Paying it Forward

So today I stumbled upon The 3/50 Project, maybe I'm a little behind but I just heard about this awesome movement! I happened upon it through Little Lambs Children's Boutique blog http://www.shoplittlelambs.blogspot.com/, speaking of-- shout out to a local business right in our back yard in the wonderful Pell City, Alabama!! {thanks mandy shea for hooking me up with them}

It's a simple concept really, and I'm ashamed at myself of how hard I had to think to pick my three!

Okay here it is real simple: Pick 3 independently owned businesses you would miss if they were gone, spend at least $50 dollars a month between the three and we could positively impact our Brick and Mortar right here at home!!



My Three:
(1) Handy Mart Springville AL
(2) Girly Girlz Springville AL
(3) Sal's Italian Restaurant Springville AL

If you live anywhere near me, I'm sure you have frequented Number one since you were in high school!! Could you imagine Springville without the Handy mart??? We have already lost the Dairy Dip, which is where I met my husband- I was so sad when they tore the building down!
Number two, Girly Girlz, did you forget you had a birthday party or a baby shower this weekend! Swoop on by Girly Girlz and you can find something for any chick you know from 2-100 yrs old!!
Number Three, can I just say, Chicken Parmesan like nobody's business!! Mmmnnn!! Love Sal's.
I know I don't live in Springville anymore, but it is my hometown and I am still there every week- what can I say, I'm partial to my Alma Mata!
Downtown Springville, Pell City, Ashville and Odenville, pretty much all of St. Clair County has something to offer you in the line of local owned businesses.
So the concept of saving our local economy three stores at a time is pretty cool! Sometimes you may pay a little more than you would per say online for an item you could purchase at one of the local boutiques, but you have to pay shipping online, and you don't get to check the quality of the product, run the risk of having a safe CC transaction, or these days even getting the product with all the internet scams! I feel great when I support a local business, I feel like I am paying it forward! I encourage my blog buds to comment on your three and try the 3/50. I plan on making it a point to do just that every month!!

A Constant Source of Laughter

Ah...........the good times of '09. My children have proven to be an excellent source of laughter and a fail proof means of lifting my spirits. When you become a mother, your children essentially become your life - & that's cool with me.

On the way to VBS at a visiting church a couple of weeks ago my oldest son, now 12, says to me, "Momma don't walk me in." He insists that he doesn't need me to register him or walk him in. {Now let me assure you- the ONLY way he got me to agree to this was the fact that this is my Grandmothers church & I know everyone.} "Momma, I need to make my first impression, you can come a day later in the week." Okay Mr. Bigg, it wasn't like three years ago you wanted me to walk you to your class the first day of the school year! A huge bomb was dropped on me that suddenly my baby really doesn't need me to hold his hand in EVERYTHING he does. This is completely traumatizing for me, I am paralyzed but still driving, fighting that lump in my throat back with everything I have in me, trying to not make this a Wonder Years moment with the dialogue going in my head and everything, I resist. Okay as if that isn't enough for one afternoon drive the boy keeps going! "You know Momma, people are like girls, you just have to cast out your line and sit, wait a while and when they start biting, start getting to know you- Then you reel them in!" Realize- we are pretty much rednecks, so you can imagine how funny this sounds! God instantly rebounded my broken heart with Ty's antics! Okay, back to the story! I'm lol- but wait, where did you learn that?? Did your Daddy teach you that?!?!? "No, as if I need tips from Dad on how to get girls." Yep, that was his reply! Where did this kid come from!! Is this my baby boy??

Okay, Michael Jackson dies, God rest his soul. Whatever, the media is covering this like 24/7 so naturally the kids hear me complaining about it. My youngest can't wait to tell Daddy at the dinner table the news that he eavesdropped in on my phone conversation to obtain, now owning the information as he knew it all along, duh-- "Daddy, did you know that country singer died today?" What?? "You know Daddy he sings Chattahoochee?" Dinner officially spewing out of our noses, I don't care who you are that's funny! Okay, my 8 year old has no idea who Micheal Jackson is! {finally my sheltering skills are paying off, the kids have no reason to know who he is} He thinks Alan Jackson died, we reassured him it was someone else, nobody he knew! Long live

Chattahoochee!! The purest humor!

It's never a dull moment around here that's for sure!! Right now in the background Ty is yelling, "I'm gonna cut you with this knife ah, ha ha!" in his crazy Dr. Hyde voice torturing his brother running around the dining room table. Okay, we are rednecks but I don't let my children have knives, they are just trying to cut the left over pork chops that got a lil' tough in the microwave!

we walk by faith not by sight

I started this day out pretty awesome. A friend prayed with me, agreed with me that my burdens with Tyler be lifted. Almost instantly I felt a release and was flooded with peace as my best friend prayed blessing over my life and the lives of my family. Set free was the mode for the day. I will not be torn down, or held in bondage I declared as I exited the Momma car on my way into the office! Come in -get started, check my emails, check my personal emails..........then there it is.....not even 30 minutes into my wonderful day. An email from Tyler's language teacher, which he has a 41-F in her class- fyi. The note began with and I quote, "Tyler's grades continue to fall", now I'm not a parent who expects straight A's out of my children, I only expect them to do their best at whatever God sets their hands to do that day. I had just got through telling my best friend that I have been having a hard time concentrating on Tyler's good when the bad is constantly the same day in and day out for all of 6th grade(this is a heavy burden in a momma). The child will not do his work!! He is very smart, but very strong willed and a bit rebellious. Okay, maybe "a bit" is an understatement, but he has shown signs of improvement. Now I know that it has taken me many, many, almost all of my years to learn all that I have been given knowledge of by the great and merciful Father. But my precious child, you, you go to school every day, you know what you have to do there! Work!
I am trying to repress fear of generational curses being passed on to my son, I know I shall not have a spirit of fear, I know it, I say it out loud, I believe it, I pray it in confidence, why won't it go away!!!!!!! "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving." Colossians 4:2. This is what I have to do, I do it, but as I am dancing along the enemy tries to steal my peace and bind me up in his fear making me believe I am not doing enough. But my instruction is clear, that is to trust and wait. My Gods word says that I will have sufficient courage.. ...this is what I believe in my heart and cling to knowing that it is the solid truth.
I hang on these days, in anticipation of what the wonderful lump of clay the Lord is molding my child out of will become. I am clinging on to every lesson knowing that I have an 8 year old coming right up behind Tyler. Tristen is completely different, as children always are. I analyze the different personalities of my boys and it makes me giggle a lil', probably just as our heavenly Father looks down on us and sees us working harder trying to make things easier. So basically, I've ended up rambling because I try to blog at work and I have to constantly click away. And it's 3pm and you know what, I feel better sorting all of these feeling out in Georgia font......I really do, that light feeling of my burden feels lifted again because I have reminded myself of what I know I have to do. Knowing and remembering that we walk by faith and not by sight truly is the only way. Because with the way things appear in the natural, one who has no faith would clearly have no hope, no peace. But I have all faith -and hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). And that is that!!!!! So I rebuke you Satan in the Name of Almighty Jesus, you will not steal my joy, my peace, my hope! I shall and I will and I am walking by faith and not by sight and just as my best friend told me this morning, while I only see part of the picture, God already has the picture painted and HE has a full view of it and knows exactly how all of this will work to HIS good!!!

Wisdom and Words

Wisdom and words were my cry to God on my way home Monday. I have a new route home since we moved in December, it's quite nice actually. Good scenic time to enjoy Gods beauty of nature. I have an 11 year old son, so you can understand my prayer for wisdom and words. I grew up surrounded by sisters, I have a younger brother, but I was a mom before he hit puberty! I have had my seat belt on for about a year now, and boy have we been for a ride! I have been on my knees hard since 6th grade began. I am in 6th grade you know- it's harder than I remember!

I have a handsome, smart, funny, outgoing, giving, spiritual son who really loves his momma-- we have just hit the phase with our oldest. I thought it would come later, in my mind I have been putting all of this off like it wouldn't come. We already had "the talk" with him, we have have the drug talk, we've learned the guilty by association bad friends lessons, we have had daddy's call us to report that our son is not to call their house again ever for like 5 years!! It just hits like a ton of bricks one day and you hear the crack in his voice and that "boy" smell in his room, stinky shoes, ugh! He's a pre-teen. He will be 12 in May, and I never want it to come. He has so much potential, he just doesn't quite know how to tap into it. I really don't know how to teach it either. I have to be honest, I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm going, "ok Lord, help, please." He is so moody, attitudy and emotional- traits from me, but none the less - I'm not used to the ricochet effect. I see so much of me in him and God has revealed much, I mean ALOT to me about myself through my lessons with Tyler this year. I feel like I just need more time to make things right. I have robbed my sons of my full potential. I have maybe 30 minutes in the morning, and about 3 hours in the evening. That's not enough time for me to be momma. I can't get it all done, have my quiet time with the Lord, bond with my boys, and my husband. Sometimes I feel like just a passerby in this home God gave us. This is not just something you give up on, you keep working towards doing better, crunching the time, cutting corners to make up for other things.

I am learning how to muddle through all of this with God's help. I honestly don't know where I would be without my Lord. He gives me peace when I'm falling to pieces! Monday when I found out Tyler didn't do what he was supposed to do at school, I had a mini meltdown inside. This is a constant battle with him, I haven't figured out if it's an attention problem, a will issue, or an attitude problem. I can be a control freak, so I have let go of the fact that I can do everything for my kids. I cannot do their school work and I cannot make them do it when I am not with them. I can't make them choose the right path even though I've paved the road and printed a map-quest. I cannot make them not have the hots for girls, I can't make an 11 yr and an 8 yr old not fight over everything & anything. I have to accept the fact that I can only be an example and show and tell what is right and good by God and leave it in HIS hands. Trusting in the Lord, leaning not to my own understanding. It's really all I have time to do anyway. So Lord give me wisdom and words to speak.

NEwBiE

HI ya'll! So I'm a newbie blogger for the most part.......I've done a few posts on other host sites. But my friends are blogging here and I just have to join in the fun! I like to hang with my girls, I don't get much time to do so, therefore, I'll just do it online!!! I don't have much time, not quite sure why I started this post other than the fact that I didn't want an empty profile!! he, he! :)

I am currently trying to run an entire distribution location for trailer parts with a total of four employees (including myself) and a driver. It's quite the headache. Jesus, coffee and WDJC keep me alive during these strenuous days. This is my lunch break..........setting up a blog. I really shouldn't have taken a break at all - this is purchasing day! I wear many hats at work, and on Tuesday I serve as the purchasing department amongst other things that don't go away when I add that! I am NOT COMPLAINING I won't spend my life being un-thankful at all! I am so thankful that I have a job today when so many loved ones have had to deal with lay-offs and eliminations. Sometimes I just wish I could take off and spend all day being me without being at Quality! But the the good thing is that I can turn up my music, praise the Lord openly in my office, bring my sick babies to work (which today I have one in my office), have morning prayer with my co-workers, cry when I have a bad day and get hugs instead of dirty looks.

I am a truly blessed woman. Looking back on who I've been I can see how God has had HIS hand on me and has carried me. Still does and still will. Thank you Lord for constantly being my shelter from the storm.