My Name is Mommy

…and yet none of you told me that the 40 days in Lent don’t count the Sundays????? Hello??? Man, that was a rude awakening!

As you may have read, Bald Man and I gave up meat for Lent. All meat, as in all animal flesh. And no, not just on Fridays. And no, we’re not Catholic (not that there’s anything wrong with that). And no, we don’t usually give up anything for Lent.

I think I was tired one night and said, “We should give up meat for Lent.” And Bald Man said, “Okay.” And we did. That’s why I shouldn’t talk when I’m tired.

But there were a few logical reasons that I wouldn’t have probably gone into except that Bald Man mentioned it. So, if you’re curious as to why, here’s goes:

1-Gain an appreciation for our wealthy diet. We live in a country where food, and meat specifically, is so abundant. If I stop to complain about the fact that I don’t have meat in a meal (and I have been!), it reminds me of people who have no meal at all. Of moms feeding their babies termites and bamboo, or have nothing at all to feel their babies and have to hold them and watch them as they cry and die of hunger. I’m spoiled. I know it. I need to remind myself of it, stop whining, and be reminded why we do what we do with some of our extra.

2-Vary our diets. There are so many foods that we don’t even try because we get content with our 5 normal meals. We’ve tried edamame (YUM!), and tofu (not bad marinated in lemon juice and cilantro and tossed in the middle of rice and beans and sour cream and corn salsa). Also remembered how much I like cottage cheese!

3-Be thankful for what we have no matter what it is. Kinda like #1, but a little more simple and straightforward.

4-I’m a masochist. Not really, but I miss meat!!!!! Chicken mostly, since I pretty much eat it daily. And I’ve had to cook it a few times since we started, and it was so hard not to take a nibble!

No, we haven’t made the kids do it, though I think they could live on yogurt, pb&j’s, pancakes, and mac and cheese and never be the wiser.

I have stopped having the dreams where I’m about to eat a ham sandwich or a buffalo wing only to realize that I couldn’t have it. That happened the first week or so. But now I found out that Lent is 46ish days?!?! Those dreams might come back.

Hey all! Sorry I’ve been so off and on lately. There is stuff going on, and I’ll try to get more of it out here. I’ve missed you guys.
Okay, so, tying up loose ends…

You’ll remember I had a contest celebrating my one year here at My Name is Mommy. Thanks again for being here with me! Anyway, anyone submitting a comment (sans the spammers…grrrr…) from this post through the end of June was entered to win either a box of Esther Price chocolates or an Amazon gift certificate worth $15. And the winner is….
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…and I’m guessing you might wonder, am I still So. Totally. Psyched?

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It’s only 5 days until the World Vision BBQ Benefit!!!!! So much still to do, but I’m still way excited, and the excitement of the friends who are helping me and encouraging me in this is a huge blessing to me.

Today, a friend came over to help me prepare the house a bit. I thought we were just going to straighten up a craft corner, but we ended up rearranging two rooms, cleaning a bunch of stuff out, and reorganizing what was left. Did I mention that she’s an interior designer? And a REALLY good one at that?

And did I mention that another friend had taken all my kids so that we could get as much work done as possible today? And another offered to take them another day this week if I need them to?

I have really good friends. And I’m thankful for them.

And I think of all the moms who need good friends to walk through life with them. And tonight I hope and pray that every mom has at least one person who will love and encourage her through this stage of life.

And now my house is getting really pretty.

And the BBQ is only 5 days away.

And I am still So. Totally. Psyched.

Are you coming?

Hey! Did you see that fancy new (ha—I almost typed “knew”) button over there on the right? That’s the button my honey made for me. Okay, not just for me, but for that BBQ to benefit World Vision that I’ve been getting all excited over and blathering on about. btw-Don’t expect the blathering to stop anytime soon.
So, anyway, our friend designed these adorable postcard invites for the BBQ, and we’ll get them into as many hands as we can before the BBQ, but we are doing them as we see people. Therefore, if I won’t be seeing you anytime soon and you do live in the area, consider this your official invitation to the party! Just click on that button for more info. Or just click on it because Baldman will be so excited that it’s getting used. Or just click it because it’s fun.
Hope to see you there.

Alternate Title:

‘Cause celebrities aren’t the only ones who get to party with their friends for a good cause….

Okay, so, almost a year ago (I KNOW…can you believe it!?!) I wrote this post after coming home for an in-home product party thing. Go on over there and read it, because 1-I already wrote it and 2-I couldn’t write it better now.

Seriously, go read it.

I can wait.

Okay, soooooo…..I wrote that a year ago and guess what I did. Nothing. Nothing at all. Though the thoughts and idea of it all have not left me in this past year.

Fast forward to present:

In our home group (will explain that later), we all started talking about our gifts and passions, and the dreams we had for serving our communities using those gifts. I shared my idea for this party. A party where all of my friends would be invited for good music, great food, and lots of fun. Instead of coming together to buy kitchen products or candles or something else that we don’t really need (want, yes. need? I can’t say I’ve ever bought anything at one of those parties that I couldn’t live without), we combine our resources to support those who truly are in need. Of food, clean water, clothing, medicine, education, shelter, etc. All of those things that we take for granted. All of those things that we have always had, and never doubt that we will. All of those things that others die without. All of those things that we have the means to provide.

So, I shared all that with the group at the table (7 of us adults). And guess what happened. Give up? They all got so excited! They were like, “Yeah, we’re gonna do this!”

What an amazing feeling. To have hoped and dreamed to put this together, and then to share it with others and have them appear as passionate and excited about it as I was, that’s a feeling that’s gotta be better than any drug out there. I’ve been on a high with this one for a while.

So, anyway, everybody just started owning this from the start. And one of the coolest things is that we are all gifted in such very different ways, with different strengths, different perspectives, and different ideas. I love that they are excited about details that I never would have considered, that they’re asking answers of me to questions I would have forgotten to ask. That, together, we’ll be able to do more with this party than I would ever have been able to do on my own.

Have I mentioned that I. Am. So. Totally. Psyched? Oh yeah, baby.

Baldman and I are supposed to get a page out here just with the details for the party. I’ll let you know when it’s up. Let me know if you want to come! So far, we know that it’s Sunday, June 10th at 4:30 pm. Everyone is invited to come. We are raising money for World Vision. We’ve supported them through child sponsorship for over a decade, and trust them to do good with the funds they receive. Baldman particularly liked that they have a Gift Catalog. That way, like the candle/toy/kitchen product parties, you actually get to choose what gift your money is going to buy. Very fun, trust me.

But come no matter what. Even if you don’t have a penny to give, or aren’t sure that this is what you want to do with the pennies you do have. This is about being with friends, sharing a great time, being thankful for all that we have, and gaining information and opportunity to allow these same joys into the lives of others.

This is another reason that I’m thankful for that. Now that we’re free from the debt, we get to choose where our extra goes. I love it.

…that kid who, when we were growing up, came up with great ideas of how to rally the other kids and start a small business or organize a community project or some such thing. No, that wasn’t me. I was the one content to sit in my room and read for hours on end. No need to lead or organize or motivate or revolutionize our neighborhood. Not at all.

I think my oldest may have a bit of that kid in her, though.

One day a few weeks ago, Samantha and I were looking at her new calendar and she noticed that tomorrow, Sunday, April 22nd is Earth Day.

“Mom, what’s Earth Day?”

“Welllll (thinking…thinking…thinking…), it’s a day for us to remember to be thankful for the earth God gave us, to appreciate all of the things that we get from the earth, and to remember the things that we need to do to take care of it and leave it better than we found it.”

She thinks for a second and asks, “So, what are we going to do for Earth Day?” Because, of course, if there’s a special day for it and all, that must mean that some action is required of us. Obviously.

The original plan was for us to invite some of her friends to join us to help clean up the park near our home. I dropped the ball, we forgot to invite anyone along. However, she has still been counting down the days until we get out and clean things up. And she is SO. EXCITED. Seriously, I think only Christmas and her birthday have trumped the anticipation of this approaching event.

She’s even started talking about special trash bag harness things that we could use to carry the trash bags around to make it all easier. I’m sure by next year, she’ll have the business plan in place for it, and have convinced some neighborhood kid (or one of her brothers) to build the prototype for her.

Not Citibank! Or Discover….or Visa…or anything else that’s gonna gleefully lend me money at the bargain-basement rate of 19% a month.

And even better? We just made the last payment on our last credit card. Oh yeah, baby.

Yes, we have been here at other points in our marriage, but the difference now is that we also only used the card once in over a year. Seriously. And now we’re done with it.

I just wanted to share that because:

1. It feels great!

2. I’m proud that Baldman and I finally accomplished something that we set a goal to do.

3. I know there are some of you looking at the debt you’ve accrued and wonder if you’ll ever be able to pull yourself out of it. And I want to be a source of evidence and hope that, yes, you can do it. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do. It required a change in habits. It required sacrifices, more and different than I initially realized it might. But it was worth every bit of it.

We basically followed Dave Ramsey’s initial plans for getting out of debt. (Not that I’m saying you shouldn’t, but we didn’t buy anything, just went with the plan.) Baldman took the lead on this one, and laid out the plans, and showed when we would reach our goals and such. Seeing it as a possibility is what really motivated us, I think. And listening to a few Dave Ramsey podcasts as well.

It’s very freeing, and exciting, and I don’t ever want to be back in debt like that.

…and no time to read them. That’s what we have. We always have a big stack on our shelves from the library, in addition to the ones from our own collection, and I just don’t think we’ll get to them all before our time is up! Ah, well…

Here are the ones I’m currently in the middle of:

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. My friend (hey friend!) lent this to me, which was fantastic since I was still about 70th in line on the library’s reserve list. I’m enjoying it, though I’m going to start referring to it as my Chick-fil-A book, I think. Bald Man likes our little tradition of taking the kids to Chick-fil-A on Friday nights. We all have a yummy meal, and then he and the kids go in the playland while I sit and read. We started this little tradition when my youngest was a few months shy of being born. I do enjoy that time, but I’m beginning to think that’s the only time I read anymore! Every time I pick up this book, I realize that the last line I read was read the week before while sitting at a different table in Chick-fil-A. Gone are the days of knocking out novels left and right in 2-3 days! But I am enjoying the story. I’m definitely intrigued by it.

Boundaries by Dr. Cloud and Dr. Townsend. This is a book that has been recommended to me off and on since I was in college. I don’t think that’s been the case just because I have inabilities where it comes to setting and keeping boundaries, though I’m sure that might have something to do with it. I just started this one though (not such a long reserve line for it at the library).

Boundaries in Marriage also by Dr. Cloud and Dr. Townsend. I’d gone to Barnes and Noble to try to purchase Boundaries, and it was not there, but about 4 variations on the book were, including this one. I figure it never hurts to work on a marriage, and there should be good stuff to glean from this book as well. Now, if I just had time to sit and read it a bit more, that might make it actually useful.
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult This one I actually have borrowed on CD from the library. I took a trip awhile back and hoped to listen to it. It’s a long one, and I haven’t gotten through it yet. I keep it in the car to listen to when I’m alone (Yes, when I’m alone in the car. Guess how often THAT happens). I would not recommend listening to this when kids are around. I think this is the darkest of her books that I’ve “read” yet, and there are quite a few raunchy bits, but I still want to know what happened!

So, that’s what I’m reading, or not reading, for now. Exciting stuff, I know. I’m really not so good at the non-fiction reading, so I don’t know how much of the Boundaries books I’ll get through. I may end up skimming those to get the gist of what’s being said. And really, for non-fiction, they do have my attention so far. Well, as much attention as I have left to give them, which is not much. Bah.

Yeah, the networks were not helping me out last night at all.

I’m back on the calorie counting, again. This time for real, hopefully, but, well, you know. Anyway, I was all motivated to get back on the step last night while preoccupying my mind with some mindless drivel on TV. And, what was on? Nothing but the State of the Union Address, which, I’m sure, some of you would count as mindless drivel. HOWEVER, it is not the type of mindless drivel that allows you to get caught up in a story or something and forget that you really don’t want to be doing what you’re doing and OH MY GOSH how LONG are these 30 minutes going to last? I know, I know, 30 minutes last approximately (or exactly) 30 minutes long no matter what you’re watching. But, trust me, 30 minutes of stair stepping to POTUS reading his speech lasts a lot longer than 30 minutes of, say, The New Adventures of Old Christine or American Idol or, well, almost anything else. And since you already know we don’t have cable, you know that my options were few.

Yeah, I only lasted about 17 minutes. Tonight, however, I did make it the 30 minutes while watching American Idol. I’ve only ever watched a few episodes of it, but they caught me early in the evening this time, and so I was interested enough to keep with it while working out. Not sure why I’m telling you all of this…I’m starting to bore myself…..moving on….

So, anyway, I think I’m gonna make it this time. I know that I have to get this weight off. I know that I have to exercise and watch my calories to do it. I know that I want to be able to buy a dress of the rack (from a regular store) for a wedding coming up this May, and I know that I’ll have only myself to be ticked at if I can’t. And I know that the change in behaviour has to start now, and not tomorrow.

Here’s to today…