Feed Your Brain Everyday

Recently, mama had a sweet friend move back to her home state of Kentucky.  Olivia and Hallie Beth, ya'll may remember Miss Laura.  Anyway, Laura and Mr. Kevin were sweet friends of ours who we miss dearly.  In fact she's the one who got me into blogging.  While reading her latest entry, I fell in love with a link she posted.  The concept of the post was so eye opening to me.  It was  telling one how to feed your brain everyday.  Wow!  Do we do enough of this?  No.  Right now ya'll are so inquisitive of the world.  You're filling your little brains with as much new knowledge as possible, but somewhere amongst all that growing and learning it stops.  It did for me anyway.  Other things took presidence.  As a teacher, my goal is to always be a lifelong learner.  This is so hard to follow when you become a mommy.  I'm not blaming you guys, but the every day, on the go, gives a mommy no time to herself!  Off subject..... My little message today is to NEVER stop learning!  There will always be something out there that you don't know.  The world is constantly evolving.  I know this is so self-explanatory, but sometimes we need to be reminded of the little things.  Here's a link with new "food" for your brain everyday. No excuses!

http://www.aholyexperience.com/

xoxo, Mama

Olivia...cont.

After reading my previous post and looking at some old pictures made me think of something I want you to never forget.  SHOES!!!!  Olivia, I don't know how you do it, but you can't make it past a month in a pair of brand new tennis shoes!  The tongue is ripped out, the toe is torn off, the bottom is worn down, the sides are missing pieces, the laces are unravelling, or they look just plain pitiful!  Daddy and I can't for the life of us figure out how you do it?!  You just go hard and play harder. 

These shoes are made for walkin'!

XOXO,   Mama

Sweet Olivia

Olivia, you have been on my mind a lot today. Our day started off very rocky. It was school picture day therefore your hair should not be in a ponytail! I started braiding your hair and then you wanted it pulled back...in a ponytail! We totally misunderstood each other. It snowballed from there. You left the house in tears, from a spanking, and your hair was In a ponytail. Two seconds when you were out the door, my heart started aching. I hate fighting with you! Our personalities have always been oil and water, but it still hurts. I decided to get dressed and go to the school. I had to give Hallie Beth medicine so I figured it was the perfect excuse to see you. I just wanted to give you a hug,tell you I'm sorry and that I love you. (I also fixed your hair!) while hugging you I notice you pull away and look over at your classmates. Are you really at that age to where you're embarrassed to see me and give me hugs? Second stab to the heart in one day. I tried not to take it personally, but it's just another sign you are growing up. I just hope that while you are doing all this growing, you never forget how much I love you. We fight like cats and dogs and I know I should be the adult, but I also don't want to ever change who you are. We are so different, but I just want to guide you through life. Help you make discoveries, decisions, and learn life lessons as Olivia. I know we don't like the same things, which is why we fight. We don't understand each other, but we still love each other. Love will conquer all and that is the most important thing. I never want you to have a complex of the sincerity of my love. You will ALWAYS be good enough for me. You may not work to your potential, or even care about your potential. That's what a mom is for to show you the dos and don'ts and the right way and wrong way. It may not be Olivia's way, but it's the way of the world.

I love you Olivia!

Xoxo, Mama

Saying Goodbye

Well kids, mommy has been a business owner for the past 3 1/2 years. I have made a wonderful friend/business partner, learned some business sense, and dressed you guys pretty darn cute, but the time has come for me to say goodbye. Tinytales has become part of our lives. Lane spent half of his first year coming to work with me. Olivia, when you would come to the store after school and turned into a little salesperson. You tried to help people find the perfect toy or outfit for their little one. Hallie Beth, you just liked to shop! If you weren't shopping then you turned into my own little personal model! I really had dreams of one day dressing my grandbabies in fancy smocked clothes or Vineyard Vines finest. They would have been the best source of advertisement! Girls, I would've loved for you to have an after-school or summertime job at my little store. I did have dreams, but the Lord had other plans. Right now I'm not sure what those plans are. I'm trying to get back into the world of teaching! It's fall. It's not exactly hiring season, but who knows.

Below are some pictures of the store when we first opened. We were so excited and ambitious! The economy quickly took a turn for the worse. The United States hasn't had a recession like this since the 1930's. Almost 4 years later the world is still feeling the crunch.

Just another life lesson, God always has greater plans than your own. Sometimes you may not understand or agree with how your life is going, but His relevance will reveal itself in due time.

XOXO, Mama

Consignment crazy!!!

This week has been CRAZY! I guess I say that a lot lately. Daddy is so busy being a "politician" and I'm being, well a mom. Kids you may read this statement and think "what?!" Let me explain... Daddy is a busy man trying to make the world, our world, a better place. He can't say NO! He has meetings every night! This week he spent 2 nights at the school and 2 nights in meetings for work. Needless to say I was once again a single mom. I don't complain much because he's doing it for you guys. It just wears on mama...homework, bath time, suppertime, dance, soccer, gymnastics, etc, etc, etc. I could go on but I won't. Let's just say, thank God for your Nana. She is an angel on Earth. (She will make her on post one day!) In the midst of our every day usual chaos, I'm consigning your old baby stuff!! I'm decluttering! It is so freeing! It is very time consuming, but in the end when I get that check it will be worth it! I don't get sentimental about too much of the stuff because most of it has made its way through three kids! I tried to take care of the big stuff - high chairs, strollers, pack and play, because I knew how fast you little kiddos would grow! Also, being a cheapskate I knew I wouldn't get anything new! I was going to make it last through all my babies! I did too! Olivia you tried helping me one night, but sometimes it's easier doing it myself because it's hard to explain my system of madness! Anyway, you were just trying to figure out how to stay up past your bedtime. You're such a sneaky thing. Lane was testing out all the merchandise before I sent it off! Hopefully this will be worth my while!

XOXO, Mama