Personal Responsibility In Our Children

I've been thinking more and more recently about my children being "self-sufficient" & "personally responsible" adults in life. Scary, I know, considering Alyssa is 18 yrs old and I probably should have been thinking about this much earlier than now. But, alas, I haven't!

 



 

A series of events have lead to this post, the most recent being yesterday:

While I was working Alyssa (my oldest daughter) text me from school saying that she was hungry. "OK?" I thought. I respond "I'm working". She then proceeds to whine *yes, I could hear the whine through the text* about how she had been up since 6:00am, forgot her lunch, it was now 4:00pm and she wouldn't be done with practice until 7:30pm and she was *starving*.

 

My first thought was that of frustration. I mean seriously?!?! Is she for real? Did she really go ALL DAY without eating anything and now expects to have the energy to practice {colorguard}.... oh AND expects ME to stop working to bring it to her?

 

{I know the following should have been my first thought, but it wasn't, so sue me!}

My second thought was concern; after all, she IS a diabetic. Going all day without eating isn't good for anyone, but it especially isn't good for a diabetic. The horror of a low blood sugar then comes to mind.

 

But, I think the biggest thought was "Where is your personal responsibility?" and I responded as such! {I am a serious contender for mother of the year right now} "You should have planned ahead and packed your lunch and some snacks. You are 18, Alyssa! What are you going to do when you are on a college campus next year and you don't have mom to run something to you?" Her response you ask? "I dunno!"

 

Agghhhhh!!!!! I HAVE CREATED A LITTLE MONSTER! Now I do have to say, Alyssa is GENERALLY a pretty responsible & mature kid. She is actively involved with school, church, and her community. She maintains good grades, is Captain of the Rifle team for colorguard, coaches cheerleading, works with special needs children, helps me with her siblings, etc., etc. etc. She has been an active participant and day to day giver of her medical care for the past 10 years. But all of the sudden a light bulb went off for me......

 

So much of her "responsibility" is because MOM keeps her on schedule and gives her reminders. *oh, snap* Is she really going to be a self-sufficient adult? Is she going to "survive" without mom there to keep her on track? Well, duh, I KNOW she will... but could I have prepared her better? I still have 7 months before she leaves for college. It's crunch time!!

 

What about you? How have you prepared your children to leave the nest and fly on their own? HELP!

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Five things Friday

Five Things I Love In My Life....

 

I am sure most people are expecting: God, my children, husband, car and job. Nope. Not this girl. Those are UNDERSTOOD loves of my life [errrrrrr, at least they should be]! I'm going with the five things that I can't image getting through a day without. The things that keep me going and are always close at hand.

My iPad. I am an "i" junkie and I don't know what I would do without my iPad. I use it (and my iPhone) for nearly everything I do.

 



Diet Coke. Highly addictive and (most likely) preserving my insides as formaldehyde is known to do, it is a rare sigthing to see me WITHOUT one in my hand - just ask anyone who knows me. I know, I know.... pathetic and dumb. Thanks Mom, for getting me hooked on this stuff!

 

 

 

Wool Peacoat. Yes, I know its a crazy thing for a girl in the deep south Louisiana bayous to have on her "can't live without" list, but I am cold natured. I am always freezing and have always been this way. Rarely do I not have a jacket or hoodie of some sort on, but once the temps drop below a average of 70 out comes the peacoat - so pretty much October to March I live in the thing.

 

 

 

Crocs. Lord help me, but I am addicted to these things. I have all of these styles and a variety of colors. I will admit, the bubblegum pink Nadia boot was an "off" decision but man are they warm! I purchased them for a trip that I would be making to Washington, D.C. in January - 4 years ago. While not exactly the prettiest things I have ever seen, they certainly served their purpose [keeping my feet warm & dry in the snow]. SNOW! ME! *shudder*

 

 

 

Facebook. Yea, I am one of the guilty millions who is addicted. There are many things I like [and dislike] about Facebook, but the one thing I love the most is being able to get "news" out to a multitude of people at one time without draining my iPhone [see... the use of another idevice] battery a million times a day. I love connecting with my friends & family who I don't get to see on a regular basis and I will admit, I like to stalk peoples lives! I am a people-watcher by nature I guess, so Facebook allows me to do that without getting caught staring at people! 

 



So there you have it! A look into the world of Julie! 

 

Hugs from the Deep South!

 

 

  



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Make A Joyful Noise

Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. ~ Psalms 98:4

Tonight, our family had the honor and joy of watching my youngest daughter participate in our church Christmas program with her GAP (Girls Artistic Performance) group. This group of young ladies, in grades 4th-8th grade, praise The Lord with singing, hand bells, puppets, sign language, and more. 

This years' program was entitled:

Here is Jada-Grace with her group (Photo from my cell phone, but I have also fuzzed out the other girls in the photo to protect their identity)

Here is a quick video I shot with my cell phone during final rehearsal this afternoon: 

Blessings from the South!

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Celebrating Hanukkah As A Christian - Part 2

Re-posted from Above Rubies: 
Above Rubies Facebook post from Nancy Campbell

NEVER AFRAID (Day 2 of Hanukkah) (Forgive me! Sorry this is a little late. I forgot to send it this morning.)
Jesus Christ, the Son of God was never reticent to speak the truth, even in the face of death. When he came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Feast of Dedication, he was walking in Solomon's Porch (on the eastern side of the temple) and people gathered around him. 

Jesus knew the Jews would be remembering more than the rededication of the temple and the lighting of the Menorah again. They were remembering the great victory over Antiochus Epiphanes, but also how he lifted himself to be god over them. It was Antiochus himself who added "Epiphanes" to his name, which means "God manifest" which was utter blasphemy to the Jews.

In the midst of this thinking Jesus boldly and publically declared, "I and my Father are one (John 10:30). In other words, He confessed that He was God, which of course, He was! This was too much for the Jews who, remembering Antiochus Epiphanes the evil blasphemer, took up stones to stone him (John 10:22-33).

It was no coincidence that Jesus chose this timing to speak these words. Everything about Hanukkah speaks of standing up for truth even in the face of danger.

May we never cringe to speak the truth, no matter what the consequences.

Love from Nancy Campbell

More To This:
Part 1 of Nancy's Post

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Celebrating Hanukkah as a Christian

Repost of Above Rubies Nancy Campbell on the Above Rubies Facebook Page 

The HANUKKAH celebration begins tomorrow evening. Hanukkah is usually celebrated around Christmas, but for the first time in 125 years it coincides with Thanksgiving. As a family we love to celebrate Hanukkah each year. This is why we like to do it.

1. Hanukkah in the Hebrew means "dedication." God's temple had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes in 167 BC but the Maccabees family led a revolt against the Seleucid armies and called the nation back to God. After they had driven them out of Judea and Jerusalem, the Maccabees consecrated and rededicated the temple. However, God no longer lives in a temple in Jerusalem, but lives in the temple of our hearts. We like to use Hanukkah as time to rededicate the temple of our lives to holiness and the service of the living God.

2. It is a celebration that Jesus celebrated (John 10:22-23).

3. It is also called the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22) and the Festival of Lights. It celebrates the re-lighting of the Menorah in the temple and how the light kept burning even when they didn't have enough oil. Because this celebration remembers the relighting of the menorah, we read Scriptures about God who is the light and how He also wants us to be His light in this world. We do this at our Family Devotions each morning and evening. We look forward to it every year.

If you would like to read these wonderful Scriptures with your family, I will post them below for you to print out. Feel free to use the Scriptures in the way that best fits your family. For each day, you may like to take half the Scriptures at Family Devotions in the morning and the other half in the evening. If you have older children, it's a lovely idea for each one to have their own Bible and give a Scripture for each one to read aloud--and to share what they feel God is saying through the Scripture. If you have little ones, you may only want to take one Scripture from the list and talk about it.

And don't forget to ask your children questions as you read the Scriptures. This is how you learn and receive enlightenment from the Scriptures together.

I will also send out a post each day telling you a little story or a revelation from the Scriptures about the meaning of Hanukkah. By the way, you may like to take time to read the history of the Maccabees in the Apocrypha. The books in the Apocrypha were not chosen to be part of the cannon of Scripture but the books of Maccabees, 1, 2, 3, and 4 are great historical reading and tell of how the Jewish nation was saved from extinction. I am sure God used these brave men to protect His people and also the coming Messiah. No wonder Jesus celebrated Hanukkah. I have some Bibles that contain the Apocrypha: King James Version with Apocrypha, The New English Bible, World English Bible, Knox Version, and The Jerusalem Bible. You can also get it from the Internet.

Usually Hanukkah is celebrated around Christmas time. This year Hanukkah starts tomorrow. Officially it begins at sundown, Wednesday 27th November, the day before Thanksgiving. The last time this happened was in 1888, before the date for Thanksgiving was changed to the day we celebrate now. And it won’t happen again for 77,000 years! Amazing!

SCRIPTURES FOR YOU TO READ EACH DAY TO YOUR FAMILY FOR THE FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS

Day 1

God is the Source of Light and gives Light

Genesis 1:3-5

Exodus 27:20-21; 40:24-25; cf. Leviticus 24:1-4; Numbers 8:1-3

Exodus 13:21; Nehemiah 9:12,19

Psalm 36:9

Psalm 104:1-2

1 Timothy 6:16

James 1:17

Day 2

Jesus is the Light of the World

Isaiah 9:2, cf. Matthew 4:12-17

Luke 1:76-79; 2:27-32

John 1:4-9,cf. Job 18:5-6; Proverbs 27:20

John 3:19-21

John 8:12

John 12:44-46

Acts 26:22-23

Day 3

Shine the Light of Jesus to the world

Proverbs 4:18

Isaiah 58:6-8, 10

Isaiah 60:1-2

Matthew 5:14-16

Luke 12:35

Philippians 2:14-15

Day 4

God's Word is our Light

Ezra 9:8

Psalm 19:7-11

Psalm 119:18, 105, 130

Proverbs 6:20-24

Ephesians 1:17-18

Day 5

Walk in the Light

Psalm 89:15

Isaiah 2:5

Romans 13:12-14

2 Corinthians 4:4-7

1 John 1:6-9

1 John 2:8-11

Ephesians 5:8-20

Day 6

Out of Darkness into Light

2 Samuel 22:29 (Psalm 18:28)

Isaiah 42:16

Isaiah 50:10

Acts 26:17-18

1 Corinthians 4:5

1 Thessalonians 5:5

1 Peter 2:9

Day 7

Living in God is to live in Light

Psalm 4:6

Psalm 27:1

Psalm 37:3-6

Psalm 43:3-4

Psalm 112:4

Micah 7:8

Day 8

God is the Light of Heaven

Isaiah 24:23; 30:26

Isaiah 60:19-20

Revelation 21:22-25

Revelation 22:3-5

Love from Nancy Campbell

More To This:
Part 2 of Nancy's Post


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5 Things My Teenage Daughter Can't Live Without

5 Things My Teenage Daughter

Can't Live Without..... or so she thinks!



 

1. Cell Phone - Her currently model cell phone is an iPhone 4S. Like most other teens her age, it is "her life" in the palm of her hand. HA! Who am I kidding.... its "my life" in the palm of my hand.

 



2. iHome - alarm clock for iPad, iPhone and iPod that lets you charge your iPad, Phone or iPod and lets you wake and sleep to any of these or to a custom playlist. A Time Sync button syncs the clock to your iPhone to set the time quickly all while charging the device. FM radio with 6 station memory presets.

 

 

3. Dell Inspiron R Laptop with Switchable Cover - used for school work & play.

 

 

4. EOS Lipbalm - because no girl should have chapped lips and I have to say I agree. I have an EOS nearly everywhere (bedroom, car, bathroom, work, purse) Her current favorite flavor: Sweet Mint  My current favorite: Lemon Drop

 

 

 

 

5. Elite 3 Rifle - Not many girls would say they couldn't live without a rifle.... but MINE would. Not just any rifle though. It's colorguard. No bullets, all spinning & tossing! She is the Rifle Captain, so she definitely couldn't live withough her rifle. (At least in her mind!)

 



 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 



 

Instilling Vision In Our Sons

He had that look in his eye.

You know the look. That way of silently expressing that this young man has got things to do and places to go. You could tell he felt a calling on his life – a sense of purpose and a hope for the future.

Yes, that young man had a vision.

There was a time when I thought a boy either had it…or simply didn’t. But I don’t believe that anymore. I believe parents can encourage vision in their sons. That it’s not merely a matter of chance, but an internal calling that can be brought out and molded into something solid and real. And I believe it’s never too late to appeal to that small flicker of fire deep inside his soul.

How Do You Instill Vision in Your Son? 

Encourage his unique strengths and gifting. Sometimes a son’s strengths can seem almost odd, even out-of-place when he is young. You worry about him and wonder. But don’t. Maybe he’s bright, overly-social, not-social-enough, a tinkerer, funny, or serious. Whatever he is – God made him that way and He has a plan for that boy of yours.

Don’t impose your dreams on him. This is probably the biggest mistake parents make. They want their sons to fulfill their own dreams. But, please, don’t do this to him. Let him live out his own God-given desires and goals for his life. Even if it looks a bit differently than the picture you would have painted for him.

Be bold and offer some direction. This might seem to contradict what’s above, but it doesn’t. I’ve heard more than one guy confide that he could use a little help – maybe even a little push – to get going in a direction. Often a young man feels the pressure of having to pursue something, but has no idea what that “something” is. So offer guidance as to his best options and then together set out specific steps toward the goal.

Read the Rest of Lisa Jacobson's blog here

The Important Thing About Yelling

I cherish the notes I receive from my children—whether they are scribbled with a Sharpie on a yellow sticky note or written in perfect penmanship on lined paper.

But the Mother’s Day poem I recently received from my 9-year-old daughter was especially meaningful. In fact, the first line of the poem caused my breath to catch as warm tears slid down my face.

“The important thing about my mom is … she’s always there for me, even when I get in trouble.”

You see, it hasn’t always been this way.
In the midst of my highly distracted life, I started a new practice that was quite different from the way I behaved up until that point. I became a yeller. It wasn’t often, but it was extreme—like an overloaded balloon that suddenly pops and makes everyone in earshot startle with fear.

So what was it about my then 3-year-old and 6-year-old children that caused me to lose it? Was it how she insisted on running off to get three more beaded necklaces and her favorite pink sunglasses when we were already late? Was it that she tried to pour her own cereal and dumped the entire box on the kitchen counter? Was it that she dropped and shattered my special glass angel on the hardwood floor after being told not to touch it? Was it that she fought sleep like a prizefighter when I needed peace and quiet the most? Was it that the two of them fought over ridiculous things like who would be first out of the car or who got the biggest dip of ice cream?

Yes, it was those things—normal mishaps and typical kid issues and attitudes that irritated me to the point of losing control.
That is not an easy sentence to write. Nor is this an easy time in my life to relive because truth be told, I hated myself in those moments. What had become of me that I needed to scream at two precious little people who I loved more than life?

Let me tell you what had become of me.

My distractions

Excessive phone use, commitment overload, multiple page to-do lists, and the pursuit of perfection consumed me. And yelling at the people I loved was a direct result of the loss of control I was feeling in my life.

Inevitably, I had to fall apart somewhere. So I fell apart behind closed doors in the company of the people who meant the most to me.

Until one fateful day.

My oldest daughter had gotten on a stool and was reaching for something in the pantry when she accidently dumped an entire bag of rice on the floor. As a million tiny grains pelleted the floor like rain, my child’s eyes welled up with tears. And that’s when I saw it—the fear in her eyes as she braced herself for her mother’s tirade.
She’s scared of me, I thought with the most painful realization imaginable. My six-year-old child is scared of my reaction to her innocent mistake.

With deep sorrow, I realized that was not the mother I wanted my children to grow up with, nor was it how I wanted to live the rest of my life.

Within a few weeks of that episode, I had my Breakdown-Breakthrough—my moment of painful awareness that propelled me on a Hands Free journey to let go of distraction and grasp what really mattered. That was two and a half years ago—two and half years of scaling back slowly on the excess and electronic distraction in my life … two and half years of releasing myself from the unachievable standard of perfection and societal pressure to “do it all.” As I let go of my internal and external distractions, the anger and stress pent up inside me slowly dissipated. With a lighten load, I was able to react to my children’s mistakes and wrongdoings in a more calm, compassionate, and reasonable manner.

I said things like, “It’s just chocolate syrup. You can wipe it up, and the counter will be as good as new.”

(Instead of expelling an exasperated sigh and an eye roll for good measure.)

I offered to hold the broom while she swept up a sea of Cheerios that covered the floor.

(Instead of standing over her with a look of disapproval and utter annoyance.)

I helped her think through where she might have set down her glasses.

(Instead of shaming her for being so irresponsible.)
And in the moments when sheer exhaustion and incessant whining were about to get the best of me, I walked into the bathroom, shut the door, and gave myself a moment to exhale and remind myself they are children, and children make mistakes. Just like me.

And over time, the fear that once flared in my children’s eyes when they were in trouble disappeared. And thank goodness, I became a haven in their times of trouble—instead of the enemy from which to run and hide.

Click on this blog HANDS FREE MAMA to finish the rest of the post

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Do You Know The Signs?

November is Diabetes Awareness Month. As many of you know, my daughter Alyssa was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) at the age of 7. To read about how we found out and to see some important information please visit my 2012 Blog Post about it.

Alyssa is 18 years old now, so she has lived more of her life with diabetes than without it.

I urge you all to visit JDRF to learn more about Type 1 Diabetes; its signs, its symptoms and what you can do to help us find a CURE!

Warning signs of T1D include:

• Extreme thirst
• Frequent urination
• Drowsiness or lethargy
• Increased appetite
• Sudden weight loss
• Sudden vision changes
• Sugar in the urine
• Fruity odor on the breath
• Heavy or labored breathing
• Stupor or unconsciousness



Alyssa age 18 - Diagnosed Type 1 Diabetic at the age of 7 yrs old.

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My Precious Daughters

As parents, we only want what is best for our children.

As parents of daughters, we strive to protect them like fragile pieces of china. We want them to feel loved and cherished. We want to bring them up properly and show them the best ways to live life. Here are two fabulous blogs by one of my favorite sites Club31Women that are written to parents and their daughters.

 

 

 

 

 

24 Ways to Become a Lovely Woman Printable

 

 

 

 

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Memories to last a lifetime.....

So, I have really gotten away from blogging over the past year. Maybe it's because I am so busy "doing life" that I don't have time to write about it. Why is that though? Why am I so busy? What happen to the "simple life" I thought I wanted to live?.......

 

Oh, I still want it I think; there is just always something getting in the way of it. But, is it really "getting in the way" or are we busy making memories? :) There is life to be lived and memories to be made so I will continue on. There have been many things happening in my life since I did a "real" blog post and I think its silly to go back and "catch up", so I am just going to move forward. I will throw some things in along the way to catch things up though.

 

This past Friday night was the last game of our high school regular football season. We played our rival team (Hammond High Magnet) and beat the pants off of them. We expected to do it all along, but the fact that we are heading to the play-offs wasn't what made the night so special. No, it was Senior Night; that's what was special. Our "baby girl" Alyssa is a Senior and she, along with many of her friends, were honored on the field prior to the start of the game. Being the Colorguard Rifle Captain, it was also the last time she would perform for a regular season football game. Bittersweet night indeed. Earlier in the day there was a big pep-rally at the school; again, the last she will participate in. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Senior Colorguard Members

Evelyn, Alyssa & De'Ja

Performing her last HS pep rally

Senior Night Presentation

 

LAST HALF-TIME PERFORMANCE

(Regular Season Football - We Still Have Play-Offs)