Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Entries from June 1, 2009 - July 1, 2009 Saturday

Entries from June 1, 2009 - July 1, 2009

Saturday
Jun132009

Guest Blogger: Strong or Faith and Confidence

This post is from my good friend Gail's blog: Life After Death. Her posts have been featured here before with good reason. Gail continues to both amaze me and teach me.

I have sometimes been told that I am 'so strong'. I was thinking about that today and here's the truth of the matter. I am not strong, well not in the sense that I've thought of people being strong in the past. I think of a 'strong' person who doesn't have a relationship with Christ as one who is a bit tough, hard, and so focused on something that there are no distractions that would bring laughter, crying, or emotion of any kind. THAT does not describe me. I laugh, cry, and am not afraid to experience any emotion or talk about it with others. I don't know that strong is the right word...I am not tough, hard or callus. I'm wondering if it's more that I am confident. I am confident. Oh, not in myself, believe me, but I am confident in who God is. I am confident of who I am in Christ. I am confident that if I pray for something and it doesn't come to pass, that I am the one who didn't get it right, not God, or His timing is better than mine and I need to pay attention.

I know that people think I am strong because I can laugh and live and carry on now that Vinnie is gone. I love Vinnie and miss him so much but I know he and our Heavenly Father want me to live. This is where I live. I don't usually know what I am doing but I do know that even if I haven't figured it out, God is always doing something and I am sure, because He is good and He is love, that He knows what is best for me and what will most glorify Him and prove that He is exactly who He says He is and always will be. That is what I am confident in and hope to get more and more confident in that until I can go Home. I can't imagine living any other way!

Please visit Life After Death

Thursday
Jun112009

The Grandkids Are Coming: BeforeThey Come: Part 2

If the kids are coming for longer than a few days having a list of let’s get out of the house ideas can be a sanity saver. Inquire into city or even private membership pools for the costs per visit per person and the times for open swim. Some pools have a kiddie pool or toddler time where only people with preschool children are admitted. Local movie theaters often offer free or low cost kid movies during the day in the summer. Our theaters offer free movie day every mornings Tuesday and Wednesdays at 10am June through August. The catch of course is snacks are not free.

Check out your local parks to see if they have playground and how crowded they are.

If you have minor league sports teams in your area the leagues often have a discount night once a week. Bowling alleys offer discounts on off peek times, as do ice and roller rinks. If you are a super cool grandparent (or particularly energetic one) going midnight bowling with your teens will impress the socks off of them. Find your local Red Box for a cheap source of DVDs.

If you have older children and teens coming for a length of time, consider allowing/asking them to bring their game systems. Check to make sure you can hook it up to your TV before they get there. If you can beg, borrow or steal a spare TV to put in a back bedroom to hook the game systems up to that will cut down on the wear and tear of the noise on your nerves. (I know of what I speak. Our games system has been banished to the basement for the sake of my sanity.)

Plan a project to make with the kids. My sisters always do this on their annual beach trip. It is a moms and aunts and cousins thing and everyone has a great time and a souvenir to take home from their trip. Hand painted or tie dye tee’s, paint dishes or mugs, decorated frames and include a picture from their visit are some ideas.

If your grandkids like to read or be read to, check out summer reading programs at the library or at Barnes and Noble. The kids can earn a free book after reading 8 books through the B&N summer reading program. Picking a book to read out loud together during their visit is a nice memory maker.

For teens know where the closest coffee house, video store and mall is.

Tuesday
Jun092009

The Grandkids Are Coming!!! Before They Come

I don’t have grandkids yet but I truly miss having small kid around once in a while so this is a series of suggestions on what to do when the grandkids come to visit over the summer months. You could easily entertain them by buying lots of toys and going to theme parks and other big buck options. I am planning to offer lower cost alternative that will not involve buying your kids a second car or renting a U-Haul to get the grand kids loot home.

Teens can be tough to interact with so anyone with great ideas please comment and there will be linky love all around.

Some little kids need time to warm up to strangers. If you don’t see your grandkids very often allow for some warm up time. One suggestion for helping your little visitors recognize you as grandma or grandpa is to video yourself reading them their favorite book. If you are a hip grandparent or have a resident or neighbor tech prince or princess, you could upload the video to YouTube and ask your child to play it so you can “read” the book together. This will help your grandchild recognize you. You can get a very easy to use camcorder called the Flip which downloads right to your computer for upload to YouTube for about $60.00.


Monday
Jun082009

Aging With Silliness: Vote for My Blog Please and Another Web Time Waster

I came across the site SiteBattles. Blogs go one on one to see who the voting public prefers. It is not that I take any of this seriously but someone had the courage to challenge A Second Cup. Evidently they had not read last Thursday's post.

So please VOTE FOR ME (you do have to register). If this kind of silliness appeals to you, feel free take A Second Cup on.

Another Web Time Waster I enjoy is blogs.com TopTen Lists It is just pure fun to spend some time looking through the lists.

I haven't found my humble blog on anyof the Top Ten Lists ...but that okay. I have found some I really enjoy.

Anyone else want to share their favorite fit for family viewing web time waster?

Saturday
Jun062009

Parenting Teens: Oh the Depths of Hardship

I have many good qualities as a parent. Compassion unfortunately is not one of them. I have all ready stated for the record that we are not a poor family. It seems in light of that reality my husband and I are guiltly of deliberate cruelty to one of our children.

Yes, it seems as parents we rank up there with those who are throughless to the their children for we are deliberate in depriving him of what is rightfully his.

Our poor child, what is the great hardship we villainous force on him: Alas he is the only junior in high school who doesn’t have his own car!!! To add insult to injury I refuse to drive him the seven tenths of a mile to school most days. There is a bus available but that is an option not to be mentioned in the 17 year olds presence.

He was bewailing the cruelty of life this morning, the lack of owning a car, his lack of a supportive mother to drive him to school, how he pays for all his own expenses out of his meager paycheck.

Any respectable mother would have by this point would have fallen to her knees, begging forgivingness. She would have allowed him to stay home from school so they could drive to the auto dealer and let him pick whatever his heart’s desires from the lot. She would call her husband so he too could come home and beg this child’s forgiveness. Oh the damage we have done to his self esteem, his psyche, his place in the world.

I burst out laughing. I practically rolled on the carpet. I am heartless and mirthful.

........I am an unnatural mother.

Anyone else an unnatural mother?

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