Conversations with Whitney

Setting: my living room, watching Top 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the 80’s

Whitney: What one hit wonder from the 80’s would I know?

Me: Safety Dance

Whitney: No Way! That was a one hit wonder? That guy is a musical genius!

I have learned

1. My Spiritual gift may be sarcasm.
2. Solomon knew what he was talking about.  Read Proverbs, in the Message version or New Contemporary Version.  Wise man.  And funny.
3. My love language is cupcakes.  I read this in the Gary Smalley book.  I read it between the lines, but I’m sure it’s cupcakes.
4. Wearing your hairpins too tight will give you a headache.  I would rather my hair look bad than have a headache.  This is surprising, because I always considered myself a fairly vain person with a high tolerance for pain in the name of beauty.  (If you have never plucked, waxed, had your hair highlighted or cut yourself shaving, you don’t know what I’m talking about).  Imagine my shock to learn that this tolerance for pain in the quest for beauty translates to beauty treatments, high heeled footwear and set in waist bands, but not hairstyles. 
5. Popcorn is not a dessert.  It cannot replace a dessert.  Unless you pour a bag of M&M’s into the bowl of popcorn.
6. My husband killing a snake in my backyard did not make me get all gooey thinking about how he was protecting his family.  It freaked me out that there was a snake 20 feet from my patio door.  Even lying in bed last night next to my mighty warrior (okay, he ran over it with the riding lawn mower), I was petrified that a snake might somehow make it into my house.  I will probably die of a snake induced heart attack.

Heaven

I'm looking forward to Heaven for lots of reasons. Today the reason would be that I know I will be rested in Heaven.

Mother's Day

17 years ago I celebrated my first Mother’s Day. I have a busy weekend this Mother’s Day weekend. And while I think it might be fun to have a relaxing weekend all about me, all my activities that will keep me busy are because I’m a mother. Ironic, don’t you think? Puttin’ on the Ritz musical at Heights Friday night, Saturday morning 10K River Run (I run to lose weight because I gained weight when I was pregnant, so this is because I’m a mother), double header baseball game to watch Nate Saturday afternoon. The rest of the weekend is full of regular mom duties that have to be done. I am not complaining, my children are probably two of the best things I’ve done with my life.
Have any of you had a mother of older children tell you to enjoy it because it will go by fast?

Freshman 2007 Sophomore 2008 Junior 2009

I love these pics cause they are taken at the same time every year, same clothes, same everything. Look at the difference 2 years made. These pics were taken April 2007, 2008, and 2009. Two years and my baby went from boy to man. I’m crying as I write this, because next year at this time, he will be preparing for his high school graduation. I’m not ready yet. I have a year to get ready, but I won’t be. I don’t feel this way when I think about Whitney. There must be some truth to that Irish saying “A son is a son till he takes him a wife, a daughter is a daughter all of her life.” I won’t say that he is the greatest or the best because I know every mother thinks her kids are the greatest, and we all should. What I will say is becoming his mother saved my life. Not in the literal sense of life and death (well, it’s possible there too), but I was on bad path when I found out I was pregnant. He made me make changes in my life. I fell in love for the first time in my life with a 10 week old heartbeat. At that point, no one but my family doctor and OB knew I was pregnant. My life changed forever at that moment. I remember the room, the table, the doctor, the black shirt I was wearing, and laying on that table with tears running down my face into my ears, wondering how I could love something that was only an idea, a sound at that time.
I have not always been the best mother and I have moments I am not proud of, there are things I wish I had done differently. But I have truly tried harder at being a mother than anything else I have ever attempted. I can honestly say that my son has already at age 16 become more of a man, a better man than I had dreamed. I spend a lot of time talking to God about him, and I can say I am proud to be his mother. This Mother’s Day, I am celebrating what (who) made me a mother, and I’m letting Mother’s Day be about my kids.

(AND JUST BECAUSE I ONLY TALKED ABOUT MY SON, DOESN’T DISCOUNT HOW MUCH I LOVE MY GIRLS)