Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Learning to fly

Wow!  Posting two days in a row!  I could learn to like this.  *snicker*

I wasn't called to substitute teach today, so I treated myself to breakfast out.  Great company and great conversation!  Every once in a while, time out with other adults is definitely needed.  I really enjoy meeting with my book club.  The women in the book club make me think, laugh, and love.  The people I chat with at my favorite breakfast hang-out are also great for conversation and laughter.

The rush from a full belly laugh where I don't care if others are watching is what I needed this morning.  Stressing about wanting to give everything to my children has caused an ache in the pit of my stomach.  Letting go and letting myself admit that it is not fully my responsibility makes for a lighter heart.  If I want to teach my children to fly, I am doing them a disservice by working their wings for them.  If my oldest truly wants to go to the college that is her first choice, she needs to put forth the effort to apply for scholarships to get there.  I can help her, but I can't do it for her.

In a way, this is like my diabetes management.  My doctor, husband, and other PWD (people with diabetes) can give me information and tips on managing my diabetes, but I actually have to take ownership and responsibility to do what needs to be done.  Like my daughter who knows she needs to fill out scholarship information, I know I need to watch what I eat and exercise.  It is up to me to reach my goal of tight management of my diabetes.

Yes, I'm going to still help my child find scholarships just as my husband will help me find low-carb snacks.  However, just as my husband steps back when I take a hand-full of chocolate chips now and then, I'm also going to take a step back and let her test out her wings a bit more.  She may stumble, but I don't think she'll fall.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Tuesday Ramblings

I'm not sure what I'm going to write about.  I just know that I haven't posted as much as I'd like lately.  Honestly I want to get back to posting every day like I do during NaBloPoMo. I enjoy blogging.  Writing my thoughts helps me deal with the emotions that go along with them.  Lately, those thoughts and emotions have been all over the place.  I lost a friend who was only in his 40s.  He was a local pastor, dearly loved by the community.  The news was hard and the services were harder.  I kept looking over at his widow, another wonderful person.  My mind kept putting me in her place, which is a place I pray I never have to be. (I need to depart from this topic right now, understandably.) 

I've also been dealing with the emotions that go with having my first child so close to becoming an adult.  Trying to grasp that concept while also figuring out how to get her into the college she wants is a little overwhelming.  Some budgeting mistakes made in the past might get in the way.  She does have a Plan B.  Honestly, the Plan B is a close second, just not exactly what she had in mind.  A little too close to home for my child who wants to test her wings.  This mama wants to help her baby fly!

Tonight's prayer: Dear Lord, please help me see your vision and how to achieve your plan.  Life is a journey.  You promised love, happiness, and adventure.  You never promised it would be easy.  Help me to look for the path I am to take, even if it is a little rocky.  In Christ's name, Amen.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Walking on Washington, DC

Oh how I would have loved to be there.  So many people who have diabetes and the ones that love and support them talking to our lawmakers in Washington, DC.  I can just imagine the energy.  Praying for a cure for every type of diabetes - Type 1, Type 2, gestational.



Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Spring break

My children are on spring break this week.  Some think it's early, but considering we live in a college town, it's not surprising.  Today is one of those days that I want to document.  It was an amazing day.  A day where my children and I had fun together with very little fighting or whining.  What little did occur was toward the end of the day when everyone was tired and starting to get cranky, so I'm not going to count it.

I felt bad needing to wake up my children at 7am on a vacation day, but we needed to leave the house by 8:30 am to make their dentist appointment.  We drove to a larger town that has a wonderful dentist that caters to children.  I will have to say we have some great dentists in town who treat children, but they are not child-centered.   This office only treats children and has a very child-friendly, child-centered office.  My kids actually enjoy going to the dentist.

After their visit with the dentist (unfortunately three of the five will be visiting again next month to have one tooth each repaired), we then headed out for lunch.  "Where are we going for lunch?" was the question I heard.  Honestly, I had no idea.  Knowing that after lunch we were headed to the mall (something our small town doesn't have), I started driving in that direction.  "We'll just pick something along the way."

Then they spotted it... Steak n Shake.  A place they've only heard about on television commercials.  Of course we had to stop there!  We had a wonderful lunch with burgers, fries, chicken strips, grilled cheese, and shakes.  (Mom was good and had an unsweetened iced tea.)  Lunch was gobbled up and everyone agreed it was delicious.

Then it was time to visit the mall.  A place we only see about once per year, if they're lucky.  This mall had something the younger ones wanted and something the older ones wanted.  The funny part is, if you look at their purchases you will have a hard time knowing who wanted which store.  Build-A-Bear and Hot Topic were the two stores we had on our minds.  The children had money of their own to spend and did they ever.  The older four children each had previously received a stuffed animal from their Grandma.  Now it was the youngest one's turn.  Grandma had given her money for her birthday back in October to make her own friend.  Yes, it took us a while to get to a Build-A-Bear.  Remember that we live in the middle of nowhere and we have five kids with activities.  Sometimes things take a while.

Armed with birthday money from Grandma coupled with Christmas money from Granny & Papa, the youngest one went to town.  She picked out an adorable purple dog with a sparkly purple collar.  She had so much fun stuffing it, giving it a bath, dressing it up, and giving it a name (first name is Twinkles).  She also enjoyed watching her sisters shop in the store as well!  The oldest got a white owl which was named Hedwig (we're Harry Potter fans, if you can't tell).  Hedwig will be joining eldest at college in the fall.  My second one decided to get an outfit for the bear Grandma had previously purchased.  The middle one picked out a bunny with floppy ears which she named Sir Hops-A-Lot.  He received a pair of jeans and a hoodie.  The forth one picked out the green 4-leaf clover teddy bear (named Abby) with a St. Patty's day themed dress.  They were having so much fun that I almost bought my own stuffed animal (though I didn't).

After all the new friends were adopted and paid for, we ventured over to Hot Topic.  We had a variety of items purchased there: a silly finger puppet, gloves, suspenders, rabbit earmuffs, a button that says "free hugs", and a couple hats.  We also took a quick trip over to JC Penny's where #2 found a hoodie she really wanted.

After the mall, we headed over to Borders (bookstore).  Surprisingly only four books were purchased.  We had a lot of fun looking around though.  When we were done there, we headed home.  When we were almost home, it was dinner time so we stopped at Dairy Queen to eat.  Yes, it was a full-service store, too, so we had actual food and very little ice cream.  At that point we were all tired and starting to get a little cranky.  We were soon home and spent the evening relaxing.  Hubby had something else going on for work, so it was nice that our plans could be flexible today.  Not something I'd like to do every day, but it was a nice treat.

Tomorrow our plans are to clean house.  If I can get half of what I'd like to get done accomplished tomorrow, I would be content letting them have the rest of the week off as long as they don't mess up what we clean.  We'll see if that actually happens!  (Prayers welcome!)

Edited to add:  I realized after I posted this that it is around 1:30 am on Wednesday.  The day I'm talking about is actually Tuesday.  I guess I should try to get my mind to turn off so I can actually get to bed so we can do that cleaning tomorrow... umm, today. 

Friday, March 4, 2011

A family afair

Recently, our second child (14 yrs) expressed that she would like to join us working out.  She doesn't have physical education this semester (health instead), so I thought joining us would be a great idea.  Yesterday the three of us went to the Y.  Hubby went on the recumbent bike while kiddo and I each walked a treadmill. 

It was a lot of fun.  Hubby was behind us.  Mother and daughter side-by-side.  Since no one else was in the room as we started off, I took the liberty to pick the network on the television in front of us.  Food Network.  Hubby calls it the carrot before the horse.   However, the kiddo and I had fun laughing at the show on chocolate while walking.  Giggling about chocolate covered insects was the best!

I'm hoping that my children will enjoy exercise like I never did.  I'm so glad she joined us and I'm looking forward to many more workouts together!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

In honor of standardized testing...

Our school district is doing testing this week.  This song always goes through my head during this time of the school year.  Enjoy!