Chew On This

Amazing Love

My friend is leaving next Saturday for 5 weeks. She and her husband are taking their 12 year old daughter and 3 year old son to the Ukraine where they will be adopting 3 preschoolers with Down syndrome. I am so amazed and inspired by their unbelievable act of faith that I am overwhelmed.

In the Ukraine, orphans with Down syndrome are sent to an institution if they are not adopted by the age of 5. Once in the institution, they are ineligible for adoption and usually die within a couple of years there. The children my friend is adopting are all 5 years old. Her family is literally saving the lives of these three children.

If any of you do not know who God is or what He is about, this is it. It's not about rules and regulations. It's not about judgements or condemnation. It's about love. It's about stepping out of our comfort zone and believing that we will be given the strength to do something amazing in the name of love that we would never be able to do (or maybe even want to do) on our own.

I've gotta tell ya... I haven't blogged in a while because I started this thing on a whim and then once it got rolling a little and a few people were reading on a regular basis I couldn't decide whether I had anything truly worthwhile to say or not. And to tell you the truth, I still don't know. But my friend emailed this evening to let us know they are leaving next weekend to take what I think may be the most incredible step of faith that anyone I know personally has ever taken. I know she will be blessed. God is so good and has blessed me already beyond anything I could ever deserve but I think there may be blessings that I forfeit because of my desire to remain safe within my comfort zone. Just writing that feels a little uncomfortable. But I don't want my life to be about playing it safe and missing the kind of beauty my friend is about to participate in.

When I used to perform (singing and dancing... don't laugh) we used to talk about "leaving it all out there" on the stage, not holding anything back. What would my life be if I let all of my faith, all of my love "out there"? What would God do through me?

Whoooaaa... Is this turning into a deep blog?

Maybe that's why I never seem to get my housework done. Not enough meaning in it for me. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Not Being Lazy

I'm going to expose an area of my life where I may have been lazier once, but have since been educated and am decidedly not lazy now...

I'm getting a little fired up. I'm reading a blog discussion involving some parents' outrage over having to submit to background checks in order to volunteer at their kids' school. That's not the policy at my kids' school but I wouldn't have a problem if it was. Those of you who know me personally know that the issue of child sexual abuse is a hot button issue of mine and I am wondering what you all think about this.

(join a discussion about this on my community here)

I think just the act of the school requiring the background check sends a strong message to the community that they take the issue of child sexual abuse seriously and the kids are safer for it. I am a believer in checking out EVERY adult that comes into contact with my kids. This may or may not include a background check.

The fact is that 1 in 5 kids will be sexually abused before they reach 18 (http://www.darkness2light.org/KnowAbout/statistics_2.asp). Checking out the backgrounds of the adults in contact with our kids, and submitting to such checks ourselves, is just one step towards lowering that statistic and making sure our kids don't become a part of it. Here is a great resource for learning some other steps we can take:
http://www.darkness2light.org/7steps/7steps.asp

This isn't about fearmongering or paranoia. It's about being realistic and empowering ourselves with knowledge so we don't have to be naive or paranoid.

Thought you all might wonder what things I pursue that keep me from cleaning and organizing... This is one.

Jeez Louise!!!

I am totally new to the blog game. I haven't read many. EVER. And as you all know, I just started this one last Thursday and it is my first blog (as evidenced by its extreme amatuerishness). But since it was somewhat inspired by other mommy blogs, I thought I would take some time to read through some of the ones that had initially turned me off as well as some of the buzz surrounding them. What I read has made me contemplate abandoning this pursuit entirely. There is some really mean stuff out there in cyber space, my friends. Because I want to distance myself as far as possible from the negativity that exists among mommy bloggers and their readers/critics, I want to make some things clear right up front. My problems with the few mommy blogs that I have read are MY PROBLEMS, not theirs. They stem mostly from my own jealousy and insecurity. There. I've said it.

I actually admire these women. I envy their energy and strength of conviction. I think homeschooling is awesome! I wish I had the energy to grow veggies in my backyard and cook them up in creative ways that would make my children beg for second helpings. And cloth diapers... well, I really don't want anything to do with cloth diapers (hey, I know my limitations). The point is: I don't want this blog to be about bringing others down just to build myself up.

My vision is this: that any mom might read and enjoy the "Other Mommy" blogs and then if and/or when she reaches the point where she is feeling discouraged she can click over to Lazy Moms Unite and read about my "purse muffin" (pictured above). The sight of the disgusting mess I found in my handbag this morning will help restore her to a place of confidence and security knowing that at least she (unlike me) had not left a muffin in her purse from a lunch she had with her hubby over a month ago.

The Mess I Didn't Know About

Yesterday I was feeling pretty low. I read some mommy blogs in the morning. I sometimes stumble on a mommy blog and it catches my eye as it is intended to do with it's artful photos of adorable kids and animals or beautifully photographed platters of gourmet dishes. I'll peruse the posts and maybe even copy a recipe or two. But yesterday when I felt like going back to bed before my kids had even had breakfast, I realized that the mommy blog had left me feeling depressed.

This was not the first time this had happened. I won't name any names because these bloggers didn't do anything to intentionally harm me or anyone else. They were just going about their beautiful, witty, environmentally conscious lives sharing the highlights with anyone who chose to read about them. When I complained on my facebook status of my "mommy blog funk", several friends responded. Some thought I was talking about them (LOL!) and others sympathized with my quandary. Who are these women and why do their blogs make us feel so incompetent as moms?

One friend pointed out (very accurately I think) that one problem is that the "pretty mommy blogs" are probably not altogether accurate depictions of the day to day life of those households. You know, the ones where mom homeschools, serves only gourmet, organic meals, her kids never watch TV, and her house is always clean (as evidenced by the impeccable photography of the beautiful children in various rooms of the immaculate house). In the words of my friend, "About the immaculate house... I'm willing to bet that is a lie because anytime there is even one child present there is some law of physics that says there must be at least two messes, one of which you don't even know about yet."

Well, I don't know about the "Other Moms' " houses but I do know this Mess Law is at work in my house. The photograph above is an excellent illustration of a "mess I did not know about". Last summer we decided to move the furniture around in my oldest child's room. This is the first time we had done this in about 5 years so we expected some messiness under and behind the furniture. Nothing prepared us for what we found behind the dresser. The pink spots near the baseboard with an electrical cord stuck to them are gum. And yes those two things stuck higher on the wall are dixie cups. We never did determine what made them stick to the wall independently like that. Maybe I should go move the furniture around and vacuum in there now. No... the baby is sleeping. Why would I waste a perfectly good nap opportunity?

It's beginning to look a lot like...Christmas?

It's nearly March and I haven't put away my Christmas decorations. The tree finally came down a week or so before Mardi Gras but then I needed to get tissue to wrap some of the fragile ornaments. Took me a week or two to get around to picking some up. As you can see, I now have the tissue but am not moving quickly on getting that wrapping done. And now, thanks to blogging, I have another outlet for procrastination! Maybe by Easter. Don't hold your breath.