Family

Another Mother of the Year Moment

By Lisa B on June 3, 2009

{Ironically most of my friends seem to be beach lovers. Please don’t take offense to what I’m about to share – I hate the beach, not you.}

I hate the beach. Ever since Oceanology class in 10th grade, I’ve despised going in the ocean. My daughter has gotten her love for the beach and the ocean from her Grandma (my mother-in-law). My mil has a trailer down at the beach that she constantly visits and takes Doodle with her. I love that they go and I love that they go without me.

Friday, the 4th grade went on a beach trip. We had to get up and be at the school at 4:30 am. Ya’ll, I don’t usually get up until 8:00 am most days, so this was a stretch. I had planned on keeping Doodle down at my mil’s trailer for the night so we wouldn’t have to go down and back in a day. I tried to pack the night before and then get stuff together that morning.

We got a checklist from the teacher. Evidently I thought I could remember everything. I did not. I forgot some key things despite Duck picking on me for loading down the bag with “stuff.” The kids rode a boat over to an island and did a lot of walking on the sand trails. We even saw some wild horses. It was neat, but tiring. At the end, they get to go into the water (the sound side – not the ocean) and take nets to see what they could catch.

I knew she needed old tennis shoes to wear in the water. I brought those. What I neglected to pack was her new tennis shoes. I had flip flops for her since we were only going for a day to the beach. I thought that was good enough. However, when we decided to grab dinner and go to a movie, her feet got cold wearing her pants and flops. I was also supposed to pack a change of clothes for her, which I had — but I couldn’t find the second pair of shorts. She got her shorts soaked by the way. So she got to lay around in wet shorts for quite awhile.

Once we finished with the field trip, we “felt” our way out of the city and headed for the trailer. Along the way I was thinking what else I’d need to get from the store. I remembered I forgot sunscreen as well. Oh, and I didn’t bring any water for the trip over the island — though I finally got some from the boat’s snack bar.

As I was unpacking our stuff at the trailer, I also realized I forgot to grab her pajamas and I had brought a white tshirt for me to wear without the proper a undergarment (I leave it at that). We went out to the ocean for a little bit after I had a nap. Have I mentioned I hate going in the ocean? Well, Doodle loves going to go boogie boarding. So I braved the ickies and went out to about my knees — or so I thought. The waves started hitting me in the back. Oh and also the water was cccoold — at least to start with.

I was fighting to keep my balance when something black kicked up a bunch of sand and bounced between my legs. My trainer would be proud the way I high-kneed myself out of the water. All in all I think she had fun. Not that we’ll ever do this again. Any beach trips come up again for Doodle and I’m shipping her Grandma with her. I’m headed for the mountains!

| Filed Under: Family, School

Sex Ed: Round 2

By Lisa B on May 7, 2009

Yep, she had to hit me with more questions on my birthday too. {Thanks by the way for all the well wishes! It’s been a good day so far!}

We were leaving Chick-fil-a on our way to tutoring, when she said, “you mean to tell me that a teenage girl can get pregnant if they do all that sex stuff?”

I’ll spare you the gory details this time of what I told her, but I began to explain that wonderful time of the month — and a little bit about why that happens. I told her that girls generally start having monthly stuff between the ages of 10-12. She asked me if it was because they were dating … if that made them start. Um, no. Your body decides when it starts and every body is different.

She has been to the bathroom with me during that time of the month before and asked a few questions. When I explained a little more today she asked, “you mean you could still get pregnant?”

“Yes,” I replied “except I’m taking a little pill so I won’t unexpectantly get pregnant.”

She continued on asking me how old do girls typically start dating. I laughed and said, “well, your Dad says you have to be 30 before you can start dating.”

Without missing a beat she replied, “when I’m that old, I’ll definitely be on the pill.” Oh my.

Looks like time to order some of those books (thanks for the recommendations too!). It’s almost time for me to go and try to play ball tonight. It’s the first game of the tournament and we play the first place team. I hope it’ll be a good game no matter who wins. No one really enjoys a blow-out … well, except I guess for the team doing the blowing

| Filed Under: Family, Health, Personal

Sex Ed on the way to Chick-fil-a

By Lisa B on May 5, 2009

Warning: This post may contain some language not suitable for young eyes or old hearts. Please don’t judge me. Had I thought ahead, I would have asked advice before I got sucked into this conversation. I had done pretty good {until now} avoiding answering many of these questions.

Me: Where did all these people come from and why are they in front of me turning left?

Doodle: God made them.

Me: Well, He didn’t have to put them all right here in front of me.

Doodle: He didn’t put them all here. He put them in the hospital.

Me: You know not all babies are born in the hospital.

Doodle: Oh I know! On Airbender, Katara helped deliver a baby and {some other character} made a hut and {miscellaneous details about the cartoon that I forget} but he probably would have fainted if he’d seen Katara cutting her stomach open and moving around the intestines to pull the baby out.

{Side note: whenever we’ve talked about when Doodle was born, we’ve told her that the doctor had to cut my stomach open and get her out. As the story progressed and Duck shared that he was a little faint feeling when he saw the insides of me that he never should have seen … I had to explain to Doodle that those were my intestines most likely moved out of the way so the doctor could get to her.}

Me: Not all babies are born like that.

Doodle: So does God just make them and put them in the stomachs?

Me: Um, no. It takes a man and a woman to make a baby.

Doodle: So what? The man and woman just make a baby and then she eats it?

Me: Um, no. A woman has a part in her body called a uterus and that’s actually where the baby grows — not in the stomach.

{Doodle’s looking at me with a surprised look.}

Me: Well, it’s close to the stomach. So it’s just easier to say stomach a lot of times.

Doodle: So it looks like you’ve eaten a ton of popcorn?

Me: Yeah, something like that.

Doodle: How are they born?

Me: Um, well, you actually have two holes down there. You know, where your pee comes out? Well, there’s another hole and that’s how most of them come out. Technically the other hole is called a v8g1n8 (8′s for a’s and 1 for i’s – trying to cut down on nasty auto comments).

Doodle: How’s the baby get up there?

Me: Um {notice a pattern here?}, well, inside the uterus there are eggs.

Doodle {jaw dropped, eyes wide}: I didn’t know women laid eggs.

Me: Um, well, it’s not like a woman is going to lay eggs in a nest like a chicken.

Doodle: or a bird. So what’s the man got to do with it?

Me: Um, well, he’s got what are technically called sp3rm. That has little tails and they swim to the egg and fertilize it. Then the egg/baby starts growing in the uterus.

Doodle: What about the cord? Isn’t that how the baby gets fed?

Me: Yes, the cord develops and kind of hooks into the uterus to get food from the mommy and pass it along to the baby.

Doodle: How does the sp3rm get to the egg?

Me: Um, well, God gave a husband and a wife the gift of sex. That’s so they can have a family. Have you heard that word before?

Doodle: Yeah, on George Lopez. They said they found out their 16-year-old daughter was having sex.

Me {my turned to be totally shocked and looking up how to block that show from ever being on our tvs again}: Um, well, you know that thing that boys have that you call a “peter.”

Doodle: or a weiner?

Me: Yeah, that. Um, well, that’s technically called a p3n1s. A man puts his p3n1s with the woman’s v8g1n8 and that’s what sex is.

Doodle: Yuck! You mean they put them together? I’m in no hurry to grow up!

Me: That’s great!

*** Hours later ***

Doodle: I can’t believe I used to be an egg! Why do parents wait so long to tell kids how they were made?

Me: Because it’s kind of a sensitive subject — one that we just don’t talk about until you’re old enough to understand it.

————–

I so totally can’t even believe I wrote this out. Duck said I should blog about it because one day Doodle would appreciate reading it. I’m not so sure. I think she’ll be totally embarrassed, but it’s here. At least I’ll remember. Or at least I’ll remember as much as I remember when I wrote this out — it’s not exactly the way the conversation went but you get the jist. I’ve been really good at avoiding her questions until today. I know she’ll have more and I pray God gives me the wisdom to teach her well.

I honestly don’t remember when or where I learned. See, they say around these parts that the boys and girls were separated in 5th grade. I was in 5th grade in West Virginia, and we were considerably behind academically. I’m sure this probably includes this education as well. We moved here when I was in 6th grade and I don’t remember education until Health class in 9th grade.

Knowing that this is coming up in the next year (Doodle’s finishing up 4th grade right now), I did want to have the conversation with her — I just didn’t have a clue how to have it. In the car on the way to Chick-fil-a is so NOT how I thought it would happen though. If any of you have any tips or resources on a Godly way to share this message with kids, I’d greatly appreciate the references.

God knows I’m scared to death I’ve already scarred her for life as it is. I don’t want to mess her up worse!

| Filed Under: Devotions, Family, Health

Mission Field

By Lisa B on April 28, 2009

This post has been bouncing around my head for the past few days. It’s a hard post to write. It makes me uncomfortable and I hate to be uncomfortable.

I am a typical, spoiled, selfish American.

Ever since I’ve been saved and heard it preached that we need to go out into the mission field, I’ve said “Lord, just don’t send me to Africa.” You know the attitude. It’s not that Africa is the only place in the world that needs to hear about Jesus, but that’s typically people’s first reactions when you start talking about missions.

There were a few representatives from Compassion International at She Speaks last year. The rumor came to our table that they were looking for some bloggers to go on their next trip (at the time to the Dominican Republic). Robin got a light in her eyes — a passion burning deep inside her. She wanted to go on a trip with Compassion. She got excited and started talking about how awesome and hard it would be to go on a trip like that. I shrunk down in a corner thinking, “God, please don’t send me to another country. I have no desire whatsoever to go.”

Robin applied to go, but wasn’t chosen for the Dominican Republic trip, but she was chosen for the India trip. She’s there right now. Her writing is so awesome I cannot even describe it … my words fail. Her stories along with the others I’ve read are breaking my heart and bringing tears to my eyes.

In all honesty I have a bad view of India. Many friends and a few family members have been laid off from a big company around here that is sending all these jobs over to India. I know it’s not the people there’s fault, but it just makes me mad. I think the company is taking advantage of people over there and they are affecting our comfortable lives over here. Ouch.

From these stories I’ve been reading and pictures I’ve been looking at, it’s surreal. I cannot imagine being there. Being uncomfortable in no-air-conditioning and 110 degree weather.

I talked to a couple of good friends of mine a few years ago about missions. I told them my heart doesn’t hurt for people in other countries and I feel guilty about that. I know in my mind that we have tons more than they would ever have. But I don’t feel a passion … a huge desire to go to another country. My heart hurts for the people I see in this country. The ones who are walking around, dead inside. The ones who have all this *stuff* and still aren’t happy. They don’t know the peace of God.

“You’re just home missions minded,” they told me. The mission field is all around us … the people we see everyday … and even the people we don’t see everyday but talk to on the Internet. I may be selfish wanting to sit in my air-conditioned house and say the Internet is my mission field, but I desire to follow God’s will for my life. My talents and knowledge put me on the Internet … not in an office and not half-way around the world … at least not physically.

So back to my buddy Robin in India. Even though God chose not to send me and to send Robin (a wise decision indeed), there are many things we can do to help others who are passionate about international missions.

The most important thing we can ever do is pray! Pray for the team in India; for their safety and wellbeing; for their minds and hearts to be able to process all they see; for God to give them the words and reliable internet connection to relay to us what they are seeing.
Sponsor a child. I have been struggling with this one for quite awhile. I think we should sponsor a child, but then I get caught up in our “lack of money.” I’m going to talk to Duck about sponsoring a child through Compassion. I need to get Doodle into this too. She truly doesn’t realize how well she has it.

And if you are so inclined, say a quick prayer for me to be less me-minded and more others-minded. Thanks.

Here’s Duck singing a very relevant song … I think the name is “My House is Full” but don’t hold me to it.

My House is Full [ 2:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Keep track of all that’s going on with the Compassion Bloggers in India this week:

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| Filed Under: Blessings, Bloggin', Family, Prayer Requests, Writing

The State of Doodle

By Lisa B on March 26, 2009

Since it’s been so long in between posts, I thought I’d give you a State of Doodle address.

In February we finished Upward Basketball. Duck coached again. I stood there and looked like I knew what I was doing. Duck got the bright idea one practice for he and I to play against the girls. I got schooled by a third grader. She blew right past me and made a layup — and I wish I could say I was trying to take it easy on her. Although I did get Duck really good one night — he was on one team and I the other. I picked him off my teammate and he was thoroughly shocked. It was a good pick Snuck right up on him!

While Doodle loves basketball, she still hates softball. We have forced her to play every year that she’s played (probably the last 4-5 years?). We decided not to fight that battle this year. It was heartbreaking for us. Duck’s such a great coach and I hate that there are little girls who are going to miss out on that. So I put together a women’s team for him to coach. Just kidding — a little

She’s been working hard to bring her grades up from the second quarter, but she’s still struggling with math. We’re going to take her for assessments at Sylvan. The guy we talked to on the phone said they assess the basics such that if the child didn’t get something like multiplication tables (yep, pretty sure Doodle needs help with that), they’ll help them with that.

The school we desperately want to get Doodle into (grades 4-8), well, it’ll take a miracle. If she gets in, I know it’s God’s will. I’ve been praying about it for too long. She is #1 on the waitlist for this year — meaning if anyone leaves the school in 4th grade between now and the last day of school (June 10th), she’ll be offered a position. She is #102 on the waitlist for 5th grade. They do a whole new application/lottery process for each school year. Which really kinda sucks. We want her in. It’s not that we think it’s perfect or will fix everything — but it’s a good start. Low student to teacher ratio and they don’t teach to the standardized tests like the public schools do.

If she doesn’t get into this school, I don’t know what we’ll do. I hear those of you out there who are yelling “homeschool” at your computers, but Duck and I aren’t in agreement with that solution — yet. If it happens, it’ll be God’s will because it’ll be a miracle.

She’s still playing piano and doing well with that. We’re going to look into something else for her to do that will keep her physically active — like maybe a martial arts? gymnastics? not sure yet. Next Wednesday she’s out on her intersession/spring break. She’s way overdo for a break from school. Intersession was later this year than what we’ve experienced before and frankly it’s been too long. She’ll be out for 3 weeks minus 2 snow makeup days (Mon/Tues). We’re headed to the beach one weekend for some family fun. I hope it’s nice weather because I can only handle so long in an indoor pool. I can only handle so long on the beach too — I’m so not a beach person. But Doodle loves it.

She’s also getting tall and her hairs getting long. I know I need to get a picture. I have some, but they aren’t very good. I’m still learning how to take pictures.

I think that’s it for my State of Doodle post. Go sign up for my ticket giveaway if you haven’t yet!

| Filed Under: Family

You know it’s bad when …

By Lisa B on March 25, 2009

… your mom IMs you to see if you’re still alive because you haven’t blogged or tweeted in 5 days (still here Mom!)

… you walk up behind your husband and see that he’s got your blog pulled up on his laptop — “just to see what you’re up to.” (not blogging is what I’ve been up to!)

… you come up to bat in the last inning, 2 outs, tying run on 3rd, and you fly out to the right-center fielder AND you’re the coach (not such a good game last night!)

I’m trying not to be in a funk, but it seems like I have for the past few days. Nothing major has happened — I’ve just been dreaming of softball, how to coach, where to put people, how am I going to do … those kinds of things. I mean, I have been going to the gym regularly for over a year now to build up muscles and endurance. I want to be able to play better. I just didn’t last night.

Good news though. Last Saturday I managed to clean out our laundry room. I never knew so much schtuff could be in a 6×8 room until I pulled it all out and it was in all over our den floor. But, it’s clean and organized in there now. Duck has plenty of room to get in there and do the laundry. Oh, and I’m so not joking about that. He’s great at doing the laundry. It only took a gazillion times of me shrinking shirts and leaving clothes (wet) in the washer for a few days before he took it over. You do a wonderful job, Duck. Mean it. Love you. Hate doing laundry.

Oh, I finally got our taxes done last week. We owe money — which we expected, but at least now I know how much. That’s a huge burden off my shoulders. I’ve also been working on this one poor woman’s site. I say poor woman because she’s had to deal with me being my usual slow self in getting too things. I switched her from Blogger to WordPress on one host. Then that one host had several issues and I just finished moving her to a new host. I’m hoping all is well now. It’d be nice to get to my blogs

So, I’m still here. Still hanging on. Nothing major’s happened. Just cruising along. Hope all is well with you. If not, let me know what I can pray about for you. Because PRAYER WORKS!

| Filed Under: Bloggin', Family, Home

Lord, have mercy. Look who’s reading my blog.

By Lisa B on February 23, 2009

Over the past few weeks, I have found that a couple of people are reading my blog that I never would have thought would be reading.

Early last week I participated in Jo-Lynne @ Musings of a Housewife‘s Mister Linky for What I learned this week. Through that Mister Linky, a woman I know IRL (in real life) found my blog. Turns out that Duck and I coached her daughter this year in Upward basketball which just ended. So, how cool is it that I meet one of the basketball parents on the internet? I told her I don’t normally run into people around here who even have a clue as to what a blog is, much less have one! Stop by and tell Kellie “hey” for me

Since my journey began on Facebook just a few short weeks ago, I have been finding family that I haven’t seen since the last death in the family and before that — way too long. One of my cousins sent me a message on Facebook saying she reads my blog and complimented me on my writing. How weird can that be? I don’t know if I’d rather just believe in my own little world here where Mom, Dad and strangers read my blog — oh yeah, and of course Duck. Here’s a shout out to Debbie — we need to get you started blogging

Going on vacation — sort of: For those of you who have seen my tweets or updates on Facebook. I am getting a MacBook Pro. I’ve been waiting for it for 2 months now (it’s one of the newer models). Well, it’s on the truck as I’m typing this “out to be delivered.” This means a few things. One, I’m going to be caught up playing working on transferring everything over to my new Mac. Two, I’ve decided to change up some things here on my blog.

I realized that I blog about several different things that are all me — but may not be all you. So, I’m going to be working on a redesign here and I’m going to add some sections. One section will be for Harleys so you don’t have to read about motorcycles if you’re not interested. Another section I’m going to start is PC-to-Mac. I’m going to write about my transition from PC to Mac (it’s been 12 years at least since I worked on a Mac). I’m also going to log all the tips and everything I find about how to do stuff on the Mac, because well, my memory sucks. Thanks to Secret Agent Mama‘s great advice at BlissDom, I’ve picked up my camera again and started taking pictures. She told me something along the lines of I should take pictures at the conference too because I am not going to see the same things as she does. Well, I went around snapping pictures this weekend and trying to figure out my camera (some of the manual settings) and failed horribly. Seriously, I have some very bad pictures. But I’ll share them with y’all if you’re interested in the Photo section.

I’m probably not going to be blogging here a lot this week — and when you come, things may look different. Hang with me through the changes. I think you’ll like them.