Ten on Tuesday

Ten on Tuesday AKA Ten on Maybe Before 10pm on Tuesday

(If I had my assistant I could probably get this done on time.  No one applied. No one.)

1.  This fat little baby is 10 today.  How did that happen?  I remember having him like it was yesterday.  I was so blinded by new mother love that I did not even notice the GIANT hematoma on his head.  In my eyes, he was perfect.  I never knew that this little bundle of joy would teach me how much I needed a Savior.  How I can't do it on my own.  How much patience I need to do the work that God called me to as a mother.  And how the blessing of seeing him grow up would make me happier than anything I had previously experienced.

2.  Macon is infested with 13 year cicadas.  They have been here a couple of weeks now and I am totally grossed out.  First of all it sounds like a car alarm is going off somewhere close and it never stops.  The cycle of the 13 year cicada is as follows: 1. Come out of the ground. 2. Shed skin. 3. Sing to attract mates.  4. Mate 5. Lay eggs or Die (males).  We are at the singing, mating, dying stage.  It is so loud.  Packy is starting to notice that some of the cicadas are "stuck together" (ewwww).  And our driveway is now a graveyard for male "already done it" cicada bodies.  We have made up some games which involve throwing balls up in to the trees to see how many fly out or hitting a branch with a golf club for the same reason.  Did I mention they have creepy red eyes?

3.  These are some of the parenting phrases I have been using this week: 

You are not a bad person.  You just made a bad decision and now you have to deal with the consequences. (This helps when people are super dramatic when they get in trouble.)

If it is not inside your hula hoop, you don't need to worry about it.

 (Basically this is another way of saying mind your own business.  You can be concerned about things happening in your life, but if it is concerning other people (like your other two siblings) then it is outside of your hula hoop.  I also like this phrase because it says hula hoop and you know I love my hula hoops.)

4.  I gasped loudly today at The Fresh Market.  This is a habit of mine that drives Jason crazy.  He assumes that a loud gasp automatically means something awful has happened.  It doesn't.  My gasp can mean something awesome has happened and today that is exactly what it meant.  I was walking up the soda isle when I saw a NEW ITEM sign and there were my favorite, previously not sold in Macon, Blenheim ginger ale bottles.  I literally was online yesterday contemplating $16 shipping in order to get some of this ginger ale.  Lee used to bring it from Charlotte and I would fight to drink them all.  I just found out that the Fountain of Juice sold them but now I can buy them myself.  Fresh Market now has my favorite taffy (thank you to my sweet friend who knows how much I love the taffy and is even willing to hide it from my kids so I don't have to share) and my favorite ginger ale.  Love you Fresh Market! (This ginger ale is not for everyone, it has a kick.)

5.  Jay and Emory both let their mouths get them in to trouble this week.  Jay used his in anger and said something that got him in to trouble.  Emory used hers to say something she didn't know the meaning of and because it was inappropriate, she had to have a sit down talk with her mama.  Thankfully, God has a answer to both of these situations.

Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Matthew 5:37

Words are so powerful.  I have often used words as a weapon and it's just as bad as actually injuring someone.  This verse helps me (and the kids) to remember that I need to mean what I say, don't say something I don't mean, and certainly don't say something if I don't know what it means.  And if you let your mouth open too fast, you will have to make right what you said by whatever means necessary.

6.  Tamra is really skanking it out.  Alex and Sonja are proving to be crazy.  And Bethenny really inspires me.  If you don't know what I am talking about then go on living your Bravo-less life.  (At least I don't watch Y & R anymore.)

7.  This is the effort put in to Jay's birthday so far.  I made him a birthday sign out of plywood after the kids went to bed and Jason hung it on the school fence at 9 something last night.  Today I bought Nutty Buddies for his class and took them to the school.  I made him a homemade lasagna  for his family party (which was 17 people).  The lasagna required two different grocery stores (blessing in disguise with the ginger ale). I got his favorite mint chocolate chip ice-cream and made brownies to go with it for dessert.  The smile, that I did not see leave his face all day, was worth it for me. (I also enjoyed the feedback from the labor intensive lasagna.  I wondered half way through if I should have just bought a Stouffers.  Glad I made the effort.)  I hope his Friday party goes this smoothly.

8.  If I could review my parenting over the past 10 years (scary thought) I wonder how many times I disciplined because I was inconvenienced.  How many times were the kids just getting in the way of what I wanted to do and not really needing correction?  How many times did I snap at their childish irresponsibility and claim that they were not being respectful?  Things run so much better when I am present enough to know when correction is needed and when I am just tired and people are getting up on my nerves, and yes there is a difference.

9. When Packy jumps on the trampoline he looks like he is going to break his neck every time he does a trick.



10. I often have said to Jason that I think that some reality TV is actually real.  And then I observed my kids when a video camera is around.  This cleared it all up for me.  People do not act like themselves when the camera is rolling.  It becomes a show even if it is just some backyard jumping.  They start talking weird and narrating what they are doing.  I still want to believe a little bit.