Thursday, March 28, 2013
Milestone.
Shawners has a girlfriend. If, by girlfriend, you mean a girl he has already asked to next year's middle school dance, and asked her to sit next to him on the bus.
As usual, parenting my boy's causes me to take a long hard look at how I support and react to friends and their issues. In this case, especially single friends. I've been thinking on how I support friends in their relationships for awhile any. Mostly because it seems when I stop getting involved or giving advice that's when they find their 'one', get married, and live happily ever after (okay, we all know happily ever after is work, but work well worth the effort). Reason not meaning causation, as the causation could solely be the fact friends step away when they do find the one, not finding the need to be involved because their 'one' is fulfilling a lot of that. Either way, I do realize that when friends are in relationships I put a LOT of focus on their relationships, mostly invited and more often than not requested focus. However, I am realizing that, alone, can be so destructive to their relationship, invited or not. No relationship should be the focus of ANYone's life, much less the focus of their friends for them.
I was reading through Shawners texts with the girl he likes yesterday - all seventy-two text pages of:
Him: Hi
Her: Hi
Him: What are you doing?
Her: Reading. What are you doing?
Him: Taking the dogs potty.
Her: Cool.
Him: You say cool a lot. Is it because you don't know what else to say?
Her: I don't know. I guess so.
Him: K. Gtg
Her: Ok talk to you later
in between him asking her offhandedly about going to the dance next year and her saying yes, devising a plan for the two of them to sit together on the bus for their field trip today, and mentioning another guy is mad at him because the other guy likes her, too.
I realized all of his texts, and hers, were very respectful. I decided to focus on that, instead of being mad that he was hiding texting her from me - and Face Timing - the new phone these days. Had I not scoured Justinbustin's iTouch the other day and discovered at least twenty different social media apps I had NO IDEA about that various friends of his had posted videos from class doing school projects, etc., on, I may have freaked out a bit more. I feel like I'm calming down a bit about social media and realizing this is the new format for kids. They're still kids, and you still have to teach them character regardless, and this is just the new way they express themselves. It's still passing notes, staying on the phone til' 3am in the morning, and taking silly pictures. Just online. Weird, but today's day and age. And, who am I kidding? I've met some of the most amazing people and some of my closest friends through the internet, along with maintaining so many relationships that would have otherwise fallen completely by the wayside.
As I started reading his texts, and after begging for his iTouch back and realizing I wasn't going to give it back, he went outside to play, I'm sure wholly embarrassed. When I was done reading, I went outside to water my plants. He calls me from his Go Phone and says, "Mom, when and if I come home, are you mad at me?" I say no. When he does come home, I tell him, "Shawners, I want to talk to you. You were very respectful, and I agree talking to your Dad is a wise idea if you have any questions. That's all I have to say." I mentioned the part about talking to Dad because he had texted her, I'm thinking I'll tell my Dad.
Yesterday evening, I prayed his focus in any relationship would be on God, and not on the relationship itself. He turned away from me, and I asked if he was upset with me. He says, "No. Did you read ALL the texts?" I replied, "Yes. You know me, I'm a crazy reader." Pretty sure, he was thinking about the dance at that moment, but I didn't ask.
Ironically, I was text updating Brando the entire time I was reading through his texts. After I'd told Shawners he was respectful and that's all I have to say, Brando's text advice was to tell him he sounds respectful. Love when he and I fall on the same page.
I'm actually kind of relieved. He's been talking a lot about being small, and I wanted to make sure being small didn't hinder his confidence. His Dad is on the shorter side but doesn't let being so affect him at all. I am relieved to know Shawners is following the same path.
Lord, lead me on this because I'm leaning on you!!
I'll post some of Shawners texts in another post from my phone. They are too cute not to preserve, although they may not stay up forever.
As usual, parenting my boy's causes me to take a long hard look at how I support and react to friends and their issues. In this case, especially single friends. I've been thinking on how I support friends in their relationships for awhile any. Mostly because it seems when I stop getting involved or giving advice that's when they find their 'one', get married, and live happily ever after (okay, we all know happily ever after is work, but work well worth the effort). Reason not meaning causation, as the causation could solely be the fact friends step away when they do find the one, not finding the need to be involved because their 'one' is fulfilling a lot of that. Either way, I do realize that when friends are in relationships I put a LOT of focus on their relationships, mostly invited and more often than not requested focus. However, I am realizing that, alone, can be so destructive to their relationship, invited or not. No relationship should be the focus of ANYone's life, much less the focus of their friends for them.
I was reading through Shawners texts with the girl he likes yesterday - all seventy-two text pages of:
Him: Hi
Her: Hi
Him: What are you doing?
Her: Reading. What are you doing?
Him: Taking the dogs potty.
Her: Cool.
Him: You say cool a lot. Is it because you don't know what else to say?
Her: I don't know. I guess so.
Him: K. Gtg
Her: Ok talk to you later
in between him asking her offhandedly about going to the dance next year and her saying yes, devising a plan for the two of them to sit together on the bus for their field trip today, and mentioning another guy is mad at him because the other guy likes her, too.
I realized all of his texts, and hers, were very respectful. I decided to focus on that, instead of being mad that he was hiding texting her from me - and Face Timing - the new phone these days. Had I not scoured Justinbustin's iTouch the other day and discovered at least twenty different social media apps I had NO IDEA about that various friends of his had posted videos from class doing school projects, etc., on, I may have freaked out a bit more. I feel like I'm calming down a bit about social media and realizing this is the new format for kids. They're still kids, and you still have to teach them character regardless, and this is just the new way they express themselves. It's still passing notes, staying on the phone til' 3am in the morning, and taking silly pictures. Just online. Weird, but today's day and age. And, who am I kidding? I've met some of the most amazing people and some of my closest friends through the internet, along with maintaining so many relationships that would have otherwise fallen completely by the wayside.
As I started reading his texts, and after begging for his iTouch back and realizing I wasn't going to give it back, he went outside to play, I'm sure wholly embarrassed. When I was done reading, I went outside to water my plants. He calls me from his Go Phone and says, "Mom, when and if I come home, are you mad at me?" I say no. When he does come home, I tell him, "Shawners, I want to talk to you. You were very respectful, and I agree talking to your Dad is a wise idea if you have any questions. That's all I have to say." I mentioned the part about talking to Dad because he had texted her, I'm thinking I'll tell my Dad.
Yesterday evening, I prayed his focus in any relationship would be on God, and not on the relationship itself. He turned away from me, and I asked if he was upset with me. He says, "No. Did you read ALL the texts?" I replied, "Yes. You know me, I'm a crazy reader." Pretty sure, he was thinking about the dance at that moment, but I didn't ask.
Ironically, I was text updating Brando the entire time I was reading through his texts. After I'd told Shawners he was respectful and that's all I have to say, Brando's text advice was to tell him he sounds respectful. Love when he and I fall on the same page.
I'm actually kind of relieved. He's been talking a lot about being small, and I wanted to make sure being small didn't hinder his confidence. His Dad is on the shorter side but doesn't let being so affect him at all. I am relieved to know Shawners is following the same path.
Lord, lead me on this because I'm leaning on you!!
I'll post some of Shawners texts in another post from my phone. They are too cute not to preserve, although they may not stay up forever.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Friday, March 15, 2013
Wow what a week
Pretty sure I have 100% decided I am A-ok spending every single one of our spring breaks in Cali. This was way too crazy of a week for me. Looking forward to some chill time this weekend. SXSW, you will have to be happy with interactive and film, music will have to wait til next year.
So grateful to have my son with me tonight. What a crazy, scary experience this afternoon that could've ended up a LOT worse. Grateful to have my son back, a little bruised, with glass in his hair, an hurting in different places that keep moving all over, but here. Conscious, clean CAT scan, and his happy, go-lucky self who requested I use the lice comb to remove the shards of glass from his hair, and along with it pulled out the burnt ends of his hair. Who knew a lice comb was multi-purpose? Praying both he and my sister recover quickly. My sister was in a lot more pain, and the doctors told her she would continue to be in more pain the next few days. Justinbustin likely, too, but not as bad.
So grateful to have my son with me tonight. What a crazy, scary experience this afternoon that could've ended up a LOT worse. Grateful to have my son back, a little bruised, with glass in his hair, an hurting in different places that keep moving all over, but here. Conscious, clean CAT scan, and his happy, go-lucky self who requested I use the lice comb to remove the shards of glass from his hair, and along with it pulled out the burnt ends of his hair. Who knew a lice comb was multi-purpose? Praying both he and my sister recover quickly. My sister was in a lot more pain, and the doctors told her she would continue to be in more pain the next few days. Justinbustin likely, too, but not as bad.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Spring break
Quite an eventful week so far. Kicked off with a Thursday night SXSW party, continued with three SXSW interactives on Saturday, Costco shopping Sunday, helping someone move Monday, hiking Enchanted Rock and my sisters birthday Tuesday, and taking the kids BMXing today. Oh, yeah, and two of those nights Justin spent elsewhere, the other three he had a friend at our house for the nights.. I'm exhausted! I remember the days I used to list every tiny accomplishment because it felt like SO MUCH when I had little ones around to care for 24/7. Now I do a hundred times that in one day because my littles care for themselves in one day, but still it doesn't feel like much. Nothing feels as purposeful as when I'm doing something for my kiddos, which used to be all the time. Now it's in different ways and still 24/7 but not directly.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
Facebook blogging
Ha! I found a way to "blog" my facebook posts... or at least make them visible to blogger friends and other extremely close friends. Since I made the photo list for my Hawaii photos to be visible to, now I just choose that list when I do a post I'd otherwise make "Only Me". So excited!
I Caved.
I'm sick of people comparing their behind the scenes to my highlight reel. Especially when I record them so well and in such detail. My Hawaii photos? I caved to people's insecurities and have made them my own. They're only visible to those reading this (let me know if they're not, and I'll change that), and a few close friends who've requested to see the photos. I use fb for scrapbooking purposes so I really don't care for everyone to see my photos any way. Maybe I should post pictures of the dirty laundry piles like Alyssa, or in my case the pile of clean laundry all over our bed waiting to be folded that ends up getting shoved off back into clean laundry baskets at the end of the night so we can go to bed, along with the corners of things to be decluttered... I had a blog for that once. :) As Alyssa puts it so well, though, and I've said before, who wants to remember the negative? Not I. Therefore, I only take photos in happy moments, and I only post happy moments - the things I *want* to remember.
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Adrenaline pumping through my veins
Took a photo of the fifth graders at Shawner's school this morning in a 2020 formation for Class of 2020 for the yearbook today. Brando was up on the roof of the school to take the photo using a donated ladder from Home Depot and the vice principal taking the ladder away once he got up there from the other side of the school so nobody else got any ideas, two other moms and I laid out paper towels duct taped to the ground for the kids to stand on to get in place, then the kids picked up when they were in place for their photo. I had one mom there coaching the kids to go class by class to their number, then on what to do from there from what I relayed to her from what Brando relayed to me on the phone while he's observing up on the roof. Felt like organizing a Macy's Day parade!!! Crazy, but oh so fun, and now adrenaline is rushing through my body making my body shake and feel on edge. Whew!! Can't believe we pulled it off. Now can't wait to see what Brando does with final photos. Saw the initial ones and LOVE them, but can't wait to see his edits that make them even a hundred times better.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Deadline Month
Anybody else not get hungry at. all. and think food tastes like sandpaper when stressed? Having to force myself to eat with this deadline coming up. Things like below make doing this almost worth everything though. What really makes all this worth doing is the whole learning process and the amazing people in our PTA who are amazing wives, mothers, friends, amazing role models, and an inspiration to work with.
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