Motivation Smotivation - Who needs it anyways

  Do you ever find yourself shooting rubber-bands across the floor because the cats love to chase them? And what you're really supposed to be doing is getting dressed for the day?.....also it just terrible for loosing all the rubber-bands for your hair.  Do you ever find yourself surfing the internet when you should be cleaning your kitchen? Or posting on your blog when you should be starting the laundry. Obviously these are issues that I do not have!!  I am the master of productive output.  I can name numerous things that I have accomplished today.  Please see me tomorrow and I will inform you as to what....exactly..those..things.....are. Oooo Look, my Cat!  I think it has one of my rubber-bands in it's mouth....I should probably go get that back...eh, I can do it later.  Anywayssss! (David hates it when I say anyways. "It's not anyways, it's anyway!!  Total pet peeve of his.  That's a shout out to you Uncle Larry!)  What was I saying?  Oh, right!  MOTIVATION!  I am a highly motivated individual (especially today!)  I think I'm going to go stare at my kitchen.  Sometimes I just stare at it and think nice clean thoughts.  Funny how that never works.  Maybe I should glare at it instead? Shame it into being clean.  Somehow I don't think that will work either. Because really it all comes down to one thing.  What was that word again?  Oh yeah, Motivation.

Easter Decorating Fun

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So I decided to take a leaf out of my sister’s book and decorate for Easter.  Normally Christmas is the only holiday I decorate for.  But, I liked the idea of trying to be a little more “domestic” around the house.   *hee*  The idea of me being “domestic” around the house made me giggle.   There, it made me do it again.  Isabelle has started going to Popi’s house on Tuesday’s to learn how to cook (cause she sure ain’t learn’n it from me).  This week was her first week there and when I asked her how it went she stated: “Wow,  I had no idea it took so long to cook real food.”  My mother looked at me and asked, what did you feed them for dinner yesterday?  “Pot roast, apple sauce, and fresh vegetables,” I said.   “Well, that must have taken awhile to cook…..?”  “Erm……No,no,not really only about 5 minutes like the package said it would.” Sometimes I don’t think my mother knows what to do with me.
 
When the kids and I were at Rebecca’s house a few weeks ago their family had to step out of the house one of the nights and she wasn’t able to fix dinner.  My kids where so crushed when they came downstairs and I was the only one there.  “Mom, where’s Aunt Rebecca?,” they asked with obvious panic.   “She’s not here,” I stated with irritation, “ They all had to be somewhere.”   “Whaaaaaat?!?  But, who’s going to fix dinner?!?!,” they all screamed with apparent terror in their voices as if they already knew what the answer would be.  “I AM………I’m ordering pizza.”    “No, NOT PIZZA!!! Please MOM, anything but that.  Do we have to have pizza….AGAIN!!!”   They begged, they pleaded but they couldn’t persuaded me to change my mind (what? they didn’t expect me to actually cook did they?)  Meanwhile, in Cousinville Rebecca was telling her kids “You had better behave because Aunt Sylvia *duDA* ordered pizza and you won’t get any if you don’t.”
So, anyways…the kids love the decorations. Chase says the decorations are better than last year’s.  I pointed out that I didn’t decorate last year to which he replied “Yeah, that’s why they’re better than last year’s.”  Isabelle feels like we should have bought more! We need more decorations!  And Lilly was a little disappointed we didn’t get the Hello Kitty basket for the kitchen table.  But the fact that the cats use the basket we did get as their new bed more than makes up for it because it’s so super cute!

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To die! Or not to die! That is the question...or in other words: Isabelle was home sick today.

 

So Isabelle was home sick today.  Like, actually sick, not kinda sick, or sorta sick, or "but MoMmmmmmm  I really need to stay home today," sick (What do you mean you really need to stay home today?!?).  When Lilly or Chase stay home actually sick they lay on the sofa like a limp noodle all day.  It's awesome.  Their little mouths never open (well....except to throw up).  No complaining, no talking, no back talk, no arguing, they just lay there like little rag dolls.  Awesome.  All I have to do is lovingly administer liquids and crackers every once in a while, take their temperature as they spend their day watching TV in a fog of  virusy stupor. It's like playing house with live dolls!!  Seriously, it brings back all those little girl mother hen feelings.  Or maybe it's just my dormant "maternal instinct" waking up.  Ahhhh, but Isabelle, yes Isabelle....if you have been reading this blog you might have gathered that she is a little different...a little more "vocal" shall we say.

Today has been like a day at the car races.  I've never actually been to a car race, but it is much how I imagine it.  ISABELLE, you may now start your engines!!! *whimper*  *groan* "Mommy? Mommy? Are you there?"  "Um, yes Big Girl.  I'm sitting right here.  On the sofa across from you.  Much like I was five minutes ago.....the last time you asked."  "Ok, I feel like I'm going to throw up!"  "Then go the the bathroom, or use the throw-up bucket that I put next to you."  Rinse and repeat for the next 20 laps around the race track.

IT'S an exciting moment here during the race! Things are really starting to heat up and the pressure is on! *MOAN* *WHINE* "MOMMY, my stomach!!  It hurts!!  It hurts SO BAD."  "ARGHHHHHH"  "ARGHHHHHH" "ARGHHHHHHH"  "MOMMY, I'm DYING.  I'M DYING I TELL YOU!!!"  "Oooooook Isabelle, how about another sip of Ginger Ale? And then why don't you try to watch some more TV"  Now, don't think that I'm completely unsympathetic.  It did cross my mind at one point, gee?  What if she has appendicitis or something?  But with Isabelle you have to take into account the drama factor.  And considering that she is now peacefully asleep, as show in the picture above, I would say appendicitis is unlikely.  What is more likely is that she has that magical “stomach bug” that is perpetually going around school in it’s ever changing form.  I have to say as she is quietly, peacefully sleeping snuggled up against me on the sofa while I write this that it’s nice to softly stroke her forehead, adjust her blanket, and caress her hair.  You know, get all maternal and stuff.      So, for now, the race has come to an end.  We will see if it picks up again when she wakes up!

Hey? What ever happened to Grandpa?

 

So a few weeks ago The Day finally arrived.  I’ve been waiting for this particular day for a long time…never quite sure how well it was going to go, or how my kids were going to react.   We were in the car (of course…weird, now that I think about it, we are always in the car when they ask their deep questions), anyway…We were in the car and Isabelle gives this very penetrating, thoughtful, “Mom?”  I was like, whoa wonder what this one is about, “Yeah, big girl?”  “So I was thinking and I have a question.  So we have a Noni and a Popi, right? (that’s what they call my mom and dad)”  “That’s right,” I answered, getting a little panicky in my stomach because I had a pretty good idea where her logic was headed.  This was territory we had never covered because I had decided to wait until they asked about it.  “And we had a Grandma, but she died,” Isabelle continued, “So what happened to Grandpa?”  The car got deathly silent, I was driving, but I could tell that Lilly and Chase had all of a sudden become ALL ears.  “OH Man,” I was saying to myself, “What do I say?  Do I tell them the truth?  If I do are they going to freak out and think that Daddy is going to leave us? OK, calm down.” At that point I decided to do what I always do, just tell it like it is.  “Grandma raised Daddy by herself.  I don’t know why, but Grandpa decided he didn’t want to be a dad and he left when Daddy was a baby.”  Boy was I sweating at this point.  The car was still silent.  “OH NO,” I thought, “I shouldn’t have just told them like that, they don’t even know what to say, they probably are about to cry or something.”  And then Isabelle says, “Wow, that is the COOLEST thing I have EVER HEARD!!!!!  Grandma was a STRONG single black mom!!!  She raised Daddy ALL by herself!!  She was a strong black WOMAN!! (seriously, it’s like I'm raising a mini feminist here…not really sure how that’s happening…….)”  And then Chase breaks in with his analytical little self (so cute), “And don’t forget she was a college professor AND a single mom! She was smart! That is really cool!  I think that was really awesome that she was able to do all that.”  To which Isabelle replies, “That’s right, she was a college professor AND a single mom.  I’m going to be just like Grandma when I grow up!!”   After Chase and Isabelle had calmed down after realizing that they had had a single black mother for a Grandmother this WHOLE time and had never EVEN known.  The tragedy, the questions they could have asked.  Lilly did have a few question about Grandpa leaving, mostly about “why would he do that?”  I just told her that I didn’t know why he did it, but our Daddy wasn’t ever going to leave because he loved us and we were sealed together in the temple and we were going to be a family forever no matter what.  All in all, The Day was a heck of alot more amusing than I ever imagined it would ever be. 

The Greatest Find Ever!

Why Yes!!  That is a Gigantic Bottle of hand soap shaped like a women’s shoe, complete with green beads and a rose stuck inside!!!!   I couldn’t pass an opportunity like this up.  A picture had to be taken.

While at first glance what seems incredibly tacky, these are the things (in my limited opinion) that when added correctly to a room can add interest and fun ( and perhaps some humor) into a room. A little bit of kitsch can sometimes be just the added touch of quirk a room needs.  I have to say that this one inspires me.  I’m imaging a master bath done with white wood cabinets, cream marble countertops and a light sea green wall.  Glass tile in pale creams and various shades of pale sea green  on the shower wall and around the bath.   The floor of the shower is made of  stones instead of tile for a soothing feel on your feet.  On the cream counter top will be a display of Apothecary jars in varying heights.  In one will be cotton balls, the other green bath salt.  Now picture our little shoe sans plastic wrap and the other accoutrements that it currently has and place a nice big silky cream bow on it.  The shoe will now be placed in front of the two apothecary jars.  Fill the bathroom with all the other necessary design elements and you have a beautiful tranquil bath while still staying just a little off beat.  Now that’s my kind of style!

 

 

 

Welcome To Your New Calling

I got a new calling on Sunday much to my surprise.  We came in late after sacrament and missed all the announcements and after the meeting ended the woman next to me congratulated me on my new calling.  "What new calling," I asked?  Oh, she nervously laughed, "Maybe, I heard wrong.....erm, maybe it wasn't your name they called."  I turned to the Sunday School President in the row in front of me and asked, "Did, they call me to a new calling today?"  "Yes, which is fine, because it doesn't interfere with your Sunday school class, " he said (I teach the 14 year olds.)  Well, at that point I realized I really did have a calling and I figured I better find out what it was so I went over to a bishopric member.  "Hi, Bro. Ingram.  I heard I got a new calling today?"  "Yes! Welcome to the Activities Committee!" 

I have been go-go-going for 6 years. It actually started in the Activities Committee which I did for two years, and then it was on to the Relief Society Presidency for 2 years, and for the past 2 years I have been in the Primary Presidency.  The past two years have been my favorite.  I absolutely LOVED the primary.  There was nothing I loved more than doing my sharing time each month.  It was my time to spend with the kids.  I always felt those times were so very important and that I would never know which one would be the one that a child would never forget.  I felt that Primary was one of the most sacred callings I had ever been given.  The calling was a blessing to me and I got so much out of it.  The time came when I was informed that sweeping changes were going to happen.  It was a hard day for me when it finally happened.

  Over the next few weeks people kept saying things like, "You must feel so relieved!" or "It must be nice to finally be out of primary." or "You must be feeling great now that you can sit back and relax."  But I didn't feel any of those things.  I felt tense and wound up because I didn't have anything to do.  I missed primary and the special spirit that is there.  I felt a little lost. I hadn't had a break in between any of my callings in 6 years.  I went directly from one to the other.  I wouldn't say I defined myself by my callings, but in a way I felt like a part of myself was missing.

In December when the head of the Activities Committee called to see if I could help her decorate the Christmas tree I might have freaked her out when I almost didn't even let her finish asking when I interrupted with "YES I WOULD LOVE TO HELP!!!!!, *ahem* I mean, yes I would love to help.  When can we start?  Can we start today? I'm imagining pink and gold.  I have all the decorations already.  It'll be GREAT!!!  Thank you SO MUCH for calling and asking!"

In January I got called to Sunday School teaching the 14 year old class.  I enjoy it and I am figuring out how to deal with the challenges of teaching 14 year olds.  At first I thought, "How much harder can they be than a whole primary?" Well, they really aren't harder per se, but they do have unique challenges.  Is this calling a challenge on the whole for me?  No, not really.  How did I feel last Sunday when I got called to another calling?   Well, taken off guard.  But, by last night I was angry.  I had my first Activities Committee meeting last night and I was feeling angry about a calling that I hadn't even accepted.  I was saying to myself, "I don't even really know this women very well (the head of the committee).  How do I even know we are going to work well together?

It's a sad but true fact that it takes a certain type of woman to be able to work well with me.  I am blunt, opinionated, focused, assertive, and I like to aggressively get things done.  The women I have worked with the past 6 years have all been like me or have made me look like the quiet one.  We have been very effective and efficient teams.  So I went to my meeting with a resentful, angry heart.  The meeting started with just the two of us.  After about 20 minutes I started to feeling a tingling irresistible pull, planning, ideas, DECORATING!!!! (is that the hallelujah chorus I hear?),scheduling.  Soon, the other member of the committee showed up and I knew there was no problem there. She had been our compassionate service leader, and then secretary for about a year in Primary.  She wouldn't bat an eyelash when my true nature was revealed.  The meeting was nearing the end and I was in full meeting mode.  The head of the committee's husband had joined us and at one point he turn to me and said "Wow, you are really blunt.  I like that, you are going to get along really well with my wife.  In fact all three of you seem to be communicating really well with each other." 

When I left the meeting I felt energized and excited like I haven't felt in months.  Which really made me pause and think.  If the Bishopric had interviewed me for the calling I might have asked them to let me think about it, things have been tough lately and I already have a calling after all.  I have been in a bit of a "mood" since being release from my calling, sometime it's from things I can't always control.   I came home and felt so grateful to my Heavenly Father that he knows what I need better than myself and that he is seeing that those needs are met.  I am now really excited about my new calling and I feel like I have been filled with a huge breath of fresh air.