Monday, March 28, 2011

Brownie Sprites Weekend

This weekend I had the pleasure of going "camping" with 8 nine year olds and one other Girl Scout leader.  I put the quote marks around camping because we stayed at an actual Girl Scout Camp, in a cabin with bunks, a flush toilet and shower.  When Terry goes Father/Daughter camping each Fall with Sophie, they tent camp.  They do have bathhouses, but they are a distance away.  So mostly they use the port a potties. Not me. Just having to climb to the top bunk is rustic enough by my standards.


                                   You can see how shy and demure our troop is......
  Making no sew fleece pillows.  Loved this craft, will do it for Emily when she gets a bit older. 
Sophie and Natalie canoeing.  I was amazed at how confident they were on the water.  Sheila and I brought our camp chairs and got a bit of reading in between the raindrops while they were on the water.  They had counselors and a lifeguard out in canoes with them, certainly didn't need us out there as well.
 

                        Waiting to put on their skit at the Saturday night talent show. 


I really enjoyed being with the troop and seeing how mature they have become. This is their 3rd year as Brownies and when we saw some first year troops in the dining hall,we could really tell how far our girls have come. I am so thankful for the influence of Girl Scouts in Sophie's life. It's still the same good, clean fun that it was when I was growing up. She will go to this same camp for a two night session this summer. I still have fond memories of my summer GS camp time, I hope the same for her.   

Saturday, March 12, 2011

PW!!! MM!!!!

Last night was a bit of a departure for me...Sylvia and I attended a book signing at Border's in Buckhead.  What book, you ask?  Why it was Black Heels to Tractor Wheels, by none other than Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman.  I have been following her blog for a few years now, and have made many of her recipes.  She is a an awesome cook, wonderful writer, and just all around funny person.  The kind of person that makes you think, "Wow, I could be friends with her...if only she didn't live in the middle of Oklahoma."  Meeting her only confirmed that feeling, she was warm and down to earth and spent about 5 minutes talking to me and Sylvia....and all the other hundreds of mostly women who had waited for their chance to meet her.  She posed for a few pictures as well.  I did not bring my camera, didn't want to seem like a dork.  (Note to self: next time bring a camera so you don't have to ask your new best friend Emily who stood behind you for 2 hours in line to take a picture on your phone.)  She joked with us about not being puffy from the traveling, how her boys enjoyed the hotel pool, how MM would love to come to dinner with us and eat a steak.  She never seemed rushed, even though she had been signing books for 2 hours by the time we got to her, and had at least 3 more hours to go.


And we also got to meet MM.  Who is MM?  That would be Marlboro Man, aka Ladd Drummond, her husband and consummate cowboy.  Here he is, and may I note that when I texted this photo to my sister Mary, she asked for one taken a bit lower, and from the other side...if you know what I mean.  He does know how to wear his Wranglers and as Sylvia pointed out, "He is the real deal honey, I'm from Texas and I can tell you that is a true cowboy!"  Love Sylvia, she always tells it like it is.   

You can just see the belt buckle of their oldest son in the background, and to the right of MM their younger son.  Two very sweet, well behaved boys who read books and answered any questions people asked of them.  I didn't engage them at all, that felt kind of weird to me.  But I did try and sneak a picture of them, plus give Mary the view she was looking for:

And of course he signed our books as well, and posed with us, such a nice guy.



 And here we are with Ree, again not the best shot, but it was on my phone.

A fun night, capped off by dinner at The Buckhead Diner, which I had never been to before.  Oh my...very good.  Had to take a shot of their homemade chips with homemade blue cheese dressing, I am not ashamed to say we licked this plate clean!

Sophie saw this picture and asked, "Oh man Mom, did you have funnel cake without me??"  Ummm, no!

So go ahead and check out The Pioneer Woman, you will not be disappointed.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Facebook-Friend or Foe?

I'm ashamed to say that it's been so long since I have updated my blog that I had to look up the password.  Pathetic!  How did it come to this, I used to love blogging.  I think there are a few reasons why it's not on my priority list anymore.  When my blog started, my kids were little.  And by little I mean Sophie was 4 and Michael and Emily were 5 ms old.  Sophie went to preschool, the babies napped, and I wrote.  It was a sure way to keep my sanity in those incredibly insane days. 

My days are still pretty busy, but not in the same way.  Now they are busy with two preschoolers and a 3rd grader.  That means play dates, gymnastics, PSR, Brownies, soccer, IEP meetings, media center duty, field trip chaperone.  Throw in the occasional case of strep throat, the beginnings of orthodontia, and you have one mother who is not really home as often as she would like to be.

But I do think the biggest detriment to my blogging has been Facebook.  Not Facebook itself, but rather, my usage of Facebook.  Because let's face it (no pun intended), if I can post 25 words that elicit 10 comments, as opposed to putting together a blog post complete with captioned pictures that might elicit one comment....ummmm, which do you think I am going to do??  I used to get lots of comments on my blog, but that was before FB.  Of course, I used to check many blogs on a daily basis, that was also before FB.  Now I can easily keep up with these same folks all in one place. 

But the point of blogging is not to see how many people think you are brilliant and want to comment.  My original reason for blogging was to pass on information about my two premature babies in a time saving way.  It grew from there as our family underwent some changes, and blogging became a refuge for me.  Still a way to connect, but also a way to have something concrete, something that was all mine and that made sense.  Life is so much better now, but does that mean that I should give up blogging?  I don't think so, because it still can mean something to me.  And maybe that's what I am attempting to figure out.  Yes, I know I will still share about the kids and post pictures of them.  But I am also hoping to see what else comes of blogging.  Not quite sure what direction I am heading in, but I feel in time that answer will come.

I posted on FB yesterday that I was giving it up for Lent, which began today.  And so far, so good.  I even turned off the email notifications, so I really have no idea what is happening in the FB world.  I am sure my East Cobb peeps are all abuzz over the school board's latest decision to table any further discussion about the 2011-2012 calendar.  Who knows what else I have missed, but I do know that anything really important I will hear about, in person, from people that I actually know in real life.  I am not dissing FB, but it can give you a false sense of intimacy.  When I walk into preschool at 9:30 am, I already know what my friends there have had for breakfast, what trouble their kids have gotten into, or what their schedule for the day is, because I have already checked FB at least once.   Because of this, our conversations are  much shorter, or even non existent.   Is that a bad thing?  Maybe not considering many of them are busy parents like me, and a few of them are teachers as well, trying to corral their own classes.  FB has it's place, but I was starting to use it IN place of real life encounters, and that doesn't sit well with me.

At Mass tonight, Fr. Henry encouraged us to give up something for Lent that has become a distraction to our real purpose for being here.  Something that has been keeping us from a closer relationship with God.  He talked about how we are not to become too attached to what we have in this world, that as humans our time on Earth is finite, and our main concern should be what will happen to our soul when our time here is over.   I do think that for me, FB has become a major distraction.  I check it many times a day, and once the kids are in bed, I can be on it for an hour without even realizing it.  What better things could I do with that time?  My mind becomes so cluttered with all the posts that I read, I find myself thinking about them during the day, wondering who has commented, what they said, etc.  When your child does something funny, and the first thought that pops into your head is "Wow, that would make a really funny post." .....I think you might have a problem.  Or even worse, when something happens in the life of your 9 yr old and she says to you, "But don't put that on FB Mom!"...you may have a problem.  Embarrassing, but true. 

I am hopeful that by removing this distraction for awhile, I will become focused on more important things.  Will I miss it??  I already do, but today was a much calmer day for me, and I didn't feel as scattered as I normally do.  This morning I did my WII training for 35 minutes, then ran/walked for 30 minutes on the treadmill. I still had time to shower and do a couple loads of laundry before going back to school for pick up.  Any other day I would have come home from taking the kids to school and would have logged on before starting any other project.  It really was freeing to just walk right by the computer.

And a note for my mil Pam.....I think the funniest thing Michael said today was during Mass, after we received Communion.  "How come you get to eat in church and I don't? "  The two older ladies sitting next do us thought that was darn funny.