How could I NOT - G.W.P.

Hey, WOW! It's been awhile since I've participated in Jordan's MamaBlogga's Group Writing Project.

So I thought I would give it a shot. Need something to write about, my honey is on the other side of the state, the kids are in bed and I'm semi-caught up on my homework.

Her topic for this Project is "Choosing happiness!"

Hmmm, can you hear the old wheels a'crankin'? Smoke curlin' leisurely out my ears?

By the way, GWP is accepting submissions through February 3rd if you are reading this and inspiration strikes.

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Have you ever just let life get you down? Not just DOWN, but flat-on-the-floor, water-buffalo-sittin'-on-yer-back down?

Yah, me too. Sometimes those little things just pile up...and pile up...and pile up, until the pile is taller than your head and the tower threatens to fall on you.

Then it DOES! Your buried under a drift of "can't-pay-that-bill", "sick-kid", "forgotten-commitment", "what-to-cook-for-dinner" and "breakin'-out-the-fat-pants".

So much to think about. And so much to worry about. And so much to work on. And so much to be stressed over.

Will it be there tomorrow? YUP
Will it matter next week? MAYBE
Does it make you cranky? WHOA YOU BETCHA

Does it make you sad? In a Way, Uh-huh.

In all my 39-ish years on this planet, I've found that it's not worth it to be sad.
And I learned that I can talk myself out of the blues.
Called "Countin' Yer Blessings".
It never fails to make me feel better.

So instead of choosing to wallow in the sadness, stress and icky-poo stuff like BILLS, MEDICAL ISSUES, SCREAMIN KIDS, COMPUTER VIRUSES, and LONELINESS...

I will choose happiness. I will choose to switch on my "Half-Full" mentality. I will choose to look at the good things that warm my lil' pea-pickin heart and bring a smile (or smirk...they kinda look the same some days) to my face.

The Happy List

• Little Mutt and Black Cat wrestlin' on the carpet. Little Mutt doesn't seem to realize that Black Cat outweighs her by about 4 pounds. AND he has CLAWS. Good thing he's sweet.
• Number Four and her funnies! The latest? "Mom, I figured out how to play football. You just THROW that ball and then you RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" Hee Hee Snicker Snort
• Regular, repeated and prolific use of the Christmas Gift to end ALL Christmas Gifts from Loverboy...my Espresso/Latte' maker. Ahhhhhhh! Sigh
• My Mentor Midwife trusting me enough to ask me to do ALL the prenatal appointments tomorrow. She won't even be there! WOW! Guess I a big giwl now! Pretty soon I'll be ready for my very own Doppler! YeeHAW
• My most handsome prince calling to sing me a song. SWOON
• My electric Blanket set on PREHEAT...crawlin' into a warm snuggly bed.
  
• A hug from my grizzly-bear boy, number One. He's six foot three and gonna be 15 in one month. But he comes out of his room to visit with me every night and hugs me at least three times every day. More, if he thinks I really need it.
• When My sweet sweet number three draws me a picture. Of me and LB holding hands. And little hearts all over in the air. The caption reads, "True Love...FINALLY". I agree.
• Number two trying so hard to grow up too fast. She gets up early to walk the dog and THEN makes me a fresh pot of coffee. But we've begun the battle of the Bras. Don't wanna wear one...Have to, SORRY! But they're uncomfortable **WHINE**
  Ummm, YAH, tell me about it. But I let her know we're in this together.

The sisterhood of uncomfortableness.
I am honored to be their mother. And honored to be loved by my precious, kind sweetheart.
And honored to have so much to be thankful for with so much gacky stuff going on in the world.

So how could I NOT choose happiness?

The BEST day of the YEAR!

Jordan over at MammaBlogga is hosting another Group Writing Project.

The prize for one post chosen at random is a $30 gift certificate to Amazon.com.
Only new posts are eligible (i.e., posts that were not published prior to 10 December 2007).
To submit your post to the MamaBlogga Group Writing Project, please use the form on this page. All submissions must be in by midnight on Sunday, 16 December 2007. (If it’s still Sunday somewhere in the world, we’ll take it.)

Click on the link above to get to the registration page and for a full list of fine print.

And this months' theme is....... (she always says "drumroll, please! :D )

The Best Time of the Year

Now, I know yer thinkin' I'm gonna talk about a holiday. Specifically, the one comin' up in just a couple'a weeks.

Uummmmm, No.

Even though I'm a BIIIIG Christmas junkie, there is another week of the year that makes my heart sing.

If you have kids, you'll probably agree.

It's the FIRST WEEK OF SEPTEMBER.

Now, please, don't get me wrong. I love my kiddos with everything that is within me to love them with. We have lots of summer fun riding bikes, going to the park, camping once or twice, visiting relatives, fishing, swimming. Then there is the financially staggering end-of-August shopping for clothes and school supplies for four kids. And the last-week-of-August Season Of Whining and Fighting...all that pent-up anxiety and excitement has to go SOMEWHERE, you know.

Then comes the Tuesday after Labor Day. Get up at 5am, find all the school supplies, struggle into the new clothes, make sure the hair looks just right, "Where's my deodorant?!", "Where's my GLASSES?!", "MOM, she ate my breakfast when I was in the bathroom!!".

Load the precious darlings (read those last two words through clenched teeth to get the full effect) into the car and battle for a parking place with the two hundred other parents' cars on the lawns at the school because we ALL want to walk our kids in to class, you know. Find the room, meet the teacher, hug and kiss. And "nosy kiss" (the five-year-old HAS to have an Eskimo kiss, you know!). Then...

ESCAPE!

To the car...

To the house...

It's Soooooooooo QUIET!

What will I do first? Clean the breakfast dishes off the table? Put in a load of laundry? Clean the bathroom?

NAY, fellow parents!

My coffee cup calleth. And the guilty pleasure of watching the news or "A Baby Story" without interruption (save the commercials).

I think I may even put my feet up.

Aaaaah!

Motherhood is...NOT about me!

RATS!

I missed the writing project for this month over at MommaBlogga's place. The subject was "Motherhood is/means".
And I can really get into that.

So here's my submission even though the week of writing is over.

MOTHERHOOD is ... Not about me. In fact, it's about everything BUT me. "Self" has nothing to do with motherhood.

It means having a cage with three rodents in it IN my house when I have, in the past, spent a great deal of time trying to KILL said rodent's family members AND we won't even discuss the fact that just looking at one of these beady-eyed little buggers give me the Willies. BIG TIME.

But we have them. Because MG promised them if they kept the room clean for thirty days they could have a rodent in a cage. In their room.

I was thinking hamster. Cute and fuzzy. Not TOO much like a rat.

But they chose mice. And he ponied up the dough.

ERK!

Let me tell you what, though. MG was the one to pick them out of the box by their little freaky tails and drop them in the cage I meticulously snapped together. To make sure there were no holes big enough for a mouse to escape. Where's my caulk?

ANyway. Friday night the cage was tipped over by the cat, who thinks that this looks like a tasty smorgasbord. She hasn't done it again, but she does sit often next to it gazing longingly into the depths. Dreaming...

The other cat doesn't seem to care much. He's kind of a dumb jock and just enjoys waking everyone in the household up at 5am. Between him and #2 - who, by the way, is the reason I am up before 5am - WHO needs an alarm clock?

So I'm using this time to FINALLY get near the computer. And to process a canner load of green beans. Someone gave me a box full yesterday at church. So I broke out the canner. Got 15 quarts! Yeah!

And why am I canning Green beans? Because I get this overwhelming urge to get blisters on my fingers snapping green beans, burn the heck out of my hands on the canner, stress over the pressure climbing to high and jump up and down thirty times for each process to make sure the kitchen doesn't explode???

Hmmmm???

Ummm, no. I don't like green beans that much.

But my kids do. And green beans are good for them.

Why do I wear $3 croc-fakes and a hand-me-down pair of Nikes from Goodwill? Because my kids come first.

I'm not saying this stuff to brag, ya'll. I'm saying it to let any new mommy's or prospective mommy's know that - HEY, once you have kids, it's a brand new day! No more fancy clothes (at least without baby puke stains on the shoulder), no more sleeping in, no more free time. You give up alot to be a Mom.

And it's worth EVERY blessed second!!

Artists, Veterinarians and Vagrants

MamaBlogga is hosting another AMAZING group writing project. The theme this week is...

(drumroll PLEASE!)

Three things I want my kids to . . ."

THREE things?!? I have to limit it to THREE?!?

just kidding.
They really aren't that bad. In fact, they are rather amazing.
But I am slightly biased...

kinda, you know. I'm just saying.

Three Things I want my Kids to Grow up to Be...
I used to be an uptight mom.
OK, uptight doesn't begin to cover it. Saying I was uptight is like calling an avalanche a collection of snowflakes.
I thought my kids HAD to act a certain way, BE a certain way, TALK a certain way, BE in the right clubs, teams and classes in order to be an "upstanding" part of the community. We had to LOOK "respectable".

After my husband disappeared, life got much simpler. For awhile, I didn't' CARE what happened or what they did and our home disintegrated into a "Habitrail house". You know, trails everywhere in between the piles of stuff. We simply survived each day.

Now that Mommy has "come to" and realized what is important in this life, the RULES have changed. There are only three goals I am working toward while raising these guys. I don't care if they become Artists, Veterinarians or Vagrants (well, ok, I hope not the last one, but you get my point) as long as three things are deeply, deeply ingrained in their soul.

1) I know my mom loves me and that God loves me no matter what happens, where I go or what I do.

2) I am responsible for the consequences of my actions. There are no "free rides". If I do something wrong, no matter how sorry I am, I must pay the price - even if it is as simple as confessing what I have done or as tough as spending time in jail.

3) Compassion for others and remembering that I should treat others the way I want to be treated is the way to live our lives if we want to be happy.

I know, others may not agree with me. But that's alright. We all raise our children differently. I am happy that I have my children and blessed to be allowed to raise them. I think (and the therapist thinks :D) that they benefit from a mom who is more relaxed and allows them to be more creative than constructed; to be more playful than pushed; to be more fun then focused. Allowing them to explore within limits but WITHOUT the possibility of being yelled at for things that do not matter is one of the greatest gifts I can give them.

The other gift is to love them. Unconditionally.

Well, that's it. My submission to the Group Writing Project. Come join in! The more, the merrier, ya' know!!