So sociable

Tonight we went to a high school open house. Something I haven’t done since…well, since I can remember. And every single one I’ve gone to has been awkward and uncomfortable for me. But not tonight!

I sincerely enjoyed being with people. Didn’t want to leave. Talked with every person I could and threw myself into most every conversation rather than trying to escape and conversing as minimally as possible.

Maybe two helpings of ice cream with hot fudge sauce, whipped cream and sprinkles had me all sugared up, but I really had fun. It was kind of a great feeling for me. Natural. Fun. Enjoyable. Non-stressful.

Onward and upward!

Unfinished…like a whole lotta other things in my life right now

This is another creative writing exercise I started at Monday night’s LAB meeting. It (like my Master’s degree, sealing the deck, and the lighting in our bedroom) needs finishing.

“I am…” poem
by Jenna

I am Jennifer Anne

Mother of Liam, Ellison, Addison (yes, they hear me roar) and maybe someday one more that started out in another family meant to come join ours?

Who needs…

Who loves reading, cooking, and anything that would “culture” me.

Who sees a way to fix almost anything and agonizes when she can’t, an entire 12 course menu for under $20 each time she reads a grocery ad, and five more questions for every answer you give her.

Who hates injustice, talking politics, and feeling “obligated” to say or do things she wouldn’t otherwise say or do.

Who fears…

Who dreams…

Who is proud of…

Resident of…

Scott.

More creative uses for normal things

SO, I am a nerd because I get excited when I find “new” uses for “old” things.

1. I use the bristle-brush cleaner that came with my turkey baster for scrubbing my smelly kitchen drain. A lot of gross gunk clings on that even a baking soda and vinegar treatment just can’t take care of. But a quick swirl of the bristle-brush does the trick every time! It’s skinny enough to go down the drain, long enough to reach quite a way, and there’s a ring at the top so even if I drop it (oops!) I don’t lose it forever because the ring is too large to let the entire brush fall down the drain (whew!)

2. My little girls are forever pulling my eye shadow brushes apart and losing the little sticks. I found that I could insert the “y” section of a bobby pin into the eye shadow chub and it fills it out quite nicely while making a sturdy little handle.

3. I use my baby bottle brush (even though I have no more babies or bottles to scrub) to scrub the cheese off my box grater. Rather than chewing up sponges by grating them over the surface, the bottle brush is gentle yet strong enough to well…cut the cheese.

Poetry reading

Diane led us through some writing exercises on Monday night. I think this was one of my best pieces.

Imagine me wearing all black, a beret tipped sideways, black nail polish, perched on a red-chippy stool and reading dreamily into a microphone at a coffee shop. It’ll ’sound’ better if you read it that way.

I am a good mother because…
by Jenna

I must be doing something right

People are always telling me I am
Unsolicited. Like a free can of Spam,
but a whole lot easier to swallow.

I must be doing something right

Even when tossed, like a cheap bag of cranberry walnut with iceberg lettuce salad,
I find my kids are surprisingly flexible. Good–at least not very horribly-badly behaved.

I must be doing something right

Let’s catch up

Tonight from 7-9pm in the nursery of Ada Bible Church at 8899 Cascade Rd SE, Ada, MI 49301 from 7-9ish.

Diane will lead us through some journaling exercises that will help us focus on what it means to be a mom.

Mother’s Day-a brief and interesting history

Mother’s Day

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mother’s Day
Observed by	Many countries
Type	Historical
Date	Varies regionally
Related to	Father’s Day

Mother’s Day is a day honoring mothers, celebrated on various days in many places around the world. It complements Father’s Day, the celebration honouring fathers.

Different countries celebrate Mother’s Day on various days of the year because the day has a number of different origins.

History

One school of thought claims this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods. This festival was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (15 March) to 18 March.

The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.

In some countries Mother’s Day began not as a celebration for individual mothers but rather for Christians.^{[citation needed]}

Mothering Sunday in Britain and Ireland

Main article: Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday, also called “Mothers’ Day” in the United Kingdom and Ireland falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent (exactly three weeks before Easter Sunday). It is believed to have originated from the 16th century Christian practice of visiting one’s mother church annually, which meant that most mothers would be reunited with their children on this day. Most historians believe that young apprentices and young women in servitude were released by their masters that weekend in order to visit their families.^[1] As a result of secularization, it is now principally used to celebrate and give thanks for mothers, although it is still recognised in the historical sense by some churches, with attention paid to Mary the mother of Jesus as well as the traditional concept ‘Mother Church‘.

Mothering Sunday can fall at earliest on March 1st (in years when Easter Day falls on March 22nd) and at latest on April 4th (when Easter Day falls on April 25th).

Mother’s Day in the United States

Main article: Mother’s Day (United States)

The United States celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May. In the United States, Mother’s Day was loosely inspired by the British day and was imported by social activist Julia Ward Howe after the American Civil War. However, it was intended as a call to unite women against war. In 1870, she wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. Her idea was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers’ Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.

When Jarvis died in 1907, her daughter, named Anna Jarvis, started the crusade to found a memorial day for women. The first such Mother’s Day was celebrated in Grafton, West Virginia, on 10 May 1908, in the church where the elder Ann Jarvis had taught Sunday School. Originally the Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, this building is now the International Mother’s Day Shrine (a National Historic Landmark). From there, the custom caught on — spreading eventually to 45 states. The holiday was declared officially by some states beginning in 1912. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared the first national Mother’s Day, as a day for American citizens to show the flag in honor of those mothers whose sons had died in war.

Nine years after the first official Mother’s Day, commercialization of the U.S. holiday became so rampant that Anna Jarvis herself became a major opponent of what the holiday had become. Mother’s Day continues to this day to be one of the most commercially successful U.S. occasions. According to the National Restaurant Association, Mother’s Day is now the most popular day of the year to dine out at a restaurant in the United States.

For example, according to IBISWorld, a publisher of business research, Americans will spend approximately $2.6 billion on flowers, $1.53 billion on pampering gifts — like spa treatments — and another $68 million on greeting cards ^[2]. Mother’s Day will generate about 7.8% of the US jewelry industry’s annual revenue in 2008. Americans are expected to spend close to $3.51 billion in 2008 on dining out for Mother’s Day, with brunch and dinner being the most popular dining out options ^[3].

Mother’s Day in various parts of the world

In most countries, Mother’s Day is a new concept copied from western civilization. In many African countries, the idea of one Mother’s Day has its origins in copying the British concept, although there are many festivals and events celebrating mothers within the many diverse cultures on the African continent that have been there centuries before the colonials arrived. In Japan, Mother’s Day is a heavily marketed concept.

Cheap and easy hair bows

So, in desperation to make my girls look presentable at Liam’s preschool Spring Sing, I grabbed Build A Bear bows off the floor and wrapped them around their ponytails.

I got a bazillion compliments on how cute their hair bows were!

What’s awesome about these bows:

1. They are FREE from the Build A Bear store (provided you build a bear or buy an item)
2. The bows are already tied in a perfect bow
3. The bows are attached to an elastic band the perfect size for a little girl’s ponytail
4. They are FREE and give them to you in profusion…or you can take them in profusion if you have a purse or bag and little or no pride

Growing up

This week we celebrated Liam’s 5th birthday. We enjoyed decorating his Superman cake TOGETHER. That means me having to not be a control freak, and letting him enjoy getting messy and learning how to using an icing piping bag. For me being OK if the icing is piped gloppily, there is cake showing, and that the artist takes some creative liberties that I wouldn’t have necessarily chosen. And realizing they ARE growing up really fast.

I feel pretty…oh so pretty…

I’m in New Jersey for a family wedding. Someone snapped this picture and for the first time in a looooong time I feel like it reflects how I feel. Good. Maybe even great.

What we’re all thinking

I swear these kids WILL be in bed by 7pm tonight.

It has been one of “those” days…