Fixing the Mismatched Socks Problem for Mommies Everywhere!

"I  HAVE A DREAM! That one day, all socks will have pairs, the all tootsies will stay warm, and all mommies will keep their sanity!" *cough* (Thanks for letting me borrow that one a bit, Mr. King!)

 I  was just talking about the stress and anxiety of mismatched socks with a friend, and a lightbulb struck and I said.. "BLOG!" so here we are.

I'm going to share a trick that I started doing about four or five months ago that saved my mornings! No more pretending that it's warm enough for flip flops and frost bite doesn't apply to toes or feet. No more desperate searches in the mornings and no more anxiety induced breathing, I found a solution!!

 I went to Walmart, and bought the equivalent of a bag and a half of socks per person in the family. (i.e. Hubby and I are sharing socks. 3 bags. Hunter and Hayden are sharing socks, 3 bags.)
 

I made sure that the socks are EXACTLY the same, and are plain white with nothing special or different about any of them. (Actually examine the package and make sure before you buy them.) 

 

Hubbs and I are semi close to the same size, in the same ballpark anyway, and I like thick socks, so we can share.
The boys are also in the same ballpark and can share. (You can do this for boys and girls together, plain white socks, it doesn't matter who's feet they're on.)
 

Now here's the hard part. THROW AWAY ALL OTHER SOCKS! Even if they have matches! Throw them away, bring them to a thrift store, or turn them into a quilt! DO NOT KEEP THEM!
 

Now, at laundry time, sorting, matching, and finding socks to wear will be effortless! AND Getting the kids ready for school in the morning? No problem! Never have to hunt for socks again!

                        Tada! Socks for you! Socks for me! Socks for everybody!!

Receiving the Call

Hi! I'm MJ. I'm married, I have three kids, and I'm currently going to school to be a pastor. Yup, a pastor. Usually this is where the wide eyed expressions, the poorly hid "shock face", and the questions start. I'll go ahead and start at the beginning.

You're *what*?

About five months ago, I attended a woman's christian conference with my mom and a friend. It was in Northern Wisconsin at a bible camp, and it was incredible! I had just started really digging deep into my relationship with God, and I was really enjoying to solidarity of a group of women all together with the same purpose.

On the schedule for the morning was a devotional. So I went into the sanctuary with the rest of the women and listened to the speaker, and then began some individual time with The Lord. Now, if you're a woman, you know that sometimes you can't quiet your mind. You have twelve different thoughts going on at the same time, different worries, different distractions, and no matter what you do you can't get them to calm down into one focus. This is what was happening to me. After about ten frustrating minutes of trying to focus, I gave up and (probably sighing loudly) looked for someone who was "in charge" of the conference.
That's when I met Joanne! I walked up to her and explained that I couldn't quiet my mind to do my devotionals and would she mind praying for me. She said of course, laid hands on me, and began to pray. She started praying for my request, and then quickly moved on to areas of my life that I hadn't shared with her. And she was spot on. When we were done she asked if I was in ministry in my church. I said that I wasn't, and she said "Well hold on sister, cause you're about to be!".
Returning from the conference with renewal and enthusiasm, I spent the final day of the weekend at church and with my family. That Monday morning, I got up and began getting ready for the day. But my shower turned out a little different then normal.
I'm reaching for my shampoo when I hear a voice say "Enroll in school, do your course work, get your credentials, you are now in pastoral ministry."
I spun around in the shower. I peeked my head out of the shower curtain. I called my husband into the bathroom and asked him if he just heard that. With his negative response, I told him I was gonna go ahead and start the process of enrolling in school to be a pastor. He was shocked but immediately supportive.
I called my pastor. Same response.
I called my mom. Same response.
I called my dad. Shocked. Offered to fund my course work!
I HAD JUST HEARD THE VOICE OF GOD! Now tell me, that when you're in your shower, and you hear God speaking to you, that your response isn't going to be "Um, yup, no problem God. Absolutely anything You say!". Cause that's where I went with it!

Since then I have been moving forward with my course work, growing in my relationship with The Lord, and keeping my sights on what Jesus has for me and my family. This isn't something that I ever expected or even thought that I would ever want for my life, but that's really the kicker- it's not my life to want for, it's His.
I can't wait to find out what is in store for us next!

The very definition of friendship..

Friendship means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but let me tell you what it means to me.

I have a close-nit group of friends. Majority of them are bloggers, a few are not (they're our sounding boards ;) ). We haven't known eachother all of our lives, and actually, with the exception of two of us, we're all from a different state across the U.S.! I love all of these women, very much, there is very little that I wouldn't do for them. One of them, is my very best friend. Her name is JC, she's an angel, and I want to share a little bit about how we met and grew to have best friend status. She is the definition of friendship in my eyes.

JC- one of my heroes

A little less then a year ago, I was fairly inexperienced in the facebook world. I had my personal page, and some friends (mostly my husbands friends, to be fair.) and I followed some entertaining mommy pages. One of those pages I was a "regular commenter" and after awhile, the woman who owned that page invited me to be part of a fb group of women who just kinda hung out and chatted (via the computer.). I was thrilled! I accepted immediately, and in that group was JC. She extended her hand in friendship and I latched on. JC and I talked in the group, we chatted outside of the group, we exchanged phone numbers and texted each other on a very regular biases. The fb group fell apart. (Well, really, it exploded, but that's a whole different story!) JC and I's friendship stayed strong, telling eachother about our lives, and our families. Then something happened that changed the meaning of friendship to me. Bear with me, this is about to get as real as it gets. Here's honesty at it's finest.

I struggled desperately with depression. A hard-core, deep black hole with no light switch and no ladder, depression. One night, I don't actually remember specific details, I made a suicide attempt. Not a "cry for attention" attempt- a real, honest-to-goodness, ending it all, attempt. I don't remember my reasoning for it now, but the straw the broke the camels back doesn't matter in this case. I took medication. A lot of it. More then a lot of it- a drastic, no turning back amount. And then, while I hadn't changed my mind, I was sad to be leaving JC. So I told her what I had done. Kind of. I told her cryptically. I wanted to say goodbye. I don't know if that was incredibly selfish on my part or not, but I needed her to know how much I appreicated her. Her response was instantaneous and her reaction was just as swift. She called my mom. (Now remember, JC lives in a different state then I do.) She told my mom what was happening and to call 911. I have no idea why she had my moms phone number at the time, but she did, and she called her.

She saved my life.

Unfortunately, this was only the beginning. My head and my heart were surrounded by such blackness that light couldn't penetrate, that I couldn't bare continuing on. I made another 4 attempts to end my life in the following six months. Hospitalization followed each one. Things happened in those hospitalizations that I wont type out, because, well, because they aren't things that I like to remember. Just know that they were painful and debilitating. Traumatic and tragic.

I had my parents, my husband and my  children. They were my constants, my "always gonna be there's". But in the back of my mind, a voice kept saying "They're only here because they're obligated to be here. You're a burden and nothing will change that.", but y'know what shut that voice up? JC. She virtually held my hand through every hospitalization and she didn't let go. She didn't make excuses and fade out of my life, and she didn't judge, condemn, or criticize. She loved me for what she saw past everything else. Past the darkness, past the anger and the sadness, past the self pity, and the past the desperation of what I was living in. She saw a light, waaaaay back there. She saw potential, she saw talent, she saw a funny and witty woman, she saw the love I had for my children, for my husband, for my parents. She saw me. I didn't know that there *was* a me anymore. She believed in me when it would have been so much easier to walk away. I can never repay her for that.

This amazing woman is always on my side. No matter what. I could be so unbelievably wrong to the point that it's laughable, but JC always has my back. She's encouraging, she's my back-up, she's my cheerleader, she's my shoulder to cry on, she's my laugh-track, and most importantly, she's never ever not been there when I needed her. She is the one who taught me what friendship is; what it truly means.

The women in this club of mine, I'm practicing on them. I'm taking all the friendship truths that JC taught me, and I'm living them in this group. These girls that I have, while I don't think they think that these friendships are fleeting, I'm not so sure that they know that it's a forever thing. But thanks to JC and the lessons on what a real friend truly is, I'm never walking away from them.

Love you ladies!

 What a huge blessing, and a true honor to have learned from such a walking inspiration. (If any of you happen to know Ellen...JC and I have NEVER met in person! Hook us up with a first face-to-face meeting so we can dance with Ellen! ;)  )

Very, very simply, thank you JC- for your friendship.

Meddling Grandma

Well, it's official. Worst. Grandma. Ever. Thank God, that my children are 6, 8, and 8, and I got to practice on my zebra finches baby birds! 

First two hatchlings!

 So, it seems I might be a meddler. A medley, meddler. First, I can't stop playing with them. They're my little buddies and I love them. And *of course* I'm a baby bird expert, sense I've read all the websites and have reared exactly *zero* clutches before! But surely that would hold no bearing on whether I know better then the natural instincts from a mother and father bird right? 
 Ugh. 
So, here I am, cheering on Ross and Rachel, 

Mama and Daddy!

 convinced they're doing a great job as long as I'm there to keep a watchful eye on them. Then, one day, while changing out their water, I find a baby bird in between the bars of the bottom of the cage in the changing tray. I think I saw red. I rescued the baby, (we have six!! Who knew?!) And turned my glowering eyes to R&R. How dare they! OBVIOUSLY they tossed the baby out of the nest because they didn't want to care for it anymore!

 Right?? Right?? 

Um....maybe not. I did some panicked research (still giving Ross and Rachel the evil eye.) and it turns out that this is a common problem. Babies fall out of nests. Apparently a lot. And they had a large clutch, 6 babies! So, I switched the nest out for another larger nesting box. Different style. Safer.
 I'M THE GRANDMA, I KNOW BEST! 

I'm holding the little nest, the "new" nesting box is the one made from wood.

Rachel won't go near it. And she's extremely vocal about her distaste for this new arrangement. Fine. I switch them back. A baby falls out. Immediately.

 *sigh*
 I folded up a towel, put it under the nest, and bought a new, giant version of the same nest the next day. I switched them out and Ross and Rachel go in and everything is fine. Okay. Good. 
Well, everything's going great, babies are growing, and...um...well, screaming. Did you know that a clutch of six babies sound like a bunch of screaming monkeys in a jungle, fighting over the last...um, well the last whatever it is that screaming monkeys eat? Yeah, me either. 

All six of the noisy beasts! The tiny baby at the tip of  fingers to his oldest brother by my hubbies thumb!

So I took them out today thinking that maybe they would want to stretch their wings. They're growing so fast and they're *so* cute! Well they started hopping around a little and inspiration struck! If I make a box into a bed for them and put it on the bottom of the cage, they would have more room to play and stretch out... Mom and dad took turns telling me off. From the nest. That the babies weren't in anymore...
 That turned out great...so I put them back. Now they're ALL screaming at me.
 Hit a home run there! 
 

Except this one.....he loves me no matter how much I meddle!

 I'm sure by the time my kiddos have babies of their own I'll have all the answers and I'll know everything. And of course, my kids will be eternally grateful for my help. Unlike these incessantly loud and accusing-toned finches...

Taking on Kohls

I have the flu. Of course I do. I've been blessed with the worlds (seemingly) lowest immune system. Count on me to catch a cold from the stranger that sneezed across the street, walking in the opposite direction. My sicknesses don't just end with the sniffles though. Oh, no. Nope, I get the full shabang- fevers, vomiting, the poops, and the pathetic "please save me" eyes. (I've mastered those ;) ) So what did I decide to do today? That's right, start a blog. "Wait until you're healthy and can focus on what you're doing!", says...well, everyone. Naw, once I make a decision, I go for it! So, in honor of  my very first blog post, I give you... Taking on Kohls..!

 

The other day my husband and I were killing some time, waiting for curtian call at my sons very first play (ahhh... that'sa story for another day!), so we stopped at Kohls for a little stroll through the danger zone. Now, visiting Kohls is a slippery slope, friends! It's a scary peice of heaven that makes you leave with significantly less money in your bank account. But! Not this time! This time I played the Kohls game, and won!

We started wandering around, no real goal in mind, looking at clearance iteams 'cause I'm cheap like that. We started out with purses, and this was a mistake. I hoard purses. Seriously. I adore them. And these purses were 70% off! <sqweeeeee> My only saving grace here was my anxiety. In my excitment I managed to trigger a panic attack. So here I am, looking at purses and hyperventaling, until my husband can't stand the sounds of me gasping for air anymore and leads me away. Just in the nic of time! (Although I have to admit that I was looking over my shoulder at those beautiful leather pouches that are so buttery soft and lovely!)

Moving on.

Next we went to the picture frame/stuff to hang on the wall area. This is another downfall of mine. I walked around these isles, running my fingers across frames in a wistfull manner. The thing is, we literally don't have room on any of my walls for a single thing. None. So, we continued our browsing.

We got to the candle section and all of my resolve went out the window. I'm a sucker for those yummy, sweet, food smelling ones! So I'm looking, looking, and suddenly it was like the clouds parted and a halo of sunshine beamed down on this one particular candle. 

"Lemon Cream" by Yankee.

*insert angels singing here*

This was one of those giant candles, not a tiny little one that makes you raise your eyebrows skeptically when you turn it over to read the price tag. Nope, this was a beaut. A gem. AND it had a clearance sticker on it. The angels sang a little louder. Originally $27 marked down to $10.47. I could feel my excitement building and the panic attack couldn't be far behind. 

"Breath," I told myself. "Just breath."

All the sudden inspiration struck. Coupons! I dug through my purse to find that bright red Kohls coupon that I knew I had in there and held it up triumphantly. Ha! I had one of those majestic $10 off anything in the store coupons! I grabbed my candle and dragged my husband to the checkout register.

The cashier scanned my candle, scanned my coupon and she gasped in surprise! "Oh my gosh! That'll be 88 cents please!" A huge grin spread across my face and I might have chortled a little bit. I handed over a dollar, got my change, grabbed my bag and made a beeline for the door. I was petrified that someone was going to stop me and say that there had been a mistake and I needed to give them more money. But no! Victory! I walked out of that store to my car with an evil grin on my face, chuckling to myself. I was getting some seriously weird looks, and I think my husband was intentionally walking a few paces behind me.

I took on Kohls, and I kicked it's butt!