Sunday, October 28, 2007

Halloween Candy

I'm so thankful that my children aren't old enough to want to eat all of their Halloween candy.

My daughter is 5 1/2 and my son is 2. It's his first time trick or treating, really. He has caught on pretty quickly. Tonight we had Trunk or Treat at our church, and yesterday we went to a fall carnival at the Botanical Gardens. The kids got to wear their costumes twice already, and so far they are doing well with them. Melody is a witch and Gannon is Thomas the Train. So, anyway, they got a load of candy tonight at Trunk or Treat, and after they went to bed I went thru it all and took out the stuff I know they won't eat..mostly the hard candy or really chewy stuff they don't like. I'm very lucky in that I don't have kids with major sweet tooth's (like their Mom), so they don't miss it if they don't have it. Both of them like M&M's and fruit snacky stuff, so I kept all of that. All of the Jolly Ranchers, Sweet Tarts, and bubble gum got ditched. I wonder at what age I won't be able to do that anymore? Unfortunately, I really like the chocolate stuff (candy bars), so I end up eating it. Why don't I just throw it out with the other stuff??? Huh, huh?? Because I feel like it's sacreligious or something.... :( Halloween is not good for me, but hey, at least it's fun!! We'll go trick or treat around the neighborhood on Wednesday night, since it's our first Halloween here and we have a great, kid-friendly neighborhood. I can't wait!

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

It was a dark and rainy night...

That's the weather right now in Huntsville. I had to drive to work in it, and I'm not a fan of driving in the dark, much less in the rainy dark. I've learned that people can't drive in the rain, at least not very well. So, I try to avoid the streets when I can while it's raining. I'm happy for the rain, though.

Kids are funny. I've always known this, but it was reiterated to me today when I was the lunchroom helper at my daughter's school. This basically means that I help open milk cartons and pass out straws. Anyway, the kindergarteners and 1st graders were all about playing jokes today. A few in particular would raise their hand for me to come over, then they'd just stare at me and grin. I'd ask, "do you need help?" and then they'd shout, "tricked ya!!!'. Ha ha...no really, I got a kick out of it. They are cute. Another cute kid called me over then asked me to open his chip. Yes, his chip. I told him he had to open it with his mouth by biting it. Then the rest of the table caught on to the joke, so several more kids asked me the same thing. If nothing else, it gives me an appreciation of what our hard-working teachers have to endure every day whilst they try to teach our children. Go teachers!!!

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Oven Woes continued...

It's now been 3 long weeks since my oven went out on me. The oven guy finally came last Friday to take our circuit board; however, he said he couldn't ship it out until this past Monday and it has to be sent to Houston. The oven guy is not the most efficient person in this world. I haven't been impressed. Lord knows when we'll get the repaired part back! As a result, my children have been craving muffins something horrible (they're addicted). I finally broke down and went to my parents house to do some cooking. My parents are out of town this week, so I have been going over every day to feed their dog, Chester. On Tuesday we all went over and I cooked dinner, muffins, and another dinner to freeze for later. I'm crossing my fingers that our circuit board is returned speedily and I can resume my normal culinary habits. :) Now, I don't cook every night, but I do try to make dinner at least 3-4 times a week. I also make breakfast for the kids several days a week so we don't end up eating cereal every day. I just hope my oven works after all this..

Monday, October 1, 2007

"Falling into God's love"

Such a simple statement by my 5-year-old daughter this morning..."falling into God's love". She was sitting at the breakfast table, having finished her morning meal, and she was idly playing with a small doll. She dropped the doll onto her VeggieTales placemat, which reads, "God made you special and He loves you very much!" She then commented as she picked up her doll...."falling into God's love." Wow. I sat in stupor thinking about what she had just said and how profound a statement it was. As I began to ponder, I stated to my child, "well, if I'm going to fall I'd want it to be into God's love, wouldn't you?" She smiled and agreed with me.

For the month of September, our church has been having a sermon series on Healing & Wholeness and all that implies. We've talked about valuing self, valuing others, managing conflict, and forgiveness. I guess since that is so fresh on my mind, the falling into God's love comment had deeper implications for me than what my child had intended. I began thinking about all of the times that we have struggles in our lives, and how many times this can turn into a big, deep, hole of depression. Well, what if we envisioned falling into God's open arms and loving embrace instead? I'm so thankful to my daughter for giving me this visual image today!

I had a great opportunity to keep it "true and real" again today...and here it is only noon. (Wow, what a day so far..) Anyway, I took my 2-year-old son to his Mommy & Me gymnastics class this morning, and afterward I had planned on going to Target to get some things. Since it was lunchtime, I decided that we'd grab a bite to eat first to ward off any whiny-ness in Target. Boy was I wrong! From the moment we got into line at Wendy's until the moment we left, I had a whining, crying, running away, hitting, stubborn 2 year old child. It was quite embarrasing to say the least. While a few people glanced our way and noted how "cute" my son is, I couldn't help but think..."yeah, right, what do they REALLY mean???" As we were packing up to go, the lady sitting at a table behind us said to her companion, "I'm sorry, do you want to move to another table?" She had been sitting behind us for 5 minutes and likely witnessed my child whining, hitting, and generally refusing to do anything I asked of him. As I was driving home, however, I thought about what was true and real. Ok, so none of those people know me or my son, so they can't know that he really doesn't behave like that 24/7. They also don't know that I'm a fairly consistent parent. I generally follow through with what I say to my kids. Sure, there are occasions where I slip, but I kept my cool at Wendy's and followed through with everything I said to my son about his behavior and the consequences thereof. So, based on that I decided that it was nothing to be embarrased about or to become offended by. I can't assume what their thoughts are behind what they say because I cannot read minds. I can now let that piece of my day go and move forward. I also decided that the best plan of action was to come straight home and put my child to bed for a nap, rather than take him to Target and place him in yet another situation to continue behaving that way, when what he really needed was rest. I could use some, too!