Ten on Tuesday

1.  So it's been busy around the birdhouse.  Last week we had Packy going through thumb withdrawal.  We painted the nasty THUM stuff on every finger so that any chance of thumb replacement was eliminated.  It was really sad.  He couldn't sleep and this is my child who loves to sleep. Napping in the car was immediately eliminated.  He was tossing and turning at night and could not position himself to sleep without his thumb being in his face.  He was grumpy and took out his frustration on a kid at school.  We are about 10 days in now and it has gotten better. (He does tell me when he gets in the bed that he's lonely.  I don't know exactly how he is feeling without the comfort of his thumb, but to him it's lonely.  Interesting word huh?)
2.  In case you didn't see on my Facebook, Betsy is famous.

Source: youaremyfave.com via payton on Pinterest

The Tweed Run (read about it on the blog below) was on Saturday (in NYC) and her family was photographed and then put on a fashion blog, Unabashedly Prep.  From there she was reblogged and even pinned.  It's really interesting to watch how fast you can travel on the Internet and the judgements people can make about you just by looking at one picture.  One person felt this way, "This family cannot possibly be happy. They are too well dressed. If those parents spent half as much time tending to their children’s emotional needs as they do dressing them in stylish sweater vests, we wouldn’t have another John and Kate problem on our hands."   Really?  You got all of that from just a picture of a family who dressed up for an event? Whatever angry blogger.  Here's another one from a blog called How to be my Boyfriend and it says, "you must want and love children as much as she does and agree to the weird bohemian names she plans to call them."   That one is actually more on the money. 
3.  Betsy is really really ticked at Tori Spelling for naming her third child Hattie.  I don't know how she will let her know how mad she is,  but she is mad.  How dare she steal her name! Whatever Donna Martin.
4.  I have come up with a new job for myself.  I want to be a bridal registry consultant.  I have been married for almost 15 years now and I look around the house and still see wedding presents.  Some good, some bad.  Some have been gone for years (think navy towels and lots of themed margarita glasses).  Let's face it, twenty somethings, about to get married,  have no idea what they will actually use or what they need.  This is where I come in.  I will take you to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and instead of letting you run wild with the scanner gun I will show you what will help you in your kitchen.  You will not register for crazy colored sheets.  You will get white sheets and white towels.  We will go for quality cook wear and knives.  (We might need to bring in your local Cutco dealer and let him set up a separate registry.)  Don't go to your local boutique and register for a bunch of cutesy stuff that you will be sick of way before your 5th anniversary.  Let me guide you.  (My all time favorite wedding present was a homemade quilt.  It has been on every picnic and snuggles on the couch with you anytime you need it.)
5.  It's Halloween time.  My parents did Halloween when I was really little but then they read a book or went to some conference that told them they were worshipping Satan, so we stopped trick or treating.  We started going to Hallelujah parties where you were only allowed to dress like someone from the Bible. Picture a ton of angels, Marys, and sheppards.  Betsy was the fruit of the Spirit one year.  She wore a leotard and had balloons pinned on her as the fruit.  If only I could find a picture. (For the record, we thought the parties were lame.) I know lots of Christians don't participate and I am totally fine with that.  You get to decide how to raise your children.  I do like how the Joy in this Journey mom puts it here.  And since this is my blog and I can say what I want, I will say that in my adult life I have never met a person who questioned their faith or the faith of their parents based on how they celebrated (or didn't celebrate) Halloween, Christmas, or Easter.  Just sayin'. (On the other hand, Packy and I walked out of Party City because it was way too scary for either of us.  Cute costumes, I like.  Adult scary stuff, I do not.)

6.  Speaking of the Fruit of the Spirit.  I had a painting party this past week.  A local artist felt called by God to help people put scripture on the wall.  She started with one design and asked people on Facebook if they would be interested in learning how to paint and incorporate their favorite verse into the painting.  People said yes and before she knew it she was booked through March.  At my party we painted the fruit of the Spirit on a pear.  I am no artist but with her step by step instructions I was able to make something I really like.

7.  Emotionally this week has been tough.  The children are learning lessons in friendship.  I am also learning lessons in friendship.  I am so happy and feel so blessed to have the people that God has placed in my life.  I had two conversations this week that were tough and that I would have totally handled differently in my past life.  One would have made me mad, and one I would have avoided completely and put distance between me and my friend.  I am trying to teach my kids, especially my daughter, that sometimes you have to make things right by talking, apologizing, and forgiving.  (Tough for kids and adults.) If I can't be honest with my friends and they feel they can't be honest with me, then I am back to having lots of friends and still being lonely.  I would rather walk through the hard conversations to get to the stronger friendship.

8.  I got up early for the first time in a while yesterday.  I read Colossians 3 and wrote in my prayer journal about keeping my eyes on the Lord.  Too bad by 8am that was all out the window and I was a frazzled mess.  I wasn't keeping perspective and I was overwhelmed.  Somehow I said yes to a few "little" things that put all together, made a big bunch of stuff.  So I went to the gym and worked out the anxiety. (And I mean the racing heart, sweaty kind of anxiety.  No pills here.  Just straight up, hard core exercise.  I love my gym.) Then I went to the pumpkin patch. 

9.  Sometimes when I feel overwhelmed I try to do everything except the things I am supposed to do.  The past few days that has manifested itself in baking a cake, and playing Fruit Ninja and Tap Fish 2 on my phone.  Fruit Ninja is mindless fun and Tap Fish is something I can obsess over.  Packy wanted to buy this game where you raise and sell fish but it's me who is constantly checking to see if they need to be fed or loved. I am trying to save my fish bucks to buy a new plant for my aquarium.  Sad right?  Just give me a few days and you will be amazed at all the fish I have.

10.  Jason told me yesterday that we really need to figure out how to keep the kids stuff and homework out of the kitchen and den.  Let me get right on that.  Any suggestions?