Today panhandlers were out in droves, I think it is because the snow and ice has thawed and it is a gorgeous 70 degrees here in OKC. Now, I have mixed feelings about these people, part of me wants to help if they TRULY need help, but part of me has seen the exposes on the news that show them making more than my husband and I do annually from panhandling.
My son is now a very good reader, so he can read the signs these people have. He saw one today that said "Help a vet, please help." My son starts pleading with me to stop and help this man (he is a very tenderhearted little fellow). I try to explain in first grader terms that if I had food or something I'd give it, but I NEVER give money. That is my rule. I then tried to reason with my son about how people can always find a job. Even if you had to work at McDonalds.
My son then looked at me and said ,"Mom he doesn't WANT to work at McDonalds. He wants to be a Vet."
My buddies on Facebook have been uploading photos of our teenage years, and wow, the memories just start flooding back to you. As I was looking at these photos, of trips to youth camp, trips to slide rock, and just us goofing all night at our best friend's house a realization hit me. Those really WERE the best days of my life. Not that I don't love where I'm at right now, but wow, I never realized then just how much fun I was having.
I spent so much of my youth mopey, depressed, worried about boys and stupid stuff that was so trivial and didn't matter. I let these things get in the way of how much fun I really could have been having. As I look back now, I don't remember which guy broke my heart, or which friend was pissing me off that day, I remember the good times we had, and the fun we had in each moment, that is what you take with you.
That being said, I STILL do this to this day. I never live in the moment, I'm constantly trying to get to the next moment, and I don't realize the joy that is happening all around me. I worry about stupid stuff and make myself miserable in every situation. If I only had this I would be happy....well then I get that and I'm still NOT satisfied...If I can only do this THEN I will be content. If I continue in this reckless pattern my life will have flashed by me and I will have missed out on what is truly important, and that is living in the moment.
If I could learn to live in the moment, I wouldn't worry about tomorrow. I would not worry if the house was clean or the dishes were done. I wouldn't be thinking about having to go to school next week, or getting the laundry done. This is not to say let everything go, but if I learned to live in the moment, I'd drop that laundry basket for thirty minutes and wrestle in the living room with my kids. If I could learn to live in the moment, I wouldn't worry if the kids spill koolaid on the carpet because they are only little for such a brief time.
“Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going”
The older my kids get the more interesting things get around here. I LOVED it when they were babies, and part of me misses that, but I have also learned to just enjoy them where they are at, and as they get older they get to be a lot of fun.
Last night my two oldest were watching "James and the Giant Peach." There is a character on there they were arguing about. Myah insisted that it was a caterpillar, but Brett said he was certain it was NOT a caterpillar, but something else. He followed that with "I don't know the name of it, but I know it is NOT a caterpillar." I listened in the kitchen while cooking dinner at this whole exchange between them. Finally they called me into it. I looked, and I agreed with Brett, it was not a caterpillar.
About twenty minutes later, it was revealed that this character was actually a centipede. Brett of course relished in the fact that he was right. That is when the attitude came out of Myah.
Brett: See I was right!
Myah: No you were not right! You didn't know what it was.
Brett: Myah, I told you it wasn't a caterpillar, and it wasn't.
Myah: It was a centipede and you didn't know what it was, so you were wrong! (don't you love this logic...)
This is when I interrupted. I explained Brett was indeed right. Myah's attitude still didn't diminish any. About five minutes later she came up to me in the kitchen and here were her exact words:
Myah: Oh A.K.A. mom...I don't have anything in my folder.
I lost it. I started laughing roaring with laughter. I then explained the difference between A.K.A. and F.Y.I. to Myah, so she didn't repeat this faux pa to anyone else.
I think that God gives women a bit of amnesia after having a baby. If we seriously remembered in detail all the pain and anguish that comes with pregnancy and birth we would never have more than one child.
Honestly I don't recall being this sick and moody in any other pregnancy prior to this one. I feel totally bi-polar. One minute I'm laughing, the next I'm ready to scream or cry.
Saturday was a really bad day for me, I was just feeling awful, and on top of that we decided to watch "P.S. I Love You." REALLY REALLY bad idea. Because I knew he was going to die in the movie I began crying at what should have been a really funny part of the movie (where the hubby is dancing in the suspenders). By the time the first letter and cake came for her I was sobbing uncontrollably (seriously I could not compose myself). It was the kind of cry where you feel like your heart is being ripped out, your eyes end up swollen and puffy, you can't breathe and you are taking huge heaves in between tears. It was seriously pathetic. My poor husband didn't know what to do (so he laughed a bit) while holding me. My kids kept coming in the room looking at me as if I was about to crumble. Needless to say, we never finished the movie that day.
Yesterday I was able to finish it with minimal tears. If I felt myself starting to go into heaving huge sobs mode, I'd pause it, do some dishes or laundry and come back to it. The kids had the day off school, so of course my oldest came in the room. She kept asking "why are you crying? This isn't even a sad part?" (She was relentless)...
This morning I turned on the Presidential Inauguration and caught the tail end of it. The navy started singing our National Anthem and once again the tears start flowing. I have NO idea why. I'm not sure if this came from deep pride for our country or what, but this is seriously getting out of control.
Then, this afternoon I decided to watch CSI from last week while folding some laundry. I'm then crying at the end of that show because it is Grissom's final episode (I will refrain from ranting about how HORRIBLE the show will be without him, I will save that for another blog). I feel absolutely pathetic now, I look at myself in pure contempt because I am crying at CSI. This is an all new low for me.
So here I sit, mascara running down my face with red cheeks and puffy eyes.
Laugh and the world laughs with you...cry and you look like s*&^.
Ok, I have three kids and one on the way, so I have seen my fair share of children's television shows. There are a few select children's shows that don't grate at my soul, and several I keep around for convenience sake (go away baby...mommy is on Facebook).
Sid The Science Kid
Some of you may have not seen this show yet. It started last fall on PBS. I hate this show. I hate everything about it, but by far the most annoying thing about this show is the characters. Sid is annoying enough by himself ("Oh banana why'd you have to go and get all brown and mushy" has become a quite annoying quote that gets repeated in our household more than I'd like). If you haven't seen the show the premise is this kid wanting to know why things smell, or why bananas get brown etc...Also don't even get me started on how creepy the characters look.
Then you have Sid's friends at school. I'm not sure what kind of preschool this is with only four children in it you would think they could at least computer generate some background kids or something. Anyhow, his friends. You have his ADHD friend that acts a little "special" (Gerald). Seriously just give the kid some Ritalin* and send him on his way. Then you have his "hippie" friend that just loves everyone and everything. Go freaking hug a tree and leave the rest of us normal people alone. (I swear she is toking it up on the playground behind the monkey bars). If you have seen the show you will totally understand why I try to avoid this show from airing in my home. Anyhow watch for yourself if you don't believe me.
*By the way, I do not condone the use of Ritalin...
Dora The Explorer
Ok, I'm not going to get a lot of fans on this one, but I hate the whole pushing Spanish down my kids throat. I'm all about learning a second language, but it seems everywhere on television they are trying to teach my kid spanish. Drives me nuts.
Ok, now onto what else annoys me about this show. Swiper. Everyone has to look out for Swiper the Fox. He is supposedly this professional kleptomaniac, that needs to be watched out for. However, if you want to thwart Swiper all you need to do is yell "SWIPER NO SWIPING" three times and Swiper reluctantly says "AWWW man!" and gives up on his pursuit of the goods. Wow I had no idea that stopping a bandit was so easy. So next time someone tries to rob a 7-Eleven, the clerk just needs to yell "no swiping" and it will stop the criminal in his tracks.
Ok. Next the map song. I heard once from a comedian how this must have been written. Here is how it goes:
The songwriter shows up for a meeting with the team, having forgotten to write the song for the map.
Producer of Dora: Did you write the song for the map yet?
Songwriter: Uh, yeah.
Producer: Can we hear it?
Songwriter: Uh yeah...I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map!
Need I say more?
Barney
This is one that sticks around my household for the convenience. Evie LOVES Barney. Now I could rant on and on about all the annoying things about this show, but I'll stick to the basics. Just when we finally accepted the fact that our kids loved this big purple dinosaur, they bring along new characters. Baby Bob. Talk about adding a whole other annoying factor. Now they have BJ and Riff. Riff? Where the heck did he come from and why do they keep adding annoying characters to this show? Also the whole we love everybody and everything mushiness of this show just makes me want to puke.
Yo Gabba Gabba
I'm not quite sure when our television shows decided to teach our kids morals, but it really annoys me. What happened to the good old days of cartoons when a cat was trying to chase and kill a mouse? Or when a coyote was trying to purchase TNT so he could blow up a roadrunner? Now all these kids cartoons are watered down. Yo Gabba Gabba is a friendly acid trip. I'm not kidding. They have a song that goes like this "Don't throw things at your friends...don't throw things at your friends", but the characters are all wild and crazy looking (rather freaky if you ask me). Then they have the guy who comes out and does "The beat of the day". Here you go...Biz beat of the day...
Wow. I think this is the worst thing I have ever seen on television.
These are just the ones off the top of my head. I'd love to hear your comments and annoyances about kids television shows so leave me some comments!
I adore my family. Seriously. We are all totally individual and unique (and nuts I may add) in our own ways, but God seems to somehow make us all fit together so perfectly.
My husband and I were talking last night about the baby that we are expecting in August (if it will be a boy or a girl), and what this child could be like, but my husband pointed out one realization, whatever personality it may have, it will fit perfectly in our family as God designed him or her to be. We then started talking about our children and how unique and special they are.
Let's say that we had a formula, that we could input that would give our child all the personality traits that we wanted them to have, all the characteristics that make them unique. We couldn't even imagine or make something as wonderful as what God can come up with.
My oldest daughter, Myah is the perfect oldest child. She is loving and caring enough to be the older sibling that the others need. I love that her and I are close, and can share things. I love that she is a bit of tomboy and a bit of girly girl all wrapped up into one. I love the fact that she acts mopey all the time, but we all know that it's just an act to get attention. She is my drama queen. I love the silly things about her. She is so book smart (seriously the girl is SUPER smart and can read like crazy), but she can't spell to save her life. That doesn't bother her though. The other day she was arguing with her younger brother. She said "Brett you are a liar L-I-E-R. Brett not missing a beat says "you spelled it wrong". She totally got schooled by her younger brother but it didn't bother her. She shrugged it off and kinda thought it was funny. She loves to sing. She has a big heart and when it hurts, it hurts bad. She loves art and can draw great. She loves to make things for others, it makes her happy. She is a giver. She also has a great bullshit meter thanks to her father, and gullible is not one of her personality traits.
My second born (aka my strong willed child) Brett has been our challenge. He is so tough, and wild, but once you get past that there is this ginormous heart inside that is so tender and sweet. He LOVES movies. He is so imaginative I think he will be my Stephen Speilburg when he grows up. He brings out so much emotion in you because he is so dynamic. Nobody can make me laugh like him, and nobody can make me as angry as he does sometimes. He is a crazy nutty kid (just like the rest of us). He is smart as a whip. This is the child who learned how to pester his sister at 6 months old. Not kidding. He can read like crazy as well. He also just has this wit about him. He picks up on things that are funny, and knows how to hold an audience.
Evie our youngest has brought a whole new dynamic into our household. She is our little tornado. I can tell all ready that she is going to have an incredible sense of humor. She laughs at things kids her age don't normally "get". She is super smart as well (she knows that she can turn off the power strip to get mommy off the computer). She loves to eat. She is 20 pounds, eats all day and never gets full, possibly because she spends all that energy destroying the house (thus why I have changed my job title to supervisor of domestic damage control). She is basically the Taz in human form.
My husband and I wonder what the next will be like. We know one thing, most likely nuts like the rest of us, but absolutely perfect in every way.
