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Meet Amy
I have struggled with the answer when asked, "What do you do?" and it isn't work-related. Ultimately, we settled on that I find things and untangle things. But I also read (a lot), pretend to wake surf, and watch Hallmark films.
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I work full-time. I’m often asked, how we manage to do all that we can. Well, I think the biggest thing we do is “seize the day” – every day.
Monday was not the ideal day to take the boat out. The weather was cold and windy. It was a holiday and the lake was sure to be crowded – despite the weather. But, when we asked the girls what they wanted to do for the holiday, they both said “go boating”. I did not grow up as a boater. It was never something that I thought I would enjoy. But, I have learned that it is great family time. The girls behave. They smile the whole time (unless they almost get dunked on the tube). Both of them get along with one another and I can’t think of a time we’ve had to separate them – on the boat. So, we seized the very cold day and enjoyed a few hours on the choppy and green lake.
When our lives are over and we are looking back at the memories that we get to take with us, I want the memories to be fun, happy and playful. I don’t want them to be memories of cleaning and working in the yard every day off mom and dad both have. That may mean that my closet has a pile a foot high of clean and worn clothes. It may mean that there are a few weeds in our flower beds. I may have to scramble to do laundry so that everyone has underwear. But those are sacrifices I am willing to make for memories of fun and games.
The girls had a blast with their friends and no one got too cold. I’m sure they won’t remember the specifics of the day, but they will remember they that their friend, an 8 year old boy, dove into the freezing water to fetch a Twinkie that Scott had tossed to the girls on the tube. They will also remember the one time both moms got on the tube and froze their fannies off.
I know seizing the day isn’t the only thing we do to fit it all in, but it does help explain why we try to find fun things to do as often as possible.
For more Wordful Wednesdays, stop over at Angie’s Seven Clown Circus.
I always hear mom’s complaining about their kids playing video games. I’ve never understood the “motherly” distaste for these games. Of course I understand that some kids and husbands only want to play video games and they “forget” to have conversations or they “forget” to play outside or they “forget” to do their homework. But there is a wonderful place in our life for video games.
I’m not a gamer but I do have a gamer tag. It is “aimichka.” My husband and both of my girls also have gamer tags. We signed them up early so that no one else would have their tag. For our wedding, we returned everything that was a duplicate and bought an XBox with the money. When I was taken off bedrest, one of the first errands I went on was to locate an XBOX 360 days after the release. And my second errand was to go and pick one up for a friend.
Here are the reasons that I love video games…
- When it is cold outside, the 4 of us can play RockBand and laugh together, sing together and learn how to watch the screen and make our fingers, or drumsticks/foot translate what the colors on the screen want them to do.
- Scott almost always beats the girls at whatever game they are playing and they get to learn that you don’t always win and it is more about the time playing – not who wins.
- Sometimes Jade beats Scott and this helps him remember it isn’t always about winning and more about the journey.
- The way many surgeries are preformed now, a good question to ask your doctor is if he was a gamer. According to something I read years ago, doctors who play video games are more agile with their hands and have better hand eye coordination. ESPECIALLY on the procedures when they are looking at a screen instead of the patients actual insides.
- Some video games help children with their problem solving skills. They have to determine how to get up to a certain place in the game and how to rescue whatever needs to be rescued.
Also, we have had some fantastic game nights. We have friends all over the country that all play the same game. We’ll pick a night and connect via XBOX Live and play for hours. Sometimes there were just a few of us and other nights there were as many as 10 playing together. This was a great way for us to connect with our friends from all over the country. We actually haven’t played recently and I really miss it. But, it is an activity we typically reserve for winter when the days end earlier and the nights are colder.
Oh sure, you have to be careful with the games you allow your kids to play. Sometimes you have to give them a time limit so that they don’t waste the whole day staring at a screen. Of course you can’t let them play every day (it is addictive) and you can’t let it interfere with their school work or other activities. But, for our family, video games are great.
I’m a mom and I love video games.
What is your take on video games?
Although I have been blogging for 3 years over at Singing and Spinning, I have only been doing this site since the first part of March. I don’t get thousands of hits a day or even a week. But I love blogging. It is important to me to share how I am trying to balance life as a mom to two little girls, a wife to an amazing (and hot) husband, a Sunday School teacher, and a full-time employee with the desire to one day be able to do my own thing. Because I feel like sharing my successes and my trials with the world might be able to help someone, I decided I should attend the Casual Bloggers Conference.
I went wanting to meet some of the amazing women that I have admired from a distance. Some of these women for a short time and others for quite a long season.
My goal was to learn as much as possible about the workings of SEO and the ways to grow my little blog to something bigger.
The main thing I learned was that I am REALLY REALLY SHY when I need to be putting myself out there for me. I am not a shy person. I’ve been in sales my whole career. Being a friendly, outgoing booth babe was something that came naturally for me. Standing up in front of a room full of US Attorneys never made me nervous. Presenting to hundreds of people at a Sales Conference doesn’t make me shake.
Yet this weekend showed me that I am just as shy as I was in High School. Just as scared that people will meet me and think that I talk funny, I have gunk in my eye, I talk a lot, I don’t talk enough, I somehow put them off or they are too cool for me to be friends with. So, I didn’t meet as many people as I had hoped. I shied away from going to the concert and being a wall flower. I brought my own lunch so I wouldn’t have to worry about going any where (luckily on Friday, Mel was there and she picked lunch up for me).
My CBC Recap of the conference? Well…
I still don’t understand SEO as well as I would like, but I’m bound and determined to figure it out and what I did learn from Sarah will most definitely give me a better understanding of what I will learn.
There is a list of those amazing women that I did get to meet. Some of them I met for only a brief moment when we exchanged cards or I sat in their classes and can pretend like I met them. And then there were some that I got to visit with, dine with, sit with and hug. (Camille, Lolli, Brandi, Kim, Jenny and Loralee).
Twitter suddenly became something that I now understand – at least better than I did when I walked through the doors on Friday morning. Not only do I understand it a bit better but I found it to be fun and enlightening. Anytime I missed something a speaker said, I could check out the tweets to see if someone else at the conference thought it was cool enough to share.
Matt Townsend is a very very funny man and if I had it in me, I’d love to read his book and have Scott read it with me. But, there are so many things in my life that come before reading a self help book. And maybe that is a priority that I might need to change, but for now, I just don’t have the time to read it.
Jessica Bern made me laugh and wish I were funny. I’m just not. So instead, I’ll just be me and cross my fingers that people like me.
I felt overwhelmed by Blog Frog and wonder how on earth a mom that works full time is supposed to manage that community, twitter and a facebook page. Oh, and of course read Matt Townsend’s book and read Gorgeously Green. Plus keep up with the blogs of the women that I did meet. Sigh.
After the closing keynotes, I decided that CJane is really worth reading. I also think I might want to become a bit more green after listening to Gorgeously Green speak.
Oh, and I didn’t even take very many pictures! How silly is that. I had my camera on me the whole time, I just didn’t take it out except a few times on Saturday. So, here’s one photo as proof that I did indeed go and rub shoulders with some powerful and beautiful bloggers.
photo courtesy of Mel
Old Testament- Lesson 19
Judges 2; 4; 6–7; 13–16
Remember how the people of Israel kept forgetting the AMAZING things the Lord did for them while they were wandering through the wilderness? Remember how the Lord made them wander for 40 years in hopes that they would remember? Well, based on the children of Israel, they didn’t ever really remember.
The children of Israel fell into apostasy repeatedly. They not only forgot but strayed. Of course there were some that were strong and kept the faith.
Keeping the faith requires work. It requires support. It requires reminders.
There are 4 resources to help us from following in the path of the children of Israel.
Righteous Parents
Righteous Friends
Faith in God
Covenants
As a child, parent, friend and believer in God who has made covenants, I hope I can provide the resources necessary to those I am responsible for as well as find the support from those around me.
Righteous Parents:
Parenting is so much more than raising children in a safe and happy environment. As a working mom, I struggle with having someone else “care for” my children while I am at work. I have to remind myself that they are in no way being parented by their caregiver- because parenting is so much more. While I am at work, the girls are kept safe. They are fed. There is entertainment. That is not parenting.
Parents provide the unconditional love that no one else can. As parents we teach our children about values, morals, faith, priorities, beliefs, trials, temptations, overcoming difficulties, relationships and so much more. What a parent is responsible for teaching their child is what will mold that child into a strong adult.
I think it is easy to get stuck in the “care-giver” role even as a parent. Sometimes we get stuck in the teacher role as well and focus on reading and arithmetic. Which both roles are crucial to a child’s success in life. But neither of those roles will keep our children from falling into the cycle of apostasy.
Righteous Friends: (the above picture shows some guys that probably don’t fit into that category – unless my goal is to become a TAPOUT babe (which is not going to get a link because it doesn’t really add to this post)).
Who our children pick as friends will determine what they are surrounded by. The language that is used with their friends will alter the way our children speak. If their friends respect adults and authority, it is more likely that our children will as well. Good friends are crucial to staying on the path to righteousness and happiness.
Even as an adult, who my friends are determines what type of person I am. For example, if I am choosing to surround myself with friends that throw the f-word around freely, I notice that I tend to cuss more frequently. If my friends are downers, I’m more likely to get in a rut. The flip side of that is also true. When I am surrounding myself with friends that are positive and full of energy, it rubs off on me and I tend to be much happier too.
If we want our children to be strong in what they are raised to believe, we need to help them find friends that bring out the best in them.
Faith in God:
Having served a mission in the former Soviet Union, not long after the fall of the war, I really learned to understand what it means to NOT have a faith in God. I saw how forgetting and being told there is no God can tear down the light from within each of us. I saw how it can make you bitter and angry. On the flip side, I also so that spark of light grow when someone knelt in prayer and asked if there really is a God to hear their prayer.
I am not saying that everyone needs to have a cookie cutter believe in God. Every single one of us needs to find and build our own personal faith. We have to help our children find that faith for themselves as well. But that faith in God requires work on our part to keep alive. if we neglect our faith, that light I spoke of will dim and eventually go away.
Covenants:
As a member of my church, I have entered into sacred covenants. As a wife, I have also entered into sacred covenants. These covenants serve as reminders of what I need to work on. Each of us need to look at our covenants and how they can help us and our children be strong and not fall into the cycle of Apostasy that the children of Israel did.
As much as these four topics can prepare our children to make the right choices, and as much as they may help us be prepared to make choices, in the end we do have the right to choose. We have the right to pick friends that may make the other choice look more appealing. God has given us a choice, and we can only prepare so much.
When you think about what you want for your children, what are you doing to help them make the right choices?
This week I am submitting my flashback pictures as part of parenting for dummies Old School Photo Friday.
It has been 20 years since I graduated from high school. It seems crazy that I am that old. Oh well, here are two photos that totally date me…
I’m the one on the top row in the red turtleneck sweater.
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