April Lessons…

Holy goodness, I cannot believe that April has come and gone. I know that I have been absent lately. I also know that you are not supposed to write that in your blog if you want to be a successful blogger, but I am all about honesty up in here so I say it like it is. Time is thundering by like a Japanese bullet train. Today I read Rob Lowe’s essay about taking his son to college (you can check it out here) and I was a blubbering mess. I know my kids are a ways from college town, but again Holy goodness time is just whipping by.

Well, I have looked back at the last month and this is what I have learned…hopefully you can benefit from what April has taught me.

1. Sometimes I sound like Si Robertson

Okay, okay a lot of times I sound like Si Robertson.

Just for comparison here is the constant quote from my Si bobble head, “Hey can mean anything. It can mean yes, it can mean maybe, it could mean no, it could mean next week. Hey, the bottom line is you have to understand me to understand hey.”

So just the other day I caught myself twice in about twenty minutes using HEY.

“Yes, you look fancy, but HEY your drink doesn’t go there.”

“HEY, where do you think your going?”

I know what some of you are thinking – it isn’t just the “hey” part of Si Robertson that I sound like. You got me there. I do like to make up words as well. I don’t think I have ever come up with anything as fancy as “purnurple” but I have had some dooseys.

2. If a turtle can climb over a log and slide down the other side with no fear maybe I can face what I fear, too.

 

Our baby tortoise, Davis is just 7 months old. He climbs up over the log in his cage at least one a day. As he starts down the back side of the log the drop gets so steep that he has to literally just let go and drop down. I watch him in awe because he doesn’t have the same ability we do to our catch ourselves and soften our fall. He crashes down into his wood chips head first and keeps on trucking.

Or my cutie patootie twins who started gymnastics this past month. My little C-man was so scared to go out by himself without me, but he did it. And ten minutes later he is waving at me from the mat.

So, what does this say to me? I need to make sure that I am constantly facing my fears head first and being as brave as a three-year old. I need to talk to others even when I would rather hide behind shyness. I need to go to things people invite me to even though I am worried about what I look like or what I wear and how stupid I may sound. If an itty bitty turtle can do it and an itty bitty three-year-old can do it, so can I.

3. I don’t want people to ask me hard questions

This past month I had someone ask me gently if they were going to die. Please I implore you, please do not ask me this. I don’t want to ever tell anyone if I have a bad vibe about their future. Thank goodness that wasn’t the case this time, but I am a horrible liar because I can’t do it – it is against every fiber of my being to not tell the truth and once you ask it I pick up on what ever is going on around you, so please don’t as me that question. I will thank you in advance.

4. You can jinx yourself on potty training

Two boys are potty trained and it is awesome! No more pull-ups in our house. That is one “baby” thing if you will that I had no problem getting rid of. However, when you brag to your husband about your method of potty training and how it is superior to his ideas because you conquered potty training with twins super easily you might just find yourself changing soiled underwear for a week because that is how karma works baby, that is how karma works. I just wanted to warn you.

5. “People don’t want to read the same old mom crap over and over”

Or so my husband says. He might be right though so I will do my best to make sure I am writing about all kinds of things not just my daily jumble, stumble through parenthood.

6. You can be someone else for a minute

I hit the barista jackpot. I went into Starbucks a few weeks ago and when the barista asked my name I told her and then added, “I wish I could be someone fun for once, though.” And you know what she did…

Yup, I got to be Beyoncé just for a brief second. The first item came out and they actually called out, “Beyoncé” at the pick up counter. My drink came out a bit later and the girl at the pick up counter could not bring herself to call it out again. It was pretty fun though to run into someone with such a great sense of humor.

7. Your kids might just surprise you

 

Do you see that? Yes they are SHARING. Sharing CANDY none-the-less. I love that they share with one another, but don’t be too fooled minutes later I am sure they were yelling at each other or fighting or talking back or causing some sort of ruckus. 

8. I can still color

So the Brene Brown part two lifeclass has begun. I have only completed lesson 1 even though lesson 5 started this week. I will catch up, they leave the course open for a while, because well… apparently I am not the only slacker.

Any way one of the first things we had to do was to draw a self-portrait. The kicker was we had to use crayons. It ended up being really fun. I loved her message that we are all creative beings – there aren’t people who are not creative, they just aren’t using their creativity. I am down with that. So get creative out there – you are all creative!

9. People read my blog

I know I should know this, I have seen the stats and I get comments on FB, but it is really weird when someone is talking to you and they quote or paraphrase you and you look at them dumbfounded like, “Am I supposed to know what you are talking about?”

Only to realize that they are talking about something you wrote.

Yep, I have learned that several times this past month. Color me silly. I have literally looked at people like a deer in the headlights when they have either asked me about something I knew I never told them or paraphrased something I said. Only to realize seconds later that they knew this or were talking about that because they read what I wrote. Super cool to have people reading your blog and even super cool-er to have them mention it in conversation, but I am still getting used to it.

Still getting used to living out loud,

M