Mom Challenge: Day 5

Challenge #12:

Pray for wisdom in mothering your child.

I ask my husband, "What do you think I should do about today's mom challenge? It says to pray for wisdom in mothering your child, should I re-phrase that? Or just skate around it?"

I am not religious. I was raised Christian. Most of my friends are very religious. My family is all religious. I respect many people and many different faiths. I just choose not to practice any. I get a lot of criticism for this from other people. It's usually best for me to avoid this topic.

My husband tells me, "Why wouldn't you put what you think? It's your blog isn't it? People should like and read your blog for who you are, not who you pretend to be."

Such a wise man.

I am always overly afraid of offending people. But this is my blog and my place to write. So my husband asks me, "what do you do besides pray for wisdom?"

Instead of praying for wisdom in mothering my child, today I will:

• Look up one new parenting technique
• Ask others for their best bit of parenting advice
• Practice patience in mothering my child today

Today I will promise myself to continually gain wisdom by educating myself and taking advice from others on how to be the best parent I can be. 

I also promise to continue to be myself and always respect the beliefs of others.

Mom Challenge: Day 4

The date is 10/11/12...what a cool day! Challenge #11

Tell your child, "I'm so glad you're my son".

At about 7am this morning I am getting ready to leave for work. I hear Jasen in his room clicking something (sounds like a pen). I go in and ask him what he's doing. He smirks and says "noooothingggg...". He likes to mess with me, especially early in the morning. We joke around and I try to get him to show me what he has, but he holds it tight behind his back.

This is the point where I give up. I'm sure he's not smoking crack or something, so I'm pretty much ok with whatever he's clicking. I still don't know what it was.

When Jasen stops giggling, I take the opportunity before I leave to tell him how happy I am that he's my son. He sarcastically says "no you're not". Then he laughs and runs to the bathroom. I laugh, call him a weirdo, tell him I love him and to have a good day. He yells back that he loves me and hopes I have a good day too.

I wish I had a more heartfelt story to share for today's mom challenge, but it is what it is. And then again, I really don't wish there was any other story. :)

Mom Challenge: Day 3

Today is the 10th so we are on to challenge #10:

Today's mom focus: Joy

All day I have been thinking about what brings me joy as a mother. Obviously, my son's big accomplishments or awards, and the A's on his report cards. But today I wanted to focus on the more subtle, everyday things that bring me joy as a mom.

• It brings me joy to talk to my son everyday, he is growing up into such a cool person
• It brings me joy to laugh with my son over stupid things
• It brings me joy that Jasen and I have a similar weirdo sense of humor that not a lot of other people understand
• It brings me joy to come into a room and see my child reading a book
• It brings me joy to laugh with Jasen over the pre-mustache hair I spotted on him today
• It brings me joy to see my son wearing crazy, mismatched socks (our house runs on the philosophy that you are lucky to find 2 clean socks, don't worry if they match)
• It brings me joy to know that Jasen took part in the anti-bully activities at school, he is always standing up for others

Tonight was parent/teacher conferences at my son's school. The lines to speak to each teacher were long and we had to wait for several people to go ahead of us. As I was sitting there thinking, "I really wish I could hurry up and get this done", I stopped myself. I looked at Jasen, who was sitting next to me looking bored out of his mind. I laughed and told him, "You know, they won't have parent/teacher conferences when you are in college. We only have a few years left of meeting your teachers, we better enjoy it!" 

Now of course he looked at me like I was insane. But it is these little moments that fly by, that we will miss as our kids grow up. Taking two hours out of a Wednesday night was more than worth my time to show my son that I care about his education  I try to be the best parent I can be, and seeing my son happy is really one of the greatest joys of being a mom.

I lied and told him I was taking a picture of the dogs. He doesn't like it when I snap random photos.

I fessed up to taking this one for the blog. He happily posed to show off his crazy sock combo. 

Mom Challenge: Day 2

Challenge #9 for October 9th:

Picture yourself at your child's age, try to remember how you felt.

I can see myself as an 11, almost 12 year old. At this time I was obsessed with being a dancer and spent all of my time doing so. I was in 6th grade, my last year in elementary school. I got into my first fight and had my first french kiss :)

I was in that awkward spot between becoming a teen and still feeling like a kid. I was more mature than the other kids, I already had boobs! I remember feeling insecure about my looks. I remember feeling like I didn't know where I belonged. I fell in love 3 times that year. I found out what the word "slut" meant. I changed best friends a few times.

My baby brother was born when I was 11. I remember he was born early and very sick. Seeing him now, you would never know that. He is 15 and taller than me.

I remember trying to separate myself from my parents at this time. I became more involved with friends and less involved with family. I need to keep this in mind now that my son is this age. This is a crucial time for development and gaining confidence in yourself. This is a time when the importance of family needs to be stressed, and the importance of positive friends should be emphasized. This is a time when your child's self-esteem should be built up everyday, because unfortunately there will be kids who try to break it down.

I want to freeze my son at this age forever.

Here's a picture of me when I was about 11:

And a side by side photo:

The Beginning of the Mom (Parent) Challenge: Day 1

In an effort to remember to continually grow as a mother, I want to complete this 30 day mom challenge from www.imom.com .

Since today is October the 8th, I am going to complete challenge #8.

#8 Calculate how many more weekends are left until your child graduates high school. 

If all goes well, my son should graduate in about May of 2019.

Hmmm a general estimate may be the best I can do...

There are approx 52 weekends in a year. About 7 more years until 2019.

It looks like we have about 364 weekends until Jasen graduates high school!

Right now this seems like a big number, but I know the time will continue to fly by as it already has. I have grown as a mother, always trying to improve and have more patience. It's hard to believe the tiny baby I brought home from the hospital is already 11 years old. In addition to this feeling, I have an overwhelming sense of pride as I look at the young man my son is becoming. He is kind, smart, funny and handsome.

Here is a picture of him I took this weekend, I can't wait for tomorrow's challenge!

Vintage Comic Book Mail Holder

I went thrifting for a little inspiration this afternoon. I came across an amazing vintage store {I will write a post about this store soon}! I also came across some great finds at my local Goodwill. One of my finds was this little work of art:

This was $3.00 and in great shape. I'm not really into the fake plant/palm tree picture wall art, so I scrapped the fake leaves and the Styrofoam they came in. I also managed to pop off the back and take out the palm tree picture. This is what I ended up with:

After those fake leaves were removed, I had a nice slot for mail! I wasn't sure If I wanted to paint this or try something else. Then I remembered what I found at that cool vintage store:

I decided to use the pages from this 1967 comic book to cover my mail holder. This sort of thing isn't everyone's style, but I thought it would be pretty rad.

Supplies:

I cut out pages to fit the different angles of the mail holder and mod podged them on. This was slightly messy :) I actually got a little sticky trying to smooth out all of my edges. I am pretty happy with the final product!

I replaced the palm tree pic with a saying I love. And I threw in some bright yellow paper. I hope you like it!