Dec 17
My friend Hannah made this for me and I nearly fell out of my chair when she sent it:
And this is why I love her. Now go buy something from her, not because I’m getting anything out of telling you to, but because I would if I weren’t broke from shopping too much having high-maintenance children.
Dec 14
There are times during tragedy that it is easy to see the trouble in the world; the loss of a child, a mass shooting. They make us question our core beliefs. It’s easy to believe when things are good, not so much when things are bad.
I am the opposite; it is during times of prosper that I struggle in my walk, and in times of despair I find it easy to cling to God. Though I am not the norm, and I understand that.
Today is a bad day, and it’s hard to understand why bad things happen, especially when they happen to children. So today, instead of looking at the sadness in the world, or trying to make you smile with a witty remark, I want to focus on the good things in this world that are so very often overlooked.
I think of Warm Streets, which is a local organization that collects basic needs for the homeless. Freedom 4/24 is one I’ve personally worked with by running their Run 4 Their Lives 5k two years running now. They work with organizations that rescue enslaved women and children around the world. I think of the Cleft Palate team that my little one sees, and will see until she’s 18. They are all specialists, and they all donate their time monthly to get together and see all the children in the area affected by cleft lips or palates. All for free.
Dec 14
When I started this blog, it was basically just people I knew reading it. And they knew me, and knew my sense of humor, and so I could kind of be unfiltered and random, because that’s basically me. I knew that I loved to write, and more than that, that I loved to make people laugh. I was sucked into Pinterest, shockingly, because I wasn’t THAT KIND of mom. I’m not crafty or good with tools or dates. I can’t tell you how many field trips my oldest child has missed because I forgot the permission slip or the money, or both. And the home improvement blogs; they were awesome, but they required the skill and money that I just didn’t have. I wanted to reach people like me; to show that if I can do it, seriously ANYONE can do it. I am, at heart, the lackadaisical mom. The tag line of “where apathy meets ambition” could be the story of my life. I have great ideas, great intentions, lofty goals, but I lose interest quickly, so it’s a battle of the wills to get things done.
Dec 11
Hubbin and I are in the midst of this remodel, so my RACK for the day on Saturday was not punching the Lowe’s guy that cut my wood wrong. Sometimes it’s the little things, you know?
Sunday’s RACK was fun. I went to Walmart and gathered all the baking supplies possible, and set out for cupcake baking. I baked batches and batches of three different types; a gingerbread spice cupcake with a whipped maple vanilla frosting, my famous German Chocolate cupcakes that are PHENOMENAL with a whipped chocolate mousse frosting, and a boring yellow cake cupcake with a whipped chocolate mousse frosting. Oh, and five mini cheesecakes for the pregnant chick who has been my friend for nearly 25 years. I didn’t leave Walmart until 8:13PM. As soon as they were all done, I packaged them cutely, printed my RACK sign, and walked out the door…at midnight.
I choose this group to RACK because they work long hours at thankless jobs, deal with high stress situations, and save lives. So, at midnight, I got in the car with 27 nicely packaged cupcakes and drove to my local emergency room. My friend works there, so I found her first. I know some people are skeeved about homemade goods, so I wanted her to walk me in there so they knew I wasn’t some crazy woman.
Dec 08
So last night I made a Facebook page for this page. I hadn’t felt the need, but I went ahead and did it anyway. I had a ton of likes in a short period of time and was totally blown away! The response was humbling and exciting. I also received two messages about RACKs that others had done, and I nearly cried. What a great experience, not only to write stuff that people read (never a given in blog land, apparently), but to have caused action through that. Action that helped others. That is simply…indescribable. So I thank you. I thank you for supporting me in this venture and sharing it with your friends, too.
See what a huge help Charlotte is?
If you’ll just do me one quick favor and come over and finish my kitchen renovation, I’d appreciate it. Oh. Dear. First of all, Hubbin has been wonderful and is doing a ton of work, and the doors look fantastic and I’m so excited. I will admit that I am more excited about the end result than the work it’s going to take to get there. And that even though I painted the kitchen already, I’m changing the color. And all the cabinets have to be painted, and some have to be cut out, and the whopping two drawers in the entire kitchen are getting Pinterest makeovers as well.
Dec 07
I have come to really despise the holidays. You may have come to that conclusion when I tried to make this this my Christmas card:
The picture is obviously a joke (note the seal on the bottle, I don’t actually drink), but the message was clear; this was my view of the holidays. I hate the present quotas, the bustle, the stress, the inevitable holiday drama when you are dealing with blended families. There is a lot of back story, but I don’t want to get into that, because I want this to be a positive entry (because I have had THE WORST DAY, so let’s turn it around, y’all). There was a revelation about why I am the way I am, and I’ve made a pact to fix that. This year, I won’t be banning Christmas music or purposely sitting out during the decorating. I took the kids to the parade. I watched Elf (that always helps, though).
