children | Permission to Peruse

Strawberry Picking

May 4th, 2012 at 7:46 am / Amy Bennett / 9 Comments »

For years, our town’s spring festival was called Fest-i-Fun. Vendors lined our little Main Street with the usual festival fare. Teenagers roamed the streets, boys attempting a swagger and girls whispering and giggling about them. Kids turned sticky from cotton candy and begged their parents for sand art. When we were in high school, our (at that time, one) high school marching band had been state champions for years. We had a sign on one of our main roads touting our wins and each year a plaque would be added with the year. In May of 1994 when there were probably 20 plaques, Scott and I had just begun our courtship. And by courtship, I mean many late night phone calls. By the 7th day, he was my real boyfriend. Fest-i-Fun was the following weekend and Scott was one of the drummers. I was smitten. We stood at the end of Main Street where the marching band was standing in a semi-circle and listened. I can’t even recall which friend I was whispering to beside me. All I know is it turns out his mom was standing right next to us. That’s the first time she saw me.

Since the mid-90s our little town has outgrown a Main street festival. They renamed it to the Strawberry Festival a few years back and moved it to a nearby park. The festival kicked off Monday, with the festivities arching over the whole week now. Tuesday they offered half-price pick your own strawberries and a movie for the kids. Since I drink a smoothie every day for lunch, the strawberry picking was a must but for some reason I just needed Scott and the kids to go. The kids wanted to go swim with a neighbor and Scott really didn’t want to go but I just kept pushing. Usually, I’m fine to do my own thing but something just made me want to go with them.

I was thinking on it last night and finally put it together that this Strawberry Festival we were participating in was the same Fest-i-Fun festival I’d stood at 18 years ago. Something down deep stirred when I realized that. The circle of life or some kind of jazz. All I know is, it’s good. Very good I fell in love with a drummer boy and now get to go pick strawberries with our babies.

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A Playhouse Flower Box

May 2nd, 2012 at 9:57 am / Amy Bennett / 6 Comments »

Romance is spoken through power drills and handmade flower boxes on playhouses.

Pride, watching the eldest at her best, painting her chosen pink.

And better yet, watching her sister allow that with encouragement.

Contentment and satisfaction is found in the planting.

A simple, almost silly, family project but it is true…

Source

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Gardening Outtakes

April 17th, 2012 at 8:52 am / Amy Bennett / 4 Comments »

A friend messaged me a few days ago asking if I might take some pictures of the girls in the garden for a magazine article about gardening with kids. You know I signed right up for that. I had already taken the pictures in my head, one child happily watering the flowers while the other was picking out weeds.

Um, yeah.

Right off the bat I snapped this one of Lexi pulling on the tangled hose. What *is* this evil look on Lexi’s face?

Emma started helping with the hose but became distracted by some dirt on her hands.

Then there’s this one of Lexi’s shocked face after Emma squirted her.

Lexi quickly became preoccupied with her balancing act.

And apparently she got thirsty

And then dirty

And then decided to dance a jig between the two beds

And then do other crazy…

…things…

They finished off our gardening session by testing out how much the Stream setting “felt like lightning” on Lexi’s feet.

I can’t imagine why they might not use our pictures.

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The Better Mom

April 9th, 2012 at 3:48 pm / Amy Bennett / 15 Comments »

This anonymous post from a teenager had me all out of sorts after I read it. It’s exactly the type of post I don’t want to read from my kids some day. I don’t want to hear that they think I don’t spend time with them, leave the house a mess and generally like my job more than them. In fact, it really made me want to hand in my resignation notice today. But that’s nothing new and honestly, I don’t think it would fix many problems.

Instead of feeling defeated though, I wanted take that post and really listen to what she’s saying. What is it she’s missing now that her mom is working? What is it that I can really concentrate on? I know she’s not my kid but there has to be some universal truths here. This paragraph especially stood out to me:

Before she went back to work my mom baked bread, sewed for us, spent time with us and dad, hosted guests, and stuff like this. Now everything needs to be perfect for school, but a clean and orderly house, and time with the family is pushed on the back burner and more than not gets burned. It hurts to see that she cares more for her job and lets life at home and together get sloppy.

I don’t care if you’re working or not, you can fall into the trap of she loved [________] more than me. Now hear me, I’m not suggesting our entire worlds revolve around our kids. God and our husbands come first and we are people, not just mothers. But. What are some things to take away from this to make us all better mothers, working or not?

Cook dinner

In the last few years, I’ve really learned to like cooking but it’s been in the last 8 weeks or so since we went gluten free that I’ve learned just how valuable menu planning is. I love that I know what the kids are eating, I’m far less stressed in the evenings and we have a ton more time together. All of that adds up to happier people spending more time together.

However, if you’re not a cook this doesn’t mean you need to cook every meal from scratch. Buying a cooked rotisserie chicken or even throwing some hot dogs on the grill counts. It doesn’t have to be gourmet. If you need help in this area, Money Saving Mom has some great resources. And of course, eating out has its place. I love that we all love Moe’s together and it’s a treat when we go.

In addition to dinner, I think taking the time to do some baking once a week is a great memory-maker. I love thinking back to my mom’s no-bake cookies and rice krispy treats.

And furthermore, cooking is a skill we should be teaching our kids.

Take Care

She loved that her mom sewed for her. Unfortunately, I’m not a seamstress by any stretch. I can sew a button or a hem if I’m in a pickle, but I don’t “sew”. But I can help them take care of their things. Wash a baby doll’s face to keep it clean, brush out a Barbie’s hair, buy batteries for that special toy, display art they worked hard on, get a stain out of a favorite shirt, help bandage a bruise, respect their belongings. In other words, they want mothered.

I find it fascinating she says things have to be perfect for school but not home. Are we spending more time taking care of people outside our home than inside our home? Don’t get me wrong, it’s important for them to see you take a meal to someone sick or run an errand for a friend, but what is priority?

Quality Time

I’m going to work harder at this because I’m really good at being around but not really good at being engaged. It’s hard for me to really stop what I’m doing and just “play”. Three things have stood out to me to work on:

Play with them every day. Yesterday they did a fashion show and just wanted us to watch. We got them the Just Dance Wii game that I *need* to do for 30 minutes every day. Jump on the trampoline. Be a “student” in “school”. Color. Read. Just talk. Play a board game. The possibilities here are endless.
I’m personally making a pact with myself to not be on the cell phone anymore around them. I’ve noticed Emma saying a few times “Get off your phone and pay attention!” Ouch! Staring at my phone is the last thing I want them to remember and yet, that’s the memory I’ve been building for them. Please forgive me if I’m not answering calls and texts, particularly in the evenings.
Finally, the last thing that I saw online recently I want to implement is to quit rushing bedtime. It’s so hard by the end of the day to have any kind of patient energy to slow bedtime down. Some nights, I feel like throwing them in their bed from the hall and then make a mad dash into my own bed. But there’s something special that happens at night. The kids are more apt to talk, more apt to listen and be less distracted. I’m going to try to be more intentional at bedtime and quit rushing it.

ImpressYourKids.org is a great resource for Christian activities to do with your kids, particularly if you have younger ones.

Be Hospitable

I’m going to be honest and say hospitality can be hard for me. I *love* having people over but I always feel like my house is not clean or organized enough to have others over and it paralyzes me. We had my aunt and uncle over for the night over the weekend and it reminded just how much good it is for the whole family. The kids got to see hospitality at work and we enjoyed sharing our home—together.

Stay Tidy

It’s no secret—we have a house cleaner. For those of us that are working you cannot do it all. For our family, the house cleaning went first. We have someone come in every 2 weeks to do the heavy cleaning. However, in between I’m vacuuming the living room, doing dishes, laundry, straightening their room, cleaning off my desk, etc. It’s a never-ending task that I don’t do well all the time but I have to remember it’s important that they see us take care of our home. I highly recommend getting familiar with FlyLady if there’s some way you aren’t already. She has some great basic things we can do to stay tidy every day all the way to full-on house cleaning management.

Now What?

All of this begs the question, particularly for working mothers, when will I do all this? Well, there’s no easy way around being a good mother: it’s going to take a lot of your time. Since I work full-time, I’ve given a lot of other things up. I have given up watching almost all TV live. I either wait until they’re in bed or have a show on while I’m working. I barely read these days. Coffee with friends is few and far between. I don’t get out to the movies as often as I like. I’m not saying you have to be a hermit and work all the time. Rest is important. But our own desires cannot be the MOST important.

Here are some hard questions I’m asking myself:

Have you spent more time reading a book than spending concentrated time with your kids?

Have you spent more time on Twitter than planning out a bedtime routine?

Have you spent more time watching TV than cooking?

Do you know more about the complaints of acquaintances on Facebook than your kids today?

There’s not a magical solution here except to say take a look at where your time goes and see if your kids would say she loves her family more than anything else. And if not, in what areas do you really need to work? There’s no way to be perfect in all of them but there are baby steps in at least one of these we could all take. As I mentioned quality time is my weakest link right now so that’s the direction I’m heading.

I didn’t write this to beat you or me over the head. I wrote it because that post stirred something inside of me to be a better mom and wanted to bleed my thought-process of it so you might be encouraged and prodded to be a better mom too. I hope you are.

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Saying Yes to the Rain

April 3rd, 2012 at 6:00 am / Amy Bennett / 6 Comments »

Drops started and children played.

Mother instinct starts. Come in! Stay safe! Stay clean! Something stopped me. Perhaps a divine reminder kids need to be kids. Instead of a yell, I went for a camera.

What is it about the rain that makes you want to dance?

To turn your face clear up to the sky and take what it gives?

From where does the urge come to find the puddles? Surely it wasn’t mother-taught.

The laughter, the dancing, the twirling.

Sometimes I think we hold too tight and forget there’s joy in letting go. Sure there are times when a no is entirely necessary but others, we are so quick to jump to the right thing we forget it may not be the right thing at all.

A challenge for mothers today: what can you say yes to today?

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Puppies, Bikes and Cupcakes

March 23rd, 2012 at 8:15 am / Amy Bennett / 9 Comments »

How about a few random things?

1 – Our puppy Tucker has made it to 1 year and 1 day. Possibilities were sketchy at times. Sadly, many, many, many things were destroyed in the process. A blue tooth, Nine West shoes, more markers, pencils and pens than I can count, a pool skimmer, grill brush, pool lights…oh I could go on. Scott tells me it’s worth it. Possibilities are sketchy.

2 – Both Emma and Lexi are now riding their bikes. We did not totally fail as parents. We actually went on a family bike ride the other night and it was a pretty darn good feeling.

3 –This has no story except to say Emma was the one taking the picture. I found this in my camera and this is why I’m scared of her being a teenager and thought you should be warned of my impending meltdown. Those eyes cut through any fuzziness of the picture. They are LOUD and CLEAR.

4 – I also need to confess I made cupcakes although I know how bad all the sugar is. They’re from the King Arthur Gluten-free cake mix with my mom’s icing recipe. They were divine. If you couldn’t tell by Lexi’s face.

5 – On a serious random note, please pray for my family. My grandfather is very sick in ICU with pancreatitis. My father-in-law has diverticulitis and is having surgery today and will be in the hospital for the next week. Praying for peace for the family, healing for them and wisdom for the doctors. Thank you.

And if you’re feeling chatty, tell me the worst thing a puppy ever destroyed at your house.

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Remembering Third Year Elementary

March 19th, 2012 at 4:09 pm / Amy Bennett / 6 Comments »

Nine years. Third grade. She’s starting to talk of boys. Playground chases. Walk-by comments. Confirmation of cuteness. It’s all a little too much for this mama. It’s full of cliché, but wasn’t it yesterday I was gifted the tinker bell perfume in third year elementary?

But then there are still moments.

Joy in the birth of Spring.

The hand requested from a little sister.

The push needed from the same.

And sometimes a pull too.

The dare accepted.

Heaven looks on

and we all forget the growing and the changing. They’re just my babies playing and I’m just the mama picturing. I can’t stop the changing but the changing brings remembering. And this will be a sweet one.

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How We’re Coping with Gluten-Free – Week 3

March 9th, 2012 at 12:14 pm / Amy Bennett / 9 Comments »

We’re going on 3 weeks of our diet changes. One thing I want to be clear is Lexi is not particpating fully in either of these. While she eats some of the gluten-free products and I make all of our dinners GF and milk free, she still eats the regular bread, cereal, ice cream, etc. And while Emma is milk-free, Scott and I are not. So we drink regular milk, have GF products that have milk in them, etc. So basically we’re managing 3 different diet needs.

But even that said, this week was SO MUCH better than last. So much. While I’m not 100% happy with what we ate (wish we could have had less red meat, less grains and more veggies), we ate and there was very little complaining. I was tallying it up last night and I realized I had cooked every meal for ten days straight other than Sunday dinner at Scott’s parents’. That’s a lot of meals in a row for me. I’m sure it’s some sort of record. And I have to say, this week I kind of liked it. While our grocery bill has obviously gone up, our eating out category has drastically dropped and it feels good to know that while the meals aren’t perfect, it’s a lot better than fast food. And ya’ll? I like the meal planning. It’s worked out great for us to either shop on Saturday or Sunday and buy for the whole week.

I thought I’d share some recipes and products that have absolutely saved us these past 3 weeks, broken down my meals.

Breakfast

Van’s blueberry waffles. Emma eats these every morning with syrup. OJ for a drink.
Granola bars. I sub with Bob’s Mill gluten free oats and Bob’s Mill gluten-free all purpose flour (and 1.5 tsp of xanthum gum so it will hold together) and I have a bar every morning for breakfast with some OJ. Emma would eat these but she can’t have the butter in them.
I bought Bob’s Mill Pancake mix but haven’t tried it.
Crystal swears by these waffles.
We also do bacon, eggs or a smoothie as alternates.

Snacks

Lots of fruits for the girls when they’re at home. Their favorites are bananas, apples, grapes and kiwi.
Zucchini bread
Banana bread
Smoothies with Silk Vanilla Almond Milk

I always have at least one of those breads made. I alternate between the two and Emma eats that for snack after school. I’m pretty sure she would eat the entire loaf if I let her. I wish it didn’t have so much sugar in it but I’m just going with it for now.

Lunch

Rudi’s or Udi’s Gluten-free bread. It’s not the best thing ever but Emma has been a trooper and eats her PB&J’s at school.
Vegan mayo. I use this to make Emma some tuna salad for her. Sometimes I put it on bread for lunch and sometimes she just eats it as a snack after school.
Glutino’s pretzels. Both the girls love these.
Pre-packaged fruit. I don’t know what it is but they hate eating fresh fruit at school. Is it not cool? I don’t know. But the packaged fruit is the next best thing.
Applesauce packs

Dinner – main course

Steaks
Salsa chicken in the crock-pot. Just put a few chicken breasts and a jar of salsa in. Shred it towards the end. You can either make tacos out of it, put it over rice or just eat it separate.
Spaghetti with alternate noodles. We tried rice noodles last time and trying quiona noodles tonight.
Manwich. We tried Rudi’s hamburger buns and they were horrible. They soaked in all the juice and made it very dry. We all ended up opening up the sandwich and eating the meat plain which was just fine.
Sweet potato chili. This was delicious. Scott’s parents and my sister all tried it and liked it. Lexi wasn’t a fan and I think she hate some sort of leftover that night.
Amy’s gluten-free, dairy-free spinach pizza. Emma will eat the spinach pizza but I buy Lexi and Amy’s small cheese pizza and just bake them together.
BBQ. Put a boston butt in your crockpot all day with a little water, salt and pepper. Shred after you get it out.
Pot Roast. I don’t like potatoes and carrots in mine so I just put a chuck roast in with one package of onion soup mix and 1/4 cup of water. I even made the gravy with corn starch.

Dinner – sides

Baked potatoes. Earth fare has non-dairy cheese and sour cream Emma uses while the rest of us use regular.
Refried beans. Emma didn’t like these but Scott and I loved them with the salsa chicken.
Any kind of Alexia potato fries. We’ve done both yukon gold and sweet potato.
Spinach. Turns out we like spinach. Lexi of course hated it but Emma asked for me to make it the next night.
Cauliflower mashed potatoes. I made this with the roast and put the roast gravy on them. No one knew it was cauliflower instead of potatoes. Amazing. It felt so good to get up from that meal and not feel too full.
I also use canned or frozen corn, green beans, carrots or peas as a side.

Desserts

Chocolate Cookies
Earth fare Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies
Dairy Free ice cream. You can get this in any store. Just look for a yellow wrapping at the top.
Oatmeal raisin cookies. These didn’t bake well for me but it still tasted good.
Peanut butter cookies

Miscellaneous

Smart butter is what I use for Emma on popcorn, potatoes, bread. I actually really like it and use it too.
Dino’s BBQ sauce. I got this recommendation from Katie and it’s really fabulous if you like it both sweet and a little kick. It was too hot for Emma and Lexi hated it but Scott and I loved it.
Agave nectar for sweetner in smoothies and coffee

So that’s what the last 10 days or so have looked like.

In really good news, Scott has seen no acid reflux at all. Before, he would only see a few good days in a row before he’d need to take some medicine. He did have one incident this week when he ate gluten by mistake and threw it all up that night. The doctor said it was a normal reaction when you are cleansing yourself from gluten. He also said it could be related to the bad fats they used to make it. I think that speaks a lot to how his body must be changing because of the diet changes.

Emma has only had one stomach ache in the past week and it was one morning she woke up and I can’t say it wasn’t just because she was hungry. She was fine as soon as she ate. She also has been MUCH more regular.

As for me, I’ve lost another pound or two, I rarely get bloated and my skin is looking so much better. Someone at work just saw me for the first time in a few weeks and immediately commented on my weight and skin. That was a great confirmation for me. I’m just enjoying having no cravings. For at least a week now, I haven’t had ANY food after dinner. We eat between 5 and 6 and sometimes don’t go to sleep until 10 or 11. I think that’s huge.

Truth be told, I’m not sure we’ll go back to gluten. This week really proved to me we could happily be gluten-free and I’m not impatiently counting down until our check-up at the end of the month. Feels great!

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How We’re Coping Going Gluten and Dairy Free

February 21st, 2012 at 5:00 pm / Amy Bennett / 12 Comments »

I know we’re only 3 days into this gluten/milk free thing. Perhaps I should rewrite this post in 3 or 4 weeks but I have to be honest and say so far it just hasn’t been that big of a deal. Let me show you through Emma’s meals yesterday since she has the most restricted diet of the four of us:

Breakfast: Emma ate bacon, two gluten free (GF) waffles, and chocolate almond milk. On a day off school like yesterday, I normally make her pancakes, bacon and make chocolate milk. It was super easy (albeit more expensive) to substitute with a waffle. I also bought GF pancake mix I could have used but it’s easier to pop a waffle in a toaster.

Morning snack: Apple. No different than any other day. So thankful for a teacher at school that really pushes healthy snacks.

Lunch: I fixed her a PB&J on GF bread and she ate strawberries, grapes and carrots. Again, just the bread substitution.

Afternoon snack: She had a GF cookie at one point and then I fixed deviled eggs with non dairy mayonnaise. I don’t normally have cookies in the house so the cookie was an extra treat. Normally, she would have probably eaten a piece of her Valentine’s Day candy but we all love the GF cookies from Earth Fare so she didn’t even miss it. As for the deviled eggs, she couldn’t even tell I used a different mayonnaise.

Dinner: I made spaghetti with rice noodles. She ate them like a champ. She did balk a little at not being able to use Parmesan Cheese but it wasn’t a deal breaker.

Evening snack: I think she might have eaten one more GF cookie.

So yes, lots of substutions but nothing overwhelming or yucky or any drama. Her tummy hurt a few times but that isn’t to say her body wasn’t reacting to the change to the new GF flours. GF bread, waffles, noodles, cookies and almond milk certainly aren’t the cheapest things ever. BUT. It’s not hard. Just different. And I found a great deal site for gluten free products that I definitely plan on visiting regularly.

And, finally, drumroll….we can definitely tell a difference in her uh, movements, since just Sunday. Yayyyy!! Can you believe within 48 hours we’re seeing a change?

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The Magic Machine

February 10th, 2012 at 7:52 am / Amy Bennett / 11 Comments »

I have to tell you about this thing I’ve dubbed The Magic Machine.

Two days ago my friend Dani and I were talking on the phone. Yes, the phone! She briefly mentioned that her girls were now waking up on their own to the alarm and getting dressed all on their own. Well, as you can imagine, we raced right over to the WalMarts Wednesday night and bought, not 1, but 2 alarms. The alarms were cute little $5 alarms that resembled a cell phone so of course each of the girls wanted their own. Fair enough. Scott and I have our own alarms.

So Wednesday night they were really into setting the time just right and wanted to get up 15 minutes earlier than I normally wake them, even on an early day. I was pretty skeptical. Are they really going to get up? And even if they do aren’t they just going to race to the computer and play?

Thursday morning rolled around and my alarm is set to 15 minutes before theirs. I half-sleep after I hit the snooze button and wait and listen for their alarm to go off. Seven minutes after theirs was set to go off, I walk in their room and Lexi pops up and says, “I’M UP!” Emma rolls over and says I was too tired to get up. We were still 7 minutes out from when I normally would wake them up so I just went back to bed. As I got back in bed, I saw their bedroom light turn on and then heard the chatter start. Then I heard their drawers. They were going to get dressed! So I just laid there listening to see what they would do. Out to the kitchen they went. I thought they might get themselves something to eat. I gave them a few more minutes but it was time to get serious about getting ready. I went out and they had packed their lunch. Their lunch! They also informed me they had not only gotten dressed but brushed their teeth and their hair. They even had shoes on! They pushed me back to bed. Like literally pushed me out of the kitchen telling me they wanted to do it by themselves. I disappeared for a few more minutes, came back out to start the car and then just had to give their hair some touch up and help them find their coats.

I was so excited about this yesterday I was going to tell you but then I thought, no, that’s just a fluke and when tomorrow rolls around and they don’t do this then it’s just silly I blogged about it.

But then they did it again today. All of it. Got dressed, got breakfast (a banana and grapes!), brushed each other’s hair, and packed their lunch.

The Magic Machine, indeed.

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Adoption Update and On Parenting a Son

February 9th, 2012 at 7:00 am / Amy Bennett / 22 Comments »

The title is a little misleading because I don’t have much of an update. What should have taken 2 weeks tops has taken nearly 3 months. Our home study was completed in mid-November and we had hoped that by the end of December (2011) it would have been written up, sent it for revisions and then approved by the State. As of now, the home study hasn’t even been written. The latest I heard is it might get written and turned in this week but I haven’t heard confirmation.

Now, one part of me wants to rage against the machine. I mean, that’s just a really long time when it shouldn’t be a really long time. But the other part of me knows it is divine intervention and this is going just how it ought.

I think about the adoption often but if I think too much, I get really nervous. As in, terrified. What if he hurts my girls? What if we can’t control him? How will I handle 3 kids? Will we be able to bond? The list goes on. So I try not to think too deeply. Honestly, I just turn my attention to the fact that God has led us to it and then a peace comes over me. Simple as that. He’s got it.

Today was one of those days though that I started down that rabbit hole.

On Pinterest, I ran into this list of Mommy/Daughter rules. As I read through the list, I knew I could have written it. Painting nails, putting on makeup, dressing in my clothes, dancing. We’ve got this down. I know how to parent a girl. Well, in general. We’re actually going through a rough season so I don’t have this down. But I understand females in the way I know how to paint toenails and put on lip gloss.

But then I read this list of rules about parenting sons. And ya’ll. I’m clueless. Some of them made sense, of course. There’s not much more I love than watching a mom teach their son how to hold the door open for someone. But many others I had this quizzical look on my face.

Teach him words for how he feels? Do you know how many different words my girls have for how they feel? Lots!

Be a cheerleader for his life? My girls ARE cheerleaders.

Learn how to throw a football? We are in trouble, people.

The thing I know though is this: I didn’t read a manual on how to be a mother of girls. I know I’ll learn. And don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to have a son. A son! But I’m not going to lie. I feel like Jasmine on her carpet flying into a whole. new. world.

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Emma The Painter

February 3rd, 2012 at 8:45 am / Amy Bennett / 7 Comments »

Over the years, Emma has tried a few activities. We stuck with gymnastics for about a year until we took a break during the summer and never went back. Neither of them disliked it but neither of them were bent on going back so we didn’t.

Then came guitar lessons. She was sure she wanted to play guitar like Taylor Swift. And I really think she still wants to. However, she realized it takes a whole lot of practice and dedication. She quit lessons a few months in and then went back a few months later for another few weeks all to find out she still didn’t find enough interest in it to really practice like it required.

Well, for months as Lexi has continued with Taekwondo, Emma hasn’t been doing anything. I’ve agreed to let her do nearly anything she wanted. She just wasn’t interested. In fact, one time the only thing she could come up with was giving ME painting lessons. Finally, a place called the Painted Parrot opened in town. On their site it seemed like they were more geared towards parties. It’s actually pretty cool. You get a group of people, show up and you all paint the same picture. She supplies everything. But I wasn’t sure if she did private lessons. It was never opened when we went by but after a few weeks I finally made the call. Sure enough, she does individual or small group lessons. She supplies everything, the kids pick out what they want to paint and she helps them with their technique.

Emma went yesterday for her first lesson. I actually had to talk her into going because her friend at school started gymnastics yesterday and she was sure she wanted to go with her. I insisted she go to the lesson we had agreed to and then she could decide.

When I went to pick her up, Emma was busy helping clean up. She seemed assertive yet comfortable, responding to questions with confidence and clearly in a happy disposition.

Walking out, she declared she was definitely going back and said, “You know how sometimes when I go new places I’m shy and don’t talk much? Well, it wasn’t the same today. I answered her questions and talked a lot. It was so much fun.” I said, “So you’re comfortable there?” She said, “Yes!” And there was something about her that seemed very mature. There was no shy little girl walking out of that studio. She talked the whole way home about how she had painted and the ways she had shaded the tree and what stars she had picked and on and on.

2012-02-02

She was already picking out her painting for the next week over dinner, really mulling over what she wanted it to look like. She had picked a palmetto tree this week since it’s our state tree but thinks she wants to do some mountains next week. I was a little concerned Lexi was going to be upset she didn’t get a picture but she was super supportive of her, telling her what a great job she had done.

I’m not sure where this will go, but for now I think Emma’s place is in front of an easel, paintbrush in hand.

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A Mirror, Rug and a Debunking

January 26th, 2012 at 8:45 am / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

OK, so I’ve had a few small changes around the house. Nothing outstanding but they make me happy and I’m all about sharing the happy.

The mirror

First up, my mom found this mirror from Celebrating Home.

The mirror is a perfect fit with our new curtains and I love that it brings some green into the room. The plan is to find a dresser of some sort to go under it but clearly this decorating the bedroom thing is going to be a drawn-out process.

The Rug

I peeked in HomeGoods the other day after I hit up Old Navy and no lie, I saw this rug for my bathroom and was taking off to the check-out counter in no less than 25 seconds. If you know me and my indecisive nature, you know that’s a flat out miracle.

The Debunking

And finally, the other weekend Scott and I were bored and I said, “I feel like rearranging some furniture.” Well, that started 24 hours of drama with the girls’ room. Lexi wanted to keep it and Emma wanted them separate. I actually like the look of the bunk beds but they were serving absolutely no purpose. Neither girl wanted to sleep on top and it was clearly being used as storage.

After a trial night, both girls decided they really like having separate beds. Can you believe they happily spent 9 months sharing a twin bed?

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I’m Not Above a Little Stalking

January 9th, 2012 at 1:13 pm / Amy Bennett / 5 Comments »

Have you seen that quote on Facebook from parents about how you will question, stalk, annoy, etc. your kids just to make sure they’re safe because you love them? Well, I would look it up for you if not but I’m on my lunch break writing this at work and something about looking up stalking in Google feels like it might raise some red flags with HR. Plus, all I really want to say is I completely agree with quote and did my first bout of stalking this weekend.

Emma had a friend invite her to sleepover on Friday night and her mom said she could just walk home with this little girl since they only live two blocks from the school. At first, I was like, oh no, this is different and Emma is going to freak out. See, every day since she was 3, I have taken her and picked her up from whatever school she was in. And she cried the first 3 weeks of Kindergarten even when I walked her in. So, when the mom asked me this on the phone, I had to put her on hold and ask Emma if that’s what she wanted. See, Emma has said that she really, really wanted to be a walker on multiple occassions but we just don’t live close enough. But here we were with a chance for her to actually walk home and well, I just didn’t know how that was going to go over. She gave me a sheepish grin and agreed that yes, she wanted to walk. Then, of course, Lexi started to freak out because she didn’t want to walk to the van alone. Change! My girls are not good at it!

Friday afternoon came along and Lexi was saved because I had to pick up a friend’s son too. As for Emma, I hadn’t seen her all day and was on pins and needles to see how she was going to do. I seriously wouldn’t put it past her to be in near tears walking the two blocks. There are two ways she could have walked home so I parked my van on one of the streets so I could see the alternate way too. We waited. And waited. I just had to see how she was doing. Lexi finally started suggesting we just head home even though she was pretty interested in seeing her big sister too. I started seeing other parents and their kids and still no sign of Emma. Then all those horrible things started going through my head of kids just being picked off the street in white vans (because it’s always a white van in my head). So, I told the kids, ok, now I’m getting worried it’s been so long, we’re going to have to go look for them. So I started to take off, looking back in my rearview just to make sure I hadn’t missed her. I turned left at the corner and was then one street away from the alternate route. And there was Emma and her friend on the other street.

She was crossing the road and drinking from her reusable soda can we bought a few weeks ago. You could tell she was having fun and talking a mile a minute. And then she spotted the van. I rolled the windows down at the stop sign where we met and she was all, “Hey, Mommy! Hey, Tucker! Hey, Lexi!” And then I was all, “I gotta go, there’s a line behind me!” And we were off, headed home and I watched in the rearview mirror as she finished her walk.

She had no idea I had waited a good 10 minutes for her. It just happened that we met at the stop sign. She just figured I had just picked Lexi up and was on my way home. I guess it shouldn’t be a big deal. Kids walk home all the time. But for us, it was a first. One of those Mom Moments where you look at your kid and go, You’re growing up, stop doing that.

And it won’t be the last first-time she’ll have with her mommy stalking her through it.

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Forbidden Love

January 5th, 2012 at 8:18 pm / Amy Bennett / No Comments »

Some days in the office are exhausting. By the time I get home almost 11 hours after I leave the house, I feel much like a ragdoll ready to be set on a shelf and left alone. Thank goodness I had spaghetti leftovers for us to eat tonight. One less thing to think about. I had promised the girls this morning I’d take them to the Dollar Store tonight. Emma had a dollar from her chore chart and Lexi had one for trying her baked beans the other night. What? Don’t pretend like you don’t bribe your kids. And of course they couldn’t save their money. It’s been a whole 10 days since hitting the motherload at Christmas. So I took them and they bought fairy wings and a play cash register, which I admit was quite fun. I don’t get to throw around $100 bills often.

On the way home, Emma asked what forbidden love was. Seeing that our conversation to The Dollar Store was sparked with the question, “Is there really a medicine you can take so you don’t have babies?”, this new question didn’t startle me in the least. Immediately, Romeo and Juliet popped in my mind. I explained they were from two families that were sworn enemies and they weren’t supposed to love each other. Lexi piped in that she had seen a movie where Juliet was a dog and Romeo was a cat and that was forbidden love because cats and dogs aren’t supposed to love each other. All I have to say about that is whoever cast that movie got it all wrong because we all know cats are girls and dogs are boys. The girls seem to catch on to the idea and finally Lexi said, “Who started this anyway?” Which is what they always say when we’ve found ourselves knee deep down rabbit holes.

All that to say the whole conversation got me thinking about God’s love for me and how it’s a forbidden love. He has no right to love me. Him, being perfectly perfect and patience and joyful and loving. And not just having those qualities but BEING those qualities. He has no right to love me in my pride and stubbornness and impatience and jealousy and all those things I wish I could rid myself of. It ought to be forbidden for Him to love me as much as He does.

When Romeo found Juliet sleeping, assuming she was dead, he drinks poison, killing himself so he could have eternity with his star-crossed lover. Much like Romeo, God found me in my death, before the earth had its foundation and because He loved me so much, He chose to come and die so I could join Him in eternity one day. The best part about our love is it’s not a tragedy. It’s a beautiful story that’s been written long before Romeo and Juliet and has an ending that all forbidden love’s only wish they had.

I put together a listing of all the ways He loves us for my eBook Entangled. Maybe you need a reminder of His forbidden love today. I know I did.