Art!!

I felt a bit of blogging inspiration after reading another blog that is going through the ABC's.  Cute, right?  Start with A and work my way right on through...no time frame and I can think of whatever topic I want for each letter.  I might be able to handle that.  Maybe.  At first, I got all hung up an the letter A.  I can't take the pressure!  Not a great start.  But then I landed on "art".

What kind of art do you have hanging in your home?  What's your style?  Abstract?  Modern?  Photography?  Kid art?  In my mind, I love all hand made art pieces created by Pinterest ideas.  In reality, though, I lean waaaaaayyyy towards traditionally framed art or things that I think are significant (maybe only to me, but still)

Since painting the dining room, I've had a heck of a time filling the empty wall space.  Since my budget is somewhere between $0 - $10, I felt stuck. I've pinned a few ideas, but then chicken out when it comes to actually making something for fear that it would turn out badly.   But, I pinned one idea that I thought would be perfect if the kids made it!  Genius!  That way, I'll get what I want and if it's not perfect, who's gonna say??  It's way more abstract than I would ever, ever pick...like Jackson Pollock kinda abstract.  But, I love it, too!

Here's some pics of my more traditional pieces...

 The paintings above hang over the sofa and the fireplace...the same place for15years.  And, I'm pretty sure for the next 15 years,too.  It takes a lot for me to change...

This piece hangs in our bedroom...for the past 15 years.  Did I mention that I used to work for an art shop before getting married?  I stocked up on framed art, my friends.

Each kid got a canvas and a variety of cups filled with food colored bubble liquid.  They had at it and there's the results.  I love that each kid has one, they are each different and special.  I think they'll be hanging there for more than 15 years!

New Territory

Have you ever come across the blog, People I Want to Punch in the Throat?  That Jen is a card, I tell ya.  I will also warn you that if you're easily offended by 'swears' (as my kids call them), coarse humor, or painful truths, don't click on the link. 

This post has nothing to do with her blog.  But I have found myself, recently, wanting to punch people in the throat.  To keep repeating the phrase over and over, I thought deserved at least a shout out to her dedication to throat punching.

As our children (ages 10, 8, and 4 11/12) get older, I continually find myself in new parenting territory.  Whatever I think I know about parenting gets pushed aside to make room for new realizations.  My most recent realization is that kids are jerks.  Ugh!  Okay, fine!  Not all kids.  Certainly not your kids...never my kids. Ha!  But, seriously!  This school year has had me mentally throat punching people left and right.  (Do I have to add that I would never actually punch a kid?  Fine.  I hereby declare that this post is satirical and should not be taken as a threat in any form.)  Since Christmas, one kid in particular has taught Joe the "F" word.  Joe didn't understand him the first time, so I got to tell him that FURK is not the mother of all swear words.  Take that, kid!  Except that he spoke more clearly the next day.  He's taught Joe to look up words like vagina in the dictionary. (Joe already kinda knew this word, he just didn't know you were supposed to giggle when you said it.) And, I can't even fully explain what he taught Joe to make 2 Lego horses do to each other.  So, this new territory...how much do we let 'boys be boys'?  We can't exactly forbid Joe from talking to this kid...they're in school together.  And as much as I hate it, Joe has to be out of my eyesight for those educating hours. And, if it wasn't this kid, it would be another.  How long will it last that Joe openly tells me (or uses props to show me) what he's 'learned'?  We continually tell Joe that we want the other kids to be like him.  Not for him to be like the other kids while I'm mentally punching people in the throat. 

Bella (the 8 year old going on 17) is taking her first real hip hop class at a local dance studio.  The class is once a week for half an hour.  The other girls in her class take other types of dance, too, and seem to have been taking classes together for years.  Bella loves, loves, loves the class, the teacher, and the other girls.  My sweet princess girl is oblivious that the other girls are shunning her.  They turn their backs to her when she walks up to them or just walk away.  The other night, she asked a girl what game she was playing on her phone.  The girl could have dislocated something with how hard she rolled her eyes and said with a sneer "You've never heard of Minecraft???"  Bella, thinking the girl was interested in her gaming history, said "No. How do you play?"  The girl ignored her as another girl plopped down on her other side and started chatting.  At that point, I called Bella over to me to hug her before class started.  While Bella was in class, I watched a gaggle of other girls (not so) subtly mock a girl who was not part of their group.  People were getting mentally throat punched all over the place.  How do I make sure Bella preserves her innocence?  How do I tell her she doesn't need to be friends with these girls without hurting her feelings?  I did tell her that I thought the one girl wasn't very nice, to which, Bella defended her.

I fear that this new territory includes letting them step further away from us and navigate social situations themselves.  It's painful to watch.  Good thing we know that God is bigger than whatever a bunch of kids can throw at them.  Is it okay, though, if I keep punching people in throat...mentally, of course. 

Say Goodbye to Stewart!

Remember my Stewart idea?  He was my "Elf on the Shelf" AKA "kids don't want to be creeped out" replacement.  In my effort to keep December simple and not frighten the children, I created something that caused me a lot of work and creative thinking.  Dang, my kids are smart whipper-snappers!  Overall, I really like the idea of Stewart...In a nut shell, Stewart would hide his special box somewhere in the living room/dining room/kitchen for the kids to find in the morning.  Inside the box was a scripture verse that they had to look up and read, then they had to write down gift ideas, put them in the box and put the box back where they found it.  Easy, right?  Hmmmm....sort of.  The hiding was the easiest part.  Stewart had no tolerance for tomfoolery, so the box was always hidden in plain site.  In the morning, Jay and I could hear Joe and Bella looking for the box (Trey was typically knee deep in one of our phones watching YouTube videos and couldn't be bothered).  We would hear a triumphant "I found it!!!" 

On day 2, our curious and not easily satisfied Bella started asking questions of Stewart.  She wanted to know what he looked like, how old he was, were he and Santa close friends.  Then wise, old Joe jumped into the fray and wanted to know about all the other elves and why they have pointed ears.  Oh!  For crying in a bucket!  So, I had to have Stewart answer them by including a letter in with the scripture.  Then, to divert their need for honesty and straight forward answers, Stewart began asking them questions...What was their favorite Christmas movie, song, joke?

Stewart, however, did not stay all the way up to Christmas.  Once we got a solid idea of what the kids wanted and we had the opportunity, we went shopping!  We actually finished pretty early for us this year.  My fear was that if I let the kids keep writing down ideas after we went shopping, one of them would come up with "the only thing I really, really, really want" and then be disappointed when he/she didn't get it.  (How do you shop for your kids and keep it even/fair/responsible should be a whole 'nother post, right?)

I wish that I had researched and printed scripture verses all at once or at least a few at a time.  There were a few nights that we were headed up to bed and I'd remember Stewart!!  Drats!

But, you guys!  My kids read their Bible every day!  Bella underlined every verse we read in her new Bible ("to be like Mommy" she said!  I swoon!) We talked about what words like integrity and humility mean.  They were reminded how much they are loved by God and are covered in grace and mercy...and what that looks like to show that kind of love to other people.  How great is that?  If they remember any part of something we read, I'll consider the project a success!

The jury is still out on if I'll do it again next year.  Maybe I'll come up with something even better!  Here's my challenge to you!  I'm going to list all the scripture verses we read...why don't you look them up and see what you think?

John 3:16, Philippians 4:4-8, 1 John 4:7-10, Ephesians 2:8-9, Proverbs 17:22, Psalm 139:13-14,        2 Corinthians 8:9, John 15:9-14, Proverbs 10:9, Hebrews 13:16, James 1:19-20, Colossians 3:12-14, Luke 2:8-14, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Isaiah 26:4, Luke 6:37-38, Philippians 4:8-9, Hebrews 12:15, Ephesians 6:1-2, 1John 3:1, John 14:6

Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?  He didn't have the guts!  (that was Bella's joke for Stewart!  I love it!)

Passing the time and the ugliest picture ever.

I let the kids set up a tripod and showed them how to use my camera....

mommy is a super creep

ugliest picture ever.

They're Listening!

I will get to more stories from Disney!  But I got slapped in the face with a different blog post. 

One time when Joe was in pre-school, the kids saw me get angry.  Allow me to fill in the blanks that are clearly running through your head.  At this time, I was either overly pregnant with Trey or had just had him...I can't remember ALL the details.  This was, after all, 4years ago!  But either way, hormones were running high.  Joe had just turned 5, so Bella was 3.  Very near the school/church is a hairy intersection.  There's a blinking yellow light...another stop light...left turns trying to turn another left...left turns trying to go to the right.  It can get tricky.  For some reason, the intersection was seriously congested.   I had to wait to make the right turn because I absolutely could not see if any traffic was coming from the left.  The car next to me had pulled up too far and was blocking my line of sight.  The car behind me beeped aggressively at me.  Remember how I said that hormones were running high?  Well, Mommy got a little angry.  I have always disliked using the horn.  Unless you're trying to warn me of impending danger, then don't beep at me.  Please believe me when I say that I did not swear at the woman behind me or get out of the van, but she knew that she had made a bad decision.

The kids have obviously heard me yell before, but the sheer anger in my voice frightened them.  It stuck in their brains.  For a long time after, one of them would say "Remember how you yelled at that lady?"  In fact, the most recent time was THIS PAST WEDNESDAY!!!  Are you serious?  This happened 4 years ago!!  Joe and I were driving to Jiu Jitsu and a car didn't yield like it was supposed to...I said something like "God bless you and yield next time."  Joe asked what yield means so I explained what the other driver did wrong but that it wasn't a huge deal, yada, yada, yada.  From the back of the van, Joe says "Mom, remember the time you yelled at that lady?"  I had to explain that it was wrong that I yelled and that if I could I would apologize to that woman.

What a wake up call, though.  What I say and do absolutely impacts my children in both good and bad ways.  I knew this, but to have it brought front and center by something that happened years ago was a real zinger. 

They're listening....

The Annoying Truth

Every time I fold laundry in the living room, Trey inevitably takes items from my meticulously organized piles and launches them one by one over the baby gate separating the living room and office.  He has a mischievous grin plastered on his face the whole time.

If left alone in a room for any extended amount of time, say 3 or 4 minutes, Trey will strip down to his {cute, sweet, adorable, pinchable} birthday suit....well, he still has the IV line and dressing covering it, so does that still count as nekked?  Either way...

When we tuck him in at night, within minutes he strips AND takes off the protective netting that keeps his IV lines from flapping in the wind.  *this is actually kinda dangerous and makes me nervous*

Several times a day, he fights his way into the kitchen, swipes food from the fridge, carries it into the living room, then throws a fit when we try to put it back.

Why did I list all these things?  And believe me, this is certainly not an exhaustive list of frustrating things...not to mention, his partners in crime, Joe and Bella.  Well, throughout the past year several people have commented that because of the difficult things Trey has had to go through, they try not to get annoyed or frustrated with their kids.  Or that they feel guilty for getting annoyed with their kids.

While, we certainly try to treat our children with an over abundance of grace and patience...

The annoying truth is that we still get annoyed.

*editors note:  We cherish every moment we have with all 3 of our wonderful children that we have been undeservedly blessed with.

I Got a New Toy!!!

I know I haven't blogged too much recently...but I have my reasons.  My newest reason is that I got a new camera!  I'm so excited! I have no idea how it works or what all the functions are, but by golly!  I 'm gonna learn!  I have a few post ideas brewing in my head, so stay tuned, I'll get there.  In the mean time, here's a few of my 'test shots'....