Mother's DAy

unday, May 12, 2013

Mother's Day

When you come from a family of divorced and re-married parents you have to look at life a little differently. As a grown-up, I can finally see it. How many people have 4 different families with so many different women to show you what being a mom is like? I grew up with 2 moms, 5 grandmothers, 2 aunts and so many family friends that had an influence.

I feel as though I took from them what I loved. I was lucky enough to be able to stay home their first 13 years. I am independent and strong enough to not do everything for them. Teach them that we are a family and no one is any more important than anyone else and you are responsible for your own crap stuff. I am able to give them the love and care that have helped them grow to be great men.

I do not make my husbands lunch every morning. It is not that I don't love him, it's just never been something that I feel I needed to do. Now that the older boys are middle and high they have to make their own lunch. I am trying to teach them skills that they can grow with.

I love my roses as they remind me of my grandma. I am cautious of anything that has too much of an odor as my other grandma was allergic. I think of another grandma when I look at my wedding ring: she told me never to take it off because it makes it too easy to take it off permanently. (I have only taken it off when pregnant and when I had my shoulder surgery. In both instances they would have had to cut it off, but I wore it on a necklace.)

I learned that some birthdays are more important than others, but all are important and should be treated as your own special day. My mom always made homemade cakes for us (we didn't always know what they were supposed to be but....) so we knew she took a bit of extra time just for us.

No matter what influence they have had on me cooking is still not my thing. I can. I do. I just don't enjoy it. We eat pretty simply.

On this mother's day I have to remind myself that there are so many more "mothers" in our world than just our own. I have learned from mine, also from my grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and friends that have been beautiful examples of motherhood. I am grateful for all of them and all that they have taught me.

Mother's Day

When you come from a family of divorced and re-married parents you have to look at life a little differently. As a grown-up, I can finally see it. How many people have 4 different families with so many different women to show you what being a mom is like? I grew up with 2 moms, 5 grandmothers, 2 aunts and so many family friends that had an influence.

I feel as though I took from them what I loved. I was lucky enough to be able to stay home their first 13 years. I am independent and strong enough to not do everything for them. Teach them that we are a family and no one is any more important than anyone else and you are responsible for your own crap stuff. I am able to give them the love and care that have helped them grow to be great men.

I do not make my husbands lunch every morning. It is not that I don't love him, it's just never been something that I feel I needed to do. Now that the older boys are middle and high they have to make their own lunch. I am trying to teach them skills that they can grow with.

I love my roses as they remind me of my grandma. I am cautious of anything that has too much of an odor as my other grandma was allergic. I think of another grandma when I look at my wedding ring: she told me never to take it off because it makes it too easy to take it off permanently. (I have only taken it off when pregnant and when I had my shoulder surgery. In both instances they would have had to cut it off, but I wore it on a necklace.)

I learned that some birthdays are more important than others, but all are important and should be treated as your own special day. My mom always made homemade cakes for us (we didn't always know what they were supposed to be but....) so we knew she took a bit of extra time just for us.

No matter what influence they have had on me cooking is still not my thing. I can. I do. I just don't enjoy it. We eat pretty simply.

On this mother's day I have to remind myself that there are so many more "mothers" in our world than just our own. I have learned from mine, also from my grandmothers, aunts, cousins, and friends that have been beautiful examples of motherhood. I am grateful for all of them and all that they have taught me.

December 2012

This has taken me forever just to get to this page! We got a new computer and I am all about puttering around until I figure something out, but sometimes.... Phew! It took me and a computer-savvy friend nearly an hour last night to figure out how to change my touchpad so that I can just auto scroll down without having to move the little blue bar on the right. An hour! REally?!?!? It shouldn't be this hard. But figure it out we did. And we have to find a new copy of Microsoft Office cuz I can't open any of my documents on my school emails. But a new computer is an adventure. And I am hoping that this one won't shut down on me randomly like our old one. Of course I have to remember that if I double-tap the left corner of the touchpad? it shuts it down completely! Like I said took me forever to get here when you can't figure out why your cursor isn't moving around the screen:-)

On the flip side......Keegan started driver's ed yesterday. Yep, driver's ed. He can't really be that old right? Well, he is and he asks, "mom, can I drive?" every chance he gets. It is teaching me a whole new level of patience and cooperation. I was worried that I would be the mom that yelled the whole time, but he says that I am ok. I don't yell. I certainly feel like I am constantly telling him what to watch for and what to do, but with time will come confidence....for both of us!

October

It's been months.

and months.

Seems like I have things to say but so little down time that I never say it.

Hmm.

This is what we do. 

Six days a week.

Two different towns at the same time twice a week.

This is why we never have time to do anything else. 

Visit friends? yeah right.

Go to the pumpkin patch? nope, had to go to Safeway.

Clean? Pshaw!

So if you wonder how we are or what we are doing? Most likely we are sitting on the sidelines, under an umbrella rooting on our favorite players.

July 2012

Holy Cannoli's! What a month!

We waited forever for school to get out. It was nearly July by the time we got out of school but we had plans!

My little sister was marrying her love, Dusty!

We drove to Colorado (which took 2 days). We spent all week doing wedding "stuffs". Well, sister and I did wedding stuffs. The boys? They went fishing, they went swimming, they played, they totally played. 

Wednesday we had a free day so we grabbed Megs and went to Estes Park CO. The best driving road EVER! Through the mountains back and forth with a sign that was a S on it's side! Thank Goodness Jeff was driving since i am still driving one-handed and I don't think I could have driven that road....but it would have been a blast! Estes Park is alot like Leavenworth, lots of little shops and restaurants. The biggest difference is  it has an elevation of over 7,000 feet! There is even a tram that you can take up to the top of the mountain behind the town. We didn't take it, but went putt-putting instead. It was sunny, it was cloudy, the wind came up, the thunder and lightning was in the distance and the rain came down lightly. Not the best time to have a metal putter in your hands, but.... we were on vacation.

Thursday Konley turned 13. We now have 2 teenagers. He was afraid we weren't going to do anything. Boy! Was he wrong! There is an amusement/waterpark in the middle of downtown Denver. We packed everybody up, took the day off from wedding stuff and went to ride the rides. It was a great day!

We rode the log ride and got SOAKED! (Twice) We rode the skateboard half-pipe. We laughed our way through the mind-eraser rollercoaster. This roller coaster had the wheels above your head so you were sitting in the a "floating" seat. When it cork-screwed your feet flew out the sides and over your head out into nothing! I could barely breathe by the time we stopped, total exhilaration!

Friday was the rehearsal dinner.

Saturday my little sister took her love's last name. It was an amazing, beautiful, tear-filled day. The weather co-operated. The wedding party co-operated. The day went off without a hitch. I love that girl and I am so glad that she found someone that makes her happy. The best thing? We love Dusty too. He loves our boys, hangs out with us without any weirdness. He loves to fish and took the boys out to share his local lakes. I miss them both so much already.

I am putting fare-watcher on my computer so I can "pop" down every once in a while.

Now we are home. Dealing with the aftermath of the drive. Jeff ended up with 2 blood clots in his leg from sitting so long. They say it could take up to 6 months to totally wrap up the treatments. I am handling it better than when we first found out. He is doing a tremendous job of following his instructions to the T. For a man who hates pills he understands the enormity of it all.

Now we are just getting ready for birthday #2 and all that August brings. 

Fall update

I know that I am not always very good at adding to our family blog. I feel like I am just re-gurgitating our day. Iam terrible at getting my pictures out of my camera into my computer. There are times when I have found my card to be full....and it takes nearly 500 pictures! Needless to say Jeff hates when I say that I am going to Costco to pick up some pictures!

My boys have grown so much this summer. Both literally and figuratively. This picture is from a wedding we went to this summer. Jack's teacher, Miss Roberts, became Mrs. Mayer...and now we have a Mr. Mayer teaching 2nd grade and Mrs. Mayer teaching 1st. They are so much fun to hang out with.

But I digress...Somehow we now have 2 boys in middle school and Jack is full day elementary. It's become crazy. I was looking at a picture of Jack as an infant and I am having trouble remembering that. I hate not remembering. I seriously miss the infant stage. But...on the other hand I do love sleeping at night, being able to hold his hand and chat him up, and no longer having diapers to deal with.

All 3 are playing soccer. All 3 are doing great in school. All 3 are respectful, happy, loving boys. I don't know why God blessed us the way he did, but all I can say is "Thank you". I am blessed and no matter how old they get, or how tall on the measuring wall, or what grade they move on to, I am blessed and that's what counts.

my 3 boys

Summer around here is so very busy!

School ends and the free-for-all begins.

This summer doesn't seem quite as bad as the last few. We have soccer tournaments and camping trips.

This last weekend Keegan had a soccer tournament. His team was never scored on, yet they came in second. The first day our team scored 8 goals, and Keegan scored 4 of them! He could have nearly flown home on his own happiness! It was so exciting to see him love this game like that. He scored again on Sunday. They played in the final game and just couldn't finish. They went into PK's and just couldn't win there. At the end of 5 kicks they were tied 3-3. Then it goes 1 vs. 1 and we missed ours and they made theirs. It was heartbreaking. They have a great coach. He told them to hold their heads high because they played a great tourney! Then first thing Wednesday they went to work on those things that they could have done better. We are very lucky to have such a great guy as a coach.

We are off to Bridgeport next week. Camping. Eating. Swimming. Playing on the beach. It is one of my favorite parts of summer. I don't have things to worry about. I only need to pack lunches for the day and add the cooler to the boat.

I am so very ready!