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Pinewood Derby Prayer

Pinewood Derby Prayer:

Dear God,
May our cars be true, may our hearts be humble, may our friendships today be encouraging, may we sincerely root for each other and not only for ourselves, may we smile and shake hands in admiration of each others' best efforts - win or lose, and may we all leave today having made you proud that we have Done Our Best in both action and attitude.

Amen

I have things to say today.

I have many things I want to talk about sometimes, and then I have days and days and days when I feel like I have nothing to say. Today is one of my many thoughts days. So, I am posting separate thoughts on separate dates that are not today - usually in the past. Sorry if that confuses anyone, but this is my blog and I can do that! :)

The High Court

I came on the other day because I had some urgent thought I needed to get down here. I clicked on the blog and saw the previous post about losing my temper and it absolutely took the breath out of me. In part because the entire day/incident came racing back to me with all the remorse, and also because I hadn't realized the entry had successfully posted that day. The blog had been acting hinky and it sort of seemed poetic at the time that I wasn't being allowed to post my entry, so I had just walked away from it and not thought about it again until the other day.

Suddenly, my urgent thought completely vanished out of my head and I just sat there wondering if I should have actually clicked the "publish post" button that night. Well, a friend responded with a comment days later and I felt so much better! I'm glad I don't have to be perfect or pretend to be perfect.

Just so you know, that whole anger thing was all about me losing it with my 7 year old after he decided to FOLLOW his 5 year old brother up a mountain of packaged cases of bottled water in Sam's Club. Yup, pretty much as if he was playing King of the Mountain.
My immediate reaction is always, "What were you THINKING???!!!" That's a bad, bad, bad question to ask a child on the brink of the reason and logic stage of life. He will actually being to make an argument on the reasons why he should be able to climb a mountain of packaged cases of bottled water.

The consequence for the boys was losing their chance to eat lunch at Sam's. We had to immediately go home and eat - dum, dum, dummmmmm - peanut butter sandwiches again. That's a pretty reasonable consequence.

The new challenge for me is being able to hold my temper not only a) during the nutty thing they did, b) while calling them down in front of people who are staring at both me and my hoodlums, c) while talking them through the resulting consequence, and d) through the invariable uproar caused by the consequence; but also e) through the passionate presentation of a legal brief from my 7 year old who is deluding in thinking he is presenting his case to a high court. THAT was where I blew it. Sigh. I'm taking solace in the fact that I made it through the first 4 stages successfully.

Deep doo doo

So, I have this horrible confession to make... I have anger issues. I am trying so hard to work on my anger issues, but the harder I try the angrier I seem to get. Or at least, the more my anger suddenly errupts without any warning on others around me - usually my children.

I'm not really sure what to do next. Books - yes. Therapy - possibly. Friends - certainly. Apologize - most definitely.

Love in the mail

Being a homeschool family, we tend to take things as they come and roll with the punches with our schedule. The problem is, our schedule was so incredibly busy during the fall that it took me two months to catch up with my calendar. Baseball 3 nights a week, 2 games each Saturday, Cub Scouts at least one night a week, church Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights, field trips, and classes out of the home to boot. Whew!! Christmas finally came and I finally had a chance to breathe!

Christmas here was really nice. I put aside many things and spent time with the kids. I baked, and I love to bake. I made a gingerbread house all by myself! My own little thing one evening. Mom's craft time. Jim sort of made fun of me for it, but I really didn't care. Honestly, I love having my husband home. He took the Fridays after each holiday off and we had some great family time.

In order to make Christmas do-able for us, I decided not to push out Christmas cards unless the time just fell into my lap; of course, it didn't. I love receiving cards every year and catching up on everyone's news. I also really enjoy reciprocating, but I just couldn't make it happen this year. And I realized over a conversation with my father-in-law that it's not even the Christmas card part that I enjoy as much as the annual connection with people I love who are miles away.

So, I decided that I am changing my tradition!! I am going to send out Valentine's Day cards to everyone we love this year. And I refuse to allow myself to feel the least little bit like an underachiever for doing so!

This Word

I'm sick of this word: Maverick
-Especially when said with a nasally drawn out 'a' sound and seemingly prompted by the pull of a string in the doll's back. It was all I could do not to groan after a while. I don't want to be mean, but c'mon. It is a bit staged.

mav·er·ick /ˈmævərɪk, ˈmævrɪk/ [mav-er-ik, mav-rik] –noun
1. Southwestern U.S. an unbranded calf, cow, or steer, esp. an unbranded calf that is separated from its mother.
2. a lone dissenter, as an intellectual, an artist, or a politician, who takes an independent stand apart from his or her associates.
3. (initial capital letter) an electro-optically guided U.S. air-to-ground tactical missile for destroying tanks and other hardened targets at ranges up to 15 mi. (24 km).

Based on the definition, isn't it an oxymoron to propose that "we 2 mavericks" are going to help bring both parties together?

This is what I want:
dip·lo·mat /ˈdɪpləˌmæt/ [dip-luh-mat] –noun
1. a person appointed by a national government to conduct official negotiations and maintain political, economic, and social relations with another country or countries.
2. a person who is tactful and skillful in managing delicate situations, handling people, etc.