Wisdom

Some wisdom I have acquired over my 20’s and into my 30’s (I’m 31 right now). Some funny, some serious, but all true…in my opinion of course!

-People don’t care if they hurt your feelings and a lot of people are just very selfish. Period.

-Marriages are not truly perfect and there’s a reason for that, there’s always room for improvement!

-You don’t have to pay full price for very much in this world- couponing is the best!

- Electronics are wonderful. Let the blackberries, ipods and laptops be your friend and welcome them with open arms.

-It is far more important to have a few good friends, rather than a ton of acquaintances.

-You can teach yourself how to cook. You thought you never learned how because your mom didn't cook and instead would say "it's dinner time" and you'd run get your coat and head to the car...but as you got older, you realized it was because she was tired of cooking 4 different meals for her picky family every night. It wasn't because she couldn't cook. In fact, she's a great cook. But you still had to learn on your own as a result of everyone's pickiness.


-You have to be your child’s doctor most of the time and diagnose them yourself.

-Everyone has their own set of problems and their own way of dealing with them. No one has a perfect life, even if they say they do.

-The weather really does affect your mood.

-You can never take enough pictures, even if your family complains otherwise.

-Worrying is nothing but a wrinkle maker!

-Sunbathing can help you look good temporarily, but it can do much worse damage in the long run.

-Family is truly the most important thing. It is heartbreaking to see turmoil in any family.

-Car repair shops and car dealerships will always try to take you to the cleaners and drain your wallet.

-Trying to sell a house is not fun.

-Moms are amazing. From having one to being one…they/we do it all. My mom could never be replaced!

-You can survive sitting through 2-3 baseball games in one day, in 100 degree heat, and your child can survive playing in them. You will be very disgusting afterwards though.

-God really does promise not to give us more than we can handle, but he does say He will carry us through when we feel too weak to handle it.

-Leftovers and casseroles aren’t nearly as bad as they seemed to be when I was a child.

-You should always tip at least 20% to avoid embarrassment.

-It is better to ask for help when needed than to let yourself drown.

-Water w/ lime is delicious! So much better than water w/ lemon.

-No one cares enough about the future of children w/ special needs and no one knows them better than their parents. We are their everything. It’s sad, but true and sometimes it is a very lonely place.

-There are some AMAZING doctors out there for our children, specifically my daughter’s cardiologist, eye doctor and endocrinologist. Amazing… and that says a lot because my standards are through the roof.

-It is sad, but true, that I get more excited when its triple coupons or super doubles than most anything else in my life.

-Writing is so therapeutic.

-Your child truly won’t die if he doesn’t have a cell phone at age 12.

-You can order off the kids menu at a lot of places, if you just ask!

-Birthdays definitely aren’t as exciting the older you get, you’re just more thankful to have made it through another year.

-Shoes really do make a woman feel better about herself.

-There is most definitely a difference in “street smart” and “book smart”. It is rare to have both.

-There is such a thing as TV addiction and taking on the burdens of those in reality TV. I lost sleep last week after Jake Harris (on Deadliest Catch) told his dad he was a drug addict. I’m still upset about this. I know… it is so ridiculous. I felt like he was admitting it to me and I had known him all my life. I was so sad. I probably inherited that from my mom, who was so upset when John Ritter, Billy Mays and Steve Irwin died, that she walked around for weeks in mourning for each one. You would have thought they were all her brothers. She still can’t watch Clifford. Thank goodness Brett Michaels recovered, because she was in a tailspin about that one! She even wants me to make her a Poison cd. Gross!

-Speaking of Poison, the 80’s were definitely the worst decade for music!!!

-The destiny of coming “full circle” is unavoidable and inevitable. Your children will drive you crazy the way you drove your parents crazy. On the flip side, when you are an adult, your mother will drive you crazy the way she drove her mother crazy too. And you will laugh about it. And you’re mom will enjoy telling you that you are getting what you deserve. It’s all a ripple effect and some really cynical punishment.

-You may discover new or untapped things for yourself when you are older that you really enjoy…like blogging, going for a walk or reading…all the things that may have sounded so “old” and “boring” in your earlier years.

-It is possible to grow up very quickly. I know this for a fact, which is why I seem to think I have all this wisdom at 31. Haha.

-Your children aren’t perfect, even though you may think they are. Recognize their faults and help them along to work on them.

-Your children can survive catastrophes as babies/children, such as:
1. Falling off the kitchen table in the bouncy seat when brother walks by and accidentally knocks you off (it really was an accident- he cried more than she did!)
2. Brother dragging you down the stairs in your exersaucer because you are crying for mommy, who is outside checking the mail, and comes back inside the house to find you sitting upside down in the exersaucer, one floor down from where she left you. And she (mommy) is very confused and it takes her a minute to figure out what on earth has happened.
3. Sailing down a flight of hardwood stairs because a dog has scared you to death and you decide to be Supergirl and try to fly, literally.
4. Dislocating your own arm from hanging on a fence in the dugout of a baseball game, going to the ER to have it popped back in, and coming back to finish the game by hitting a double.

-You draw an unbelievable amount of inner strength from watching the bravery of your child who has had 5 surgeries and more doctors’ visits in 7 years than you have had in your entire lifetime. And enters every single visit with an infectious smile on her face.

-Despite the fact that your 12 year old can’t seem to find matching socks, keep his room clean or manage to Not leave sweatshirts, lunchboxes and homework at school…he can still get all A’s and B’s his first year of middle school! Go Drew!

-Men don’t listen or communicate. There is some sort of wiring malfunction in their ears and mouth. If you know one who does, he is probably gay.

-It is never too late to start your bucket list. Why not enjoy the things you want to do throughout your entire life, instead of when you are too old to fully enjoy most things on your list? I have 4 things on mine so far: go to Hawaii and Ireland (not in the same trip), take ballroom dance lessons (find a suitable partner) and start a garden. Oh my goodness, I’m not 31, I’m 50 years old. Ahhhhh!

-Never say never.

Can’t wait to add to this list in my 40’s! Want to share your wisdom? :)

Perspective

I just had to share this. Some people could care less about what I'm about to say, but I find it very interesting. There is a point to this, so just bear with me.

Yesterday I made my grocery run (last day of the weekly sales). I hit up Food Lion, Harris Teeter and Lowes to take advantage of some great sales. Total, I spent $33.03 (which is way more than I normally spend in a week, but there were some good "stock up" items, so I splurged a little. $33.03.

For that amount here are the items I bought:

-5 packs of split chicken breast
-1 pork tenderloin (4 lbs)
-1 box of Lipton tea bags
-1 bunch of romaine lettuce
-1 cucumber
- 1.25 lbs of deli turkey
-1.59 lbs red seedless grapes
-3 tomatoes
-2 large cans Van Camps beans
-7 boxes of Orville Redenbacher popcorn
-1 Suave shampoo (large bottle)
-4 jars of Skippy peanut butter
-2 bags of Lays chips
-1- carton of orange juice
-2 bags of Flipz pretzels
-1 loaf Natures Own bread
-4 containers of Daisy sour cream

Oh and super score...at Lowes, there were restaurant coupons printed on the back of my receipt!! Since I bought the majority of the food there, the receipt was good and long :). So, I received 3 free appetizer coupons to Outback (yum) and 3 free chips and salsa coupons for Chili's. I'm going to assume that these 6 coupons alone would equate to around $33, because it makes me happy to think that. :) Also, at Harris Teeter, I was greeted at the entrance by a lovely employee giving out prescription cards for the pharmacy. For every new or transferred prescription you get there from now until August 31st, they will load $20 on your vic card...good up to 10 prescriptions or $200!! Yay! I have 3 to fill right now. These super scores were a huge plus in addition to everything else I got! I was one happy girl.

Now, I didn't list all these items so you could assume I'm sharing great deals, although you know I love to do that! Actually, I got $111.48 in groceries for $33.03, which is about a 70% savings (which isn't my average, but again, I did get some good stuff).

I listed these items to help create a visual for this....

Last night, Jon and I went to Chili's for dinner (yes, just the two of us....first time at dinner without our kids in months, however, we talked about the kids the entire time..isn't that always ironic?). Jon got chicken tenders w/ a diet coke and I got a cheeseburger w/ sweet tea (don't judge us!It was just that kind of day for me :). Our bill, including the tip was $27.00. $27.00. Okay, I'll accept that since it's the average price for a meal like that "these days" (because I'm so old and have been around so long..haha).

But.....drumroll please...here comes the perspective....

I got in the car and realized that we had just spent a few dollars short of what I spent at the store that same afternoon for all those groceries. The meat alone will provide at least 7-8 meals for us, plus leftovers. And all that lunch food I got (salad fixings and deli meat). Wow. I mean wow.

Anyone who knows me, knows that we enjoy going out to eat every now and then
(okay, a little too much at times). Who doesn't? Especially when I do all the cooking! If it were up to Jon, we would eat cereal or pb&j every night. Yuck. Although that might help me lose weight, I don't want that every night! However, this has proven to be a big downfall of mine. I coupon like crazy, get tons of good deals, unload the groceries, stuffing every nook and cranny in my kitchen... and then my brain is too tired to think and cook, so we go out. It's a sick, endless cycle (lol). This happens maybe once a week.

I think it helped having these two events happen in one day to gain some perspective on how much I really save couponing. A few weeks ago, I really committed to being better about using the food already within my house to cook more and more. I am sticking to that pretty well so far. That is not to say we still won't go out to eat about once a week, because there is certainly nothing wrong with that. What happened yesterday was very eye opening to me. I already have several meals planned.

Now, who has a good recipe to share using split chicken breast??? :)

What Would You Do?

1. -Would you switch your kids from track 4 to track 3, only allowing them a one week summer break and taking them off the track two of their cousins are on? You would be doing this because a really great teacher with a big background in special education would become your daughter’s teacher next year, for her first year at mainstreaming. However, you would be dealing with your 12 year old son only getting a one week break before starting a new school year. That one week break will be spent in Cooperstown.

2. -Would you take your daughter and go to the beach with your parents this weekend and miss out on your son’s baseball tournament? You would be doing this because it is going to be 93° here and you don’t have enough babysitters to help watch your daughter so you could go to the games anyway and suffer in the heat alone, without having to take her. You feel very torn though…

3. -Would you ever get tired and frustrated that your daughter waited on a waiting list for CAP services for almost 7 years and now that you have it, there isn’t enough “good staff” to fill your respite needs? You would have been waiting for your ship to sail in with some much needed help for quite a long time. You would have now been teased by this since you are ready to pull your hair out finding someone good to help care for your child with special needs because you have such a high standard for her care and the staff is so low quality.

4. –Would you start telling people exactly how you feel so they could know how their actions and what they say affect you? This would be a fairly big change for yourself because you care so much about how other’s feel, that sometimes you just let people walk all over you instead, simply because it’s easier.

5.. -Would you feel like you need to cut something out of the schedule for your family between two baseball teams with practice 3-4 nights a week, piano lessons once a week, speech therapy two times a week, developmental therapy two days a week, basketball one night a week, church softball once a week, tutoring for your daughter two days a week, carpooling for a friend one day a week, teaching coupon classes, blogging, work, school, church etc? Exactly what would you cut out? I can’t seem to justify cutting any of them. What if God would just add 4 more hours into our days? :)

6. -Would you make the time to schedule yourself for a dental cleaning, a dermatology appointment, an eye doctor appointment and a physical because you needed all of those things completed….but you don’t have the time to take off work to get it done. And see above, when else would you do it?

7. -Would you forget #’s 1-6 to focus on the more important things like quality family time, feeding your spiritual life, re-committing to raising your kids more diligently in the Lord, and being more active in church, once you commit to the one you want to be at? Let’s be honest, this is where it all starts. This is your foundation for all of the above.

The Christian in me wants to strongly focus on #7 but the human in me also needs to focus on #’s 1-6. It’s about perspective and finding the right balance. I know all moms must feel this way from time to time right??? Tell me I am not alone.

What would you do?

Beach and Other Stuff

I hope everyone had a wonderful 3 day weekend! We headed to Morehead City with my parents, Jill and Jacob. We had a wonderful time. The weather was great! It was sad to come back, but we will definitely be looking forward to our next time going. These pictures are taken from my phone, but I have many more from my actual camera that I will load later.

Things have been busy lately with the school year ending and sports wrapping up/starting.

Drew hit 3 homeruns in his regular season games this year. He is soooo excited! He is trying to beat Jon’s record, which was 7 homeruns hit when he was 12 years old (same age as Drew). I enjoy watching them compete with one another...it’s pretty funny! Drew’s travel season has just begun. They will be competing in several tournaments leading up to our big trip to Cooperstown July 4th week. How exciting!

Emma has had a tutor working with her for about 6 weeks now. It is going great. The hope is that this will help keep her on track for her mainstreaming next year (which actually begins in 8 weeks since she is year round). She is a busy girl between tutor sessions, piano lessons and speech therapy.

We still have end of season parties, field trips, EOG’s, regular season tournaments and much more to wrap up the school year. Stay tuned!