As a mother we must always embrace those moments when a phrase, a sentance, a kind and impressive act comes from our children's behaviors or words spoken from their mouth(s). Today, in the midst of moving, shuffling boxes, kids and a coffee this is what I experienced.
We started a morning with a spider crawling through our kitchen. From the breakfast table this nice size spider was spotted by all three boys. I made a simple statement that he is just passing through looking for breakfast. So what do you suppose happens next? That pour little spider did not have a chance. All the boys decided to share their craisins. Red, squishly craisins went flying, all with the good intentions of giving the spider breakfast. The only thing is that all day I have been finding craisins EVERYWHERE!!! My new house has them everywhere and it took quite a while to figure how they all came over on the moving van. I realized that in the rush to get things moving and rolling we all had them on our shoes, rolled up in the area rugs that went over and well it just wouldn't be home without something sticking to me. So welcome to our new home.
My daughter walked into the kitchen. Bless the sweetness of her heart. She said "you know mom, you have taught me one thing that is really important (one of the many things-she added). You taught me not to be afraid to ask questions and ask for things that are important to me." My response is you have to ask yourself first how painful the "no" might be and then take the chance. She asserted herself this week in asking to be part of a music program, that she was told is very hard to be a part of. This is a group that has a lot of talent, recordings and opportunities. She just decided to ask. She was went in to sing and play and now has an opportunity to play and sing. She came away from that experience with the expectation of a yes or no. A 50-50 chance which she already knew the down side would not devastate her.
So Words of Wisdom for today. Teach your children to never be afraid to ask questions. People who ask questions are the smart people of the world. Craisins stick to everything and I don't believe spiders are interested in them.
Thanks for reading, Elizabeth
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
And the fun begins....
It's Sunday evening and I am sitting here planning the arranging of furniture in our new home. This afternoon we went to the house taking measurements and then took the kids to play at the new park just half a mile away. I looked around at all the families with kids and wondered who is going to be my new friend in this new town. The kids played alongside kids that were their ages. I have made some of my closest friends while sharing conversations in a park as our toddlers played together. This is all new and exciting.
We went and purchased a washer, dryer, and frig. My husband and I were so excited. I had found a sofa lounger in a red microfiber weeks ago. I asked him to come and look at "something" with me. We wandered through the furniture department of Macy's and his comment was "how did you know exactly where this is?" I told him that Emily and I had visited this sofa a few times. We sat in it and with a nod of his head he said yes. I reminded him that I backed down on the $2006.00 frig with all the bells and whistles. Which it was really not a backing down, but a more walking away and down the isle to reality.
We get the keys tomorrow. Although the builder has been wonderful and has allowed me the combination to the lock box to access the house any time I needed to. It's called the Mother's Day House because that was when we agreed we would get serious about our search for a home and I spent five hours on Mother's Day, by myself looking. God has been so amazing in this entire process. The process is never very easy and often very emotional. But guess what, God knows the desires of our hearts and knows exactly what we need at just the right time.
There have been some huge obstacles to overcome this past week. I wish I can go into detail, but please pray for me as I process the events of this situation. I have had two sleepless nights, a supportive husband and just need to continue to trust where God places me. Fortunately it's not related to our house deal, or family or friends but a situation outside of family and friends.
My daughter is begging me to go up and watch TV with her. We like to get into my big king size cloud of comfort and watch our favorite shows, so I must say thanks to everyone in advance for prayers, and thanks be to God for His blessing upon my life.
We went and purchased a washer, dryer, and frig. My husband and I were so excited. I had found a sofa lounger in a red microfiber weeks ago. I asked him to come and look at "something" with me. We wandered through the furniture department of Macy's and his comment was "how did you know exactly where this is?" I told him that Emily and I had visited this sofa a few times. We sat in it and with a nod of his head he said yes. I reminded him that I backed down on the $2006.00 frig with all the bells and whistles. Which it was really not a backing down, but a more walking away and down the isle to reality.
We get the keys tomorrow. Although the builder has been wonderful and has allowed me the combination to the lock box to access the house any time I needed to. It's called the Mother's Day House because that was when we agreed we would get serious about our search for a home and I spent five hours on Mother's Day, by myself looking. God has been so amazing in this entire process. The process is never very easy and often very emotional. But guess what, God knows the desires of our hearts and knows exactly what we need at just the right time.
There have been some huge obstacles to overcome this past week. I wish I can go into detail, but please pray for me as I process the events of this situation. I have had two sleepless nights, a supportive husband and just need to continue to trust where God places me. Fortunately it's not related to our house deal, or family or friends but a situation outside of family and friends.
My daughter is begging me to go up and watch TV with her. We like to get into my big king size cloud of comfort and watch our favorite shows, so I must say thanks to everyone in advance for prayers, and thanks be to God for His blessing upon my life.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Letter to Oprah
If I were to write a letter to Oprah here is what it would say:
Dear Oprah,
I was sad to read in your June issue of Oprah Magazine the very last page. It speaks volumes of your intellectual detachment from the essence of who you are inside and out. One sentence reads…”I know for sure I am not my body”. And this is the kind of stuff you are promoting to your readers.
You have been on a journey for many years to define who you are and in so doing your magazine is always filled with great ideas on embracing oneself, understanding oneself, doing for oneself and so on. Being connected to our inner self should never negate our outer self. In many ways it’s a contradiction of your entire magazine and what it has been for so long. Often in your magazine your writers promote the true embracing of who we are. Understanding the depth and powers we draw from within. We can close our eyes and visualize, ponder, be inspired with each breath that draws us to a clearer and deeper understanding of self.
The reality is we still have to open our eyes and more often than not the world is used as a mirror to reflect who we are. We can’t help but walk through our homes and look all around us, including what we see in the mirrors above the sink to define who we are inside and out. We ARE our bodies. We walk around in them. It’s often the first impression we present to our families each morning. It is who a stranger on the street sees, a coworker, who we are to our children. Life happens and who we are inside and out is who we are.
My life is not so pretty and perfect. Five children have left me a little lumpy and bumpy in places. I was told most of my growing up years that I was not so smart, and not to pretty, only to discover by looking in the mirror that I am one hot mamma. (okay, so my teenagers help in this area too). When we try to pull on our own resources, or the studies of others in the field of specializing in how to go deeper and get away from the physical person we truly lose a sense of who we are. Starting your “Beauty Revolution” as your cover states is also a contradiction to your last page.
I see this picture of you on that back page. Beautifully made up in a gorgeous red blouse and matching lipstick. Beautiful!!! Oprah it appears that you have missed the very boat you are trying to sail. We are not “formless beings”, as you state in this article. It is sad that your new line of thinking is bringing you to this.
When I was sixteen years old I started listening on the radio to a local TV station that aired a new talk show host. Oh how she made me smile with her words and wisdom. I was working for my father’s company and this talk show helped pass the assembly line hours. One day I had to call in sick to see what this woman looked like. I had to give her a face. I discovered it was this beautiful woman who had a lot to say, and often had words that I could identify with. It was you Oprah. Back in those days, you had a lot of extra fluff, but you know people turned on your program, they listened to what you had to say, they watched from day to day and as they say the rest is history. Who you were at that time may have been someone different behind closed doors than what you portrayed on TV, but your body in it’s full figure did not give anyone reason to turn off the TV.
For someone who has so much from the world’s perspective you still have yet to understand and even embrace you both inside and out. Seeking higher powers still has you writing articles about not being satisfied with yourself. Reaching inside and starting a “beauty revolution” is not the next antidote for the lack of acceptance we all struggle with from time to time. It’s not just taking an a person who feels less than beautiful and teaching them better ways to wear a scarf, how to walk in way that states confidence or even ruby red lipstick, although I have my rainbow of colors, and pooh on the scarf. I learned how to wear it, but it blew away one windy day and I was still left with me, my beautiful lumpy bumpy body and no scarf. The scarf and lipstick did not define me.
What defines me? What takes this average person and makes me smile both inside and out? What brings me to tears as I watch my children enjoy a life that I never had? How can I possible smile after gaining such financial status, only to lose it all and start all over? I was an abused child and yet I can wake up each day, look at that frazzled and untamed hair and smile. Sometimes I have to fake it to make it because it’s not my family or my children’s fault if I don’t have it in me to put that smile on my face. But often faking it promotes some good practice which promotes being real.
Knowing and having God in my life gives me that beautiful person in the mirror. I don’t have to run from one specialist to the next and hope that this person has the process needed to complete who I am. God completes me with all my imperfections. One day Oprah I would love to see you walk onto that stage of yours, or have your picture taken in your magazine in what you look like when you wake up and walk your dogs. Look at yourself in the mirror, after being made up for the public you lose a sense of what is real. What would happen if your viewers saw you? Who you are aside from the Hollywood Icon we all see. You know they would still love and adore you. They would still flip on the TV to watch your show and they would still buy your magazine.
Maybe I don’t live in reality. I love my handbags and shoes. I love taking care of myself, but yesterday when I ate the m&m’s that I should not have had I did not let it define me for eternity. It was just a colorful chocolate treat that I admit lacked any kind of self control. Big deal. It’s a choice made not because of my poor childhood, not because I had a bad day I just wanted m&m’s. I am about 25 pounds over weight, and would probably benefit greatly at having some specialist teach me how to dress better, but most of us don’t have that luxury so I can embrace a style that defines me from the outside. Then get to know me and you learn about the inside of me.
Love your body Oprah. When I first saw you I loved you. All of you. God loves you and I love you and that is the way it should be. A little ditty I have sung to all of my children since birth. If you are going to promote inner self and all that your last page reads in your June issue then it would only be fair to remove all your advertisements that have to do with the outside of who we are and the articles that surround it. Love and Blessings, elizabeth
Dear Oprah,
I was sad to read in your June issue of Oprah Magazine the very last page. It speaks volumes of your intellectual detachment from the essence of who you are inside and out. One sentence reads…”I know for sure I am not my body”. And this is the kind of stuff you are promoting to your readers.
You have been on a journey for many years to define who you are and in so doing your magazine is always filled with great ideas on embracing oneself, understanding oneself, doing for oneself and so on. Being connected to our inner self should never negate our outer self. In many ways it’s a contradiction of your entire magazine and what it has been for so long. Often in your magazine your writers promote the true embracing of who we are. Understanding the depth and powers we draw from within. We can close our eyes and visualize, ponder, be inspired with each breath that draws us to a clearer and deeper understanding of self.
The reality is we still have to open our eyes and more often than not the world is used as a mirror to reflect who we are. We can’t help but walk through our homes and look all around us, including what we see in the mirrors above the sink to define who we are inside and out. We ARE our bodies. We walk around in them. It’s often the first impression we present to our families each morning. It is who a stranger on the street sees, a coworker, who we are to our children. Life happens and who we are inside and out is who we are.
My life is not so pretty and perfect. Five children have left me a little lumpy and bumpy in places. I was told most of my growing up years that I was not so smart, and not to pretty, only to discover by looking in the mirror that I am one hot mamma. (okay, so my teenagers help in this area too). When we try to pull on our own resources, or the studies of others in the field of specializing in how to go deeper and get away from the physical person we truly lose a sense of who we are. Starting your “Beauty Revolution” as your cover states is also a contradiction to your last page.
I see this picture of you on that back page. Beautifully made up in a gorgeous red blouse and matching lipstick. Beautiful!!! Oprah it appears that you have missed the very boat you are trying to sail. We are not “formless beings”, as you state in this article. It is sad that your new line of thinking is bringing you to this.
When I was sixteen years old I started listening on the radio to a local TV station that aired a new talk show host. Oh how she made me smile with her words and wisdom. I was working for my father’s company and this talk show helped pass the assembly line hours. One day I had to call in sick to see what this woman looked like. I had to give her a face. I discovered it was this beautiful woman who had a lot to say, and often had words that I could identify with. It was you Oprah. Back in those days, you had a lot of extra fluff, but you know people turned on your program, they listened to what you had to say, they watched from day to day and as they say the rest is history. Who you were at that time may have been someone different behind closed doors than what you portrayed on TV, but your body in it’s full figure did not give anyone reason to turn off the TV.
For someone who has so much from the world’s perspective you still have yet to understand and even embrace you both inside and out. Seeking higher powers still has you writing articles about not being satisfied with yourself. Reaching inside and starting a “beauty revolution” is not the next antidote for the lack of acceptance we all struggle with from time to time. It’s not just taking an a person who feels less than beautiful and teaching them better ways to wear a scarf, how to walk in way that states confidence or even ruby red lipstick, although I have my rainbow of colors, and pooh on the scarf. I learned how to wear it, but it blew away one windy day and I was still left with me, my beautiful lumpy bumpy body and no scarf. The scarf and lipstick did not define me.
What defines me? What takes this average person and makes me smile both inside and out? What brings me to tears as I watch my children enjoy a life that I never had? How can I possible smile after gaining such financial status, only to lose it all and start all over? I was an abused child and yet I can wake up each day, look at that frazzled and untamed hair and smile. Sometimes I have to fake it to make it because it’s not my family or my children’s fault if I don’t have it in me to put that smile on my face. But often faking it promotes some good practice which promotes being real.
Knowing and having God in my life gives me that beautiful person in the mirror. I don’t have to run from one specialist to the next and hope that this person has the process needed to complete who I am. God completes me with all my imperfections. One day Oprah I would love to see you walk onto that stage of yours, or have your picture taken in your magazine in what you look like when you wake up and walk your dogs. Look at yourself in the mirror, after being made up for the public you lose a sense of what is real. What would happen if your viewers saw you? Who you are aside from the Hollywood Icon we all see. You know they would still love and adore you. They would still flip on the TV to watch your show and they would still buy your magazine.
Maybe I don’t live in reality. I love my handbags and shoes. I love taking care of myself, but yesterday when I ate the m&m’s that I should not have had I did not let it define me for eternity. It was just a colorful chocolate treat that I admit lacked any kind of self control. Big deal. It’s a choice made not because of my poor childhood, not because I had a bad day I just wanted m&m’s. I am about 25 pounds over weight, and would probably benefit greatly at having some specialist teach me how to dress better, but most of us don’t have that luxury so I can embrace a style that defines me from the outside. Then get to know me and you learn about the inside of me.
Love your body Oprah. When I first saw you I loved you. All of you. God loves you and I love you and that is the way it should be. A little ditty I have sung to all of my children since birth. If you are going to promote inner self and all that your last page reads in your June issue then it would only be fair to remove all your advertisements that have to do with the outside of who we are and the articles that surround it. Love and Blessings, elizabeth
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Oprah
Today I am not happy with Oprah. I tend to read lots of articles in magazines. I was reading her most recent publication and it has me so baffled over this woman who struggles with so much inside stuff. I wrote her a letter while on the plane, coming back from the east coast. I was going to copy it into a blog as I often feel she is misleading so many woman in America. Woman, like herself, that are searching for indentity somewhere and somehow. But instead, just tonight I am simply saying that I am not happy with her. I sure she is use to all kinds of critics. I will share my frustrations in my next blog. That is all for now. Elizabeth
Saturday, June 14, 2008
New York City....nyc....
It is so hard to sit and try to recall the wonderful memories of a week long trip with my precious Pie Sweety. We lived in each other's space for seven days 24/7. Sharing thoughts, dreams, day to day everyday moments and all the while I kept thinking how blessed a mother I am to be asked to share in this experience.
People have often said that she is not your normal everyday teenager. But I know no different. She is what our normal is and it's that kind of normal that has us utterly lingering on a marble stone wall watching New Yorkers scurry from one place to the next. We can sit on the outskirts of a crowd at the Today Show and be content with the sounds of girls squealing over Chris Brown's performance. With the loud music, and crowds we sit with our coffee, off to the side and make mental notes of the other things going on around us that no one takes notice of.
We can sit and eat chips and guacamole, and then walk 14 blocks to Serendipity's for an over sized chocolate treat. It's the sounds of the city that really intrigue me. Always sounds of sirens in the distance, the sounds of horns honking and constant chit chat in every corner. We can sit in an Irish Pub and drink coffee and learn a little more of our heritage through the kind soul of the manager who allows an under age gal to sit up at the bar. We wander from one block to the next. Strange as it may sound we are not shoppers. We don't have this burning desire to visit all the hip stores, but rather we move from one block to the next hoping to discover a picture that we can take home as a memory of what we saw and experienced. Theater, Arts, and finding art in each new block is what makes our trip all the more exciting. All the while we just chat about life.
I think it's very cool how my daughter has shared a glimpse into our trip. Here is a link to her blog..http://www.theemotto.blogspot.com/ I am certain I will share more and more as the days unfold. It was such a wonderful trip to share with my one and only daughter.
People have often said that she is not your normal everyday teenager. But I know no different. She is what our normal is and it's that kind of normal that has us utterly lingering on a marble stone wall watching New Yorkers scurry from one place to the next. We can sit on the outskirts of a crowd at the Today Show and be content with the sounds of girls squealing over Chris Brown's performance. With the loud music, and crowds we sit with our coffee, off to the side and make mental notes of the other things going on around us that no one takes notice of.
We can sit and eat chips and guacamole, and then walk 14 blocks to Serendipity's for an over sized chocolate treat. It's the sounds of the city that really intrigue me. Always sounds of sirens in the distance, the sounds of horns honking and constant chit chat in every corner. We can sit in an Irish Pub and drink coffee and learn a little more of our heritage through the kind soul of the manager who allows an under age gal to sit up at the bar. We wander from one block to the next. Strange as it may sound we are not shoppers. We don't have this burning desire to visit all the hip stores, but rather we move from one block to the next hoping to discover a picture that we can take home as a memory of what we saw and experienced. Theater, Arts, and finding art in each new block is what makes our trip all the more exciting. All the while we just chat about life.
I think it's very cool how my daughter has shared a glimpse into our trip. Here is a link to her blog..http://www.theemotto.blogspot.com/ I am certain I will share more and more as the days unfold. It was such a wonderful trip to share with my one and only daughter.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Leaving on a jet plane...
Sometimes in these later evenings my brain is just not fuctioning with all the wires. The first picture is my precious little boy Emerson. Can he just stay so scrumpdilicisous forever. We call him little squishy. When he was a baby baby he was just so squishy and cute. I have this picture on here because I grabbed the wrong one and well he is just so sweet I kept it up.
Now for this jet plane. It's true I am on a place in the early am with this beautiful highschool graduate. When I asked what she wanted for graduation, she asked me if it had to be something...like...stuff.? I pondered what might be behind such a question. And I smiled. She is so much like her mother. I smiled because I knew where she was going. Emily would rather have an experience, a treasure chest full of time well spent. Memories of when we did, or what we did. She is not impressed with stuff. Even the nicest stuff is nice, but given a choice she wants an experiences. So she has chosen to spend her graduation present on seven filled days in New York City. And well, I am not exactly going to hand over a handful of cash and say go have it...knock yourself out there. Oh no, this mommy is more than invited to join in.
I get the blessing of being with my little baby girl who blinked and grew taller than me. So we leave on tomorrow and we have lots of little adventures planned, and then lots of no plans because we just like to wander, wander, and wander. In and out of little communities, eating a snack here there and everywhere.
Pray for my husband who is taking a week of vacation to be a full time stay home dad to three very busy little boys. Oh the memories they will make. After this trip we have a big move and then I am hoping summer will still have weeks left over to relax. blessings to all.
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