Year: 2006

Just say no to drugs unless the offer is made by Mama

Here are two things that came out of my mouth this past week that will leave y’all marveling at the depth of my parenting expertise.

Tuesday night I was heating up leftover spaghetti for Caroline and she told me she didn’t want spaghetti, she wanted pizza. This is exactly what I said, “Well this is spaghetti and it’s the same thing as pizza”. Except that it’s you know, not.

Both foods are however of Italian origin, so that’s my justification.

Then, yesterday afternoon we stopped by Mimi and Bop’s house on the way home from my nephew’s birthday party. Caroline was slightly irritable and had skinned both of her knees at the party. After we visited for awhile I told her it was time to go and she wanted no part of it. So here’s what I said, “Come on, let’s go home and I’ll give you some Tylenol”. Because everyone knows that all the best mothers bribe their children with promises of over the counter medication.
Where does my help come from?

Some circumstances this week have made me take a hard, honest look at myself. You know, one of those times you look way down deep into the crevices where you keep things hidden because honestly, it can be a little ugly down there and sometimes it’s easier to ignore.

My cold, hard realization is that I am putting a huge amount of trust in myself. I am counting on my abilities, my charm, my intellect, and my resources (I’m not saying that I have an overabundance of any of these things, which makes it that much sadder that they are what I’m trying to rely on) to help me get through certain situations instead of trusting God. I have sat and thought about circumstances and thought about how I should handle things and have totally discounted what God may have to say about the matter.

I mean really, He’s just the creator of the universe and He only knows things like how many hairs are on my head and how many stars are in the sky, so how could He possibly know about my huge problems here on earth? That kind of mentality should make y’all feel just a little bit sorry for me, considering that I’ve been counting on my own intellect and if that doesn’t show how limited my thinking is, I don’t know what will.

Last Sunday as I sat in church, our pastor said something that really caused me to sit up and take a little soul inventory, “Don’t judge circumstances by what we see, but by what He says”. I’ve held on to it all week because what are any earthly problems compared to the unsurpassing sovereignty of what He says?

The other way I’ve heard this same thought expressed is that trusting in God is believing in His heart, when you can’t see His hand. It’s easy to believe in His goodness when all is right with my world, but what about when everything isn’t alright. What then?

I have to stop and remember that the God who led Moses, the God who protected Daniel in the lions’ den and the God who kept Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from burning alive is fully capable of handling my problems in the year 2006.

He’s still mighty, He’s still on the throne, and He’s still leading His people to the place He wants them to go even when the path looks scary and dark. He knows the way even when all I see is darkness and fear. He knows the way and when I quit looking to myself and am quietly on my knees before Him, He will show me.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses

but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

Psalm 20: 7

Now my challenge is to quit looking at the strength I think the “chariots and horses” in my life can give me and start trusting in Him, remembering that He holds the answers in the palm of His hand.
Now that’s what I call a good day

Okay, first of all, the Aggies won. We beat a previously unbeaten Missouri team that was ranked #19. I wasn’t sure we had it in us, but I’m so proud we did it. Gig’em Ags!

Secondly, thanks to Susie at Bluebird Blogs, Big Mama has a fancy new look. Hope y’all like it because I sure do.

Lastly, P brought home flowers for me for no reason at all (well, other than I’ve been a little stressed out) and that was the best surprise of my whole week.

Have a great Saturday night!
The next generation

My beloved Aggies are playing Missouri today and obviously, if y’all have been paying attention, they are going to need all the help they can get. So, let me present today’s cheering section.

This is Caroline with her partners in crime, otherwise known as Gulley’s boys. They are the fightin’ Texas Aggie classes of ’25, ’26 and ’28.

We might not win the game, but at least we look cute.
Friday six otherwise known as I have nothing else to say

I am all tapped out at the moment, so here is my Friday six. I’ve also had to edit this about five times for various grammatical errors, so obviously my brain isn’t working at full capacity.

These are the things that are on my mind right now. I’ll warn you that it isn’t very exciting or necessarily interesting, for that matter.

1. Caroline is on a new diet that I’m going to call the “cocktail hour diet”. It consists of about five olives and a handful of peanuts eaten once daily. She’ll also throw in a few sweet gherkins for a little variety.

2. Is it just me or have you ever been trying on clothes in Banana Republic and wished that you had some tweezers in your purse? I don’t know what it is about the lighting in there, but everytime I’m in one of their dressing rooms, I marvel at how many stray hairs remain on my brow line.

3. Jeffrey on Project Runway…guilty or not guilty?

4. In a fit of being Super Mama, I signed up to plan the Halloween party for Caroline’s class. Umm, yeah…I’m going to need some help with this one. Anyone have any great suggestions for a social event for 3 year olds?

5. In other Caroline school news, every Thursday is show and tell. She’s supposed to bring something that starts with the letter of the week. The only flaw with this being that she doesn’t really know what letter anything starts with, which leaves me frantically hunting down some appropriate item every Thursday morning (because really, why would I plan ahead?). Yesterday after ruling out an egg, I settled for Ernie because he travels well.

6. We were at the grocery store this evening and we had to go visit the lobsters in the tank as usual. Caroline asked if we could get one and I said no. She sighed and said “Maybe I’ll get one for Christmas.” Dream big, little one, dream big.

Y’all have a nice weekend.
The way she looks tonight

This past weekend, Gulley went to her cousin Matt’s wedding. Matt is the only son of Gulley’s Uncle Glen.

Uncle Glen is one of the more colorful characters you will ever meet. He lives in a solar powered cabin that he built in the middle of nowhere and wears a belt with the name Russell on it because his Mama bought it for him at a garage sale. It is not inconceivable to think that the federal government may not know that Glen exists. Nena says he’s so odd because she cried so hard when she found out she was pregnant with him.

He really is one of the sweetest people ever. In college, he would always say “Boy, if I were younger I would marry one of you gals for sure.” We all loved him.

More recently, he has been dating a woman who apparently has some concerns about where he stands with God. In fact, Nena told us that Glen’s girlfriend called her and wanted them to all get together and watch (in Nena’s words) “a RELIGIOUS film” about the evils of drinking beer.

Anyway this weekend, the whole family was gathered together to attend the big wedding. Gulley said the photographer called the whole clan together outside the church to take a family picture. She said they were all standing together for the photo; cousins, aunts, uncles and Nena and Grandaddy.

The photographer snapped a few pictures and then Nena said, “Now get one of just me because I love this dress and I’ve never looked better.”

And that’s the memory that will really be the most important one of the day.