Scattered

My thoughts are a little bit all over the place today.  As I've mentioned before, the Geek is in a "season" of heavy business travel and I'm doing the single parent thing.  That alone muddles the brain, let me tell you.  Throw in getting ready for my parents arrival here on the farm in a few days and homeschooling the brood and you have one seriously bird-brained Mama Hen at times.  That said, I hope you'll indulge me as I share a couple of unrelated things bouncing around in my noggin at the moment.

Say Cheese!

First off wanted to share a random picture of my chicklets before church last Sunday.  It wasn't easy getting four people up and ready on time .... okay, we may have been a few several minutes late;) I probably shouldn't have taken the time for a photo op, but normally they are a little dirtier around the edges than this ... I had to capture it while I could.  They clean up well dontcha think?

My man rocks!
The Geek gave me the most awesome surprise.  Yesterday the UPS man dropped off a package just for me.  My sweet man had bought me a new laptop computer!  My old netbook's keyboard had stopped working so for the last few month's I have had to use either an onscreen keyboard (which took up most of the netbook's tiny screen space) or a big ol' external keyboard.  Let's just say the whole set up was considerably wonky and I may or may not have whined nonstop a bit about it. I didn't derseve it but I love my new 'puter and I love, Love, LOVE the Geek for spoiling me with it!

Meaningful Words.
I subscribe to several online newsletters.  I regularly receive a couple of homeschooling ones, a writing one or two and even a few craft idea ones to get my creative juices flowing.  They are all good reads, but my very favorite ones by far are a daily devotional and motivational (for lack of a better word) that grace my inbox every morning.  It is very rarely that their messages do not strike a chord with me.  I am a firm believer in "God-instances" and these two are often just that.  Time after time they tell me just what I need to hear just when I need to hear it ... sometimes whether it's what I want to hear or not.

Today was no exception.  Boy Wonder and I have been butting heads more often than not as of late. Oh the joys of puberty!  It seems like the instant I speak to him ... his eyes roll and he lets out a disgusted grunt or two.   My first instinct (and I'm not proud of it) has been to let him have it.  Of course more eye rolling ensues and the evil cycle continues as I feel even more compelled to let him know just how wrong his response is, not to mention reminding him just who's the boss around here.  As you can imagine, it ain't pretty folks and this is definitely not one of my stellar parenting moments in time.   It just so happens that today's Girlfriend's in God devotion was about a familiar Bible passage,

“There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under heaven

…a time to be silent and a time to speak,” 

 Ecclesiastes 3:1,7

I felt like it was God speaking right to my heart.  "Hey Mama Hen, will you just stop worrying about changing Boy Wonder for a second, and change what you can ... yourself.  Bite your tongue girl ... it's time."  Ouch!  Yep, it's time for a little more "growing up" on my part. Ir's not gonna be easy, but it's worth a try cuz what's going down right now ain't working that's for sure!
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Speaking of growth, I love the Brave Girls "A Little Bird Told Me..." emails.  They are the perfect cheerleader for me during my journey to discovering just what this ol' bird is made of.  Today's edition was about being comfortable with the "new you".   It really hit home for me.  I am where I am today because, if I am truthful, I let myself go.  I  kinda let myself "fall asleep at the wheel" and let life take over and did a lot of settling.  I'm waking up now and taking back control.  It's not easy, sometimes it's downright scary, but it has to be done if I want to survive.  It's easy to doubt myself and wonder if I'm doing the right thing here.  Enter today's second "God-instance" and the Brave Girls email.  It truly resonated with me and my current situation especially these lines:

It's frightening to think about how life might change if we

embrace our real, authentic, fantastic self; relationships might change,

our job might change, the way we live each moment

often changes when we

stop living on auto-pilot, when we stop settling

for what showed up somewhere along the way.

...

It will be ok. Come on out of that cocoon and show the world your wings.

Brave Girls "A Little Birdie Told Me"