The Blue Ridge that is. Last week we took a mini-vacay to Asheville. The best part? Daddy went with us!
All summer the girls and I have been swimming and hiking and biking and camping and beaching and water parking without daddy.
Obviously I’m crazy.
Because it is SO MUCH EASIER to have another set of hands! Especially one that helped make them so I don’t feel any guilt about letting him handle tantrums or bad directions or dirty diapers.
Thank you, Lord, I don’t have to do this motherhood thing alone. And thank you that Joshua has two weeks worth of vacation at his new job, so we got to have this past weekend + two more days AND he’s off for the first day of school on Friday so we can start another baby in kindergarten.
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| Asheville Trip Aug. 2011 |
A couple of weeks ago I was thrown in a church van and carted off to Nashville and suckered into being on the leadership team for my local MOPS group. Really, that’s how it happened.
Or rather, my good friend ML knew exactly which of my gifts to appeal to when she asked me to consider taking a last minute opening on the Steering Team, and then she dangled the notion of FOUR DAYS in a fancy hotel in a faraway city WITHOUT my kids.
So, we all know I said yes. And I learned a lot in those four days about myself, about my friends, about my mothering. Some of it I’m going to be sharing over the next few weeks as I begin to make peace with myself about who I am and who I want to be. Some of it I’m saving for when I get my new blog up and running.
That’s right. In a few weeks, Random Acts is going private and I’m going to try something new about this new life I’ve been given. So, anyway, all that is to say that the speaker of my session on relieving our mommy stress suggested the very simple task of NOT creating to-do lists.
I don’t know about you, but I love lists. The satisfaction of crossing something off is cheaper than a therapist and less caloric than a mocha frappe. But she was right. If I don’t cross everything off, I feel like a failure. Hello, perfectionist pleaser in me that needs to be eradicated. Or at least toned down. Instead, she suggested that if we mothers need a list full of check marks to feel successful, why not create a list of that day’s accomplishments. So simple. So exactly what I need to remember some days. So now you’ve read all my rambling so you can get to a list of why exactly I have been blog absent and blessedly busy the past week.
Lately life does feel like I’ve been on one of those twirly rides that make you a little sick but you get on anyway and laugh your way through it.
In the past seven days I’ve been to three states, slept on the ground and at the Opryland Hotel, eaten M&Ms at two a.m., line danced in downtown Nashville, swam in a waterfall, and bared (a bit) of my soul.
It’s been great, but I think I’d like to get off now. I’m tired. But that’s probably because I took the girls to the water park today and still have receipts to put in the checkbook, dinner to heat (yay leftovers!), and lines to study before rehearsal.
Rehearsal?
Yeah, I thought I wasn’t busy enough since I’m full-time staying home so I auditioned for The Diary of Anne Frank at the community theater. I’ll be Mrs. Frank. Hospitable Jewish housewife who struggles to understand her second daughter. Sounds just like me. Minus the Jewish part. And I’m working on hospitable, as in, I’ll let you in, just don’t look in my laundry room or sink. And beverages are sometimes limited to apple juice and pink Sunny D.
So this is on top of being the publicity coordinator for my MOPS group, which is why I spent four awesome days in Nashville learning how to be a better mommy. That’s the story I gave my girls for why I was gone. They don’t think it worked since I came home and promptly broke all ten “mom stress reliever” tips I learned in a seminar with the incredible Jill Savage. I did, however, write down all the great ways she said to learn to say “no” and I’m going to start using them. Except…I’ve already committed myself to MOPS and youth Sunday School, but I’m going to try this whole “just say no” thing next time somebody asks for something.
Really. I am.
‘Cause this mom’s cup is already full and about to spin out of control.
If you’re interested check back later this week for more on the MOPS 2011 conference and how you can join my group or start your own. If you’re not interested in that, just come back for some more stories about my chaotic random life.
There are so many blog posts bouncing around in my muddled brain right now that I figured I’d stick with something tried and true for my one and only post this week.
I know that makes some of you so sad. Where are the Bracketts? Has mommy finally cracked? No…..we’ve just managed to fill our last three weeks of summer with events that take me far away from my landlocked computer. Oh, how I miss my laptop.
Complaining aside, so many gifts to be thankful for this week. I’m nearing 400 on my list of 1000 gifts but I could have so many more if I stopped in every moment to write them down. Beauty and love and this messy life are all around and it’s not hard to count the grace.
Though sometimes in the midst of my girls not putting on shoes before we tried to leave for the park or Amelia shrieking like a banshee because I strapped her into the grocery buggy or Walmart not having the yogurt I wanted, it does get hard and I forget. So before I leave for the MOPS conference and turn them loose on their daddy (I told the girls I had to go learn to be a better mommy), I wanted to take a minute to count our many blessings.
Like these crazy gals who spent two days in the Pisgah National Forest with Madelynne, Belle, and me. (We decided Amelia wasn’t ready for girls-only-camping.)
This was taken after we did this….so thankful for natural wonders.
We’re heading back up to Asheville in a few days for a family mini-vacation, so Joshua will get to slide down the “big rock into freezing cold water” as described to him by the girls.
I’m also thankful that I chose a long and windy road to travel for this journey, so that when I had to pull over to fix Belle in her carseat so she could sleep better, I got to drink this in….
It’s hard to be mad about having to stop when this is the view.
Have a wonderful Thursday and link up with Julia and share your thankfulness.
