Mommin' It Up!

October 7, 2009October 7, 2009

Quirktastic

Every morning when I wake up, the first thing I do is put on a pair of shoes. Not slippers, or “house shoes” as I would call them if I was OLD, but real shoes. Crocs, as a matter of fact, my Malindi’s or Olivia’s usually. I leave them next to my bed when I take them off at night so I can put them right back on in the morning. You see, being pregnant flattened out my feet, and it hurts them to go barefoot. So as soon as they hit the floor, they hit my shoes! As a matter of fact, I am currently rocking these shoes (which Bobby got me for our last anniversary, cause he knows what I likes):

malindi_10127_side_001

With polka-dot pajama pants I’ve had since college and a giant sweatshirt Bobby’s parents gave me the first Christmas we were dating (it’s definitely “vintage”.)

We all have our little quirks, things that we do that make us in a small way, radically different from everyone else we know. It’s fun for me to see these quirks develop in my kids. Sophie, for instance, cannot stand to have her feet covered by blankets. She always has to have them sticking out of the covers. Joshua has to have his socks pulled up all the way, as far as they will possibly go, or he cannot bear to get on with his day.

(Hmm. I just realized we all have foot-related quirks!)

I’m getting to the age where I can actually start appreciating my quirks. I mean the fact that I have to sleep with white noise like an infant and have a glass of chocolate milk with Hershey’s syrup first thing every morning are just some things that make me me.

So tell me, what makes you or your kids Quirktastic?

October 6, 2009

Kiss and Tell

The other night as I was putting Kate to bed, we for some reason started talking about kissing.

“Kissing is gross,” she told me.

“No it’s not. I kiss you, that’s not gross,” I said as I kissed her cheek. “I kiss Sammy, and that’s not gross either.”

“You kiss me and Sammy like this,” she said. (I made her recreate this for me, you know, for the sake of the blog.)
Zi6_0073

“And you kiss Daddy like this,” she said as she wiggled her head wildly.
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“Kathryn Elizabeth, you have never seen that!” I said indignantly.

Instantly a triumphant look came across her face as she exclaimed “SO YOU DO!”

“I, uh, I didn’t say that!” I fumbled.

“Well, do you or don’t you?” she asked.

I had no choice. I had to change the subject. “So let’s talk about what you want for Christmas…”

October 5, 2009

The Hard Stories

This weekend, for the second year in a row, I attended the Hearts at Home conference in Grand Rapids, MI. I loved it last year and was super-excited to go again this year and get encouraged. Hearts at Home exists to encourage moms, specifically stay-at-homers, but I want to emphasize that I felt both times I attended the conference that there was nothing I heard that couldn’t be applied to work-outside-the-home moms, single moms, ALL moms! It was once again, amazing. I loved it even more this year than last year. Although, it should be noted, that miraculously, I cried a lot less than I did last year. 🙂

Throughout the next few weeks I will probably be sharing some more of what I learned from the great speakers I heard – especially Dr. Kevin Leman, author of the Birth Order Book, and my new FAVORITE book ever, Have a New Kid by Friday.

But what I want to share first (and quickly) are a couple of phrases spoken in a keynote given by the founder of Hearts at Home, Jill Savage. These words really stuck with me. She said that we are moms need to share our HARD stories with each other. That everyone loves to hear the cute, funny, stories about how your kid can turn his ear inside out, but what’s important to share are the experiences where you screw up as a mom, or get depressed, or have a giant housekeeping FAIL. Because everyone has these experiences, but we can’t learn from them if we’re too scared to talk about them, too concerned with keeping up appearances, with meeting a certain standard, that we keep it all stuffed inside.

Another thing she said that rings sooo true, is that we will never learn from each other as moms if we can’t stop judging each other. I know it’s hard. I have struggled with it in the past. But I believe there is no winner in the Mommy Wars. Let’s just encourage each other to be the BEST moms we can be, in the way that we feel is right for our families.

Lastly, something I took away with me last year, that was reiterated again this year, is that I am not alone in motherhood and I was not meant to take this journey alone. And I am not talking about having a husband or not, I am talking about walking with God. God gave me these children, and he will partner with me in raising them! And even if there is a “hard story” that I can’t bear to share with anyone else, he knows it. And if I let him, he will get in the down & dirty middle of it with me.

So let’s get real! Call up a friend, tell her your “hard story”. Tell it here in the comments. But TELL it. Let’s learn from each other!