More mad ravings...

First of all let me say that my fear of blogging has been realized. I was afraid that once I started it would be difficult to find the time to blog regularly. Guess what? I was right. Well, between finding the time and trying not to bore people to death, I have been slow at entering more posts. So, despite the fact that I may bore you to death (hey, you can always hit the exit button and go read someone more interesting...), here I go again.
Tyler turns eight today. I say "turns eight" because he was actually born at 8:27 AM and it is only 7:58 right now. It's hard to believe how much our children have grown! Next month Courtney is actually 16 years old! I wonder about this whole parenting thing... Am I doing a good job? How do (or will) I know? Will I be able to instill the right values in my children while balancing my love for them? Will they go away with a knowledge of God as a loving Father or a mean disciplinarian? Before this (this may come as a surprise to you) I had never been a parent before. My younger sisters and brother have argued that I raised them but I wasn't their mom. There's something different about raising your own children. I have to confess (maybe I'll be lucky enough that no one will tell my children this), being a parent is scary! I tell myself that these are God's children and I'm just taking care of them for a while. How do I stand before an all powerful God and tell Him that I'm sorry for the many times that I've messed up? Yet I mess up EVERY day!
When my children do something that I don't like and they come to me and tell me that they are sorry that they messed up, I still love them. How much more love does God have for me? Yet they aren't messing up other people's lives. I guess the only thing I can do (and I do do this) is to pray that God will forgive me and that He will guard their hearts from my mistakes and He will protect them despite the harm I cause. I tell them that I am human and that I will fail them but that God will always be there and will never fail them! And I hope it sticks (boy do I hope it sticks!)

Now I have to figure out this whole "Tag" thing. Thanks to my good friend Carla, I've been tagged! So last week when I found out I had been tagged, I copied and pasted (although obviously not correctly) the tag into my posting space. Then I answered everything and tried to post. HA! It got lost somewhere in cyberspace never to return! UGH!! So despite my awesome answers (you'll have to take my word for it), it is no more. Now my second (or is this the third?) attempt:


What is.....
1. Your favorite Holiday Movie? Muppet's Christmas Carol

2. The best Christmas present you ever received? Wow! What a question. I have been richly blest since Keith has entered my life so I couldn't know where to begin. Do I pick the Christmas before Courtney because I anticipated being a new mom and having a child the next year to share Christmas with? Or do I pick that next year when we got to celebrate Christmas through her eyes? Do I pick the following year when Keith surprised me (BIG time) with a ring that I wanted but knew we couldn't afford that he had been secretly paying on for months? Or was it the year that Bailey kicked him in the back on Christmas morning (the first time he felt her kick!)? Or maybe it was the year Tyler was born and we added our last little elf to the bunch. How in the world do I narrow it down?

3. Your favorite Santa memory? I think my favorite has to be last year (or the year before) when Keith made a collage of photos of the children with Santa (the real Santa - at the mall here in BG) and we framed the collage and took it to Santa. The children were so excited to be able to give him something for Christmas! It was fun to see their faces as he accepted the gift and gave them all hugs! He still remembers their names and little things about them. He is an incredible man (er, elf)!

Do you prefer...

4. Colored or white lights? That depends on my mood. White are beautiful but when I'm in a childlike mood, the colors are fun!

5. Artificial or real tree? Artificial. I can put it up sooner and I don't stay sick the entire season from allergies.

6. Prelit or stringing your own lights? Pre-lit. Although I think I miss the tangled mess of lights and trying to figure out which one bulb isn't working that has the entire strand blacked out and watching Keith circle the tree like a shark about to converge on it's meal, and the frustration of hiding the wires in the tree but having the lights show... definately pre-lit! LOL

Do you...

7. Bake anything special for the holidays? When I was growing up my mom had a special tradition of making Sugar cookies - millions of them! I wanted to carry on that tradition but I finally gave up. It was usually me in the kitchen with whichever children I could wrangle into "helping" and there weren't the photos or the enjoyment I remembered so I quit. Now I try to make something for people but it varies from year to year.

8. Put your tree up before Thanksgiving? After Thanksgiving. I think Thanksgiving is the most overlooked holiday of the year. I wish there were more focus on it but I guess it can't compete in the commercialized world we live in because you don't have to buy a thing to be thankful!

What is your...

9. Favorite Christmas food? Has to be Strawberry-pretzel jello salad.

10. Favorite festive place to go? To bed with Keith. Oh! Did you mean public place? Oops. I do enjoy it when we (whole family) go to the Opryland hotel just to see the lights.

11. Favorite Christmas Carol? Mary's Song, Amy Grant

12. Favorite Christmas Album? Amy Grant's "Home For Christmas"

Now to uphold Carla's tradition, I hereby tag Ashley and Dana. Have fun you two...

I've been on here long enough now that Tyler is offically eight years old now. I have to go wrap presents, see some clients,go eat lunch with Tyler and Bailey, order a high school ring (not mine) then make cookies for the school program tonight and pick children up from school. I'm worn out thinking about all that needs to be done! Gotta run. I will try to post sooner next time! Hopefully before Christmas but if not,I pray that this year brings you memories to sustain you throughout the year! God bless!