Friday's Favorite Five January 20

Living to Tell the Story

Five Favorite Things...

1.  Julianna.  I am so proud of her.  So proud.  She auditioned for a solo part in the dance studio's big June production.  Unfortunately, she did not receive a part, and a lot of her dance friends did.  When she found out she was terribly disappointed.  I am so proud of how she's handling it though.  She cried.  Of course she did.  It was definitely something she wanted very, very much.  She cuddled up with me and was just sad for a while.  Understandable.  But then, then she drew on her inner reserves and she went off to play.  She's doing okay.  As I tucked her into bed she told me she was still disappointed.  I told her I understood that.  How could she not be?  Still, I am so proud of her.  She's showing me her strength.  How resilient she is.  How healthy she is.  I am so proud to be her mom.  She's disappointed, we both definitely wish it had gone another way, yet even in the face of such sadness she's demonstrating grace and strength.  I'm lucky to be her mom.
2.  Hair products!  (Switching gears here)  A couple of months ago when I got my hair done I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a salon shampoo and conditioner for my hair.  My stylist has always maintained that it would help me maintain my color and reduce the fading that was occurring.  Not a good feeling to spend a fortune on your hair and feel like it's a different color in two weeks and a different color altogether in four.  I was skeptical, to say the least, that it could make much difference, after all, I used good products, I thought.  Well, 9 weeks later, I have seen the light.  While it doesn't make a dent in regrowth (darn!), my hair did maintain it's salon color.  Worth the money.
3. My stand mixer.  I have so many "toys" in my kitchen given to me by my parents. My mixer might be the small appliance I use the most...cookies, cakes, bread, you name it.  I love to cook, I love making treats for my family, but most of all, I love the feeling I get every time I use it and I think of all the love it was given to me with.  My parents are very supportive of me, my hopes, my dreams, and it warms my heart to feel that love and think of it every time I'm going about my normal tasks.
4. Reading.  I get incredible joy and release from reading. I'm a voracious reader and will read anywhere from 2-5 books a week.  It's such a pleasure!  What a wonderful gift in my life to have the joy of reading.  Maeve Binchy, Robyn Carr, Sherryl Woods, Sophie Kinsella, Debbie Macomber, I'm sure they're are many, many more, but these are some of my favorite authors currently. 
5. Being a mom, my way.  There's a lot of debate out there about what makes a good mother.  I've got some very strong feelings on that subject, believe me.  When I made the decision many, many, many years ago to become a mom, I had some pretty definite ideas about what that needed to look like for me.  I am so thankful that, for the most part; and unfortunately, don't get me wrong, I'm in no way saying I'm a perfect mom, far from it; but for the most part, I've gotten to do this parenting gig exactly the way I want.  When my kids snuggle up with me at the end of the day; when one of my kids has good news/bad news/questions, whatever, they want to share and they reach out to me; when I look back at my parenting journey, I am so proud, happy, blessed, pleased that I've gotten to do this my way.  Most of the time I think I've got some pretty good instincts as to what will work for me, for our family, and I'm exceedingly thankful that I've been able to, and chosen to, follow them.

That's it.  It's been an incredibly long day, and much as I admire my little girl's resiliency, I'm not there yet.  I'm still very disappointed for her.  I'm worried about some friendship issues she's experiencing.  (Is walking up to a 9 year old and telling her to knock it off in no uncertain terms really off limits??)  I'm exhausted from helping the 11 year old with homework that shouldn't be anywhere near as difficult as it was simply because he's terrified, unfortunately justifiably, that he's going to get marked down, yelled at, called on the carpet, for some ridiculous, inconsequential reasons.  I'm tired of merely "getting by", falling more and more in the hole all the time, yet incredibly thankful that we are getting by, that the hole is there to fall into sometimes, for all the good that we do have in our lives.  It's been a long week, but we're getting there, the weekend's just hours away.  :)

Have a good one.