Never Ever Dull
With every conversation, I always seem to end with "Never a dull moment"....our lives are rich, complex, and beautiful stories. Join me in laughing about everyday things and appreciating life-bumpy roads and all.
You can't always get what you want. -The Rolling Stones Yep, I agree with The Rolling Stones. Here, I sit in front of my fire on a balmy 70 degree day (we don't really need the fire but it's for the ambiance). Christmas tunes blaring and visions of my beautifully decorated tree dancing in my head. I spent the day making pink bows for my wreaths and could see a sweet cottage-style, maybe even farm house style, rustic-ally lovely tree ready to be decorated to complete the look. But you can't always get what you want. We just finished pulling out all the ornaments, sharing memories about who made them or who gave them to us. My kids fight over the placement of their favorite things they made. There is constant changing of the arrangement of ornaments so that their personal favorites are front and center. Then, the Chick Fil-A stuffed cow comes out of the box. How did that get there in the first place? Yes, he has a Santa hat on and even a Santa suit covers most of his body. The fighting over the placement of the ornaments seizes. Now, there is much discussion of where to place the Santa cow that doesn't even fit into the theme of my Christmas tree filled with sweet growing-up memories. What happened to my theme for our Christmas-styled home? Don't I get a say? It is nice, downright incredibly peaceful, to have the fighting of the ornaments stop. It was a completely unanimous decision where the cow's "home" should be on our tree. Unanimous vote by the kids, not me. I'm still holding out for my shabby chic, slightly rustic, sweet look. I argue: But, do we really have to place a big ol' stuffed cow on our tree? He has absolutely nothing to do with our memories...No one could recall how he ended up in our box of ornaments. But yet, he is now sitting in the middle of our tree....actually close to the tree topper (we haven't agreed if that should be a big glittery star that loses the silver shiny specks even if you just look at it or my beautifully created shabby-chic bow). I lost out on getting the Southern Living looking-tree and ended up with a Santa cow holding some banner about "Eat Mor Chikin", but I've gotten more peace and quiet since he found a home nestled in our tree...and that's always a good thing around here. So, The Rolling Stones are absolutely right. You can't always get what you want, but sometimes that's a good thing.
0 Comments
I walked into the school function and did a quick glance-around in hopes to find a mom or family. That way, I wouldn't have to sit alone I really dislike entering an event by myself and having to work my way into the crowd, the sea of families. Pondering through all that, I see a mom who is uncharacteristically without her husband. I plop down beside her. She immediately pipes up: "Amy, I thought of you this week. I was a single mom too!" Her husband had been out of town all week and she had been "on" with all schooling and after schooling activities She had been the chef, the doctor, the tutor, and the cab driver all rolled into one. I wanted to scream from the mountain top: "At least, you have reinforcements coming back into the action!" But.... I smiled and nodded as I listened to her week. It was a challenging week for her but it's my "normal" What is "normal"? I don't know any more ...I think it's just a setting on my washer. Actually, I think "normal" looks so different for all of us. We're all dealing with so many things behind our smiles and nods. I met with a friend who is now a widow, losing his wife to cancer. He shared that he wished that he could help other single parents out. You see, he has opened his life telling the up's and down's of single parenthood through his writing. People hear his plight and respond often with food (he said his freezer was stocked with casseroles for a year!). But my story doesn't get shared openly. For one, I'm under a "gag" order, legally confining me to not confide in anyone what happened. ...For another, it just plain hurts and by telling it, the wounds open again. Yes, there is healing in that...but sometimes, I just don't want to go there....again and again. So I clam up. Smile and nod. Smile and nod. That's my "normal". Yet...everyone has a story. Few share openly. Most just do the smile-nod thing and hope to survive the next hill on life's roller coaster ride. .But the wheels in my head are always spinning..., I think it could be a life changer if we could plop down and look intently at another person's eyes and say something like: "I got an itty bitty glimpse of your world this week. How do you do it? How can I help?" Maybe, just maybe, we can all admire and appreciate each other more. Get each other a bit better. Understand the challenges each individual uniquely faces. And be there more for each other. There's a huge risk involved in asking others "real-life" questions and in being vulnerable enough to respond with more than an Oscar winning performance... But it's worth the risk. Who knows you just might get a freezer casserole dinner if you choose to be real and not to simply "fake it to you make it". " So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you’ll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you’re already doing this; just keep on doing it." I Thessalonians 5:11 (The Mesage) As some of you know, I got the opportunity to live out a little dream of mine this past football season: becoming a sports announcer. Initially, it was quite intimidating to walk upstairs into the sports box::coaches with headsets intensely calling out plays, athletic directors, referees, and important male people. It was very male dominated-not one female ever came to that sports box....but I did it. I figured out the equipment that would make my voice and my music blare across the stadium. I memorized the numbers and the players. I managed to keep my voice steady and remained unbiased. (I had promised myself and the football parents that I'd never say: "...And that's a fourth down with a coun-----try mile to go" in a thick southern accent or any other obnoxious announcer-type sayings.) But even more than those things, I learned three biggies: 1. Your high school football player is a bit embarrassed when you are up in the box so it's best not to select "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" for your halftime playlist. 2. Even though I love decorating and making things shabby chic and girl-ee, it's best not to suggest that we paint the sports box and add florals and happy prints to the bleak decor. It will always remain the original man-cave. 3. It's ok to make a mistake and call things out incorrectly. The parents on the bleachers get a chuckle and simply would turn around and yell up at me letting me know what I needed to announce. It helped build community among those in the stands. They applauded when I got it right =). Towards the end of the season, I didn't make as many mistakes. I saw kids dancing to my music selections and parents found me at the end of the game to shake my hand or hug me, thanking me. I learned the sweetness of having a football family. So, who knows if this is the start of a new career?! I just know that my son got over the embarrassment of having his mom on the loudspeaker, his friends would seek me at practices to ask me to announce their names a bit more, and everyone had a good time. =) Yep, you read that right. Actually, I've pondered the whole I-think-I-want-to-become-Amish thing twice in my life. The first time was following a rotten season that started with a click on google history and seeing my picture perfect marriage unravel. The Amish thought didn't occur to me until a road trip. My girls and I were traveling back from Cincinnati after spending time with my closest friend, Cynthia. We were somewhere in Kentucky and extremely hungry. Searching for any food place, we exited for a Sonic. It was incredibly dark but as I approached the stop at the end of the ramp, I told my darling daughters that I thought I had seen an Amish buggy. They thought I was delusional. We pulled into the Sonic, placed our order, and waited. As we chatted about random life things, a boy approached the Sonic walk up window and waited to place his order. He was Amish. No joke. I guess the buggy dropped him off since it wasn't in sight. However, my point was proven. I had spotted an Amish person. The rest of that road trip was pretty much consumed with me questioning whether or not I could make it in the Amish world: I could live without television, air conditioning, and even computers and cell phones. I discussed it all the way home, the rest of that week, and for the rest of the month. My Oldest researched it for me using the computer (I was experimenting to see if I could live without modern conveniences)....She convinced me that I couldn't drag our family into the whole Amish thing. I tossed the idea and didn't consider it again until a week ago. Stuff happened in my life and it led me to that lingering question: would it just be better to live a simpler life and go be Amish? (I don't think "go be Amish" is correct grammar....but hopefully, you understand). I contemplated it again. But one morning this past week, I woke up and it hit me: I'd miss my Kuerig. So once again, I've put off moving to Amish country. I'm back to blogging as I sit in front of my gas logs (pretty sure Amish don't use those...I'll have to research that on my electronic devices since I can use them.) and about to select a movie on the tv....Yep, I've contemplated the Amish thing but for now, I'll stick with this life =) |
AuthorFun-loving mom to 4 kids and 1 big puppy. Fifth grade teacher of amazing little people who have never ending things to share with me. Love to discuss Jesus, diy projects, and life. Trying to keep it simple: Love Jesus, love people. Archives
December 2021
Categories |