PSF- I Like Even Numbers

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Sometimes words simply aren't needed, so just imagine me nodding my head and smiling.

Meet Your New Mom

I am not going to be that mom anymore. I am not going to be that nagging, bossy mom that makes my boys feel as though they are walking on eggshells. After last week's episode that ended in the boys telling me that they only want their daddy and not me, I have seen the error of my ways. I deserved those words from them and I'm so glad that I really heard what they were saying, because it opened my eyes.

Living with me was not fun. I made things difficult. I stressed the stupid little things too much and completely forgot to stop and notice the important things. I made life so much more stressful than it had to be.

I nagged about everything. They didn't put their toys away properly. They didn't eat their food fast enough. They ate their food too fast. They were too loud and they gave me a headache. They talked too quietly and I couldn't hear what they were saying. Nag, nag, nag.

I think I was confusing nagging for discipline.

It is hard to be the disciplinarian in the family. It is such a responsibility. Sometimes I feel that I have to be on the boys at all times in order for them to grow up to be respectful, hard working, thoughtful boys. But really, I just need to let them be.

If I want them to be respectful, I need to be respectful. And not just to others, but to them as well. They deserve my respect as much as I deserve theirs. If I want them to be compassionate people than I need to be a compassionate mother. One that calms their anxiety instead of adding to it. If I want my boys to be able to handle their anger in a healthy way, then I'd better start showing them the proper way to do so. If I want my boys to be loving, then I need to be an example of love in every circumstance.

This past week has been a complete turn around. The boys have behaved as they always have. Sometimes sassy, sometimes great. But I have been a different mom. I have been able to maintain calm. I spoke with kindness. I bit my tongue and said nothing when I wanted to correct things I knew didn't need correcting.

This is the mom I want to be. And I hope that if I practice this type of mothering enough it will become second nature. Because this is who I am. I am this mom. I am fun. I am loving. The boys just didn't get to see enough of it before. But that is gonna change. I know it won't always be easy. I know there will be times that I will fail and revert back to my old ways. But I am determined to do my best.

I'm letting go so I can be a better mom.

When we went to pick Joey up at school yesterday the snow was just too pretty to pass up. Tommy asked if we could get out and play on the playground while we waited for Joey. Though it is not normally like me to let the boys frolic in the snow without snowpants and gear (oh the mess!) I figured this was a good opportunity for me to practice letting go. I let Tommy and Ben out of the car and we went climbing all over the snow piles the snow plow trucks had created. When Joey came out of school he joined in. We played and slid and stomped through the snow, and when I told the boys it was time to go they happily obliged and climbed into the minivan.

We got home and the boys didn't want to go in the house yet. I told them they could play in the backyard for a while until they got hungry. One thing led to another and soon we were all building a snowman together. Tommy and Ben were rolling around in the snow sans snowpants, and Joey was wearing his two sizes too small snowpants that he put on at school, but I couldn't have cared less. We were having a blast.

By the time we were finishing up my jeans were soaked through and Tommy and Ben were wet little popsicles. Todd came home for lunch just in time to capture the moment for us.

We finished up our snowman and scurried inside to defrost. The wet clothes were thrown in the dryer, and new warm, fuzzy clothes were put on in their place. The boys ate quickly and drifted right off to sleep, exhausted from the fresh, cold air.

And I sit here thankful that I was given yet another opportunity to start again. Another chance to let go and just enjoy being a mom. Another moment to seize and not care about the mess or the clean up. Another shot at showing my boys how to be spontaneous and how to have fun. How to live. And how to love.

It was another great day.

WW- Cold

As always, click to enlarge.

We are expecting another 5 inches or so today and the boys are thrilled. While the first few snowfalls of the season are always exciting I know that by next month I will already be pretty antsy for spring. However, I will admit it is quite beautiful when it looks like this.

Love Lockdown

My Joey loves to sing. He sings all the time. He sings church songs, songs from cartoons, Christmas songs, made up songs, hip-hop songs, rock songs, country songs, old school jazz songs, and everything else he has ever heard.

The other day we were in the car listening to the radio when Kanye West's song "Love Lockdown" came on the radio. The tribal drum beats drew him in and I knew he was immediately hooked. Every time we get in the car he asks me to try and find it on the radio and after hearing the song only twice he memorized it enough to sing parts of the verse and all of the chorus.

I wish I could get Joey to sing on video for me because I'm not sure there is anything more hilariously cute than watching him walk around the house thumping out the beat to this song on his legs and belting out the words to the chorus. It is just so funny watching this tiny, little, angelic faced boy singing these serious words with so much fervor.

Can you picture it?

(The chorus part that Joey loves to sing comes in at around 58 seconds.)

A Proper Start

December started out just the way it should in Wisconsin. A winter storm warning was issued last night and this morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. It was beautiful. All the schools started two hours late and the morning kindergarten classes were cancelled. No school for Joe!

Instead we spent the morning decorating our house with all of our favorite Christmas decorations. As the nativity was carefully set up Joey kept reminding us, "This is the most important part of Christmas!"

I may have to take a bunch of the decorations down if we get a call to show our house. I'm afraid it is a bit of overkill. But it is worth it. The boys jumped and danced around all morning. The Christmas music was playing and the boys all sang along. As Joey sang, "All I want for Christmas is you..." he had to stop me and tell me, "Well, actually I'd like some presents too, mom." Just in case I had taken the lyrics seriously. Good cover, Joe.

Now we are throwing on our snowsuits and boots and heading out for the first snow play of the year. I'm sure I will freeze much sooner than my little men and I'll have to bribe them into the house with hot cocoa and a Christmas movie, but I'm sure they will be happy to oblige their delicate mom.

These are the days I LOVE being a mama.

DONE!

Whew! NaBlaBlaBla is over with! Finally!

At first the month just blew by. Subject matter kept presenting itself over and over again. I had no shortage of material to write about. It was a breeze. Then as the weeks moved along it became a bit more difficult until we got to this last week and it was downright painful. I wrote about things that didn't matter because I just didn't have the energy or brain cells to write about the other stuff.

I heartily apologize for my posts this last week. Dreadful, I know. But I had made a decision not to complain about NaBloPoMo in any of my posts this month and I tried to come up with something fresh for each post. Didn't work so well. You can see this week suffered. Sorry.

So! No more boring one paragraph posts telling you what I'm doing. No more lame-o pictures of me in my jammies (although I do still adore them). From now on I will only post when I have something interesting to say. What a novel idea!

I will tell you that:

1- Wednesday morning was a nightmare. By far my worst day in a long time. The boys were devils and even told me that they just want daddy, not me. That is was fine if I went away and didn't come back. It was depressing and horrible. My mom came over to stay with the boys during their naps while I went to get my hair done and I had all I could do to keep from crying on my way out the door.
Todd came home while I was gone and I knew he was home but I didn't want to go back home. I was dreading walking in that door with those sassy children. They were just wretched. Instead I went to a coffee shop, stopped at my mom's house, and then went down to the lake. More than three hours later I finally came home.
It was like a light switch was flipped with the hubby home. The boys were happy. I was peaceful. And all was right in the world. I have been an awesome mom since. Granted it has only been four days, but I haven't even run out of patience and yelled ONCE! That is a miracle for me. A Christmas miracle.

2- I felt the affects of the stressful Wednesday and woke up Thursday morning with blurred and flashing vision. An early sign a migraine was coming. It was very odd since I've NEVER woken up with a migraine before. I guess it was a good thing I injured my knee because otherwise I may have missed the migraine signs and tried to run the 10K. That would have been awful. Luckily I was able to get rid of it before we headed over to Todd's folks for Thanksgiving lunch.
We stayed at Todd's folks for a while and then went over to my mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner. The whole day turned out to be a success. One of the nicest holidays I can remember and that is saying a lot since there was a fair amount of sadness surrounding a part of my heart without my dad with us. We had tried to stop by to see my dad but he was so tired he couldn't keep his eyes open. I guess in the end I again remembered that he is where he needs to be. And there was comfort and strength in having our family together and saying a blessing for my dad before we began dinner.

3- I am almost done with Christmas shopping! I have Todd and the boys done and now I just need get some things for the parents, nieces, and nephews. Easy peasy!

4- I finally buried St. Joseph. We had another open house today and I figured it just couldn't hurt. We only had one couple look at the house so we'll just see where it goes from here.

5- I finished Twilight in two days. I liked it. Yep. Good stuff. I asked the hubby to get me the book set for Christmas. I can see how some people have trouble with it, however. It is written for teenagers. The writing is basic and the narrative through the eyes of a teenager may not appeal to all adults. But sometimes it is nice to not have to think so much when I read. To be able to escape into a world so different than mine now, and yet a world that I can easily recall. I had an Edward, too. No, I wasn't in love with a vampire. But I was left feeling sucked dry and lifeless when the relationship ended. Most of us have had that one obsessive relationship. A relationship that seems so incredibly perfect until you find that one glaring, nagging flaw. In Twilight that flaw is just much more obvious.

Yes, for those of you that asked, I enjoyed Twilight immensely.

6- Still no word on whether or not I have West Nile Virus. They said the results would be in within the week, so I'm guessing no news is good news. Right?

7- I must be taking over where Tommy and Joey left off because I haven't been feeling the greatest these past few days. Please continue to be patient with me and I promise I will be around to visit y'all shortly. Thanks.

8- It is snowing here. It looks absolutely beautiful. Big, juicy snowflakes are furiously fighting their way to the ground. It makes me want to sing Christmas carols and make cookies. Or maybe just eat cookies. Either way, I'm in the Christmas spirit!

Date Night Review

Every year when the hubby and I run out and do our Christmas shopping for the boys we try and make a day out of it. We tackle all the shopping and then unwind with a nice dinner and a funny Christmasy movie.

This year we were a little pressed for time. We called Todd's mom over at the last minute because after the boys had so easily picked out their favorite toys at the store earlier in the day we wanted to rush back and get them that same day before they were sold out. Thankfully, she made it to our house by dinner time. We rushed out the door, spent less than a half an hour piling up the gifts in the cart, and hastily threw them in the back of the car. We had less than an hour to find a place to eat, drive twenty minutes to the movie theater, and get there early enough to find good seats for the 7:20 movie showing that we had already purchased tickets for online.

After debating the pros and cons we opted to eat at Taco Bell. Not exactly what we had been hoping for, but it was quick enough that we could make it to the movie theater with time to spare. We ate our crappy fast food and hustled on over to the theater.

We had plenty of time to grab popcorn and soda (yes, we had just eaten. ya got a problem with that?) and find the best seats in the house. We snuggled down in our seats, played the trivia, and my favorite, watched the coming attractions. After the rush of the day I was more than ready to enjoy a good laugh.

Then our movie came on. Four Christmases.If you are looking for a light and funny Christmas movie this just might be the one. This movie kept the hubby and I laughing the entire time. I was laughing so hard as certain points that there were tears running down my face. The surprising pairing of Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon works to the comedy's advantage with not only their comedic timing but also the visual affect of them together. He is so tall and dominant next to a petite little Reese that the two even standing next to each other look funny.

My husband and I are HUGE Vince Vaughn fans. I think I have been since Swingers. I really don't know if you can go wrong with a comedy when he is in it. The man could read the phone book and it would be funny. I was pleasantly surprised by Reese's comedic chops although a few scenes in the beginning did feel a bit more acted than others.

Add in a few more big name stars like, Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, Jon Favreau, Tim McGraw, Mary Steenburgen, and Dwight Yokem and you can see you have a full cast. Each of the talented actors had their opportunity to shine in this hilarious movie. From the cage fighting brothers to the cougar mother, there are scenes that I'm sure you will be walking out of the theater talking about.

Sure there were a few downsides to the movie. The plot was fairly typical and predictable, it was vulgar in some points (but I'm sorry, I thought it was hilarious-cause I have that kind of sick sense of humor sometimes), and a little overwhelming at times. But at only an hour and twenty-two minutes it really did keep my attention and I was laughing in just about every single scene.

If you are looking for the romantic, feel-good movie of the Christmas season this is not it. Maybe try one of the classics. Or something newer like Love Actually or Serendipity. Four Christmases is a comedy. And they do it well.

Sometimes you just want to go to a movie to laugh a lot, think a little, and leave feeling happy. And this movie did that for me. If you are looking for a hilarious, shallow, fun Christmas movie this is the one for you.