Mom's NOT crazy

 I am not ready for Christmas. I am sure my family is so tired of hearing me say it. I say it even though I am 90 percent finished with shopping. My tree is decorated. Most of my Christmas cards are out.  But I keep focusing on the fact that it’s 10 days until Christmas and I feel so rushed. And so am fixated on what has not been accomplished . We have not baked one cookie. I have wrapped nothing. ( I so loathe wrapping). I know these things will get done in time. They always do.  I’ve come to realize I am most frustrated because of missing the experience of the Christmas season. It’s just not as fun as it was 10, 15 years ago. My kids are teens and their Christmas list is very specific — complete with links to stores. I ask myself, why even wrap the stuff? They know exactly what they are getting. They get less stuff ( less wrapping!!! Yay!), but more expensive (boo.).  I haven’t watched one Christmas movie in its entirety. I haven’t driven the kids to gaze at lights...

 Gurrrrll....Momma is back. It's been a hot minute. Ok. It's been about 12 years. What's new? These triplets are 15, y'all. FIFTEEN. And big sister is a senior in high school. I blinked.  The truth is, I stopped blogging because in 2012 I fell into a pretty deep pit. I went into a depression that made zero sense at the time and convinced me I was done writing for fun. After a couple years of counsel with Christian professionals, some pretty decent meds and a new grip on who I am as a daughter of Christ, I climbed out of that pit. My new life verse ever since has been Psalm 40:1-2 " I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand." And I am not just standing. I have been running. I started literally running right before I turned 40 in 2018. I am working my way up to a half marathon. It's crazy how much fun I have been hav...

I am re-sharing a devotion I did for The Hummingbird online devotional in 2011. This one spoke to me again since the Connecticut massacre...the fear that envelops us as parents. THis past week one of our little triplets had an MRI on her barin. Praise the Lord she is fine. I felt the howling wind, but the storm was calmed. So here is a refresher on fear... READ -Matthew 14:13-36 Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.   But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” –Matt 13:30             Howling wind beat against the mobile home and the windows of my bedroom seemed as though they were going to pop out toward me as I lay shaking in my bed. I hated storms. I hated the wind even more. From birth until age 15 I lived inside a trailer with my parents and younger sister. The wind storms that blew on top of our hill nestled against the mounta...

Being a mom is hard. No doubt about it. I have never experienced anything so trying and yet such a blessing rolled into one. Lately I have been asking myself what am I teaching these kids? When I yell at them they are learning to yell at each other. Say what you want about raising your voice to your kids. I believe there are times it is necessary -- in order to startle them from doing something dangerous. But speaking -- and looking into their eyes...I am amazed at how effective that is. Last week I was assigned a passage of scripture for a devotional I write for. I wrote it and was moving on with my day. And then an incident with FunnyGirl happened. I rewrote it. In a nutshell, FunnyGirl got into my perfume. I wanted to yell at her when I gasped and saw her in my room with open bottles. But instead I asked her what she did. She eventually explained she wanted to be like mommy. I then looked over at my Bible on the rocker. There was pen marks in it. Again, I wanted to gasp in horror ...

December is here and gone and I had no tim eto post. If you are a friend of mine on Facebook, you saw the photos that were uploaded for the entire month and just how busy we were! A new year is here and I can't help but think that this is the year Princess turns six and will evntually be in first grade. This is the year the triplets will turn 4 --(I know it's 10 months away). I wa sthinking about that last night while grabbing some clearance items in size 4T for next Christmas. Wow. It was only a year and a half ago Princess was in 4T. Now I am shopping for size 7 for her. Why do these monkeys have to grow up? Also this weekend I have been thinking about growing up for mommy. This past year I have grown in a way that I wish I could write into words. Even though I am a writer I just can't. I scratch my head and try to come up with a way to explain it on Facebook...to explain it outloud...and now on here. But I can't. I learned a little something about love -- agape l...

The girls are just overwhelmingly growing up. I know that sounds odd...but at 3 years old these triplets seem to be leaping into childhood's next level. Don't get me wrong -- they still return to the two-year-old moments of "Mine!" and "Noooooo!" However, they are growing. It is sometimes scary to me. I'm being completely honest. Our conversations are more intense. They ask all kinds of questions. They communicate with each other in such a grown up way...my husband said the other night "I was listening to (Tiny) and (FunnyGirl) talking to each other and though 'Wow. They are talking really well and they're having real conversations." Even their playtime is maturing. Instead of running with baby dolls and throwing them on the floor, they now understand the concept of nurturing them -- Tiny was always doing this, but now they each place the babies in a bed, neatly cover them, "calm" them, and insist that everyone in the room ...

Tomorrow is a special day in this house. It marks three years since the triplets entered this world ...out of the womb and into that cold operating room...screaming and immediately tossed into the arms of NICU nurses. I remember it all too well -- I was there, you know. Since then life as we know it has completely, totally and absolutely changed. I could make a list of the changes, but if you know us personally or have kept up with the old blogs -- you already know about all of that. As FunnyGirl, Tiny and Goldie enter their third birthday, I have found that I am getting to know them better. Shouldn't a mom -- a stay-at-home mom---know her kids by the time they are three? You'd think, wouldn't you? Unless you're a mom of multiples this makes no sense. With Princess, who is now 5 1/2 -- there was a bond that exists everyday....some say it was because she was nursed or she was without siblings for two and a half years...but I think it is because she was one. And we w...