His Girls

He asked, “What are my girls gonna do when I’m gone?”

        Well:

The girl woke up and changed her mind about what’s important in life.

One girl quit her job and followed her dream.

Another one took a class so maybe she can get an office job.

The littlest of them all started reading and writing her own notes saying they came from you telling them all:  “You are loved bekus you love from the heart.  

Today without you the girls drove from South Carolina to Philadelphia.

Without you the girls leaned into Jesus Christ who strengthens them and gives them perfect love.

The girls got moxie.


<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/moxie/”>Moxie</a&gt;

Into Every Life Rain Must Fall

Good morning Wonderers!

I hope you’ve got your coffee and are ready to hear a little of my madness. It’s been a while so please be patient with me. 

This summer being the great mom that I am, I purchased season passes to Carowinds, our local amusement park.  Let’s not stop there I also purchased the drink plan and meal plan.  Such a good mommy!  Like the mom who sprinkles flour on her face when she makes rice crispy treats. 😜 Really though I have loved saying several times a week I might add, “Let’s go the Carowinds for dinner!”   Every time-they react like it’s the first time I said it this season.   Mental note moms:  Children are so easy. 

Now let me inform you I am not the amusement park type. I am not really the wanna be outside in the heat type either. My idea of “Ruffin it” is continental breakfast at Holiday Inn Express. 😳 And I don’t do rides. I do eat all the snacks under the rides while I wait although I’m not supposed too.  Heck, if the lines are long enough, the world may never know!  It will be our secret.

On to why you’re here.   I decided there was a ride I wanted to try.  It’s a ride that goes to air traffic control height and it looks like a carousel in the sky.  My mission for the summer Wonderers!  I thought, I’ll have to ease my way into it.  J who is 6, wants to ride the swings. She just made the height chart and is super excited.   I thought this to be the first step to my victory.  She carefully selected her seat and waited for the ride to begin.  I just grabbed the first seat I came too.   I noticed she kept looking at me and I wondered if she was scared.  Maybe I should have sat next to her.  At lift off I was feeling a little panicky and when it started to swing I gripped the chains and started mumbling to Jesus.   I could hear J laughing. I tried to open my eyes to see if she was laughing at me but the roof of an adjacent building was coming at me so I shut my eyes again. I was whimpering like a baby.   I was really feeling anxious so I started praying for the Lord to stop the ride.   As the ride started to lower I gave up all claims to ride the big carousel in the sky.   My dream had been dashed and to make matters worst when the ride stopped and I opened my eyes my swing ramjacked the swing in front of me.   Only mines did that. Everyone else’s stopped on point. Maybe that was the insult of being on the kiddie ride. When it was time to get off J turned to me and said, “that’s why I get on the inside swing!   How humiliating!  She did see me shivering in the air.

At the next ride I stayed on the ground and got me a funnel cake with powder sugar, vanilla ice cream and strawberries.   I deserved it!  Just when I sat down to eat it, it started to rain.  Okay Derrick, okay God y’all got jokes.   I looked inside my healthy backpack and “ Shazam!”  Pulled out a ziplock bag!

Girl Scouts prepared me well.   If you can’t fly high at least be able to cover ground. Oh! I gonna have to put that on a flag or something.


Have a great Monday Wonderers and thanks for perusing.

Chatterbox

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I gave birth to a chatterbox.  That little bird’s chattering kept me company for years all day, everyday.  Life called to separate us and like a good mother I abided.  Doesn’t every mother want to see her bird soar to new heights?

The excited little bird left the nest but parts of her were reluctant.  She worried about her mother.  Who would be the constant jangle of her day?

There could be no who to take her place, it had to be a what. So the little bird surprised her mother with a gift of a bracelet.  The bracelet came in a set of two with two otters.  One for each of them to bring security from them drifting apart that way they will always be connected.

All day, everyday I hear the jangle of the bracelets.

All day, everyday I am constantly reminded I am loved.😘😘😘

#alexandani

<a href=”https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/jangle/”>Jangle</a&gt;

PTA

Hello Wonderers:

In the beginning of the school year I signed for the PTA (Parent Teacher Association. I agreed to do all volunteer titles but especially – The Baking Committee. I never received a call all year but last week I signed up to volunteer.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I did hall monitoring. Thursday afternoon I made and distributed popcorn and drinks for Teacher Appreciation. Friday I baked desserts for a staff luncheon.

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By Friday afternoon I was exhausted but I enjoyed my week of volunteering. At this point they asked where I’ve been all year. My thoughts on that question – I signed up PTA (please take action.)

Mom tested, kid approved.

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Yes Wonderers I went down the slide!
I almost got trapped in the fort to the point I told Jada to get Pop-Pop. Thank God the Playground Gods sprang me from my cage and I was able to lay down on the slide. If it can hold this big kid, I think it’s safe enough.

Thank you weekend warriors (Brent, Jared And Dan) and Pop-Pop for purchasing the Backyard Discovery Tucson Model 65411 from Walmart.com. Anyone in the Rock Hill, South Carolina area needing a handyman, Dan is a talented young contractor. I plan on using him for a few projects around the house.

The 641 reviews made the choice on which swing set to purchase a breeze. We look forward to all the summer adventure but I won’t be coming down the slide again!

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A Simple Prayer Answered

It started with a question.  Can you please start emptying out those boxes in the closet? 

 

Well of course I can.  I’m just laying here in the bed doing nothing.  Those boxes have been there since we moved to this place almost two years ago. I guess today is as good as any other day.  While I was going through the boxes I came upon an old journal   I loved this journal’s cover.  I came upon it when diabetes starting showing itself in my thought process.  I was having problems with my short term memory and decided I would start writing everything down.  The woman reminded me of the me I used to know.  Strong, independent and quick witted. I could sense all of it in here eyes. She was going to help me disguise my new flaw and keep my secret.

 

I open the journal.  I’m always amazed when I read things that I wrote previously, especially the things I wrote when I was just a kid.  My mom sometimes sends me writings she runs across.  I was full of it back then, even more so than now, but what I ran across this time was different.  I ran across a prayer.  I tend to write these prayers when the need arises.  It’s how my grandmother taught me to pray.  I never verbally heard her in prayer but I knew she was a Godly woman and prayed for her family.  It’s just one of the blessings she gave me.  The ability to pray for my family.    The prayer started like this:

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Thank you God for all you are doing on behalf my family.  Please help us provide a home for A so he can begin to heal mentally and emotionally.  Please assist D in his endeavors to provide for all of us.  He is trying so hard to provide us with a new home so there will be enough space to provide a room for every individual.  It is important for everyone to have their own space.  Please help N control her impulses and be able to advance in school.  Please help J and K come to a better understanding and begin the healing process.  Thank you for all the success that B had made.  I owe all the glory to you.  Thanking you in advance for all the miracles that are coming my way.  In Jesus name I thank you and pray.  D.

 

A simple prayer for some big issues.  A simple prayer I forgot I made.

 

We closed on our home on January 31. 2012.  It must have been ordained, It happen so fast.  We had put our house up for sale in the previous December.  We found our new home in the middle of January and closed on within 15 days.  We started moving in the week of Valentines.  We were moving things in slowing because we didn’t have to rush, the old house was still up for sale and we were debating on did we want to keep it or really sell it. 

 

I was taking my time because I hadn’t been feeling well.  I had a trip to the emergency room in December and again in January, but my blood glucose level was high.  When you’re a diabetic and your glucose is high that’s what they treat, they do not necessarily look for anything else.  I had a feeling of impending doom and I remember telling my boss, “By the time I get my family settled, I’ll be in the hospital somewhere.”   In less than a month, our old house sold.  We went to closing on a Friday.  I took off work for the occasion because we had to get the rest of the stuff out of the house.

 

That Sunday I had been unpacking, separating boxes, putting things I did not necessarily have to deal with in closets.  It was work and I was feeling overwhelmed and I had been complaining all weekend.  I was tired of this and I was tired of that.  I didn’t sign on for this.  I quit!  I will no longer take the responsibility of others, I quit!

 

As the evening worn down, I was feeling good about what I had accomplished in the house.  Around midnight I went to bed.  As soon as I hit the pillow instantly I did not feel good.  I got up and went to the bathroom and out of nowhere vomited.  I did not feel sick, no pains or nausea so my first reaction is that it must have been something I ate.  Five hours later laying on the bathroom floor I was exhausted.  I literally could not get up.  I had been calling for someone, but no one heard my calls.  Finally I decided to call on God and I prayed, “If it’s your will God, please help me get off this floor.”  I heard him question, “Are you really tired and ready to quit?”  I had to think about it.  I had a chance to make my thoughts right and I said “No!”  I started crawling out of the bathroom.  Out of my bedroom and collapsed at the bedroom door.  About an hour later by daughter came out of her room and saw me on the floor and called her father.

 

He came home and took me to the emergency room.  Turns out the gallbladder had perforated, and gangrene had set in.  It had been dying probably since December and if I would have waited another hour, I would have died.  The shock to the body set off an underlying medical condition that I had under control.  I never went back to work.  They could not wait for me to get better.  They retired me five months later to fill my position.

 

Now looking at this prayer I realized the answers I have been looking for the last 20 months has been staring me in the face all this time. Stabbing at my heart every moment I have defied the inevitable.  It was his will for me to live to provide a home for A.  It was his will for me to help my family and to keep praying for them.   I’m home for the first time in my adult life.  A stay at home mom and wife. Anything else I get to do is gravy.

To answer your questions, Yes N did finish school.  All of the kids are doing fine.  After all, that’s what I’m here for.

 

I needed to close that chapter of my life.  I’m ready to get well now and move forward.  Thanks for listening wonders and

Thank you God, I owe you all the glory.  Thanking you in advance for all the miracles that are coming my way.

Girl Power

Hello Wonders:

“I’m off the friendship level”, he said. “I’m on the first level and I’m gonna keep changing levels until I’m on the girlfriend level. That will be when I’m in high school.” These are the words of my sixth grader first thing this morning. We had just sat down for breakfast. I hadn’t even had a chance to sip on my coffee and I must have had a look that made him feel I was perplexed because he said it again.

I asked the question of what is first level.

His response: I met a girl and I’m gonna get two passes for us to go to art class at lunch. We had lunch together and I like her and she likes to draw like me.

Okay, I understand.

Last semester he met a girl that liked music and played on the school orchestra. He joined the orchestra at the deadline and started playing the violin. Turns out he is pretty good at it. He is artistic but did not elect to have art as a class this year but he changed his roster to take art this semester for the new level interest.

Little does he know he has been on the first level for a while now. Last summer he learned to ride a bike from the little girl across the street. She is younger than he is but a girl just the same. At least six family members have been trying to teach him to ride for several years now but the little girl across the street gave him the confidence to let go of his fear.

While he was learning to swim, he held his breath, went under water and opened his eyes because the female life guard called him cute.

Dear Girls:

I thank you for encouraging my son to try new things. Please continue to use your girl powers for good and not evil. Be warned, if/when you start leading him unto a path of destruction, I will be there to thwart your efforts. Until that time, I love you.
Sincerely,
His Mom

I think I have about another three years before I have to worry about the high school girlfriend because when he came home I asked him how his lunch date went. He replied, “It was okay but you’re still my best girl.

Until next time, thanks for perusing and keep wondering.

Stepparent

Good morning wonders.

I dislike the word stepparent. So many people do not understand the meaning of the word. The dictionary defines it as someone that your mother or father marries after the marriage to or relationship with your other parent has ended. Well step parents I’m here to define it a little more for you and as my grandfather would say, “If you throw a stone at a pack of dogs, the one that hollers is the one you hit!”

Disclaimer: I’m speaking to the stepparents whose spouses have visitation rights and don’t use them.

I think the definition of stepparent should include the perspective of a child. That’s the missing element. So from the child’s point of view I’m redefining the definition to include some points of reference from the child.

If you are a stepparent and your spouses children are not allowed over your house, you are not a stepparent.

If you are a stepparent and your spouse is mentally, physically, financially or socially supporting your children but is not supporting their own, you are not a stepparent. As a woman I have never been able to understand this one myself. I don’t know how you would expect a child to understand.

If you are a stepparent and your spouse has had no communication with their child, can you help them? It won’t be easy in all cases but we have FaceTime, Skype, Twitter, Instagram and a host of other ways of communicating that distant should no longer be a deterrent.

Look I know a lot of you have reasons for why your not involved in your children’s lives but if it’s not a court ordered situation to stay away, you may need to look deeper and find a way to make a place into your child’s life. As far as my definition goes:

Stepparent – you stepped into a child’s life because you saw there was a need. But fulfilling that step makes you a parent.

Step parenting is not for the weak hearted. I want to see you be brave.

My Get Well Quilt

Hello Wonderers:

I woke up this morning to a wonderful breakfast courtesy of my granddaughter J. She left it on my nightstand because I was sleep.

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I especially loved the details of her mind. The glove is definitely a special touch.

You guys have to go over to Prettyladybaby to see what she’s been up to. She is having a 100 blog giveaway Friday but I must show you the get well quilt she sent me for recovery. My picture doesn’t do it any justice but I’m sure she has a better one. I call it the rainbow guilt. It’s light but very warming and it is the first to bare her logo name.

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I didn’t get a chance to show you guys what me and the children did for the holiday so here is a recap.

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We made lots of goodies for our neighbors and friends. Shifted around a lot of dentures at the senior citizen community center. They loved them but we will have to make them much smaller next time. Alex and mine first time at making candy. We went on and made Caramel popcorn when we got tired of cutting and wrapping the candy. A Christmas Eve dinner for a family we met at the rehab center that got to go home. Coconut macaroons for everyone who rang the doorbell. Whether they liked them or not. And… Cinnamon muffins just because they make the house smell like Christmas, to me that is. Last but not least Kerrie and I started on the Artsy Oven Mitts.

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This face says it all so please go over http//www.prettyladybaby.com and show her some love. We are two down (my templates) 108 to go!

As always thanks for perusing and keep wondering

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