taking the lead from the best...
As most people do, I have some great mothers in my life. This is making me fairly reflective this mother’s day because it is the first that I am a mother myself. I have been mulling over the past week and a half exactly the type of mother I would like to be and what I have learned from those great mothers that have gone before me. Isn’t it sad that it takes a holiday to actually get me thinking about the mother I would like to be! In my own defense with an almost eight week old my brain has not really settled on too many reflective things these days.
Well upon much thought I came up with my favorite qualities of some of the great mothers in my family. I will start with my own mom, she was and still is to this day fabulous at creating memories and traditions. My mom always made every holiday super special, I can remember fancy Valentines Dinners in the good dining room and almost every Christmas tree her and I ever decorated. My mom also has set into place some very memorable traditions like her and my dad decorating family members graves every single year. They drive zigzags over the state of Kentucky and Ohio to visit and decorate every loved ones grave. She was not only great at the big things but little surprises that I really liked as a kid, something as odd as rearranging my bedroom when I was away at school so when I got home I had a whole new bedroom. Some of these things may seem common place or even odd but growing up I always knew that time, energy and thought were spent on making things special.
Next I will move to Jay’s mom, Jenanne. Jenanne and her whole family for that matter has always been excellent about verbalizing their love for others. Some would say they are emotional, but she is great about letting others know that they are special and loved. I do not know how many times I have rolled my eyes when she has gone on and on about how she loves me, both before and after Jay and I were married. Jenanne also really lets her feelings be known over the phone, through cards and letters. I know that the people that are special to her know exactly how she feels. She has not held any emotions back and I find that a truly great quality.
In addition to making some great memories for my kids and really verbalizing how much I love them, I want to make sure that I instill some really important qualities into my children. I first and foremost want them to have a love for God. I want it to be an essential part of who they are. I want them to be able to read and pray and know God personally so much so that it effects who they are and what they will become as people. Right along with that I so much want my children to be compassionate. I want them to see others and really care. Not just because they are told to, but because they are following my lead and genuinely care about others. I do not want them to care about other good people, or church goers, or the innocent victim either, those people are easy to feel compassion for. I want them to care for the dirty, the stinky, the poor, the hateful. The ones that it is not easy to feel compassion towards. I know that both of these will take a good deal of patience, many years and a whole lot of them watching what Jay and I do and how we live our lives and not so much what we tell them to do...kinda scary! Last but not least, I want my kids to have a strong self esteem. Not an inflated one, not one where they think they are good at everything and surely not one that they think they are the best at everything. I want them to honestly know who they are, accept who they are and be proud of themselves. I want them to understand that everyone is different and who they are is exactly who they are suppose to be.
Some of these might seem far fetched, but we must have goals right! I know that I will not be a perfect mom and that I will probably screw up the same amount of times that I succeed with raising children, at least I know what direction I am headed. It is easy to know what direction you are headed when you have such great role models and mothers like I have in my life. Happy Mothers Day everyone I hope you can for a moment be as reflective and slightly corny as I have been this Mother’s Day and think of some of the things that make your mom so special!
-melissa
a day to be thankful for...
How we spent Easter 2011
He
has
risen!
Hallelujah!
Today was a great day!
Charlotte slept through church like a champ... I am not sure if she got much from the message, but we will try explaining Easter to her next year!
After church we had some of our favorite people over and yes they did BYOM (refer to previous post)! We had chicken, hot dogs, bratwurst, steaks, pork kabobs...the works!
Thanks to the pioneer woman, all the sides turned out great! My personal favorite was the carrots and the corn...simple, easy and delicious!
At the end of the day we were all stuffed!
and tired
We hope everyone had a great Easter with your loved ones!
spring is in the air
To me nothing quite says spring like warm weather, baseball, green grass and Easter. Luckily this week we got to experience all four!
I have been kept busy this week trying to get a good nice walk in every morning among a number of things. The good nice kind of walk that makes you sweat, put a catch in your side, makes the gnats swarm because you smell so bad. The kind that can knock off some major baby belly! I also waited until the last minute to finish Benjamin’s Bunny Bowling that we are sending him for Easter... surprise, surprise! I am not quite sure what he will do with the very dense bunnies. I can easily see them being turned into weapons or even the softball for that matter, but that is for mommy Rachel to deal with. Our job as Auntie and Uncle is just to spoil him right and send him surprises in the mail!
In anticipation for our very elegant Easter dinner I have been trying to prepare a menu. In past years Easter has been a completely exhausting day with early mornings and services that need serving. With that in mind and still wanting to spend time with our loved ones we have invented...drumroll please...BYOM. Go ahead and try to figure out what that could stand for- Brighten Your Own Meal or maybe Beautiful Yams Over Macaroons...not here, BYOM stands for Bring Your Own Meat (said in your most redneck accent). It really seems to work for us, our friends bring their own meat for Jay to grill and we provide the sides and dessert. Now, I have had some time late at night to peruse the web looking for yummy recipe ideas. And what better site can I find than The Pioneer Woman. The site has great ideas, comical stories and beautiful photos that seem to really entertain me late at night. I understand that even if I follow every recipe to every detail my food will still not turn out as delicious looking as hers (just like bunnies pictured above). Below you can find at least what I am aiming for: a yummy yet simple layered salad, some doctored up mashed potatoes, and roasted carrots. Dessert is still undetermined and I really should come up with another side seeing how my lovely husband is allergic to two of my selections thus far. Anyways, I will give it my best go and I am sure everyone will have a fine time. It can not be any worse than the year that we had cornish hens, they did not completely cook, we served them bloody and I walked around the table demanding everyone throw their Easter dinner in the trash. True story. Really. Don’t you want to come over for Easter dinner at the Hess House! Ahhh, Easter memories!
As for the baseball and grass as mentioned prior, we will not be getting to experience baseball for a little while longer...sigh, and as for that grass, Jay still thinks that the mower is still too heavy and difficult for me to push...teeheehee!
-melissa
30 days of learning with charlotte...from everyone’s point of view
- I now know that babies are the only true love at first sight. -Jay
- A gained ounce feels like a personal triumph! -Melissa
- The day can pass with a wink. -Melissa
- The car makes me very sleepy. -Charlotte
- The La-Z-Boy rocking recliner we bought was worth every penny. -Jay
- Charlotte gets her breakfast first no matter what! -Abby
- Feeding Charlotte with a bottle is one of my new favorites things. -Jay
- When sniffing her while she swings, the swing can whop you in the head pretty hard. -Jack
- I think me and Jack will be great friends someday if Abby doesn’t eat me first. -Charlotte
- I can not successfully eat a bowl of cereal while holding a baby. -Melissa
- Hypothetically, should a baby be able to fart louder than a grown man? -Jay
- Babies smile a lot in their sleep. -Melissa
- Daddy brings me presents home when he goes out of town. -Charlotte
- If dirty diapers were gold nuggets, I could retire next week. -Jay
- We thought that we slept a lot during the day. -Abby and Jack
- A babies cry can stop a sewing machine quicker than anything else. -Melissa
- I can nurse and now easily text, facebook, shop online and read with the kindle app thanks to the iPhone. -Melissa
- The DVR doesn’t get cleared out quite as easily these days. -Jay
- Charlotte’s toys are way cooler than ours. -Abby and Jack
- Who knew that getting up at all hours of the night could be so rewarding. -Jay
- We no longer measure time with clocks, rather with Charlotte’s hunger. -Melissa
- We must be rich, because I have more outfits than Lady Gaga. -Charlotte
- It is nearly impossible to change a diaper when the power goes out, in the middle of the night and you cant find a flashlight. -Melissa
- I thought we had a lot of laundry before. -Jay
- Mommy likes to sing to me all the time...off key. -Charlotte
- I can type, eat, read, fold laundry, etc. pretty well with one hand. -Melissa
- Babies get older much faster somehow. -Jay
- Nothing good happens on facebook between 2am and 4am. -Melissa
- Charlotte gets to eat about 6 more times a day than we do. -Abby and Jack
- Charlotte is perfect...and no I’m not biased. -Jay
