Where Have I Been?

It's become a common question these days when referring to my blogging participation.    I was looking back over my blog at this time last year and I am wondering if being scarce this time of year is simply becoming a spring trend.  Just as when it did last year, Spring rolled around and I started doing a mental inventory of my to-do list and realized I only had a few weeks to do all the things I had planned on doing before Emma got out for summer vacation.  So, I've turned my spring cleaning switch to high and have desperately been pushing against the clock to finish up various projects that have been lingering so that I can  I can turn my attention fully on Summer fun when school gets out.

But, it's not exactly accurate to say that I haven't spent much time in the blogosphere lately and I think it's time I let the cat out of the bag.  Back in February, my friend Holly asked me if I was interested in working on a joint effort "mom blog".  In my desperation to find something to contribute that matters to the world, I readily agreed.  Holly and I had a ball e-mailing back and forth, sharing ideas and dreaming about something that could be created that would help mom's with everyday struggles.  We created a pretty spiffy looking website (if I do say so myself) and then found ourselves losing momentum.  We committed to not losing sight of our purpose of the mom blog (encouragement to ourselves and to other moms) and we asked the question: What is it that we could use most as mom's of small children? We came to the conclusion that having any type of ongoing spiritual conversations with other women had become virtually impossible and that it was a struggle to stay spiritually strong without that kind of support. 

We both agreed that using the new blog in some way, for mom's to have discussions with both women in our same stage of life as well as women in a different place in life, with a different perspective, would be the ideal situation for our new blog.  However, we were really struggling to meet the needs of our family and give this new project the time it would need to really get it off the ground.  We finally came to the conclusion that the new blog would have to be put on the back burner as a dream to be fulfilled at a later point and time.  And, just a couple of days after we made the decision to set our blog dream aside, I got an e-mail from a contact at Zondervan Publishing informing me of an opportunity that she had for me to host book discussions with various authors in an online format.   I forwarded the e-mail from Zondervan to Holly with the subject line, "Is God Speaking"? Holly replied thinking that indeed He was and so, was born, "The Mom-tage".  We are so excited about this opportunity and would love for you to join us! 

Please check out this new blog and read the latest post concerning the book discussions.  We'd love for you to grab our button and share it with your friends!  Zondervan is including some great giveaways to go along with the launch of our new endeavor.  So, please accept this as your official invitation to join, "The Momtage". 

You can grab a button for your own site by copying the code below the button. 

Again, I stress that this blog is not just for those that have small children.  That just happens to be our current stage of life.  But the only criteria is to have the desire to grow with and encourage each other!






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We hope to see you in The Mom-tage chat rooms Soon!

Blessings,

Dana

Happy Mother's Day! A Tribute to My Mother

This is actually a repost from last year.  But last year, it was two weeks late.  So I guess this kind of makes it early... Or a year late..  No matter, it's still true this year.


 Adam has to be at church an hour and a half earlier than me because they are having a book discussion before church. Since we don't have classes in the morning, I take full advantage of my extra time at home since there would be no book discussing if my kids were there. Typically, the girls play nicely just until Adam leaves and soon after he makes his departure, the chaos begins.  I have a long held hunch that they spend their time while daddy is at home, quietly plotting how to push mom over the edge once dad leaves.  After a morning of harldy being seen,  Adam walks out the door,  and they appear right under my feet.

Anyway, I being the flip flop kind of girl that I am,  just love the fact that I can find a pair of flip flops with a little bit of a heal on them and some beads on the straps and call them dress shoes. So, on this particular day (Mother's Day), I put on my "dressy" flip flops and noticed that my toe nail polish was chipped on the ends. In my normal Sunday single mother rush, I ran into the bathroom and grabbed the nail polish and touched up the ends of my toes. Declaring it a decent job unless someone looks closely, I moved on to the mirror for makeup. About that time, Chloe, stepped on my toe.. My freshly painted toenail!

In typical, Sunday morning rush fashion, I felt the irritation rising inside me.   But, I repressed the irritation, in honor of the day, feeling the need to be a sweet, patient, mother, therefore earning the honor. And, I began to think about a particular Mother's Day with my mother....

 I was about seven years old. I had only a few dollars that I am assuming that I got from her in the first place. So I went to Family Dollar with my dad and I bought my mom the most beautiful I had ever seen- three dollar-Pepto Bismal pink- plastic set of beads. Both necklace and bracelet. (Nice job of guiding that one dad).

Now I'm pretty crafty at handling this type of situations with my children. My solution would be something of this sort: "Oh wow, these are the most beautiful beads that I have ever seen. I don't have a dress to match this color of pink but I have the perfect pajamas! So tomorrow night, we are going to have a candlelit mother daughter pajama dinner! And I am going to make all of our favorite foods and then we are going to talk about all things that we love about each other and I am going to wear these beautiful beads". Now, I have no doubt that this would work with Emma and she would think I was the coolest mother in the world for it.


But heres the thing... Twenty four years later (yes I did count on my fingers), I remember the dress that my mother pulled out of the closet saying that it would go perfectly with those beads. That dress was not pink. It was more of a rose color and it did not match those horrible beads.. And I remember how she ooohed and ahhed as she had me clasp that necklace around her neck. And when we got to church and I realized that all the other mothers had corsages and I hadn't gotten my mother one. My mother told me not to brag because the other mothers only got a flower and not beautiful beads that they could wear over and over again. And I sat there next to my mother not yet fully understanding why she was truly the best mother in world but, feeling confident that I was definitely the best daughter in the world. And you know what? When I called her this year on Sunday morning to wish her a Happy Mother's Day, and mentioned the beads, she told me that she still had them and she still thought they were beautiful. And when I really think about it,  I know that those sort of situations were probably, the most influential situations of my life. No matter how bad I fumble, my mom is always there, cheering me on, thinking I'm great. And I know that I will always have that security.


And so, there were all of those thoughts over a simple smudge in toenail polish. And inspired by my mother, I reached down and fluffed Chloe's hair and took a step in the direction of being the kind of mother mine was and wore my smudge to church.  And it was a wonderful day!

Blessings,

Dana

Anti-Minivan Moms Look Up

This is dedicated to all of my mom friends who are still under the illusion that they're too cool for a minivan :).  Thanks Mandy!  I needed a laugh.





Blessings,

Dana

Emma's Straight A's Celebration

In the Spotlight...

Because she'd never miss the chance to be on stage, Emma was in a fundraiser fashion show that her school had.  It was reported to me from backstage that Emma was heard saying, "Oh, there's a ton of people out there?  Yay!  Even better!".  If I didn't know that she never left me in the hospital after she was born, I would swear she was switched at birth.  There is a video of this but Adam was having some formatting issues.  We'll hopefully have that soon. 

NO SCHOOL!!!

Spring Break has come to an end :(.  But what a wonderful week it was.  Nonna and Pawpaw came for Easter, our friend Matt visited and we made a little overnight trip to meet up with our friends Jay and Sarah Jane.  Yesterday, we finished Spring vacation off with mommy and me pedicures for Emma and me.

When I walked by Emma's room last night, on my way to bed, she had slipped an envelope under her door with this note inside. 

  I probably should have been a little concerned but, since this is the kid that normally sets her own alarm clock because she's so excited to go to school the next day, I was secretly, a little thrilled that she knew she was going to miss me.   She got up without a problem this morning and went out the door with a happy kiss. I've come to think that the note was more about her wanting to show me that I'm still the most important person in her life.  For the benefit of my heart.   So, one day when you read this Emma, thank you for being careful with my heart.  It's hard for me to have it walking around on the outside of me. 

We needed that time together.  We did some fun activities.  But, I think we can owe the credit of such a wonderful week, to taking time to rest and just be together.  I miss her.  I miss being the person that spends the most time with her.  The world needs her and she needs the world.  But, every now and then, I like to hide her away for me.   And in the future, I plan to assert that right as a mother and do it more often. 

And maybe, when a rainy day comes along, I'll catch up on all my pictures.  But, a computer and sunlight isn't a great combination and for now, we'll be quenching our thirst for sun.  And, so the count down to summer vacation begins!

Blessings,

Dana

What Tiger Should have said...

And if you ask me personally, I'll give you the non-edited version. Because I'm telling you, this one is prettied up A LOT!!!

So here it goes: What Tiger should have said, "It's none of your freakin business you self-centered people who think even my sex life revolves around you. I am so sorry that you didn't get the "celebrities don't make good role models" memo when Brittany Spears lost her ever lovin mind and led all of our tweens down the road to being lunatic bimbos. Maybe you should stop trying to give the role that is rightfully yours to someone who doesn't even know your child. The only concern you should have about my life is whether or not I can still swing the golf club. And if you haven't noticed, I can. So, keep your eye on the ball.

Apologies only to my wife and children and the God that I may never know because you've made it so very clear that He would never accept me".

Mary Did You Know?

I guess it's not surprising that in the story of Jesus, I identify with Mary the most. Imagining the pain of a mother. I think she did know.. The fear of the future, of the responsibility, the weight of a life filled with such bittersweetness, of such joy and sorrow that was placed on a her, still being much of a child herself. Be still my heart.

Today...

Today, I left the mess at my house and I went to the park with my friend Lu.  The only expectation for the day was that we would spend time visiting with the knowledge that if one of our children beat the crap out of the others, we would still be friends tomorrow.  She even commented on how clean my (not clean at all) van was.  The comparison: Mine didn't have near as many crumbs in the floor as hers. 

These kind of friendships are few and far between.  So in the future, I will make friendships like these a top priority in my life.  Because, I need them.  And next time, before I go, I will spread more crumbs on the floor of my van.  Because I care more about loving my friend than hiding my messes and looking like I've got it all together. 

And to you I wish a lifetime of friendships worth getting a little messy for.

Blessings,

Dana

Who are you and what did you do with my kids?

What's this?  No hitting, biting, scratching, screaming?

It's alright little darlin.  Here comes the sun.