Lives and deaths of princesses

Today when I logged onto a website, this greeted me:

On this day in 1997, Princess Diana died.

I remember this day in 1997, very well. It was Labor Day weekend and I was at a friend's parents' lakehouse in Conroe with my then-boyfriend when the news came on that Princess Di had been involved in a horrible accident. I stayed glued to the TV, calling my cousin Martha every thirty minutes or so to compare news. This was pre-internet, pre-texting - we had only the television to keep us posted.

Around 1am, the news came that she was indeed dead. I burst into tears in the strange kitchen. Then-boyfriend was sweet enough to hug me, admitting that he could not begin to comprehend why I was so upset about the death of what he considered a ditzy basketcase married to a total jerk.

Several days later, I taped the funeral of the ditzy basketcase on my VCR and watched it when I got home from work, sobbing.

On July 29, 1981, I was 11 years old when my friend Regina's mom woke us up at 4am so that we could watch the Royal Wedding. We laid on the floor in our jammies for hours, absorbing every detail transmitted to the huge console TV. When Prince William was born, we jumped for joy around the living room, teaching Regina's two year old brother to say, "It's a boy! It's a boy!"

For every Christmas and birthday, I received hard back picture books of Diana detailing every diamond and pearl choker, fashionable hat and shoulder padded jacket - my mother recently brought them all over, I must have 20 or 25. I wrote a paper on her in sixth grade. I played with Princess Di paperdolls. I had white flats just like her's, and wore sailor dresses in her honor. In seventh grade I stood in the mirror wearing a rhinestone tiara and holding the babydoll that I still played with, pretending that I was Her Royal Highness Princess Melissa, married to the very handsome Prince Andrew, mother to the beautiful baby Princess Alexandra Catherine Diana Melissa, sister-in-law - and BFF - to Princess Diana.

By the time I was in college, the rumors of affairs by both Diana and Charles were common. In 1995 I watched the tell-all interview she gave the BBC, describing the train wreck that was her marriage, and her life, wearing a lovely blue designer dress. In 1996 they divorced. As part of the divorce, she lost her title of Her Royal Highness. A year later she died, killed in a car driven by her drunk chauffeur.

It still amazes me that the woman who had everything, had absolutely nothing. Does the irony of that still shock you too? When I was 11, I wanted to be her. I wanted a (much handsomer) prince, I wanted the jewels, the fame, the clothes, the hair, the cute babies, the palaces, the travel, the admiration, the tiaras, the balls, the title of Princess.

But the whole time, Di was flat out miserable. She was a wonderful mother who sought great joy from her sons, this much about her is indisputed. But - you think you have inlaw problems? Try the Queen of England not liking you. You think your husband can be a cad? Try reading about his affairs in the tabloids.

Only two months before she was killed with her new boyfriend, her heart had been broken by another man, who rejected her even though she had agreed to convert to Islam to marry him.

She was a sad, lonely little girl, carrying wounds from her parents' dysfunctional marriage, who believed her father loved his new wife more than his children, who never felt like she fit in, prone to drama, who desperately sought love from the completely unreliable men in her life to fill the gaping hole in her heart.

Take away the tiaras and the wardrobe and the nine inches she had on me in height, and Di and I were virtual twins.

Soon after her death, then-boyfriend broke up with me, like they always did. I was devastated, like I always was.

But then I found myself in a bible study. And began to get into the Word of God. And the hole began to be filled by a Father who would take away the pain of my parents' dysfunctional marriage, of a father who chose other things over me, of the feeling of never fitting in, of the desperate drive to find a man to love me.

I learned of a Father who would never leave me or forsake me, who loved me far more than I could ever grasp, who gave his own son's life that I - messed up, prone to drama, sinful me - may approach his throne with confidence crying out Daddy!

In that Word I learned that I was the daughter of the King, a true princess with a title that can never be revoked, bride to the Prince of Heaven, clothed in righteousness, wearing a tiara not of diamonds but of love and compassion.

The desperation transferred from the need to find a man to make me happy to a need to get to know this God, the one who whispered - okay, not whispered, because I am a little hard of hearing, but shouted repeatedly in my ear:

It is better to take refuge in the LORD
Than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the LORD
Than to trust in princes.
Psalm 118:8-9

Oh, poor, sweet Diana. I wish you had known this too.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

I just realized it is 1pm and I have not done Friday Faves....this has been a bit of an overwhelming week y'all, mostly due to the death of a dear friend's dad + my Orient Expressed show +school starting. I will get my bloggy groove back soon!!

My cooking skillz astound me

Really.

When I win The Next Food Network Star, I will call my show The Idiot Gourmand. Or Gourmom (that's cute, think Bob Tuschman would like it?) (Thank you, Jesus, for not letting me fall in love with a man named TushMan.)

Here is why:

I make an amazing osso bucco. But my whole MOPS group was enlisted to solve the mystery of why my scrambled eggs were so nasty.

My bread pudding? Oh, you'd slap your mother. But I made chocolate chip cookies with the kids today, and you could break your teeth on them. Which happens every. time.

I've pulled off a fabulous risotto. But every time I boil eggs, I have to look up the directions on the internet.

And last week, when we had a fancy schmancy candlelight dinner party to celebrate my inlaws' anniversary and my mother-in-law's birthday, I made the whole meal-except my mother-in-law stepped in to fry the bacon. Because Missy don't know how to fry no bacon.

It's rather odd, doncha think?

Anyway, the dinner was quite yummy, if I do say so myself, and I do say so. Myself.

I am so stinkin domestic.


But I blew the goddess part by having my dumb bra strap stick out in every photo. Sigh.

And yes, thank you, I have been working out. My ripped biceps are compensating for my ever annoying little potbelly, which won't go away no matter how many crunches I do on the bosu ball due to some medication I am taking. Well, that, and maybe the three chocolate chip cookies I sharpened my teeth on tonight.


That chicken was delish, super moist, and very very easy to make. Except for the part when you have to dump all the chicken innards out - ugh. Blech to the carcass. I get totally skeeved by raw chicken. I better have won some serious daughter-in-law points for even looking at gross chicken guts and strategically dumping them on plastic in my sink before I tossed them in the trash without having to ever come into actual physical contact with them. With grimacing, much grimacing. And a few sound effects.

The recipe came from here. It's an Ina.

I made this couscous to go along with it. It's a Paula.


I also made a salad that Walker and I had once at Broussard's in New Orleans and had the chef give us the recipe. We fell absolutely in love with it, and when I gave Walker a taste of it, he closed his eyes and sighed and got The Dreamy Look. To most folks, New Orleans may taste like boudin or etoufee or a hurricane (going down and coming up), but to us, it tastes like this:

Salad:
Baby spinach leaves
Smoked bacon
Purple onion
Fresh sliced mushrooms
Pecans

Dressing, combined in mixer:
1 quart of mayo (I used about a cup and a half for a bag of spinach)
4 T. currant jelly
4 T. Balsamic vinegar
1/2 t. tarragon, soaked in the vinegar for 10 minutes
salt and pepper

After the dinner, I intended to make bananas foster, because I always look for an excuse to make bananas foster. Because catching food on fire never gets old. Alas, we were all too stuffed. So we sat and rubbed our tummies while my children provided the entertainment.

Here they are singing an aria composed to mark the occasion.


And Shep says a prayer/snakehandles over them. (That's why we paid so much for that Christian preschool.)

(I do buy the child new pyjamas. But these are his faaaavorites.)

And Maggie finished with an interpretive dance of Mimi's life.


Eva Rose celebrated by wearing not one but two party dresses. Maggie celebrated by getting half naked, which is her protocol lately. Oh, y'all, I've got some stories coming.


It was good times.

Happy Anniversary, Mimi and Grandaddy. We are especially glad that you married and procreated. We love you very much.

Happy Birthday GG

Almost once a week my mom comes over and spends the night. As soon as she walks in, Ike does a screaming happy dance, then the kids attack the plastic bags she is always carrying, pulling out poptarts and Fiddle Faddle and CocoPuffs and lots of other chapsticks and handcuffs that they don't need from the dollar store. Later she takes all of us for Mexican food. At bedtime, the children fight over whose room she will sleep in. The loser weeps.

The next morning, she wakes up with them - all four of them - while Walker and I catch a little more sleep. She makes them cinnamon toast or contraband poptarts. Then she sits at the kitchen table and the girls all put on their makeup.


They look awful.


And they love it.


After that, she might make princess wands and crowns.


Or even better, she will often fold all my laundry.

My children are so incredibly blessed.

And so am I.

Love you GG!!

The sweetest sound

I didn't cry

Maybe because in my mind I always pictured me dropping my firstborn off and walking away alone, while the theme from Cats swelled in the background. But then last night remembered that I had these three other kids I would be schlepping along with me.


Maybe because last week at Meet the Teacher he met a kid named Dylan - Dylan who was wearing the very same Monster Jam t-shirt that Shep has - and he cared way more about finding his new buddy than hugging his old mommy.


Maybe because he was acting a little bratty when I wanted to take his picture with his new teacher.


Maybe because when I tried to talk to him at his new shiny desk, he looked at me and said, "Mom, you have to go. You can't stay here."


All I know is that in all my visions of this day, I didn't expect this to be my inner background music. As I walked away. Un-alone. Lugging a 30 pound toddler into the 98% heat and humidity.

Once again...reality trumps fantasy.

And once again, the reality was better.

Because I am just too tired to do anything but share some linkage

Christmas shopping = DONE. You're so welcome.

Pay all your single friends $50 to read this

Jo-Lynne's getting her healthy on, and sharing all her homework

Why we blog

Yeah, I read People sometimes. Sometimes it's worth it.

This is severely messing with my mind - and my heart.

Because

Merry Lynn sent me this email and I laughed in a really unfeminine, loud, obnoxious kind of way, like you would hope you would never do on a first date cause he would never ask you out again. But I'm married, so he's stuck with me. If you are single, though, beware.

Did you know that you're supposed to clean the inside of the computer screen? Not many people know this or how to do it. So, here's a complimentary cleaning.


Click here.

Friday Faves - Favorite Music in your Car

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I am gonna have to expound on mine later but wanted to get Mr. Linky up -

Please tell us the favorite music that you are listening to in your car!

Feel free to link up with youtubes or other media!

Holla atcha later -

Too soon

Three of my babies went to their new preschool yesterday. Ikey went for the FIRST TIME. He squirmed out of my arms and did that little over the shoulder wave like "yeah, yeah, see ya Mom." Sure, I was glad that he was not like one of his poor little classmates, whose poor little mom cried in the hallway as each of his screams thrust a dagger into her guilt ridden heart, but sheesh, he coulda acted a little sad to say goodbye to the one who bore him and all.

But next week is the BIG first - because this baby


starts kindergarten.

Which makes me go, how on earth did this happen??


So if you see me next Monday, I will probably be the mom in the hallway looking like this


as I let him go, when all I want to do is hold him and stare at him


with wonder and gratitude at what an amazing little boy God has given me.

Psst - Paul wants to tell you something

Beth emailed me today, Have you ever read Romans 8 in The Message? Wow!

I hadn't, not in The Message. So I just did. And Beth summed it up - Wow.

You need a Wow this morning? Read on:

With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ's being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

God went for the jugular when he sent his own Son. He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant. In his Son, Jesus, he personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all. The law code, weakened as it always was by fractured human nature, could never have done that.

The law always ended up being used as a Band-Aid on sin instead of a deep healing of it. And now what the law code asked for but we couldn't deliver is accomplished as we, instead of redoubling our own efforts, simply embrace what the Spirit is doing in us.

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God's action in them find that God's Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn't pleased at being ignored.

But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about. But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells—even though you still experience all the limitations of sin—you yourself experience life on God's terms. It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!

So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!

This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?" God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

That's why I don't think there's any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what's coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it's not only around us; it's within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We're also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don't see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn't gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God's chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:

They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We're sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

Mom to Mom - What to say to a friend who is dealing with infertility

Recently my friend Hilary and her precious babies came over for a playdate and this topic came up. A friend of her's who lives overseas had just lost another IVF baby in her long quest to be a mom, and Hilary didn't really know what to say to her. We thought it would a great topic for this carnival.

Those of us who get pregnant very easily, like Hilary and myself, have a huge sense of guilt amongst our friends who are having trouble conceiving. I have even avoided acquaintances (not friends - acquaintances) when I was pregnant or had all my kids hanging off me because I feel like I am flaunting my fertility in their faces, just by existing.

I am always thrilled when friends become moms, but if y'all had to move mountains (or even good sized hills) to make a baby, like this chunky redheaded hunk of love, my joy knows no bounds. And if your child comes to you through adoption, like this gorgeous dainty sugar bear - oh. Overwhelmed with delight.

I also admit - full on honesty here - that because I am such an adoption proponent, it is hard for me to watch my friends suffer through so much disappointment over and over when this voice inside me is saying "Oh, please, sweet friend, go get you a baby!! You can still try and get pregnant, but when you are at your doctor's appointments there will be a precious little one waiting for you at home!!"

But, because I am a fertile myrtle and know that I have absolutely no clue what y'all are going through - I usually just keep my mouth shut. Which may or may not be the best thing to do.

Sisters, please school me and Hilary and the rest of us.

What do you say - and do you not say - to a friend who is dealing with infertility?

I thank you in advance for discussing this painful topic. It is going to be very helpful to us, the clueless ones. And the Lord knows, we do want to be helpful.

(Please write a post on your blog, and link up here to the specific post.)

So long, summer

Friday Faves - Websites

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Well, I've learned a little something about moi, and being as I am a narcissist and therefore endlessly fascinated with my own self, whahoo. I learned I actually don't go to a whole lot of real live websites. Nope. I tend to stick in bloggy land, I do.

When I do venture out of the blogosphere, it is usually to gmail to check the ole email, or to facebook to check the ole facebook. Then I ease on back into the blogosphere before the shakes and hallucinations begin to kick in.

I can tell you what websites are usually open on the ole browser by clicking on the ole Most Visited button right up thar: Drudge Report, HotAir,com, RealClearPolitics, and FreeRepublic.com. But they are not mine. My name is Missy, and I married a political junkie.

I used to be addicted to babycenter.com, but no more, because I no longer feel the need to compare every poop color and doctor visit stats with other moms in my birthclub. It did serve a wonderful purpose back when I still cared what my babies weighed. (I kid. Kind of.)

I check the news each day at the Houston Chronicle, and I spend way too much time on amazon. And oh, I can waste a whole evening looking at houses for sale here. And One Place sees a lot of me as that is where I feed my podcast addiction.

But the newest site on my hoparound list? This one.

And you?

blessed and greasy, greasy and blessed

French fried starchy carbs are one of my love languages. I never met a fried potato cutling (I just made up that word) that I didn't like. I even like the frozen ones you make yourself. Okay, I especially like the frozen ones you make yourself, because you can season them up with paprika and pepper as much as you want and even feel a teeninitzy less guilty about it because they aren't as fattening as the real fried variety of potato cutlings. Because they're baked. In your own oven.

My husband, who had a late meeting tonight, is not a huge fan of the potato. (Had this been brought up in our pre-marital counseling, I am not sure we would be together today, but anyway.) Therefore I was rather shocked by what I found when I came home tonight after taking all four children to Galveston all by myself for the first time ever. All four. By myself. First time. Ever.

Yes, I do feel like I deserve a ribbon or an add-a-bead or something.

Or maybe - maybe just some leftover baked Walker specialty salt-cayenne-curry seasoned French fries, with a very sweet and very greasy (even though they aren't as fattening) note attached.



And then later when he got home, he said, "Don't we have a Design Star on the DVR that we need to watch?"

Oh, no, you can't have him. I'm never letting him go.

1 Peter 1:18-19

My daughter has an incident happen in public, an embarrassing incident. Extremely embarrassing. I am not present when it happens but my husband fills me in. And, he adds, when it happened, Shepherd pointed at her, and told other kids, look at what my sister did.

My chest closes in on me as I whip around to confront him. You did that? I accuse. I yell. That's awful. That's the meanest thing you have ever done! She is your baby sister. Your job is to protect your baby sister! My heart is broken, Shepherd, it is broken!

His face crumples at my rebuke, but mostly he looks confused.

I am seven, maybe eight years old. We're down the street at the neighbors' house, the neighbors with the teenage girl and the little stepbrother. I am in a tree in their front yard. The stepbrother - the bratty, stupid stepbrother - is whipping my bare legs with a switch. He won't stop.

When I try to climb higher, he just whips harder. The switch stings. Teenage sister and her friends watch, and laugh, and encourage him.

My brother is there. My big brother, whom I adore, but who hasn't been wanting to play with me lately. My big brother who thinks teenage girl and her friends are cool. He won't look at me. I keep staring at him from the tree, desperate, waiting for his eyes to meet mine, waiting for him to rescue me.

He looks at the ground and pretends he's not there, that I'm not here. The big kids laugh and cheer. The switch stings my legs. And he won't look at me.

I jump down from the tree and run as fast as I can past the four houses between there and my own, enter my mother's kitchen, find the Tupperware full of cookies, and eat them between my sobs.

He has broken my heart.

The chasm grows wider and wider. There are other incidents. There are other heartbreaks.

I am nineteen, maybe twenty years old, home from college, in my mother's kitchen. I make fajitas, really good fajitas, that take a long time to cook. I make myself a plate. He comes and heaps all of the fajitas on his plate. Jay! I shout. Don't eat all of them! I want more! Mom hasn't even had any, that's so rude! Put some back!

Fine, ----! he yells, and he throws the plate of fajitas - all the fajitas that I worked on for a long time - into the sink. Here's your ---- fajitas!!

I stand at the sink. I am shaking with rage. My eyes look at him, at the ruined fajitas, at the knife in the sink that I used to cut the steak. In one very long millisecond, I imagine myself grabbing the knife, and plunging it into his heart.

The way he plunged the knife into mine when I was in that tree, all those years ago, at teenage girl's house.

I want to do it. With all that I am, I want to do it. But I have reasons not to. Because it is wrong? No. Because he is my brother? No. Because of my mom? No.

I think, I am not going to jail over him. I turn and walk out of my mother's kitchen.

My heart is wicked, my heart is dark. My heart is pragmatic.

The night of my daughter's incident, I reflect on all this, on so much heartache. My chest closes in. I pray that my son and his sister, who adores him, will remain close. That he will protect her. That she will never know the feeling of being abandoned by her brother - or her father.

I think of Christ, on a tree, mocked, hurting, heartbroken, abandoned by his brothers and his Father.

She is not you, He whispers. And Shepherd is not him. And their father is not your father. And this family is not that family. And then is not now.

All things are new. Including my heart.

I am quieted as a word enters my mind: redemption.

Mom to Mom - Kids and The Money Thang

So, the question for the day is, how do you handle paying your kids? Do you give a weekly allowance that is separate from chores, or do you do a pay-as-they-earn system? Or a little of both?

How much allowance/salary do you give them?

How do you teach them about tithing and saving? And taxes? (I heard Dave Ramsey says make 'em pay taxes.)

Hit me mommas.

Future Mom to Mom topics:
Aug 17: What to say and not say to a friend who is battling infertility
September: Experiences with post-partum depression

Friday Faves

Thanks for playing the Friday Favorite Perfume, y'all! That was fun and really made me want to go out and spend a lot of money on chemicals!

I have been thinking about the Friday Faves and suddenly, my brain started exploding with ideas. I praise you, Lord, for revealing your glory in creating caffeine.

I am gonna go ahead and list them all so you can have them in the back of your mind. Ya ready? If you think of more, please let me know!

August 14: Favorite websites (not blogs)
August 21: Favorite music in your car right now
August 28: Favorite room in your home
Sept 4: Favorite songs you sing to your kids (good one Jennifer)
Sept 11: Favorite old hymn and favorite modern hymn/praise song
Sept 18: Favorite shoes you own and favorite shoes you wished you owned
Sept 25: Favorite grownup restaurant
Oct 2: Favorite makeup/beauty product
Oct 9: Favorite TV shows
Oct 16: Favorite kids' TV shows
Oct 23: Favorite online store/etsy shop
Oct 30: Favorite candy!
Nov 6: Favorite kids' toys
Nov 13: Favorite Thanksgiving recipe
Nov 20: Favorite recipe for leftover turkey and/or crockpot recipe
Dec 4: Favorite Christmas tradition
Dec 11: Favorite Christmas carol
Dec 18: Favorite gift you ever gave someone else

Saturday link love

Remember when Lisa and I did the bookstudy for Piper's Spectacular Sins? Guess what - you can download the whole book here for free. It's a must read for every Christian who wonders why there's evil in the world.

It's that time of year again, who are your picks?

They say children are a blessing

I want my husband to do this

Scawy scawy mobsters

And, wow. Just, wow. Creepiest Vintage Ads of All Time

Because it wouldn't be Naptime without a youtube link: oh, what a blessing to be living in the age of plastics!

FRIDAY FAVES - Perfume

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(Y'all, sorry this is going up a bit late. Someone kept me up ALL NIGHT LONG Wednesday night so my mommy mojo was way off yesterday. But praise the Lord and pass the Tylenol PM, I got a good night's sleep last night. It is amazing what sleep can do for mom skilz!!)

Welcome to the first edition of Friday Faves!!

Write a post on your favorite perfume, and link up here below. That way other people can pop over to your blog. Be sure and link up to the specific post's url, not your blog's url. To put the button on your blog, copy the code above.

Okay. So here are mine!

I have to say that, I go back and forth on the whole perfume thing. I am trying to pare down our use of chemicals, so depending on what I have read recently, I might be boycotting perfume. But then a couple weeks later I am back on board - because I am a smell girl, after all.

So when I am in the latter phase, these are my faves.



I admit it. I love Lauren. I have been wearing it since 1982 and it still is my favorite. But I have moved on to this


because Safari is like Lauren for grownups.

All the Ralph Lauren perfumes have serious Staying Power. I have a horrible affliction that has caused me much pain in my life: my skin does not like to retain perfume. Boo. Aside from Ralph Lauren and Estee Lauder, very few stick.

But if I could fine my favorite green monogrammed sweater that I wore with a turtleneck underneath it with Jordasche jeans and Sperry topsiders, it would still smell like Lauren.

Alas, I am out of both. Hint, hint.

Currently, I am wearing these:



Kenneth Cole: I found this someplace random, like Marshall's, and I LOVE it. Staying Power of 10, and I get tons of compliments.

Body Shop perfume oils: this one is Oceanus. I wore this on my honeymoon, so every time I smell it, I instantly feel happy and in love and skinny enough to wear a bikini.

Bath and Body Works Sensual Amber: yum-my. In the same genre as Lauren, but way cheaper. Much more wintry than summery.

Banana Republic Malachite: I bought this one to be my summer scent. It smells great, but Staying Power? Pfffft.

Okay, your turn! And also - leave me some comments with future Friday Faves ideas!

And so it begins

And when I found him, he was humming, A whole new world....a new fantastic point of view...



And for what treasure did he climb Mt. Cabinet? A bottle of Fiber Source. My baby, he likes to keep regular.

Ironically, look what Moriah posted today before she came here! Too funny!

Reality shows

Sunday I was walking out of church and passed a friend of mine. I smiled at her, but she didn't acknowledge me. So I reached out and patted her arm, and said, "Hey, Jen!" She glanced my way, gave me a very quick half smile, and hurried away.

I froze. My mind went off in all directions. Did she just snub me? A question which is always followed by this one: Is she mad at me? My stomach sank. Oh no, what did I do? I tried to imagine any wrong I might have committed against her, and came up blank. I thought we were friends. Does she not like me anymore? Unlikely, she liked me fine last week. Is she just rude?

All these questions and emotions filtered through my brain in approximately 1.5 seconds as my inner seventh grader reared her insecure little head.

Then I stopped the wild thoughts and remembered: I know her. She is not rude or vindictive. Neither is she passive-aggressive. Even if she were upset with me, she would not handle it that manner, she is too spiritually mature for that. She is a sweet, friendly, godly woman, a servant to the church - and therefore a servant to me.

If it seemed like she was angry at me, or didn't like me, or was just an utter jerk, then my perception was skewed. Because based on what I know to be true about her character, that's just not who she is. Sure enough, I saw her later, and she acted completely normal.

I'd completely misread the situation.

Some of us are going through some serious stuff in our lives right now. Cancer. Infertility. Troubled marriages. Children with diseases so complicated that doctors can't even give a proper diagnoses. Many, many of our friends have lost their jobs - I received an email today about another dear friend whose husband was laid off.

When the bad news comes, when the stress is so overwhelming that we can't take a deep breath, when the pain cuts so deep that our souls ache and the situation seems so hopeless, those same insecurities that I had regarding Jen appear regarding our heavenly Father. We look up at the sky with confused, stunned looks on our faces, and ask, Why is God treating me like this?

Has he forgotten me? Is He mad at me? What did I do? A good God couldn't allow something so bad to happen! I thought God was my friend! Friends don't treat each other this way!

And during those times it is so important to remember just Who we're talking about here.

All the signs pointed to my friend acting unkindly to me. But I was dead wrong. Because she's just not like that.

When all the signs point to God acting unkindly towards me, then I have to remind myself that no matter what, I am dead wrong.

Because God is just not like that.

As surely as in the midst of my confusion I had to remind myself of who just Jen is, we have to remind ourselves of just who God is. And we have to go back to the place where he reveals himself to us - in his Word and in his Son. Because as far as our perceptions are concerned? Our assumptions? Our idea of the truth? The way that we feel deep in our hearts that God is? Scripture answers:

The heart is more deceitful than anything else
and desperately sick—who can understand it?
Jeremiah 17:9

Desperately sick. Clueless. Prone to misinterpretation and mistake. In fact, the verse says, frequently flat out incapable of discerning the truth.

Many times, perception=deception. Seeing is deceiving.

We must learn to disregard our feelings and consult the Truth. When the road is dark, it is the only instrument that will enlighten our path.

We cry out, Has God forgotten me?

And God cries back:

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast
and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
Isaiah 49:15

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Matthew 28:20b

If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Psalm 139:9-10

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18

We cry out, Is He mad at me? What did I do?

And God cries back:

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus
Romans 8:1

"Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,"
says the LORD, who has compassion on you.
Isaiah 54:10

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
John 16:33

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5:1

We cry out, A good God wouldn't allow something so bad to happen!

And God cries back:

He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.
Deut. 32:4

You whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth. Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:3b-4

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39

Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

We cry out, I thought God was my friend! Friends don't treat each other this way!

And God cries back:

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:13

I have called you friends,
for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you;
he will never let the righteous fall.
Psalm 55:22

We have a choice to make.
Will we trust our heart, our clueless, deceitful, windblown, desperately sick heart?

Or will we trust that God is who He says He is, the lover of our aching soul? The One whose love endures forever, no matter what evil the enemy, the ruler of this crazy world, may send our way?

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for
and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1

Shammed

A while back, I posted about why my husband is not allowed to go to the grocery store unchaperoned.

But last week we had a computery-notebook adapter or some such something or other issue. I tried to resolve it myself and ended up getting the wrong thing, because just as Bodily Sustenance, Medicating Any Ailment Real or Imagined, and What Shoes Match What Outfit are my areas of expertise, Computery Thingy Situations are his. So off he was sent to the WalMarts to resolve our techinical difficulties.

He returned with the required hardware, and this.


And although this will earn him at least a six month expulsion from any place with a cash register because hello? Thirty dollars?? I must admit, when it comes to the swimming pool created on my bathroom floor each night by four dirty splashing kids, the ShamWows are indeed shamtastic.

And the winner is:

The winner of the blog makeover by Jackie is:

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

41

Timestamp: 2009-08-04 02:32:13 UTC

Autumn at The Canny Family! Congrats!


But there is good news for the 73 of you who did not win - Jackie is offering $10 off her Package Number 3 to anyone who orders between now and next Monday. So go ahead and take advantage of a discount on her already super prices!

Fabulous bloggy ideas

I have two announcements.

(That sounded very serious, it's really not.)

I have two ideas for coming up Mom to Moms (where we select a question, and do Mr. Linky that connects to your blog where you post your answers). Yesterday my friend Renee and I were discussing how our almost six year olds were totally money obsessed and it is time to start the whole allowance thing up, but there are lots of ways you can do it. You can just give them a straight allowance, or you can pay-as-you-go with chores. Both have pros and cons. So we want to hear from the ahem, older moms. :) How do you do the money thang with your kids? I will post this one on Monday, August 10.

The other one coming up is: what do you say - and not say - to a friend who is dealing with infertility? We'll do that one the next Monday, August 17.

Announcement 2:
I have always sorta wanted to do a regular blog carnival, because it is a great way to get to know people and learn stuff. However, Someone assured me that they are a whole lot more work than you would ever expect. So I want to do a totally lazy easy peasy Mickey Mouse blog carnival. (Same Someone may be laughing at me right now.)

Last night I figured out what I could do!!

Starting on Friday, I want to do "Friday Favorites". Here's the good part - all you have to do is take a picture. If you want to talk, talk, but a picture will suffice. Yea! Easy!

This coming Friday will be Show us your FAVORITE PERFUME. Tell me your ideas for future favorites, okay?

See? Easy. Maybe Jackie will make me a cute little button for it.
And speaking of Jackie, I will come back later and do the winner after the kids are down.

Eva Rose wanted to blog a little:

evarose -melissa shep
mom
maggie
ike
daddy
brhfhhfjgjjfh erbhhcgvdjhgiufogrjhgffbrghggyrbhrhyghryhjhyhy4uurj4y4

That last line was a deep and brilliant insight, I hope you got that.

Happy Monday!

When bloggers breed

Yesterday we had a little playdate at Chez Naptime.

My very dear BFF Beth came with her three boys, and my brand new friend, like really we met on my driveway, Ashley, who I can already tell is going to be a BFF because, y'all, we bonded.

Here are the combined offspring (sans my Maggie, who is currently being spoiled rotten at her Mimi's)


Eva Rose was so psyched to have a playdate that actually involved girls. She, Lily and Maggie clicked instantly because Lily and Maggie had on a little top that Eva Rose has, and of course had to change into. It's from this exclusive little store we all shop at called Tar-jay Boutique.

Like minded fashionistas=instant buddies.

The mommies were not dressed alike so we bonded over birth stories.

Labor/adoption=instant buddies.


And in the plastic box Shep is holding? About thirty snails. It never ends, y'all.

The baby boy on the right is Sam, whom you last saw here when he was itty bitty new. Look how big he is? And he is adorable. Baby Cash and I also fell in love. If you saw that baby's fat rolly thighs - oh, it made my ovaries quiver.

How much do I love getting to meet other bloggers??

On that note, a few of us are planning to plan (ie, procrastinating) a Houston Bloggy Meetup soon. Whoo hoo! Let's get summer over and school started first so we can focus Ethel focus.

But if you have any ideas for a good place to do it, please leave it in the comments, because we are having a brain freeze on that spe-ticular logistical issue.