Wow - I have got to stop following the Royal frenzy.
It's been great to get caught up in the 'modern day' cinderella story, and fun to see the Royal family pull out all of the stops to celebrate the marriage of the prince. But one thing really caught me up short and has been nagging at me ever since...
As the couple was riding off 'into the sunset' (or, rather, helecoptering off into the morning),
the newscasters were commenting on the fact that once they returned from their little weekend getaway, Kate... er... Princess Katherine... would then be expected to step into her role in the royal family...
which was first and foremost
to provide the 'kingdom' with an 'heir' and a 'spare'
What??! Did I hear that right? They actually said that out loud?
For some reason, the word 'spare' really rubbed me wrong.
I mean, how would you like to live your whole life knowing that your entire existence... the reason you were brought to the earth... was to be a 'spare' part for the royal family.
Give you whatever titles they want (seriously, where do they come up with the titles anyway? Duke and Duchess of what, exactly?? Is there even a rhyme or reason to the name giving??)... Poor prince Harry knows that his whole purpose, according to the 'higher ups' ... is to be the 'understudy'... the 'first runner up' if you will, to "in the event of the inability of the real heir to perform his or her duties as the real prize winner, then you get to step in and take their place.
But if not, well, then let's see... ummm... you can maybe be an earl of something??
... and then it got me starting thinking in the whole eternal realm of existing...
And I suddenly became grateful that we are not sent here to be 'spares'
And our children are not sent to us to teach them how to be 'spares'
Every single one of our children has the potential to be a fully functioning, 100% pure heir to the kingdom of God.
That thought did two things to me:
I gave me an immense sense of gratitude for a Father in Heaven who's love knows no spares.
... and an overwhelming sense of urgency to dig in a little deeper and try a little harder
to teach my children the real value of their worth.
To teach them that they were not sent here to train for a 'just in case' position.
They are here to learn how to really and truly become full fledged heirs to the most Royal of all Kingdoms.
And that makes all the difference.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Saturday, April 30, 2011
So many hats... so little time...
I have found myself so caught up in all of the royalty hoopla this weekend... no I didn't get up at 4:00 to watch the live ceremony... (I knew they would rebroadcast about 1000 times so I wasn't too worried),
But we did wait anxiously for the "royal kiss" and watched the recap on the morning news show... complete with all of the clips featuring the regal dresses and matching hats (who knew there were so many different hat designs in the world??! and truly, some of those hats just weren't meant to be worn - let's just be honest!).
Now, I'm normally not a hat person, but I do my fare share of hat switching throughout any given day. Take today, for example:
-- Wake up in wee hours of morning with horrible stomach issues.
Put on Dr. Hat (since Dr. Hubby is out of town, I couldn't just turn and ask him what was up) to diagnose the issue:
pregnancy? Nope.
flu? Not likely
anyway related to the junky substitute for food that I have been shoveling into my mouth for the past waaaay too many days? Highly probable.
Which meant I probably just had to wait it out.
On goes patient hat.
Kids come into room in the (still too early) morning, asking if they can watch tv (knowing full well the chore schedule that is awaiting them)
Put on task master hat and mumble something about chores, violin, reading... don't really finish sentence as I drift back to sleep.
Wake up a bit later to sound of not one, but 2 TV's playing
Put on warden had and hand out "go directly to jail" cards.
Quickly change into chef hat and direct my little Sioux chefs to get out cereal and milk, and hurry because we needed to be walking out the door in 10 minutes.
Realize we are out of milk.
Change into Kentucky derby hat - race to corner gas station, load up on milk. (and donuts).
Put on exercise clothes and change into zumba hat.
Load all 5 kiddos in car (shoes optional...) speed to gym just in time to get kids into kids care and run up stairs to help with 3 hour zumbathon to raise money for YMCA in Japan (adjusting philanthropist hat on the way)
Do my little section... quickly changing my whole outline right in the middle due to mic malfunctions
(enter chameleon hat)
Finish my tidbit, change from sexy latin dance hat to mommy hat once again, race to kids care to gather up kids and zoom son to soccer game.
Stopping along the way to break out Mechanic hat as overheating car started dinging warning bells louder and louder warning me to pull off road before engine exploded.
Get to Soccer game, shove shivering son out the door and put on momma bear hat as I launch a tirade of text messages about why wasn't the game canceled in light of the the freezing rain/high wind/mud pit of a field.
Kept all other kids inside car to watch from our warm perch
and don umpire hat to referee all of the fights that broke out between the kids who were cooped up in way to close of quarters for way too long.
Finally see the game end, and quickly get things loaded to zoom back to zumbathon... only to discover that the car is completely dead. Not just a little dead. Won't even make a sound.
Put on mechanics hat once again and quickly diagnose as child error (i.e. yelled at the kids, who were climbing up on the dash board that they surely hit something that drained the battery in all of their craziness during the game).
Call AAA (LOVE that company!). Wait for road side assistance (ignoring the glares from other cars, as I wasn't parked 'exactly legally' to begin with, and now had no way of moving the car anyway).
Put on choir director's hat to cue heavenly angels chorus as road side assistance drove up...
... and quickly pointed out that the lights had been left on the whole game... by (ahem) me.
Jumped battery, told me to keep car running for a while... which was a little problem (see previous overheating issue).
Slapped on deductive reasoning hat to contemplate options:
1. let car run with no coolant to charge battery... leading to overheating and possibly blowing up engine.
2. go to store, shut off car to get coolant, have battery die again while in store and become stranded once more with kids.
... finally made it home, found coolant, poured in car, turned back on, let it run.
Put on night hat and literally crashed on the couch for a good hour. Hopefully the kiddos found something to eat, but not sure.
Woke up even more drained then before, walked like a zombie trying to get my bearings as the neighborhood seemed to have converged on our backyard.
Now contemplating putting on hypocrite hat to load up the kids and declare tonight a Micky-D night (not even 24 hours after updating a 'how to feed your kids healthy' type of handout for the website). Nice.
What hats have you been wearing??
But we did wait anxiously for the "royal kiss" and watched the recap on the morning news show... complete with all of the clips featuring the regal dresses and matching hats (who knew there were so many different hat designs in the world??! and truly, some of those hats just weren't meant to be worn - let's just be honest!).
Now, I'm normally not a hat person, but I do my fare share of hat switching throughout any given day. Take today, for example:
-- Wake up in wee hours of morning with horrible stomach issues.
Put on Dr. Hat (since Dr. Hubby is out of town, I couldn't just turn and ask him what was up) to diagnose the issue:
pregnancy? Nope.
flu? Not likely
anyway related to the junky substitute for food that I have been shoveling into my mouth for the past waaaay too many days? Highly probable.
Which meant I probably just had to wait it out.
On goes patient hat.
Kids come into room in the (still too early) morning, asking if they can watch tv (knowing full well the chore schedule that is awaiting them)
Put on task master hat and mumble something about chores, violin, reading... don't really finish sentence as I drift back to sleep.
Wake up a bit later to sound of not one, but 2 TV's playing
Put on warden had and hand out "go directly to jail" cards.
Quickly change into chef hat and direct my little Sioux chefs to get out cereal and milk, and hurry because we needed to be walking out the door in 10 minutes.
Realize we are out of milk.
Change into Kentucky derby hat - race to corner gas station, load up on milk. (and donuts).
Put on exercise clothes and change into zumba hat.
Load all 5 kiddos in car (shoes optional...) speed to gym just in time to get kids into kids care and run up stairs to help with 3 hour zumbathon to raise money for YMCA in Japan (adjusting philanthropist hat on the way)
Do my little section... quickly changing my whole outline right in the middle due to mic malfunctions
(enter chameleon hat)
Finish my tidbit, change from sexy latin dance hat to mommy hat once again, race to kids care to gather up kids and zoom son to soccer game.
Stopping along the way to break out Mechanic hat as overheating car started dinging warning bells louder and louder warning me to pull off road before engine exploded.
Get to Soccer game, shove shivering son out the door and put on momma bear hat as I launch a tirade of text messages about why wasn't the game canceled in light of the the freezing rain/high wind/mud pit of a field.
Kept all other kids inside car to watch from our warm perch
and don umpire hat to referee all of the fights that broke out between the kids who were cooped up in way to close of quarters for way too long.
Finally see the game end, and quickly get things loaded to zoom back to zumbathon... only to discover that the car is completely dead. Not just a little dead. Won't even make a sound.
Put on mechanics hat once again and quickly diagnose as child error (i.e. yelled at the kids, who were climbing up on the dash board that they surely hit something that drained the battery in all of their craziness during the game).
Call AAA (LOVE that company!). Wait for road side assistance (ignoring the glares from other cars, as I wasn't parked 'exactly legally' to begin with, and now had no way of moving the car anyway).
Put on choir director's hat to cue heavenly angels chorus as road side assistance drove up...
... and quickly pointed out that the lights had been left on the whole game... by (ahem) me.
Jumped battery, told me to keep car running for a while... which was a little problem (see previous overheating issue).
Slapped on deductive reasoning hat to contemplate options:
1. let car run with no coolant to charge battery... leading to overheating and possibly blowing up engine.
2. go to store, shut off car to get coolant, have battery die again while in store and become stranded once more with kids.
... finally made it home, found coolant, poured in car, turned back on, let it run.
Put on night hat and literally crashed on the couch for a good hour. Hopefully the kiddos found something to eat, but not sure.
Woke up even more drained then before, walked like a zombie trying to get my bearings as the neighborhood seemed to have converged on our backyard.
Now contemplating putting on hypocrite hat to load up the kids and declare tonight a Micky-D night (not even 24 hours after updating a 'how to feed your kids healthy' type of handout for the website). Nice.
What hats have you been wearing??
Friday, April 22, 2011
Welcome!!
Although I have my family blog where I write all of our little day to day happenings... this blog idea has been rolling around in the catacombs of my brain for quite some time. More than just a 'here's what's happening in my life' type of a blog, I envision this blog as being a place where I can finally dump all of my 'deep thoughts,' as crazy as they may be, and let them come to fruition in the writing about them.
In coming up with a name for this new found outlet, I thought about the main focuses of my life right now:
FOOD:
I have always been a big foodie. In fact, truth be told, that was one thing that really drew me to dietetics... the thought that "wow, I would get to study, teach, and talk about FOOD for my career!! How cool is that??!"
It was a natural fit, really, right from the beginning.
Before you get any big ideas, no, I am not some crazy have a 5 course gourmet meal on the immaculately set dining table promptly at 5:15 every night. Far from it! I am a down home, comfort food loving, finger and bowl-licken kind of gal in the food department. You'll see recipes from the healthiest of the healthy to the deadliest of the deadly (calorie-wise that is!) posted here.
MOTHERHOOD:
With 5 little ones running around, I am neck deep in the joys, and sorrows, and highs, and lows of mothering. I love <almost> every minute of it... except for when I don't. Yes, there are days I wish I could push pause and keep the tender moments with my kiddos like that forever. And other days I wish I could click my heels together three times and reclaim some of my own selfish single days, just for a moment... and days that have been every gamut of in-between feeling out there.
MOOD:
Ahh, the final piece to the puzzle. Of all my personality quirks and traits, one things for certain: I've never been accused of being stagnant emotionally. In fact, during the "I want to marry your daughter" talk that my hubby had with my dad... you know, the one where most dads are making sure that this random human being is going to take care of his precious, sweet, innocent angel for the rest of her life?? Yea... well it's kind of become a standing joke that during said 'interview' my dad asked my (soon to be re-thinking this whole 'want to marry Jen' fiance), "are you sure you want to marry her? She can be kind of... umm... moody at times"... (!) what??! He said what??! True story. (And one that my hubby has since brought to my attention at some... umm... quite inopportune times...!)
So, having put all of my crazy cards on the table, come on in, brew up a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy the discussion, uncut and raw at times, insightful and deep at others, but always promising a great story :).
Welcome to the Food, Mood, and Motherhood!!
In coming up with a name for this new found outlet, I thought about the main focuses of my life right now:
FOOD:
I have always been a big foodie. In fact, truth be told, that was one thing that really drew me to dietetics... the thought that "wow, I would get to study, teach, and talk about FOOD for my career!! How cool is that??!"
It was a natural fit, really, right from the beginning.
Before you get any big ideas, no, I am not some crazy have a 5 course gourmet meal on the immaculately set dining table promptly at 5:15 every night. Far from it! I am a down home, comfort food loving, finger and bowl-licken kind of gal in the food department. You'll see recipes from the healthiest of the healthy to the deadliest of the deadly (calorie-wise that is!) posted here.
MOTHERHOOD:
With 5 little ones running around, I am neck deep in the joys, and sorrows, and highs, and lows of mothering. I love <almost> every minute of it... except for when I don't. Yes, there are days I wish I could push pause and keep the tender moments with my kiddos like that forever. And other days I wish I could click my heels together three times and reclaim some of my own selfish single days, just for a moment... and days that have been every gamut of in-between feeling out there.
MOOD:
Ahh, the final piece to the puzzle. Of all my personality quirks and traits, one things for certain: I've never been accused of being stagnant emotionally. In fact, during the "I want to marry your daughter" talk that my hubby had with my dad... you know, the one where most dads are making sure that this random human being is going to take care of his precious, sweet, innocent angel for the rest of her life?? Yea... well it's kind of become a standing joke that during said 'interview' my dad asked my (soon to be re-thinking this whole 'want to marry Jen' fiance), "are you sure you want to marry her? She can be kind of... umm... moody at times"... (!) what??! He said what??! True story. (And one that my hubby has since brought to my attention at some... umm... quite inopportune times...!)
So, having put all of my crazy cards on the table, come on in, brew up a cup of hot chocolate and enjoy the discussion, uncut and raw at times, insightful and deep at others, but always promising a great story :).
Welcome to the Food, Mood, and Motherhood!!
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