Cookies!!!

 Have you ever noticed that sometimes, as parents, we want things done right and so we "forget" to include our children in our daily activities? I tend to do that a lot -- especially with kitchen duties. It is just so much easier for me to do it instead of letting the kids do it and then fixing what they do and cleaning up their mess. So, today I decided that they could do something. Whatever they wanted and I wouldn't interfere. When I asked them they said they wanted to make cookies. Okay, I may have cheated a bit on this one because I just happened to have some break and bake cookies in the freezer. So, they broke them and placed them how they wanted to. They weren't in straight lines and they weren't evenly placed. I didn't touch them. I left them exactly where the kids put them and ya know what --- they came out tasting just like chocolate chip cookies should. =o)

Brilliant Writer Award

My blog was awarded the Brilliant Writer Award by Deirdre Coppel, the author of Knight of Light, which she is currently seeking representation for, book cover illustrator and the author of the blog A Storybook World. 

Thank you Deidre for the compliment!! :)

Mom is a person too!!!

I am a mom but I am a person, too. I married young, I was nineteen and I don't think I had really figured out who I was yet or what I wanted to do with my life at the time. I am so grateful for my husband and my children but I do wish that I had the opportunity for a little more self exploration before becoming a mom. Let me be clear, I don't regret anything about my family. I just wish I knew more of myself first. I was pregnant with our first baby only a month after we were married; I was on birth control so I'm sure that little boy was supposed to be here. I was married at nineteen and then had our first baby, David, shortly after I turned twenty.
 

David was born prematurely so Paul and I weren't even married for a year yet and we were spending our days in the NICU at the hospital thirty minutes from our little home. Five months later, he died. My husband and I were thrown into a difficult situation early in our marriage and I still had no idea who I was. I was in mourning and ignored my growth and development and focused on what I didn't have. Finally, we had another child two years later and I felt it was time to figure it out but I worked full time and was a mommy and a wife. Who was I? I still didn't know. We adopted another child two years and I did the best thing I could have --- I became a stay at home mom.
 

Being a stay at home mom wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I wasn't sitting down on the sofa watching movies and eating bon-bons all day like I expected. I was busy chasing children but I got to know them better and I got to know myself a bit more too. I stay busy though. 

So, the question I was recently asked was, "how do you define yourself?" Being a mom takes up so much of my time so when people ask me questions like this I really have to stop and think. Before, I couldn't have answered. I just stood there with a blank expression on my face. I still have a blank expression but I know me a little bit more. I am a mom first and foremost but I am also a reader, a writer; I am a wife and a friend; I am a sister and a daughter. I am more than a mom... I am a person.

I have learned more about me and who I am but I have also learned that I will continue to learn more about myself every day of my life.

Courageous Collin

I will tell you about a courageous Collin moment. :) I was so proud of him. We were at the park a few days ago and there were a lot of kids there. School isn't back in yet here so, while Collin wasn't the youngest at the park he was certainly not the oldest either. There were actually quite a few big kids (probably tweens/pre-teens... whatever they're called now). Some of these big kids were picking on a little girl who was about Collin's age. He stepped up in front of them and told them that they needed to be nice. Collin only came up to their chests and there were three of them. They didn't like this little kid telling them to be nice so they pinched his arm. Immediately, Collin ran up to me and, instead of telling me about the kids pinching his arm, he told me there were some kids picking on a little girl and I needed to help her. So, I followed him. Apparently the kids saw that he came to me and ran up to me and said, "If he's telling you that we pinched him... well, we did but it was because we thought we were grabbing that little girl's arm." 

I froze, "You pinched his arm?"

Then, it was their turn to freeze. Their faces looked completely confused so I replied, "He said some big kids were picking on a little girl." They were totally shocked by this and by then their camp leader was walking over so I let her handle it. I pulled Collin to the side and saw there were big red marks on his upper arm and I couldn't even be angry. I was a little frustrated those kids behaved that way but I was so proud of my son for being courageous and standing up to the bigger kids and not fighting them when they pinched him. He knows how to fight but he chose not to and he did what he was supposed to and went to an adult. He stood up against kids who were much bigger than him and outnumbered him. 

In today's world it is so important for kids to know how to be courageous, even when their peers are telling them to do otherwise. I am glad that I have done something right in Collin's life for him to have courage.
 
*To update you on the park situation: the little girl who was getting picked on played the rest of the time with Collin and Ronni and she was absolutely adorable!!

Our Precious Little Girl

Little Ronni. She is absolutely adorable. I cannot believe how big she is getting. She will be four years old in November. Wow!! She is our little Sunbeam and she truly is a little sunbeam. It seems like just yesterday that she was placed in our arms. But, she was a bit smaller that day and looked a bit like this:

She was placed with us in July '08. I am so grateful to her birthmother for being so selfless and choosing us to care for this precious little girl! :) Anyways, I'm all sentimental about her today because of a conversation she and I just had. Paul and I always say that her biggest Christ-like attribute is her empathy. She asked me what my dad's name was, so I told her. Then she said, "But he died."
I nodded, "Yes, when I was two years old."
Then her tears started flowing as she reached out and gave me a big hug, "but who will be your dad?!" Awwww..... the poor girl.
A little later it was nap time. Yes, that wonderful time for mommies but dreaded by children everywhere. I told her to go to her room and she yelled, "I don't love you anymore!"
A few minutes later I heard her crying again so I opened the door to check on her and she ran up to me, wrapped her arms around me and squeaked out, "I didn't mean that I don't love you. I do love you." LOL!! Poor little thing.
I cuddled with her for a moment and told her that I knew she loved me. Then she said, "Do you still love me even though I told you I don't love you?"
"Of course I do!"
Lol!! Silly, adorable girl! She is asleep now. So, while the drama is down I am going to read and then I will enjoy my hormonal 3 year old when she wakes up. =o)

More Flat Travelers

We have had such a great response that we made more Flat Travelers. I just hope that some of the people who we are sending them to will send us some too. :) We want to host some flat travelers. =o)

Collin has a scientist, taekwondo boy and an astronaut and Ronni has a princess, an African girl and a taekwondo girl. We are sending out our first set to OK today. :) Hopefully the others will get me their addresses soon so I can ship theirs to them. Fun fun!! I am so excited about these little flat people.

Our Flat Travelers

Have you heard of the children's books series called Flat Stanley? It's about a boy who is as flat as paper and he travels all over. Well, there is a whole "race of people" called Flat Travelers. hehe!! We have decided to make some friends with the flat travelers. What you do is you make your own flat traveler or paper doll. Then you send him/her and a journal to someone else who lives in a different region and they journal/scrapbook their adventures with the flat traveler they are hosting in their home. Here are some links for your own flat travelers. If you want a Stanley then try this link.
http://www.flatstanleybooks.com/downloads/flatstanley.pdf
The "Original Flat Stanley Project" has some free templates here:
http://flatterworld.com/template.php?nav=template&side
Then, we used this site for making paper dolls:
http://www.makingfriends.com/f_Friends.htm

Collin originally wanted Cyclops from X-men to be his flat traveler but I couldn't find a good picture to work for it. He ended up with an astronaut and Ronni picked out a girl from Africa. The paper doll site was neat b/c we could print out the body (in underwear), the hair and the clothing separately so we could personalize them for my kids. It was pretty fun. I have seen pictures where people laminate pictures of themselves or they just draw their own random pictures. Here are our flat travelers (the kids did all the gluing themselves and SOME of the cutting):

Right now they are drying. Now we need to laminate them, buy a couple of journals and then mail them out. So excited!! We are hoping to get to host some flat travelers soon too!! YAY!!


For more information check out these sites:

• http://www.squidoo.com/flattravelers
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Stanley
• http://www.flatstanleybooks.com/