A Good Time Was Had By All

Truly Outrageous

When I look back on the days of my teenage youth there is a special group of pictures that are my favorite and that I cherish above all others.

It was the year 2000 or maybe it was 2001 ... heck, it might have been 1999, I have no idea (I'm claiming mommy brain on that one.) We were in high school and there was an 80's dance.

I'm pretty sure that we were the best Jem and the Holograms around. Its crazy how much time and energy we all put into those utterly fabulous costumes that we're all wearing, from me hand printing/painting/glittering/studding the Jem shirts, to many hours spent at the thrift store to acquire top quality official 80's clothing, to buying spray on hair dye so that I could be Jem and have her signature pink hair authentically. Funny how time and energy seem to mean something so totally different now!

As if leaving the house looking like that for a dance wasn't enough, we all gathered up and went to a local restaurant afterwards in our full totally truly outrageous outfits. Good Times. Thankfully, these girls are still some of my very best friends and I love em dearly ... so I'm hoping that they don't freak when they see these awesome pictures of them on the web!

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Feel like reliving some old school memories of your own? Then head on over to the fabulous blog of Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback of your own!

Be Thankful

Dear Brayden

Dearest Brayden,

It seems that ever since you were born, seven years ago today, I have always been running to catch up. Today I thought that maybe it would be a nice change of pace to slow down and steal a few quiet moments to tell you how much I love and how so very proud of you I am.

There are times that I look at you and it literally takes my breath away. You are such an extraordinary young man, so very full of courage and heart. You work hard and you play hard and you have always embraced the challenge and joy life has brought to your plate.

Never lose your passion for knowledge it nourishes your spirit and keeps you safe from the inevitable weight of life. Never lose your ability to savor joy in every moment, no matter how small, because this will keep you optimistic when times become challenging.

You are my pride and my joy and I know that you are your father’s as well. But we are not perfect parents. I'm sorry for the troubles that my life and my choices have and will surely continue to place on your shoulders. With deep humility I ask that you not let these troubles make you bitter or hard, rather open your heart so that within the pain you feel and see every day, you grow in compassion and strength. Never will I do something to intentionally cause you pain, and although I am your mother I am human and will continue to make mistakes.

But know that your smiles help me stay afloat and your tears break my heart. I stay grounded simply because of you, and because of the overwhelming love and joy that being a mother has provided with me with.

As you continue to mature and grow, don’t ignore any aspect of who you are. Your spirituality is just as important as your physical strength. Your compassion is just as important as your intellect. Life is so short, don't ever stop growing, in every sense of the word.

Brayden, I love you so much. Your loving nature, your worry about others, your inquisitive questions, your tears, your smiles. You have taught me how to love really love and appreciate every gasp I take in this sea of motherhood and life. Happy 7th birthday.

I love you and am so proud of you, each and every day my love and pride for you grows.

Forever yours,

-Momma

A Bit of Something New

Its been quite awhile since I've added something fresh and new to my etsy shop. I'm talking a completely new idea entirely.

I love working with both paper and beads, and but to be honest I've grown a bit tired of making the spiral bound journals that have been in my shop for the past year or so. They are time consuming and require a lot of work and have, in all honesty, ceased to be enjoyable for me to make anymore. I don't free creative with them anymore, and because my shop and crafting in general are purposed to make me happy and provide and outlet to do what I love I've decided that I'll no longer be making them. (Pssst! They are on clearance right now - 30% off! go visit the shop and grab one!)


I love paper and journaling too much to stay away from them though, but I needed a challenge ... something to spark the creative block I've been having lately.


So I've been spending my time focusing on a new craft of sorts, and will soon be introducing Coptic Stitched Journals into my etsy shop. I'm so excited about them! They are so fun to put together and I'm relishing in the joys of discovering a new twist on a true passion of mine!


Look for them soon, and keep creating what it is that you love as well ♥

10 Things

The goal is to list 10 things that you are thankful for. The first 10 things that you can think of at that moment, plucked straight from the top of your head.

1. Singing my praises with my husband, friends, and Michael W. Smith
2. Gage wearing his footie pajamas on chilly nights
3. My favorite scarf, which is actually more of a wrap than a scarf
4. Curling up with a mug of Chai Tea
5. Jack Johnson - Banana Pancakes, my current favorite song
6. Birthday party planning for Brayden who will be 7 on Wednesday
7. Spelling with letter magnets on the fridge
8. Robert oh so hot he makes my heart skip a beat Pattinson

9. No bills in the mail, heck, no mail at all
10. A good nights sleep

The Happiest Place on Earth

I'm a small town girl, and for the vast majority of my life (outside of a 8 year stint in Va Beach when I was a little girl) I've been a small town girl.

The town I grew up in has a Wal-mart. That's really it. We also have a lot of closed down stores and farms and people who sell corn on the corner in the late summer/early fall. I live in the middle of nowhere and I see deer and animals in my yard, not city buildings and sights.

In very late 1999 I was a Junior in high school, and a giant chorus nerd. If I could redo high school all over again I'd still be a chorus nerd. Anyways, when it was announced that the music department of my school was going to be taking a trip to Orlando, FL to go to Disney World, you can imagine that something so huge and seemingly unattainable to my small town eyes shook my entire world.

After begging my parents to go (and raising something like $2000 from selling crap and help from my family) we were on our way, leaving the day after Christmas to spend the Millennium in the happiest place on earth.

We all piled into 4 tour buses and got ready to start the 21 hour drive to Orlando. Literally 3 miles away from the school, however, one of the buses broke down and the air lock on the luggage compartment under the bus got stuck so we spent an extra 4 hours crammed on the buses, not moving, still in PA.

But when we got there ... oh it was magical.

I've got to tell you, I'm pretty sure Disney is the epitome of awesomeness and as an adult (who hasn't been there in 10 years) I'm still so very in love with that place. And I can't wait to take my kids there!


Here is Tigger and I, who literally followed me around the place there for like a solid 15 minutes and rubbed my back and gave me countless hugs. I was too excited at the time to realize how strange that was, and after a few hours and my friends commenting on how gross that it was I realized, with a huge laugh (because I didn't care and I was in Disney World for crying out loud) that Tigger was coming on to me.

The best part. I was watching the news a few years later and saw THIS. Tigger, my not so secret admirer, was arrested for "pawing a 13 year old girl while posing for a photo". And here I just thought he was an overly friendly Disney character. :)

Memories!!

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Feel like reliving some old school memories of your own? Then head on over to the fabulous blog of Christopher and Tia for a Friday Flashback of your own!

Anxiety in the Fog

Sometimes I feel a tremor in my universe. Perhaps a redirection. Maybe a tiny truth I’ve been missing. Something…what is it? Just outside of my grasp…and I stop, drop and role…so to speak.

Emotionally, physically and mentally everything grinds to a halt. (Heck, let’s throw in spiritually too.) Right after the “tremor” I can see it rolling in, there in the distance and before I know it I’m under a blanket of …something. I shut down and I freeze. Or maybe just go into slow and deliberate motion…

It rolled in last week. Something or the other came out of left field…not true, it came from inside, anyhoo, it’s familiar for me so I did what I always do… I started to batten down the hatches.

Here’s how that looks (for me)…I turn off the television and the radio and let the quiet of the house seep into me for hours at a time. I don’t talk. It’s probably a good thing The Husband is really tired when he gets home…

I go one day without eating anything, sipping just water and loving the feeling of being empty inside. I think more clearly sometimes without thoughts of food.

Then one day I bake. Cupcakes this particular day. And I let myself be comforted by the step by step instructions. I feel more ordered when I add the flour into the buttery sugary mixture. I’m utterly mesmerized by the simple action of folding colorful sprinkles into the caramel colored batter.

I read…read and read and read. Reading is my escape. My mental visit into someone else’s life. Sometimes I get answers there…right in the middle of a good story. Right in the middle of someone else’s life…God speaks to me that way on occasion…but don’t fret…

I also take time with God. Ask questions and try to listen. I journal. Read my Bible.

And, I exclude myself from everyone and everything around me. I continuously find busy work and clean random things around the house, keeping things all to myself without having to look anyone else in the eye. I expend all the energy I have. I sweat a lot and tire my muscles until they shake when I lift the water bottle to drink. Then I shower and pile the Gage into the bed with me, smack in the middle of the day, and together we take a nap.

And sometimes I cry. Just a good long sobbing cry.

And each day I wake and hope the fog will be gone. But as of the time I’m writing this, it still weighs heavy on me. I’ve always had these times and although it’s not always been this way, I’m fortunate now, that I have the luxury of downtime. To be able to pause. Without having to go to work or taxi little ones around. I always come away from these time-outs with something I needed to begin with.

It is what it is, oh how everyone loves to say this…but it’s true.

It is what it is.

I know from experience that “what it is” will pass. Burn off, like thick, heavy early morning fog leaving me with fresh vision and pristine crystal clear focus.

But for sometimes it’s foggy in my world and lately I've been low on energy and motivation.

I do think that the fog is clearing now, though.

Clearance on all Spiral Bound Journals

All of my Spiral Bound Journals are on Clearance!!

They are currently marked down 30% so get em while they are still here because afterwards they will officially be gone forever.
Thats right, I'm phasing out spiral bound journals from my etsy shop!

So if you're looking for a totally awesome Christmas gift, and if you have an Oh Mandie journal that you love and want to snag up another one, now is the time!

Click here to check them out ----> Clearance Journals

10 Things

The goal is to list 10 things that you are thankful for. The first 10 things that you can think of at that moment, plucked straight from the top of your head.

1. Late nights reading

2. Oranges
3. The Wizard of Oz
4. Sleeping in on the weekend
5. Listening the Brayden sing along to the songs on the radio while we drive
6. Family dinners where someone besides me cooks
7. Gage finding the utmost joy in his 3 little Wonderpets toys
8. Curling up with a soft, warm blanket on a chilly day
9. Christmas shopping for the kids
10. Singing and dancing in the shower thanks to the speakers Mike put in the bathroom

A Rejuvenation of Sorts

Last night the house was quiet, which is a pretty huge rarity around here. Mike was out having a man date with his buddy, taking the Jeep off roading (and getting it stuck - but that's another vent for another time) and the boys were spending the evening with their grandma, which left me all alone.

I turned all of the TVs off and all of the lights off and just sat in the quiet for a little bit, and it was fabulous. I almost fell asleep, but made myself get up because an empty house isn't a luxury that I get to experience all too often and I was not about to sleep through it. So I did something that in the past few weeks has escaped me. I went in to my pretty much untouched craft room (that I still haven't finished decorating after living here for 3 months now) and made some new jewelry.

Its been too long, and I totally forgot how calming crafting is for me, unfortunately though for the past few months my heart just wasn't in it and I refused to go into that room with knowing that, especially because anything I made without giving 100% of myself to would have ended up crappy, thus defying my entire reasoning for making things in the first place.

But now, I think that I can clearly say that my disenchantment in 100% over, and I'm back to doing what I love and giving it my all. It feels good to be back!

Look for new Oh Mandie lovelies in the shop very very soon!

Much Love,

xoxo

Wordless Wednesday - Lights in the Sky

Sweet Delicious

A very dear, and unfortunately blogger illiterate, friend of mine and I have decided to take on a new joint venture together!

I'm excited to share with you all our new food blog Sweet Delicious, where you can find all sorts of family fun and kid pleasing recipes from moms who have tried and tested them!

So hop on over and check out all of the good eats! And feel free to drop me an email or convo if you'd like to submit a recipe of your own!

For Aleida - Leaving Proof

Todays blog post is dedicated to the amazing Aleida Franklin.

She was a wonderful wife, mother, scrapbooker, artist, and an inspirational blogger who often posted pictures of herself along with children for her readers to see. I didn't know Aleida personally, but she taught me something I will never forget.

Aleida prompted "Have you ever seen a photograph of your own mother and thought to yourself how fat she looked? Or how she wasn't wearing make-up? Or wasn't dressed in a glamorous outfit?"
Of course my answer was no.

She then responded with saying that she made it a goal to take a picture of herself with her children at least once every month. And that to use excuses about how we look, as women, is ridiculous, since our children will never care what we looked like, but only that we had physical evidence of the bond between mother and child.

Aleida tragically and unexpectedly passed away in an auto accident in September of 2008, leaving 2 small children and a grieving husband. After she passed I thought of how those children must feel to have those precious photographs.

I, along with many other women, have made it my personal goal to follow her wise suggestion and I try to take photos of myself with my children....double chins, make-up free, bed-head and all.

And so, if you want to take Aleida's Challenge, snap some pictures with your children and smile! And post 'em here to the official flickr group.

10 Things

The goal is to list 10 things that you are thankful for. The first 10 things that you can think of at that moment, plucked straight from the top of your head.

1. Lazy Sundays spent lounging around
2. Indian Summer
3. Family Dinners
4. Unexpected visits from loved ones
5. Braydens amazing report card
6. The Gold and Brown colors the earth has become with Fall
7. Late night reading when the house is quiet
8. Croissants
9. Dancing with Gage to Yo Gabba Gabba
10. Playing Scene It - and winning

Loud Times

Very rarely do I have quiet time with God anymore. But I have a defiantly have a loud time on a daily basis! Loudly we all sing along to the praise music that's playing in the background of my life, either while driving somewhere or maybe on while I'm cleaning something. Loudly I march to and from the basement to do the laundry. Loudly I herd boys to their seats for meals and grace. Loudly we wrestling, love, tug, and parent. Loud times are my times with God these days. And they are often better than my quiet times ever were.

On occasion I do have a rare and quiet reprieve when I'm just drifting off to sleep at night, or when I'm grabbing a cup of coffee in the morning and the house is still quiet. But those moments, as personal and beautiful as they are lack the raw, intimate immediacy of yelling, “HA-LE-LOO-JAH!” alongside my boys as they jump and jive to their favorite chorus.

And I have found that God speaks loudly back. Because I am learning things alongside my kids that may have taken a lot longer to grasp in a quiet time.

She Walks In Beauty

These days, I spend the majority of my time coaxing crushed fruit loops from the carpet, matching socks, breaking up fights over mundane things like toy trains and crayons, and managing the day-to-day life balance (balance?!?) of being a wife, mother, and woman.

But for more years than I care to count of academia, I basked in and thoroughly fell in love with the words written by Shakespeare, Wordsworth, Emerson, Rimbaud, and too many post-modern authors to mention.

After wrestling our two children to bed last night, my husband and I reminisced about the glory days of reading, discussing, thinking and dreaming - things we now hope for when life presents us with an opportunity to make a wish: blowing out birthday candles, finding a four leaf clover, seeing a shooting star, or glancing at the clock at 11:11.

What once was an integral part of who I was, is now reserved for those rare moments when the work is done, the children are fed/bathed/entertained/happy, the house is clean, the bills are paid, and the emails answered. And those moments are quite far and few between.

On our proverbial walk down memory lane, we laughed as we remembered how broke we were when we first met, but how happy we were to sit up late at night and talk for hours and hours about the book we had just read, the movie we had just seen or the tv show we had just watched.

This morning, after Brayden was gone and at school, Gage decided to actually sit down and play quietly on his own, giving me a few minutes to sip my coffee and think. I took the opportunity to joyfully recite the first line of my favorite Lord Byron poem, and vowed to myself to make more time for the things that I have loved but have fallen away.

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

Frosty Mornings

10 Things

The goal is to list 10 things that you are thankful for. The first 10 things that you can think of at that moment, plucked straight from the top of your head.

1. Beginning to get healthy after a week of being sick
2. Sour Patch Cherries
3. Seeing the first Cardinal outside of the season
4. Kids who will were their Halloween costumes and fun through the year
5. Late nights reading accompanied by a cup of steaming hot tea
6. Puffs Plus With Lotion
7. Bare trees and the ground covered in leaves
8. Twilight Scene It
9. Super soft and cuddly blankets
10. Eskimo Kisses to show affection without spreading germs