New Community!

I've recently joined the moms over at Houston Moms Blog as a contributor. I'm excited to be a part of this diverse group of women: work-outside-of-the-home moms, stay-at-home moms, work-at-home moms, moms of multiples, step-moms, adoptive moms, and everything in between! I know very well I did not cover all the mom flavors out there, but you get the idea.

So, today is my first post! Eeek!

I hope you'll click on over there and see where I'll be spending some time!

Happy Friday!

5 Things I'd Rather Do Than Celebrate Halloween.

Photo cred: I don't know. From IMBD.

I do not love Halloween. I just don't. I guess it wasn't always this way. When I was younger I enjoyed dressing up as my favorite doppleganger, Wonder Woman. (No pics of that nonsense.) Now look at me- I have a Wonder Woman Complex (trying to save the world, guilt when I can't) and no gold bracelets.
Some Halloweens, I was a cat. Green eyes, dark hair, ya know. Now, I don't love cats.

See what this day has done to me!?

To be clear: let's not confuse distaste for Halloween for a disdain for candy corn and whatnot.
Stay focused, Kids. I just don't love Halloween. I don't love the scary images, haunted houses,  kids dressed as zombies, blood and gore and all that. And, I certainly don't love all the skanky costumes.

Kids dressed up as mini police men, Buzz & Woody, little Wonder Women (not the leotard part), Uncle Si,  I dig all that. I get the cutesy stuff. (So, post pics of cutesy kids!)

It's just all the money, the candy I don't need, the hoopla ...meh. I could just skip it.

So, when I read about the Halloween Link Up over at Living In Yellow, and could just hear little Erin singing my song!

Let's see...What 5 things would I rather do instead?

1. Board a flight to any number of places. My travel wish list is getting longer and longer. My children may spend some of their teen years in a teeny apartment in order to fund my our travels. Europe, Haiti, Wyoming, California, NYC...any of those will do.

2. Have a fun dinner with our favorite little Filipina. She flies in today and we are SO excited! We get her for the weekend, but she has to work during the week. Blech. Work.

3.  Watch The Outsiders. The Big Sister just finished the book and we haven't found time this week to sit and watch the movie. Or, I'd even like to catch up on Parenthood. Sigh. The Bravermans.

4.  Do some work on this blog. I've been wanting to do a little cosmetic maintenance for a while, but I can't make up my mind and I don't want to spend a million dollars on it. (See #1) Still, I love this little space and I want it to be cutesy, but I don't love that my mug is larger than life at the top. Good grief.

5.  Go visit this lady right here. I don't love Halloween, but she is just hateful. What a total meanie pants.  She might better leave town. I could totally see the neighborhood teens stocking up on toilet paper and forks (or worse) for such a time is this. Anyway, I'd like to go visit her.

So, there ya go. Some things I'd rather do than celebrate Halloween. Certainly not all-inclusive.

Still, weather permitting, we will be handing out candy and meeting our neighbors because I can't not. I love people. My girls do, too, so it will be fun. Hopefully, our little friend can come, too.
No, Dear Brian, I will only hand out candy because I agree, anything else is hokey pokey.

I just want to be awesome, not hokey pokey.

Happy Day!

BIG BELIEFS, Little Beliefs.

Big Beliefs, Little Beliefs came from Tara over at A Brew of Blessings. It's not a link up, really, but it should be. So, T, get on that! :)) Lists like this are random, but connect us when something resonates. It's mostly for fun, nothing too deep. Enjoy & add your own!

I believe...

~Hot chocolate is a solid comfort drink. 
Not solid as in matter, solid as in dependable.

~Loving your neighbor may mean walking her dogs.

~A new outfit can alter the events of your day.

~So can your shoes.

~Just because you are intentional about including people, 
doesn't mean others are.

~You'll never regret shaving your legs.
Girls. I. Am. Just. Sayin.

~People think about you a lot less than you think they do.
I don't know who said this, but a friend said it this week. So true.

~The first songs of the day set the tone for the rest of your day. 

Choose wisely.

~Assumptions are the worst.

~This world is not my home. 

I don't want to get too comfortable anywhere.

~Finicky eaters ("I don't like ___, ____, or ____...") used to stress me out.
It's difficult to accommodate a super-picky person. 
Now, "Just bring what you want."

~Writing is a blessing and a curse.

Blessing: It is an effective outlet.

Curse: If you don't write, you don't feel "let out". 

~Being the new girl is just plain hard. 
No matter how old you are, no matter how super-sanguine you are. It's just hard.

~A visit with a friend is therapeutic.

~"We don't work best when we are dragging around our past." - Curtis Jones. 

Context can be found by listening to the Bayou City Fellowship podcast from October 27, 2013. 

~Being a "mean mom" is often a reason to high-five yourself.

~Walking in faith and walking in crazy sometimes look similar.
Our decisions shouldn't always be practical or make sense 
to the world...or even other Christians.

~The early morning decision of brushing teeth first or going to the 
bathroom first is sometimes enough to overwhelm me before daylight.

~People trump everything else.
People over things. People over money. 
People over schedule. People over programs.
People over comfort. People over sleep.
When in doubt, choose people. 

~The voice in your head is often a familiar one. 
That voice might be a little liar.

~Sometimes you know in the first five minutes, "Yep, you are my people."

~Key clicking on your phone is not awesome in a waiting room. 
Or any room where other people are present.

~Pinterest is not necessary for genuine hospitality.
Sandwiches on paper plates served from a sincere place of service is gold. 

~Fall brings a welcomed breeze, even for a Summer Girl.

Let's hear em! 

What do you believe?

Five Minute Friday: Ordinary

It's time for another Five Minute Friday! 

It's a Gypsy-Mama thing, and it's a good one. I've missed it the past couple of months.

Here are the rules.

If you have a blog--you should so do it. If you don't have a blog, you should do it anyway. Just sayin'.

It's Five Minutes of pure blog adrenaline.

Five minutes of writing on one word. Period. No editing. No nothing. No pressure. No stress.

This week's prompt is Ordinary.

Ready? Set.

Go.

_______________________________________________

Dear Ordinary,
I don't love you. You and your BFFs, Mundane and Common, are comforting to many introverts, but to the extroverted sanguines like me, we tend to shudder at the sound of your name.
Ordinary.
I'm sorry. I just don't love you or the crew with which you run.
We just don't jive together.
And, let me tell you, it's definitely not me.
It's you. You are just so...average.
I'm just not cut out for the status quo.
So, I'm leaving you.
I want Awesome.

Sincerely,
Me.


Stop.

Ok. That was so fun. I've really missed it.

What would you say to Ordinary?

Flip-Flops of Blogging

Hey! Check me out! Sitting at the computer and blogging and whatnot like a big girl. I've been avoiding looking at my blog because I knew it had been a while then, yesterday the Big Sister said, "Mom, you need to do some blogging." Six weeks. It's been six weeks.

I've mentioned before how I've got this commitment allergy, but I'm wondering if it really isn't more of a Label Allergy. I'm loving the labels of the the world less & less. And, that's because I'm so non-committal! I'm flip-floppy (schizophrenic) about stuff-- scheduled homeschool, relaxed homeschool, oh my word, where is the closest school?!?; carbs, no carbs;  herbivore, carnivore, omnivore; aspartame will kill us, embrace the aspartame (I don't need the sugar!!); Baptist, Pentecostal (I prefer Bapticostal, or better yet, just Christian!) gym every day, meh (1 Timothy 4:8). Depends on the day or week.

So, see here? Labels don't work with me. They don't stick.

It just hit me. I'm a GIRL! Doesn't that mean I reserve the right to change my mind?!
Shania Twain, anybody?

My ceramic flip-flops I painted. I like flip-flops.

Blogging has flip-flops, too. There's two sides.

~~You have a blog! Yay! It's nice to have a space on the interwebs to connect with people, engage the culture, and have the occasional rant. Blogging can be such an encouragement to the writer and the reader. Blogging is a community all on its own, even smaller when you factor in the niche bloggers. It is a also nice outlet to get out your allotted word count for the day.
Flip-flop.
You have a blog. So, ideally, one would post to the blog. It's kind of like that gym membership. You have the card to get you in, you should go, right? Also, like the gym, the more you do it, the more you want to. If you're like me, when you don't post or go to the gym, you feel like a failure because you know you should. (Extreme, much?) I currently have eleven drafts waiting to be completed, edited, or deleted.
Depending upon your goal, being a consistent blogger may matter.

~~For personal or family blogs, you can share what is going on in your life. Blogging is an effective way to have a digital scrapbook. So fun! You may share what the Lord is doing in your life or personal convictions or goals.
Flip-flop.
Now you've shared. Brilliant. As a chronic over-sharer, I can't count how many times in my baby time of blogging that I've said, "I so wish I wouldn't have told anybody!" That's not to say we shouldn't keep it real. The world is seeking authentic Christians. Be real. Because I believe in this authenticity and I'm committed (really, not flip-floppy on this one) to being real, I will most assuredly say again, "I so wish I wouldn't have told anybody!"

~~People read what you write. This is so amazing to me. I am still blown away that people read my shenanigans. There have a been a few posts that I really believed in and hoped would get shared, but few. Mostly, it's shenanigans. And people read it! Gah! Jokes on you!
Flip-flop.
People read what you write. There have been conversations or interactions that have inspired me to write, but I have to wait a while to post it because it would be obvious to my friend who reads my blog that I'm piggy backing on our conversation. I don't really want to capitalize on my friends like that. Now, I'm not talking about the ones who tell me, "You need to blog about this!" I get that on occasion. :)
I've also had a few stories that I couldn't share because the situation involved a possible reader. When you know your readers, you can't very well go using their parenting fail that you witnessed with your own eyes in your blog, now can you? I'll have to stick to my own parenting fails, there are plenty.

~~Blogging helps kill some perfectionist tendencies. I still have issues publishing a post before it is "perfect", but I'm working through it. I'm getting better. There is no perfect. No perfect content. No perfect grammar. Too many commas. Sentence fragments. All that jazz. I'm letting some of that go because of the conversational style of this blog. I never want it to sound fake, but like my voice. One of the biggest thrills is for someone to tell me, "I hear your voice when I read your blog!" Love.
I also read on another blog somewhere (I can't remember) that it's better for 10 people to read an imperfect post that may inspire them than for no one to read it.
Flip-flop.
Blogging kills some perfectionist tendencies. I still can't stand it when I find a mistake in a published post. Gag.

There you have it. First post in six weeks. What are some things you are flip-floppy about?