Sunday, July 29, 2012

Exhausted

This will be more of a "free therapy" type post for myself rather than a post of interest for anyone else. My apologies...

I am so exhausted.  Not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well.  The past few days have just been, well, tough.  Definitely not  the MOST difficult days in my short little life, but tough.  Allow me to vent.  Peyton has hit the terrible threes in full force.  Someone has kidnapped my precious, kind, loving daughter and replaced her with a rebellious, indifferent stranger.  She will not listen, she will not mind, and when she is punished, she acts like she's not even bothered.  I don't know what to do.  Wednesday at gymnastics was the start of it.  We actually had to pull her out of the class before it was finished because she was being so much of a distraction to the other little girls, and the teacher couldn't do her job because she was too busy getting on to Peyton!  Blake and I were MORTIFIED! Blake and I both talked to her and told her that her behavior was not acceptable.  Did that bother her? Nope.  We didn't take her to Chick-fil-A afterwards to eat her favorite food and to play.  Was she upset? Nah.  When we got home she got punishment from both Blake and myself.  Sorry? Not exactly.  She was made to lie in her bed with no t.v. to take a rest (mind you, she hasn't napped in MONTHS).  Didn't even phase her.  When she got up she was allowed no t.v, no iPod games, no  ABCmouse.com...nothing.  How did she respond? She wanted a cookie.  A COOKIE! She didn't even seem to know she was in trouble!! How do you reprimand a child when the child isn't phased by any form of punishment??

Then there was this morning...oh Lord help us this morning...When Peyton got up this morning the first thing she wanted was her usual cup of milk.  Blake being the attentive husband that he is (or maybe it was the solid kick I gave him followed by the guttural moaning of "you get it") got up and was going to get her milk, get her to the potty and turn on the cartoons for her, when she had a complete come apart.  She was kicking and screaming, face down in the floor. When Blake handed her her milk she took it and threw it in the floor.  We are still not sure what prompted this. 

Then she wet herself during nursery at church.  Which, I understand, accidents will happen.  I can forgive an accident a day.  But when she did it again at the restaurant, I had had enough. 

I'm spent. I just don't know what to do.  Being a parent is so hard.  And I know that harder days are to come.  We haven't even reached adolescence for crying out loud! 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Allow me to introduce you to my soapbox...

With all the "hoopla" over the president of Chick-fil-A voicing his opinion on marriage and the sanctity of, I just couldn't hold it in one more minute.  Join me on my soapbox, will you?

First of all let me start off by saying this, I don't understand what all the fuss is about.  If I were an unbeliever, an atheist or agnostic I really don't think I would give two cents over what the president of ANY fast food restaurant's personal convictions or beliefs were.  I personally would care more about employee policy and food safety than whether or not he/she condones same sex marriage.  HOWEVER, since I AM a believer in Christ and I DO stand on Biblical truth, and since people with obviously different convictions than myself have PLASTERED their opinions and displeasure with this opinion I think I will choose this time to voice my own as well.  First of all, this was not a "hate campaign." This was an opinion made based on Biblical truths.  Oddly enough, those opposed to his opinion have been spewing the majority of the hate.  Second, and this IS opinion, but what if we as Christians banded together and boycotted retail chains/restaurants, etc etc... that contributed to and/or condoned positions and policies that directly conflict with the Biblical values and truths we hold so dear?  For instance, I used to work at a certain grocery chain and every year or so the United Way would come in and try to solicit donations per pay period from each employee.  Donating was greatly influenced by management, and refusal to participate was frowned upon.  However, did you know that some local chapters of United Way have directly contributed funds to Planned Parenthood? So does this mean that I should no longer shop at my former employer? What about that major discount superstore? Ever checked their charity list? Disturbing. 

And now the Jim Henson company have joined the Chick-fil-A bashing bandwagon.  So sad. Seasame Street was part of my childhood, I hate I won't be sharing that with my own daughter

As a Christian I am called to be the light of the world. There should be something obviously different in me.  Good for you Dan Cathy. You have been such an inspiration for me to be bold and courageous.  I'm praying 1 Corinthians 16:13 for you and for your company.  God Bless you!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

I'm baaacck!

Hello faithful friends!  I can not believe it has been three months since my last post :( so sorry about that.  I wish I could say I have been crazy busy but the truth is...well I got lazy.  There is so much to update on, and I hope to get some pics on here soon of all that has been going on.  Since my last post Peyton has been in her very first beauty walk, potty training is in full swing, she had her third birthday, and we learned she will be a BIG SISTER!  So I guess life has been a little crazy...LOL.  I am sure I will have a separate blog for each of those topics, for now let's talk about our Fourth of July Celebration...

Blake has an aunt and uncle that live "down in the country" as we like to call it.  For those of you who might not know what this means, this means you can't get a pizza delivered, cell service is spotty at best and the mosquitoes are GIGANTIC .  It's not all bad though, you CAN ride four wheelers, plant gardens, let your dogs roam, "pop a squat," children still ride their bikes to the country store and despite the fact that your nearest neighbors might me a mile or more away, you still know their names, and their kids names, and probably their dogs names too...

Anyway, Blake and I love to go to their house.  Peyton loves to ride four wheelers (with an adult of course) and I love the fact that I can just let her run around outside with no fear or boundaries. So when we were trying to decide where to go and whom to spend our holiday with, that was our first pick - hands down.  And we had a BLAST! 

When we get together with this part of the family, you can be sure of this: no one will go hungry.  After giving thanks to the Lord for our vittles (and our great nation) we feasted on grilled chicken, pork chops, deer steak (another advantage to the country), ribs from the grill and ribs from the smoker, potato salad (ten pounds to be exact), mac and cheese, baked beans, chocolate cake and buttermilk pie.  Everyone pitches in and brings something.  That's family.

We also love to play games.  Normally we play volleyball, but the southern heat proved to be too much for that. So we found us a good ole shady spot and set up the cornhole boards.  Nothing gets our competitive juices flowing like a close game! And, might I add, I scored more points than Blake for the first time in a game yesterday!  Peyton wasn't left out of the fun either, we set her up with a sprinkler and a baby pool and she was ready for the heat of the day!

Once the sun started to set, we got out the fireworks.  This was obviously Peyton's first experience with fireworks, but it was also mine too.  (My dad wasn't too keen on playing with fire...) Blake was so excited to be able to share this experience with both of us.  From taking us to the fireworks store to showing me how to light one, he was happy to share with us his wealth of knowledge on the matter! 

If you judge the success of the day by how exhausted everyone is at the end of it, I'd say we had a great day!  Peyton was just about asleep by the time we pulled into the driveway and we all slept soundly through the night...despite our neighbors shooting fireworks in the cul de sac!