State of Obvious

That I will make my kids to stop fighting with each other.  By hook, by crook, or by duck tape, the bickering will end. That I will have less clutter in my life, less stuff to mess it up.  I will set aside a special bin for Eric's junk to accomplish this difficult, but rewarding, goal. That I will spend less money.  No more presents for anyone but me.  Sorry in advance. That I will not let the good things around me go unappreciated.  I will be sure to thank myself each and every day for being so dang great. That I will multitask so that I can be more efficient with my time.  I will drive faster to get to places and I will use my cell phone while driving in an effort to keep this resolution. That I will only read things that uplift me.  So if you want me to keep reading your blog, you better get more funny and only sell me good junk.  See above if you're not sure why I am rejecting your bad, man junk. That I will eat less.  Less he...

When you are young, life is fairly simple.  Mom and Dad are mean.  They never give you a n y t h i n g .  Your sister is mean too, Nazi-Germany type mean.  She makes you clean your room.  Your brothers break the heads off your Barbie dolls just for spite.  Your dog doesn't even like you. You can't wait to drive.  The keys are hot in your hands that first time out and you're shaking inside with impending freedom.  You can't wait to go on a date.  A first official date.  You love loud music and dancing until you're sweaty.  You can spend hours just hanging out with your friends doing nothing at all.  That cute boy you've loved for who-knows-how-long might just like you back and that makes you tingle/cry/shiver with fear. Life is amazing and full of prospects.  When you leave home, everything will change .  All these stupid kids with their kid ideas will mean nothing .  They'll be nothing in a pool of more not...

According to Carly Carly:  {dragging her new pink suitcase} I'm ready to go to the hotel! Me: Did you pack clothes in there? Carly:  No. Me:  What did you pack? Carly: Shoes and a lizard. Me: Shoes and a lizard? Carly:  Oh!  And erasers!

don't come in shiny packages, they don't have bows or tape to seal them shut. May your Christmas be blessed with the kinds of gifts you can't buy and the peace only love can bring.

...have a tendency to get carried away and impatient.  Especially on house cleaning day.  (Which happens to be today yesterday, Monday if I need to be more specific .)  It seems like there is a lot to do and most of it didn't come from me.  Those grape stems (sans grapes) under the chair?  Not mine.  The toys all in the wrong bins?  Not me, no sir.  That empty water bottle?  I don't even like water.  That cobweb in the corner?  I am pretty sure I can't make silk come out my bum.  (Last time I checked, anyhow.)  My patience on cleaning day is whisper thin.  And yelling at myself doesn't really help me vent.  ...found Carly asleep on the playroom floor, covered in a purple and black quilt my sister made me going on 14 years ago.  It's everyone's favorite blanket (except Josh, he has a blanket made from his Gramma Annie's shirts that fills that spot) .  Eric, Poppa, Carly and I have all snuggled unde...

Carly: Everyone keeps locking my door, every year, every year, every year.  Sabrina locks it, I unlock it.  She keeps locking it every time.  Ethan locks it, I unlock it.  JaVon locks it, I unlock it. {SIGH} Me: {looks confused and nods} Meanwhile, isn't she just scrumptious?

A story of hope, always essential when we're bogged down in the Christmastime Crazy. Go Here

There are people who seem to have it perfectly right, who dress just so and talk just so and look just so and are just so. I am not one of those people.  The journey to owning this self-realization has been long.  I'm still making payments. There are times when nothing goes right, when the whole day is lost in translation and you're grasping for straws like a turtle on it's back.  There are days when only old sayings seem to sum it all up.  Even perfect-seeming people have those days.  It's kind of surprising. I have many of those days, its probably has something to do with not being one of those perfectly right people.  Today was not one of those days, thank goodness. There are secret parts of people that stay locked away, living in the dark and festering.  Secrets wrapped in guilt, confusion, doubt, fear, self-loathing, and destruction.  Sometimes those secrets are overwhelming, all encompassing, and self defining.  Sometimes they...

When she says... Fine What it really means is It's not fine , it's anything but fine, I'm kinda mad in a not fine way, and I am irritated in a not fine way. When she says... We don't have to. What it really means is You did not react with enough enthusiasm and so I don't want to do it anymore and if you make me do it I'm going to be even more unhappy now. When she says... Would you like to ______________? What she means is I need you.    When she says... Don't get me anything What she means is Please make it sparkley. When she says... It will just take a few minutes What she means is It will take a few of my minutes.  One of my minutes is roughly equivelant to 10 of yours.  So it should take about 30 minutes not including transportation time/they put something new out time/sale time/ran into a friend time. When she says... I don't need anything What she means is I need you and everything else is bonus.  ...

I love Christmas.  Love , love it.  I usually put up the decorations early (think pre-Thanksgiving even) and then re-arrange them a few times throughout the season to keep it fresh.  This year, I'm particularly happy to have my OWN home to decorate. Come on in for a holiday samplin' of our home: Here we are in the living room.  The formal one, that is.  We don't do much living here but at night we sometimes plop down for family time.  I love having a formal living room with no TV in it.  I made the little tree on the table, if you remember, and I still think it's fab.  The runner was a Super Saturday (read church) project.  The books are our favorite Christmas books plus another Super Saturday notebook project filled with Christmas stories and the scriptures on top, all ready for our Jesse Tree selection for the night. This is the other side of the living room and our Jesse Tree in the corner.  Sometime later I'll show you all...

It's not nearly the experience you thought it would be. There are moments of aching splendor, when you look around and think "Wow, this is what life is" and the whole world sparkles more brightly than noon-day sun. There will be those times when you can't stand to look at another dirty diaper, another dirty floor, another load of laundry, another finger print on your just washed window, another toothbrush in the toilet, another child or husband or wife. There will come a day when you realize that cleaning up when it happens is less effort than letting it dry/stain/set/settle. You will make your bed, most days, even though you're just going to sleep in it again.  And you'll wish your child made his/hers too. You will compromise most of the standards you set about "never letting my child do that." You will yell louder and longer than you remember your parents ever did. The first wrinkle will show up, right next to the gray hairs that spro...

This whole thing with Tiger Woods kind of makes me feel rotten in the pit of my stomach.  Not only because it is possible he cheated on his wife - all the evidence points that way, it is true, but I doubt we will ever be told for certain from his own lips.  And do we really need to hear it from him?  Since when did it become my business what goes on in his marriage? I've heard (and given) the argument before - "He is a public figure."  Yes, he is.  And a public hero, of sorts, a black man that is successful across all the boundaries of society, one of the few public figures to break through that ever-shifting boundary.  He's always been a good guy, a family man, a devoted son.  All good things, in the public eye. I am fascinated to see how quickly magazines, TV shows, newspapers, online blogs and the like have jumped on the 'torch Tiger' bandwagon.  Suddenly a hero is a demon, and it is with palpable glee that society rips him apart.  I...

A toothbrush is not a "Christmas present."  I don't care how fast it spins, or how much it shakes.  I don't care how much plaque it removes.  No kid wants to unwrap a toothbrush - at least not any kid I know.  That's even worse than underwear.  Okay, maybe not worse, but certainly a tie. Sincerely, Me