Crazy Momma

Choose Wisely.

This quote was taken from this talk.

Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me #27

Enjoy the ride.

Advice taken from the nifty little booked entitled

Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me

by: Cynthia Copeland Lewis

We love Ryan

Ryan has been one of Abigail's best friends since kindergarten. We absolutely adore him and his family. I am the proud carpooler who gets to take him home from school twice a week. Not only has it been an advantageous situation to get all the scoop Abigail won't tell me herself, I have enjoyed the time I get to talk to Ryan about his life too.

On Friday Ryan said he might cry for days when we move, just typing that is making me cry. We are gonna miss him so much. He is the sweetest kid.

Ryan loves to read. He loves Cheerwine. He loves his mama and his dad, but I would say he is especially a mama's boy. He loves to play the saxophone and he loves playing video games. He's a good big brother. He is so thoughtful; he often saves part of his after-school snack to share with his mom or brother or sister.

The other day he cracked me up while relaying his girl problems to his mom via cell phone. I was in stitches. He was like, "Mom, I don't understand women. I am afraid to get older."

The one thing I may appreciate about Ryan the most is that he isn't afraid to call Abigail out on her crap. He and Abigail are almost like siblings. The other day when we were on our way home from school Abigail pulled out a sign she had made to stick on the back of a friend from school. It made reference to the fact the kid was short. I jumped all over her and I couldn't do it fast enough.

"Abigail, tear that up right now. You never make fun of someone for the height or their weight or anything. That is not nice. How would you like it if someone pointed out your zits? I will tell you right now I absolutely hated it in Jr. High when kids called me fat. Even if you don't think it's a big deal, other kids might be really self conscience. You have to be more considerate. Really. Do you think it's nice to call people ugly or fat. Short is the same thing."

I was going on and on. I then said something to the effect of, "Do you think it would be nice for people to call other people four-eyes if they have glasses?"

Ryan quickly interrupted with his finger pointed tall, "I resemble that."

Ryan is super smart and a great speller and reader. I quit my rant and questioned him, "Ryan, did you mean, you resent that?"

"No, I meant I resemble that."

Laughter all around.

And I will let you decide if resent or resemble was a better choice of word.

I would never call anyone four-eyes, especially not Ryan. I love this kid. If I could adopt a son, it would be him. He's one of a kind. And he happens to wear some pretty snazzy glasses.

French Toast for the Masses

I hate cooking. No, I should say I really don't enjoy cooking. I do it. I do it all the time. I'm even good at it. I would call myself a good cook. I am a cook who hates to cook, but I am also a cook who can put a smile on your face. Still I think it is safe to say cooking is just not my thing; it just happens to be a resume builder I have gained while living in survival mode for the past 13 years.

When LG and I got married, I cried when I realized that it was my responsibility to feed my husband and future children and it would be for THE REST OF MY LIFE. Cried would not be a totally fair assessment. I bawled one night while cooking, and I continue to cry inside every time I am magnetically stuck in the room of my house that sports a fridge, sink, and stove. Now I know I am gonna hear it from my naysayer our there who believes in women's rights, but from the get-go, I embraced my control over things inside the home. I more than embraced it. I, for lack of better words, peed over the threshold between family room and teeny tiny studio apartment kitchen, as my way of saying, "hands off man, this is my territory". The kitchen would be my domain. 

Man, I was such a fool. LG was more than happy to step aside for food duty, even though we were both working and going to school full-time. And not to my surprise and even to my blame, today the guy only has a handful of choices that he can pull off that involve a wooden spoon and pan, and most of them are in the breakfast category, come frozen, or out of a box. And I am smacking my forehead against my keyboard as I realize how totally stupid I was back then.

So, I live with the stubborn hell I have created. I cook. Even when I don't want to. In the past few years, while there hasn't been wiggle room in the budget for enough pizza and hamburgers ordered from other people's kitchens, I have learned many tricks.

I have very reliable go-to's. I keep staples in the house for each recipe. One happens to be french toast. It only takes six ingredients that I usually have on hand. My kids love it and so do I. My husband tolerates it, but if he was more worried about eating his favorites, he might ask me to teach him how to cook them. hint hint.

Before I share the flawless recipe, let me tell you two tricks that will make this easy peezy meal turn into 10 easy peezy meals.

What Mormon College Students Do For Fun

One of the things I am asked often is how I have any fun whilst practicing my religion of Mormonism. As most of you know, we have some pretty strict codes of conduct, including abstaining from coffee, alcohol, and tea.

I, like many others (including millions of recovered alcoholics) understand that there are so many clean ways to enjoy life and have fun while remaining in control of my faculties and praising my God.

Here is just one really good example of a bunch of people having some good clean fun. I love it that the BYU fans were able to support their team in such a unique way during all this Brandon drama.

Just Ask Alice - Inception (Spanking)

Dana and I go way back. All the way back to California in the 80's, where she thought I was the coolest girl at camp and decided she wanted to be just like me when she grew up. She has done pretty well with that, except to really pass the Alice look alike test I think she will have to put on a few pounds. Like 100 or so.

A few years ago, Dana and I were shocked to run into each other, after 20 years, at church in Atlanta, where we thought it odd that we both had three children (I believe all of hers were girls) and attorney husbands.

Here is a link to her website, where you will see that she is a talented photographer. I  love her style. You can also like her on facebook. And even though her photography is the bomb, let me tell you that Dana is a hoot. I would pay her to take my picture just because I know she could get a real smile out of me. She may not even have to say anything. Just looking at her makes me laugh. She has the vibe.

Dana came up with the idea for Just Ask Alice.

She said she thinks I could give good advice. Little does she know that I have spent my whole adult life-hood learning how to keep my opinions and advice to myself. Or maybe she does know that (or even relates) but she is flattering me and laughing behind my back as she sends me to my own destruction.

But, I like the idea of having things to write about. Things that interest my readers.

Great picture to go with spanking, eh? It was Dana's idea.
Did I tell you how much I LOVE her photography?
And her sense of humor?

Dana's question that I will answer:

How do you feel about spanking?

Don't do it. Unless it's for your husband. My husband deserves a bunch of spankings right now, but it's all good cause he likes being spanked.

Scarlett Jam

I recently read The Scarlett Letter and I couldn't help but compare its fundamental depravity in judging others and outcasting people over the higher law of chastity with what has just happened with BYU basketball player Brandon Davies. Most of you may not know, but one of the key players was kicked off the team mid-season for admittedly having sex with his now pregnant girlfriend. BYU basketball has had an epic year and it was even rumored that they might take the first seed in the NCAA tourney. That is huge, but now they lost one of their most pivotal players.

Apparently BYU is one of the only schools left on the planet that actually makes college students live up to an Honor Code.  Part of me is proud to be part of church with a University that enforces higher personal standards, and the same part of me is ashamed. When reading this article tonight in the BYU newspaper I was taken back by it's reference to justice. I guess I tend to be the kind of person more worried about mercy.

Originally I had written in this post that I wished that the University could have let the kid finish out the season so he would not have had to be living such public shame. I felt like if he does ever come back to play, they may as well iron a big old Atlanta Brave A to his jersey. It's not that I didn't think he should experience the ramifications of his disobedience and that he should repent. I have personally known many others who had to put their education on hold for a bit while working through their worthiness issues. I just don't think that it was to anybody's good to make such a public display of a man's very personal life.

It's such a sad thing for me to think about. It's one of those things where two important principles seem to clash. Yes, let's have a high standard, and yes, let's love others, but how can we do both of these simultaneously? I feel like Brandon Davies has become a Hester Prynne and that just like the uptight community of the Puritan days, BYU sold him out to dry. My husband said that it wasn't BYU that did this to him but his own actions and the media. He knew the standards he had agreed to when he signed on at the school.

When rethinking the option of letting Brandon Davies finish out the season, that would require the school to treat him with preferential treatment. As they kick all Honor Code offenders out immediately, it's not that Brandon Davies should somehow be exempt.

I guess I am gonna be the kind of girl that stands at the Pearly gates and begs God to let in all the sinners. I  think that I need to study it out some more WHY God has standards in the first place and why I resent being controlled and others being controlled. If anything this news-story has been a lesson to me that our actions are never just about us, but they are also about our significant others and the people who observe us. But mostly it's about us and our relationship with our Lord, and I hope that Brandon Davies will remember that while experiencing such severe punishment and horrible scrutiny. I pray that His Lord will carry Him through and allow Brandon to feel an extra dose of God's love to counterattack everyone else talking about him negatively.

And let the record be made known that I would be best friends with Hester Prynne, well at least I would be until her demon child yelped at me. Hester's kid is portrayed really scary in the book and it kind of freaked me out.

And that is my rant to go along with such an enticing church sign that can be found directly down the street from me right now. It's like there are Scarlett Letters screaming at me everywhere. LG and I even watched that movie A+ last week when there was nothing else new at Redbox. It was kind of good. Too much language and sex, but doesn't that make it just like every other movie out there? And if LG and I actually watch these movies, does that make us like Brandon Davies or Hester Prynne? And, aren't we all like them? Isn't that really the point  most necessarily understood by us all...we all fall short of perfection so really we should give each other grace? I'm glad I never went to BYU so I can criticize the way they have thrown a good young man who made a mistake out to the wolves of society. 

Meanwhile, I am going to make jam with fruit, and I have no idea whether or not it is forbidden.

Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me #26

Don't say you brushed your teeth if you really didn't.

Advice taken from the nifty little booked entitled
Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me
by: Cynthia Copeland Lewis