Do Something Saturday!

Saturdays can go down in history as awesome or lame. I remember before kids when Fred and I used to stay in bed till noon, watch Saturday movies till 4 then shower and head out to dinner. That scenario hasn't played out in about 13 + years. More recently I tend to use Saturdays to play catch up on laundry, changing sheets, grocery shopping, PTA work and keeping boys on track with doing something productive.

Sometimes we all head to a movie or someone has practice of some type or another. Sometimes we all stay in our pj's and just order pizza for dinner. I would rather put my head to my pillow at the end of the day feeling like I have accomplished something. Now and again that happens.  Today was one of those days.

Fred and I both crashed before 10 PM last night. I slept REALLY well until 8:30. It felt great! I had made plans with my neighbor to walk for about 45 mins this morning starting at 10. We have been trying to motivate each other. It goes better and actually happens when we have someone counting on us. Well, Susan texted me at 9 saying our 10 o'clock date was a no go. I wasn't too sad as I lay in bed reading the news on my phone. I replied a note of disappointment and settled in. 20 mins later she texts again and tells me she is back in. Darn. No excuses, it was time to get up.

Susan and I had a great walk that ended with warm drinks at Starbucks. Upon my return, Fred and I loaded up his truck with some materials to go to the recycle center. We got rid of our plastic bags, cardboard and CFL and florescent light bulbs. However, in the process of saving the planet I bit the dust as I tripped over a rock. I am such a klutz! We returned home where I attempted to sooth my aches with a HOT shower. After a little sit down I ran to the grocery for a few necessities. I was going to beg for a kitchen pass but ended up figuring out that I had all the makings for lasagna. Everyone ate well.

I was on a bit of a roll so I harnessed a bit more energy and tackled a pantry clean-out that had been on my to do list all week. The recycle bin was full, the trash was full and the shelves are in order. For tonight at least. I DID SOME THINGS today! I'm gonna sleep well.

I did my part... and some sappy too.

So in my attempt to live with INTENTION I am trying to diversify my volunteering. Instead of limiting myself to just school and PTA activities I have stepped up and lent my hand to the City of Frisco as a community volunteer. Last fall I helped out at the annual Storytelling Festival. Today I acted as a hostess at a local hotel for fans coming in for the NCAA Division 1 Championship game being played locally in Frisco. The hostess gig was pretty slow. I greeted less than 5 fans. It will be a much bigger deal to have hosts there tomorrow. Unfortunately I only signed on for today.

I'm not sure how much volunteering I will do with the City but it is a fun diversion from PTA politics and the occasional bit of drama. It would have been more fun to do it with friends, like the wonderful ones I have in PTA, but maybe I'll take a few of them with me into the city volunteer opportunities.

Tomorrow I will work on my INTENTION of contributing to my family by working and earning REAL MONEY! I am subbing in 4th grade and can't wait. It's Friday so I get to wear jeans. I'm subbing at Ashley so I can even run home for lunch. I get to see some of my favorite kiddos, who don't belong to me, throughout the day. Subbing is such a wonderful opportunity for me. I have said for years that I wanted to be a school secretary but since that job is currently full subbing will have to do. I like to believe that I am a good sub and I sincerely try to attempt the teacher's lesson plans. Some days though I feel certain that they could not even get through their plan. No way I could either. This took some time to learn but I have.

Two more things to say then I'm off to the going to bed routine, you know the fifteen things you need to wrap up before you actually get into bed. One random and one sappy.

First, I swallowed a Jolly Rancher nearly whole tonight and now have a tummy ache. Ugh. Nic was ready to offer me the Heimlich but I was not in danger. I was just bummed that I didn't get to enjoy the candy longer.

Second, I love my husband with my whole heart. He is such a hardworking and supportive man. He knew when he met me that I was a crazy person who volunteers and offers to help at every turn. He supports me in my crazy and works really hard for our family so that I can continue being this way. I just want it known that I recognize this and am grateful beyond words and measure. I was talking to a friend this week about "replacing" a husband if he dies to soon. My friend and I agreed that no one could replace our guy. He is one of a kind.

My Life of Intention

So what I have found in four short days is that living life with INTENTION takes work. I might have assumed that before I chose  my word but it has been confirmed. Living life with INTENTION means being very truthful and honest with yourself and of course with other people. Now you might be thinking, how hard can that be? As a person of virtue and a follower of Christ surely honesty is who you are each and every day. Well... I have an example that actually has a little something to do with Christ Himself.

A couple of years ago my dear friend invited me to join Moms in Touch. This is an international group with local "chapters" that meet weekly to pray for their children and the schools where their children attend. We pray for our kids, the kids of the other moms there, the teachers and staff and the events at the school. MIT has a formula that they use for the meetings and I knew from the first time I attended that the formula, the manner in which they pray, was well outside of my personal comfort zone. I am not a Bible scholar. I do not frequently expound with extemporaneous oral prayer. I do not close my eyes and feel Jesus speaking through me. God bless those who do. I am in awe.

Well, MIT meets weekly during the school year and I attended about 4 meeting my first year. The second year I may have attended a few more but each time I would be nervous and anxious and feel inadequate. Thankfully my friend who invited me to the group tweaked the formula a bit and that helped but I still struggled with the vocal prayer part. Really really struggled. A representative of the area MIT organization came to one of our meeting once to pray with us and she pretty much told me that my fear was me listening to the devil whispering on my shoulder telling me that I was not good enough to speak to God.  WOW!  I think she was wrong but I certainly didn't feel any more holy or prayerful at subsequent meetings. But, I also didn't give up.

Fast forward to this past fall. Both Baker boys in middle school and the MIT group was new and my pal wasn't the leader and the formula was back in place. Ugh, what do I do?  I love the idea of praying for my kids. I like the idea of praying for the other kids and the moms and the teachers. The principle of MIT is sound. I just didn't feel safe and sound when I was there. I joined up again, and even invited others to join me. I attended regularly enough but often accepted sub jobs with glee when they fell on MIT days, avoidance much?

So we are starting a new year and the MIT meeting was scheduled for this  morning. Last night when I received the reminder email I just knew. I knew that in my INTENTIONAL life I needed to be free of this. I can pray for my kids any day and all day. I can pray for any other kids in the world or on my street at at my schools. I can read the Bible and find inspiration and act when people ask me to pray for a special intention that they have in their lives. I can do all of those things in my own home, in my own heart and I do not have to utter a single word out loud. I can be a follower of Christ alone and have a relationship with Him where I am today. I made this choice with all of the INTENTION I could muster and the leader accepted my leave with all the grace she could. I was being dishonest with myself and with God. It wasn't fair to me or with Her. I am free now. AMEN!

Oh my! I need to

Oh my! I need to update my profile. I'm not a late 30's mom any longer.

Today is Tuesday

I have never really minded Monday. I am usually ready for a "normal" day after a weekend of less structure so Monday is actually a good day in my book. Tuesday on the other hand isn't always TERRIFIC! Sometimes by Tuesday I have lost my way. My To Do list is usually long but my motivation is short. I often have meetings on Tuesday.  So what I am thinking is that on Tuesday I will give myself a blogging break and just post a quick quote or story that I enjoy. Something that made me think or gave me a shiver or perhaps even made me SMILE.

Tuesday will be cut me some slack day around here. Hope you think, or shiver or SMILE right along with me.

Nic playing Ralph Herdman in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Within that role he played Joseph in the Christmas Pageant. So sweet to see my boy on stage.

Big Rocks

So there is a story that I have heard before about filling a jar with rocks. If you put small pebbles in first, then mid-sized rocks, then the large rocks they won't all fit in the jar.  What a person should do is put the largest rocks in first, then the mid-sized rocks then the smallest pebbles fill in the space that is left.

So when I consider living my life with INTENTION I want to look at a few of the most important components of my life (the BIG rocks) and put them at the forefront of my life. Not saying that I can't put some medium sized stones and lots of little pebbles in my jar but I need to make sure I place the BIG rocks first.

My BIG rocks include
1) my marriage to Fred
2) my sons Nicholas and William
3) my personal happiness, exercise and creativity time (Yes, that is a category on my calendar)
4) my closest and most important relationships with family and friends.
5) my faith

My mid-sized rocks include
1) my "professional life" as a substitute
2) my "volunteer life" as a PTA and community volunteer
3) All the other little things I do for others
4) Creating and documenting my family story in scrapbooks

My little pebbles are
laundry, cleaning, ironing, movies, anything on my DVR, and a whole lot more. 

The littlest of pebbles are not inconsequential things. They have their place in my life but they are not BIG rocks. Can you name your BIG rocks and do you place them in your jar first?

Living a life with Intention

Plan, purpose, forethought, investment, direction. Words within my OLW for 2012. I plan to live with INTENTION. To travel through my days with purpose and direction. I have a plan that relates to much more than just a "To Do" list of tasks. I want my "Daily INTENTION" list to be broader and more meaningful.  I want to put things on this list like, check in with William to see how he is feeling about life.  We can do that over a lunch-time meal, or emptying the dishwasher together. I just need to connect and find the answers all day long. Sure, I'll still need to do the laundry and run the errands this year but perhaps with a shift in my own engagement, I can see the deeper meaning behind such mundane tasks and respond to that with more meaningful engagement on my part. I will however use connecting with my children, REALLY REALLY engaging with them, as an excuse ANY DAY to not do the mundane and sometimes it will even trump the slightly more important stuff.

I loathe cooking. It's not even really the cooking part. It's the prep and clean-up that get me. I need to look at feeding my family as more than just putting a meal on a plate. I need to consider that this food that nourishes their bodies may be the best thing they eat all day. That the time we spend together around the table may be the most meaningful interaction that my boys have all day. They need that. All three of them. The INTENTION of the family meal is so much more than just meat and some sides on a plate. (Wonder how long that mind-set will last?) I think I'll need a plaque in my kitchen to remind me daily.

Living with INTENTION is going to take lots of work. I am going to need to better understand my own purpose and direction to keep my real INTENTION at the forefront and understood. I will need to weed out some things that don't fall within my new limits of focus. That may hurt a little. I won't be too drastic but I will be INTENTIONAL.

Nic and I are going to NY this year on a Theater/Art trip. The INTENTION of this trip was originally pure fun. I think that will shift. Nic and I are going to experience something together that no one else in the family has. We can find meaning in that beyond three Broadway shows and a couple of museums on very little sleep. The purpose/INTENTION of this excursion may be to connect Nic and I in a special way. To prepare him for HS knowing that his mama has got his back. That we can share and communicate on a level all our own. That we will always have NY in the summer...

I think that one reason I chose the word INTENTION is that when I made my long long list of possibilities I saw many areas of my life that deserved great attention this year. My HOME, my FAMILY, my LOVE. I think that INTENTION allows me to direct some personal energy toward all of those things and more. A monthly "date night" with my husband. An annual road-trip with my boys, or perhaps some planned ME time to create, or even to do NOTHING but sit in the quiet and listen to GOD.

I am going to take some time in the coming week to flesh out my plan a bit. In the meantime I can work on some reasonable decluttering that is usually inspired by a new year. Today I can clean out some drawers and cabinets in my kitchen. Maybe if I know and appreciate the tools that I use to prepare those meals for my family it won't be such a chore? I also hope to do some menu planning as a family and maybe just maybe even give the boys some directives on what they can do to help after dinner beyond putting dishes in the dishwasher. Perhaps this INTENTION stuff could wear off on everyone.