But.....being home in the morning has it rewards. I have a 16 year old daughter. I have never been home in the mornings to get her ready for school. Her dad and I thought we were doing the best thing for her by working different shifts so she would always be with us and not at a daycare for 10 hours a day. I never woke her up, made her breakfast, fixed her lunch, combed her hair, walked her to the bus stop. I missed a lot the last 14 years. She would get herself up, dressed and ready to go, make her own breakfast and lunch, and walk to the bus stop by herself. I am making up for it now. I set my alarm 5 minutes before her alarm is set to go off and turn on the heater. I make her breakfast and bring it to her in bed. I make her lunch, start her car, scrape her windshield, and turn on her headlights. I kiss her goodbye and wish her a wonderful day. And I LOVE it. I believe a kid's job when they are young is to get good grades in school (as good as their ability allows), do the chores that make them a part of the family, and have fun. I think my daughter does that.
Here is her lunch today.
A turkey sandwich with mustard and avocado on a french roll, nacho tortilla chips, lemon bar, kiwi fruit, juice box.
That leads us to another journey. When first starting my soap making 9 years or so ago, I built a web site. It was not a very good one so I looked for ways to improve it. I found a free SEO (search engine optimization) class on Yahoo given by Cricket Walker. It was incredible. Cricket is also a fantastic blogger http://www.cricketwalker.com/ with some of the best pictures I have ever seen. I did learn a lot from her and she has since moved on to v7n forum http://www.v7n.com/forums/. It is full of "what to do" info about working on and with the world wide web.
Cricket has another group called "the coffee shop" that was related to the SEO group but it was only to get to know each other, not work shop. It was here that I learned about "The Pioneer Woman", Ree. She is a blogger http://thepioneerwoman.com/ that when I first started reading her had 200 to 2000 comments on her funny tales of ranch life in Oklahoma. The last time she had a contest there were almost 40,000 comments. She has some great contests. Her story "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" has just been picked up by Columbia Pictures and rumor has it they want Reese Witherspoon to play Ree. It is quite a story and has been so fun to follow Ree all these years. It's like having your little sister make it big.
So.....from there I traveled to The Tasty Kitchen http://thepioneerwoman.com/tasty-kitchen/about/. It is the offspring of Confessions of A Pioneer Woman. It is a community of cooks of all sizes and talents that share everything you wanted to know about food. It was here that I found BareFootBelle and her blog with this tasty little dish http://belleofthekitchen.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-can-see-clearly-now.html. Now if there is one thing my daughter and I love more than anything, it is lemons. So I had to make this last night. AND it is so YUMMY I am having it for breakfast too.
In fact there isn't much left, but I did put some in dear daughter's lunch.
Life is full of small journeys. What are some of yours?
Some things in life are a blessing in disguise. I'm sure she is loving having you there just as much as you are! I am going to try those lemon bars this weekend! They look great. :) I really enjoy reading your blog! Love you!
ReplyDeleteOh they are very yummy, nice and tart. We were at a party and we were talking about me staying and Keely said she liked having me home. Now if they only paid to be a mom life would be good. : )
ReplyDeleteSomeone wisely told me, "They need you more when they are teens than when they were younger."
ReplyDeleteI have you to thank for turning me on to Pioneer Woman. I have read her funny blogs every day for a year, because of you.
I will definitely check into Cricket Walker--I need help in that arena.
cheers!
I just love this last entry of yours! It is so full of heart, so warm and personal. Reminds me that my mother who was a stay at home Mom did for us three kids what you are doing for your daughter now. ( We didn't get breakfast in bed, 'tho ;) Bless you heart and the disguised miracles that life dishes out to us every day
ReplyDeleteI do agree Cathy, they need us all the time but this has been very special for me and we are getting even closer. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Cocobong. My mom was a SAHM too and with 5 of us she needed to be! We still had to do chores and such, but my mom was such a crafter I learned very young that housework comes SECOND!
Cheers to that! Wish my Mom had passed on the same message ;)
ReplyDeleteThank goodness your nieces are grown already. You are making me look like a bad SAHM!! I'm so glad you are able to be there for my niece right now, Cathy is right, they need you more as teens then as youngin's, I am so blessed that I was able to be home as long as I was.
ReplyDeleteThose bars look amazing, will have to check with Katherine on Monday to see how they turned out.
Now you know you did everything with your girls!
ReplyDeleteK is great...she works really hard and deserves a bit of tlc. Katherine is right about a blessing in disguise...so great for you to have this time with her before she heads to college. Too bad they don't have "Mommy and Me" dorm rooms. smile
ReplyDelete"I set my alarm 5 minutes before her alarm is set to go off and turn on the heater. I make her breakfast and bring it to her in bed. I make her lunch, start her car, scrape her windshield, and turn on her headlights."
ReplyDeleteThis I did not do! haha I made them get up while I still slept, get their own cereal (while I was still sleeping), and go get their own cars ready in the cold. haha!!
I'm just so glad that you get to spend this time with your daughter, I did miss out on the last years of high school with the girls, but did everything I could. Hugs to you!! Enjoy!