave me the best idea- the Dream Bucket.
You take a bucket, baggy, sack, treasure box, etc. and have either your daughter or you type up or write or draw things they absolutely love. One thing per slip of paper. You put them in the storage device and then have her pull out a slip right before she goes to bed and tell her to dream about that. It gets her focus on that instead of ___________.
Leelah LOVES this. And it has really helped put her in that frame of relaxation. Thank you my dear friend for this idea!!!

These measures have really helped our little one who has a bent towards worrying and controlling things. Got any tricks? Please comment and let me know- would love to hear!


 

Yo! Reading is 2 Legit 2 Quit!

I'm starting to get serious on the silliness of this blog, and by that I mean I'm featuring things now. Things I love to talk about incessantly- I'm gonna FEATURE IT!
 BOOKS- FEATURE IT! All of my favorite books for: life-changing, parenting, best ever books made ever, and current reads are listed- just see the "I've Got a Book for That!" page at the top.

FOOD- FEATURE IT! (I'm kind of known by all of 3 people for an obsession with trying new restaurants and loving or hating them. If I try a new restaurant because you are too chicken, and I love it- guess what? FEATURE IT!)

MOVIES- FEATURE IT! (Coming soon).

PARENTING- FEATURE IT! (Okay, wait a minute. I'm not that great at this, but any little dealy that we have found to utilize and it works or if it doesn't and all that I'm gonna- you got it- FEATURE IT!)

 That's pretty much it.

By FEATURE IT I mean I'm gonna add it to my tabs up top ya see as pages. I will try something new, post about it and then add it to my list on the pages. So come back take a looksee if you are looking for books, food around Houston, Movies, or if you want to laugh at my parenting foibles!

My American Girl Doesn't Want an American Girl...

If you can't take the heat today, get outta this blogspot...

My sweet little princess, my glamour girl diaper diva, is all about Pokemon, Power Rangers and of course, Lions. Oh and setting traps of different sorts. She has almost caused me to break my ankle more than once.

Look y'all, we tried.
Okay? We tried painting her room pink and this and that, but she just craves animalistic adventure. She does.

Every now and then she will adorn herself with jewels and a pretty dress-up frock, but then the inner lion comes out and she's rigged up some ropes/trap/Katniss device in a corner somewhere. That's just her style.

Can I be honest that I was trying to downplay this? Why? Because I listened to others. A whole host of others- not like mental, schizophreniac others- but you know the ones.

"Oh I don't let my kids have anything to do with Pokemon! It's satanic at best!"

"Oh don't you just love princesses and all things pink!?"

or: "AMERICAN GIRL DOLLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CRAZE!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

Which I have secretly longed for ever since they were introduced to me in the library of my private school circa first grade.
 Oh Molly. Can we just talk about Molly for a second?

With your brown hair just like mine.
You even have a vision impairment. I need you Molly. I have no friends. I just hang out under a tree and have said too many weird things. Kids make fun of me, but you can't talk so we could totally make this work...

I say all that because I get the craze. John doesn't. But I do.
And now crap, Leelah doesn't.

Sure, she's got one of the mini-dolls. One guess which one?
Kaya. That's right. The only one that could get away with a concealed weapon.
Would she enjoy and be thrilled if we got one for her? Oh sure! For about 4.75 hours.

 Then it's $100+ dollars under the bed.

And it's not fun when I hear and fear even the dark, inner me:
"Please don't let her be weird like you were."

Oh my gourdness. Stop it.
There's been a reckoning. A slow realization that my child is not like everyone elses and neither is their child or children. And for someone that is all about different, as in not the same, you'd think I wouldn't need this awakening. But yeah, apparently I did.

Thoughts on Monogramming or "Mommogramming":
It's been simmering for a while, but it really happened when we went to some major-minor event here in Katy. I realized I had this underlying fretting that Leelah should be wearing a shirt that had a monogram of her name and whatever we were celebrating/doing on it. You know some kind of commemorative piece I guess?

And I emotionally slapped myself to and thought: "JUST GO HAVE FUN AND DON'T CARE WHAT YOU PUT HER IN? HOW EMBARRASSING YOU WERE EVEN THINKING THAT!!!??? THINK OF THE CHILDREN THAT HAVE NO CLOTHES!!!! HOW SAD AM I???"

Hey, I'm not anti-monogram!! I think they are precious. Leelah has loved those shirts in the past. And I'm not judging all commemorative moms out there. They are only young once, right?

I'm glad to be letting go of what others think and not putting that on my kid.
AGAIN- NOTHING AGAINST MONOGRAMMING, AMERICAN GIRLS, ETC.

Just saying that I'm learning to sacrifice style for savoring the moment instead. Some moms can do both. You are better than me. There.

All you moms with bento boxes, organized to perfection rooms- I'm working on a command center and it's taking my weeks!!!!!!
I concede! You win! No, really, y'all are awesome.

Can we be real moms together?
This is so not directed to any one mom out there. I love all moms! It's more directed to the moms like me that live out of clean clothes still in a laundry basket for 2 months and only have 1 kid.

Yeah, you gals. You know you wanted Molly too as a kid.
 Or Samantha.


Not Kirsten.

She was too unattainably perfect and reminds you of girls that hate you but are loved by everyone else. You know I'm right.

I'm talking to all the moms that were like me and were lucky to get their bday party at a roller rink or McD's. AND WE LOVED IT!!!!!!!!!!!! Are you kidding? We skated until we cramped while they played Ghostbusters and turned off the lights and we went nuts!!!!

Can we just keep it real together and raise real kids that can handle disappointment?

Wow, I don't know where I'm going with this, and I apologize if you are still reading this.

But I do know that us moms gotta stick together: the Mommogrammers and the Laundry Basketiers.
Don't you dare hate on other moms, and always show grace and love, okay? It's what Molly would do. I'm pretty sure about that...

Heard the Word...

I was going to post about some new little redecorating that we've been doing around the Nichols Cottage, but I had it put upon my heart to write about something much, much more meaningful. Although, I'm really excited to show our dining room chairs- they're WILD!

About a fortnight ago, I was doing the dishes and it was one of the rare times that I was thinking about probably just 2 tame, mindless things at once instead of the usual 7,056 things I think about simultaneously and then I heard that still, small whisper in my heart.

I want to reiterate- I was thinking probably about my next meal after doing the dishes and probably what kind of cheese will be included (I have problems), and I heard the Lord whisper to my heart that we would have a child before the year is over.

Wait.

What.

How.

Cheese, where was I again? Casseroles, Mexican, Chuys, Budget, So cassero-

You will have a child before the year is over. 

What!?

Seriously. That's not funny. I'm uterusless and there is still some meeting of the minds regarding the adoption that I so clearly have seen taking place, but have kind of given up thinking about.

Except for that piece of my heart where this unknown child lives that I pray about and already love and cry for.

But I'm just being foolhardy and imaginative. Right?

I felt a little scared to be honest. And a little more crazy than usual. So the next step: talk to my husband, the smart one, who engineers everything and can be a sort of skeptic... I mean that in love- he knows it and says the same thing.

I sat him down- I do this like 30 times a weekend anyway- so he's always prepared for it.
Johnicles.
I proceeded to explain what I believe to be a word from, you know, God and stuff.

His calm response, "Oh. Okay."

And I let it alone, because I'm trying this new thing called shutup and have faith.

Right now, Jan. 9, 2013, we do not have anything set for adoption. Leelah still asks. I still pray. And John and I are on the same page in that we need to get on the same page- God's page. But no paperwork. No agreement. No "LET'S DO IT!" followed by high fives and cool 80's music montage sequences. Nothing.

So it's totally up to God. I have no idea how it will work out and maybe if. But wouldn't this be glorious to look back on someday?

Oh and I told Leelah. Her eyes got big. I asked her what she thought and she said, "I don't know!"

So there you have it folks. Judge away. And thanks for your prayers.