Category Archives: Uncategorized

Summer time….work ethic in progress

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Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it’s off to mow we go….

He’s not always this happy to get going….but there was a nice breeze that day!

Gassing up to get it done!

Companions to the workhorse lawn mower

Big Blue. Crucial accessory to summertime outdoors activity, whether it’s cutting the lawns, skateboarding or hitting the beach. HYDRATE, HYDRATE, HYDRATE!!

Our boys’ summer. Once a week they have 4 lawns to take care of. 3 they actually get paid for in cold hard cash or check. The other is paid for in food, lodging, love, laundry, food, privileges, hugs, food, guidance, boundaries, kisses, security and food.

Hubby helped them to procure the jobs last year and though they don’t always enjoy the work aspect of the jobs (please, I’m grumbling every Monday so I can’t exactly fault them here…who REALLY loves work versus recreation), they DO enjoy the payment aspect of the jobs. (They do these jobs year-round, not just summer) They are learning the value of a dollar, taking pride in a job well-done, interacting with the public, working for a difficult boss, honing their communication skills, team work, and it passes the time at least one morning each week during the summer.

Realistically, we can’t provide for their every whim and fancy. We have four children. We work full-time. Their little whims and fancies are getting progressively more expensive as they age. Out of necessity comes valuable life lessons in work ethic, saving, tithing and communication. We hope to add volunteering to their summer plans to further grow their hearts and spirits to a spirit of serving others and taking the focus off of “self” (a lifelong effort for us all, isn’t it?).

And so, coming across this quote on Facebook yesterday by John Talpene (though I’ve not been able to fully verify it is from him–the message is SPOT-ON!), I feel even better about encouraging their lawn business because maybe, just maybe, we are on the right path….and THAT is encouraging!!

John Talpene quote, image from HERE

This quote has been running around Facebook for a few months and though I can’t actually verify if this principal is the one who quoted it, I must say the message is OUTSTANDING!! I fully plan on printing this out and sharing with out kiddos. The crux of the message is old-fashioned values don’t go out of style (much like Audrey Hepburn’s LBD). You can’t go wrong here, in fact we’ve often gotten so far from this message in our “instant gratification” society that it’s not so difficult to see the difference of the fruit born of the polar opposite styles in parenting of the message below and today’s “I-want-it-all-but-I don’t-want-to-work-for-it” generation. A generation that WE are cultivating.

Proverbs 22:6

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Beach biking on a weekday

Running away….for 26 hours!

Trendy VS Classic…there’s a reason trends come and go

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I’ll stick with the trends that won’t wreck my life, scar me or put my children in position they are not ready to be in before they can handle it.

This came and went….

This will never disappoint….

trend·y (trnd) Informal

adj. trend·i·er, trend·i·est

Of or in accord with the latest fad or fashion: trendy clothes.

n. pl. trend·ies

One who is drawn to and represents the latest trend

Fashion trends are one thing. They come, they go. They add a little zip into your wardrobe and shake things up. I like a trendy piece here and there, generally though, I am a T-shirt and shorts or capris kind of gal. I put a little extra effort in for Mass on Sundays and date-night with Hubby, aside from that, I’m happy in my regular outfit, or even workout clothes, it’s all about comfort for me!

I just don’t get it….

Then you have tattoos. Quite popular these days. We live near the beach and believe me when I say we are SO in the minority here, having fresh, ink-free skin. Everyone’s got ’em. From a little wrist or ankle tat, to the tramp stamp to the full on sleeves. A day trip to the water park is a quick education in all the varieties and evolution of the tattoo from the fresh 19 year-old skin to the been-there-done-that 40 something, few kids later and some sun damage and suddenly it’s not quite the tat it was 20 years earlier. Other people can do what they want, it’s just not for me. I can’t seem to pick something that I think I’ll STILL love 5, 20, 50 years from now. Tattoo removal is a big business, big money, pain involved and you don’t end up with the smooth ink-free spot you started out with when you are done. I’ll stick with the trends that I can pack up and send to Goodwill after a year or so….

The one parenting trend that currently “wraps me around the axle” (as my girlfriend says) is the Co-Ed Sleepover for high schoolers. Time magazine even has an article with tips on how to run your own child’s co-ed sleepover. WHAT?!?!?! THE??!!?? (insert expletive here!). You’ve got to be kidding me!!! For our family, we limit sleepovers to a few friends and are slowly phasing them out. We don’t even host them. We have boys and girls and as they get older, it’s just a mix I don’t want to encourage. There’s just nothing to think about here. Add boy + girls + raging hormones and shut out the lights. Hmmmmm Really? I’m just flabbergasted that anyone would think this is a good idea. Implement all the “safety issues” you want, but believe me, “IT” can still happen, even with safety measures in place.

Recently, a Facebook friend took a poll on co-ed sleepovers and with the exception of ONE person, the majority was mightily against the idea. It turns out my friend was polling to show proof that most parents oppose to her high-schooler. It was refreshing to see those opposed, but it also made me wonder: if it’s the parents that are pressured into the sleepovers by their kids, then what message does that send about how to stand up against peer-pressure to the kids? Kids will do what they are going to do (and I was a kid and I DID make poor choices), but as parents, aren’t we called to guide those choices wisely? To guard them against youthful mistakes? With medical proof that brain development is HUGE from adolescence to age 20 or so (nothing we didn’t already know….but now have proof!), a teen’s frontal lobes are still developing and learning to master emotions and decision-making skills, why would we willingly thrust them into a situation to further complicate matters?

Kids are going to mess up. It’s a fact of life. I don’t want to purposefully make it harder on them. They NEED us to help them distinguish right from wrong. They NEED us to say “no”. They NEED boundaries. They NEED rules. They NEED consequences. So for us, and our children, we will continue to call and verify the occasional sleepover, say “no” to uncomfortable intuitions, enforce boundaries and consequences for breaking rules and testing limits. These are things that will help our children grown into responsible adults. It’s hard. It’s painful for all of us. It molds our society for tomorrow. Until they grow up and spread their wings, I’m fine with NOT being the cool parent. It’s a work in progress and we are far from perfect, but at least we are trying.

Galatians 6:7 Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

**all images pulled from Spotlight on: vintage LBD, stylefashiontrendy.com, listsoplenty.com

All good things must come to an end….until next year!!

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Thanks to The Treasure Trove (Lynnell), Dance Mommy’s Odyssey (Laura), Sempiternal (just call me AJ), The General (MB) , Redefining Normal (Brite), The Eagle’s Nest (Amanda), and Blog it ALL (Lea) for this month’s “Blog-Every-Day-in-May”. Or most days. Or some days. Or whatever you felt like days. It was fun and all good things must (PRAISE GOD FROM THE ROOFTOPS!!!) come to an end. (I know my Hubby is happy, too!) So we will all now return to our regularly planned blog schedule or non-schedule and I thought I’d wrap it up with what I gained from this little exercise Bloggapalooza.

In no specific order:

I gained new “Followers” this month….these lucky people automatically receive an email each time I post a new blog, so they never have to worry about missing one single minute detail of my life. Lucky, right? Well, in case you want to be lucky, too…just click on the “+Follow” in the top left of the screen…..see below….other handy-dandy tools, “Like” if you enjoy the post and “Reblog” if you really like it and want that to be your post on your blog. I didn’t even know what that WAS until Sempiternal “Reblogged” me…very cool indeed!
I found several new blogs along the way, one to encourage my fitness and health journey AND encourage my Faith walk like Clare @ Peak313Fitness. The woman loves her some Jesus and keeps the workouts fresh to constantly keep that temple humming and wondering what in the heck is coming next?!?
Ellie @ Emerald Pie. Her life in Ireland is fascinating to me, a world apart and yet no different in her daily life, challenges and busy-ness as a mom and wife. Her Irish scenery is AH!MAZING!!!!
Ex-pats and their very interesting lives in Dubai @ Circles in the Sand and Three years and home in Switzerland. Witty, insight and photos into other parts of the world, customs, differences in their “normal” lives and how they adjust and roll with each day.
A gem of thoughts to teach our daughters (though us parents and sons would benefit, too) from One Joyous Heart . Witty, dry, sometimes right on the edge of cracking, raw observations on motherhood and life to two very young and very close-in-age cutie-pies, Camp Patton (I see glimpses of myself when the girls were so very young at this stage….I want to hug her and tell her, keep taking pictures, take videos…they grow up and you. will. survive!!)
I’ll be keeping my day job. The only time I want to write is first thing in the morning…that 20 extra minutes or so (the “or so” often sets me running behind!) after my Quiet Time. I don’t think I’ll get a Nobel in those 20 minutes. Probably. Apparently you need to write often and enjoy it..another strike. Soooooooooo…..just press “Follow”…you’ll know when I update.
You can get lost for VERY. LONG. PERIODS. OF. TIME. on the internet. You might think I learned this from Facebook. Child’s play. There are so many flippin’ blogs out there. Thank goodness for my Reader, but then I often get sidetracked by hyperlinks to other blogs, then add them to my reader and boom….there goes another hour. CrAzAY!!!!
Stepping out of my comfort zone to share something I feel passionate about usually brings out my best writing. Over the next couple of months as I move my old mac blog over to WordPress (an EXTREMELY time-consuming process–one would think as “user-friendly” as apple generally is, that “THEY” would have made it easier to transfer blogs once they decided to no longer support mac blogs–but that is a whole other venting blog…) I will also add a page of “The best of….according to Hubby”.

This month I’ve celebrated Mother’s Day internationally, my birthday, my sister’s birthday, the end-of-the-year chaos, enjoyed new baby pictures, witnessed the ups and downs of a NICU baby doing her best to grow big and fat and go home (and won a T-shirt!), remembered the joys of maternity leave and the heartbreak of it ending, new house pictures, great words of encouragement, learned about Broadway plays, enjoyed recipes from new gardens and a world of LIFE happening.

So, this month comes to a close, but the blogging goes on. Maybe not everyday, but it goes on. Like life. So get out there and enjoy it!! And THANKS for visiting!!

making the trek

Trekking through life: Faith, family, friends and a whole lot of coffee!