#Blessed

You’re looking at the new Jr. High Basketball coach or at least the certificate that says I am qualified to be. It took…..EIGHT hours to complete this. I am not kidding. I wanted Pomp and Circumstance to play when I printed this thing out. Notice it says SUCCESSFULLY completed…… is that like Summa Cum Laude? It has been a lot of fun so far and I get to coach with my Dad which is super cool. The truth is my Dad is pretty much the coach and I am his helper. He’s great with the boys and it is fun to see the team play and improve. 

The start of school had my head spinning. I have two kids that have the same drop off time at two different schools. Trying to figure out the best route to school to get everyone where they need to be took some trial and error. By Friday of the first week of school I was frazzled, exhausted, and ready to rest for the weekend. Ellie was watching a show in my bed and said I sat up and yelled, 

I was not awake…I was dream talking. If that tells you anything about the state I was in that first week of school. The no carbs, sugar, and fats was hard for this emotional eater. We are all in a race to get out the door no later than 6:50. In our attempts to get Aydan to Highland (the traffic is TERRIBLE) and Ellie to Franklin. She ended up being late for two days. On the third day the student has to go to detention and the pressure she was putting on me along with the teenage girl angsty stares were enough to give anyone anxiety. The second week I only had to drive Ellie and it was much, much easier. This is the third week and I am taking everyone again. I think we may have figured out the secret. Ellie has been early every day and so has Aydan AND we are leaving at 7:00. It has been a much smoother week. 

In my efforts to look prettier and younger and to also basically just get rid of my zits…because who has zits in their 40’s? Who? Me. I put Retin-A on my face Sunday night. All was well Monday night until today and my face is literally peeling off. Acne that has happily laid dormant under the surface of my skin has risen to all of its glory and guess what? Picture day is Thursday! What was I thinking? I sent my son to get a teenage facial to help clear up his skin….. I should have stayed for one too!

 The photo packages are pretty funny and expensive! Luckily, I get half price because I am a teacher so I ordered Ellie the DELUXE set with the reflections picture. Every kid needs a reflection picture. I literally can’t wait. 

I should show my second graders this picture of me in second grade they would probably love it.  

This is a perfect picture representation of how I feel about unsolicited advice from regular joe people, especially the ones who think they are smarter than everyone else. In truth, I think you’ll find that they are the dumbest smart people you may know.  I think unsolicited advice is stupid and people should just worry about themselves. Always. It’s annoying. If you ask for advice that’s one thing but if people try to tell you what’s best…well. See above picture. 

EXCEPT. 

A friend of mine posted on Facebook that she was in a meeting with Bonnie H. Cordon and she said, We should strive to Bless instead of Impress and I really liked that…a lot. I liked that because her intention was to bless…not impress. I think that on social media people are trying to impress you with their best selves and that’s cool, but wouldn’t it be cooler if we were all working on being a blessing to each other? I don’t know I have been thinking about this a lot and how I can apply it in my own home with my people. Am I a blessing? I’m not sure. I mean…I made homemade chicken soup with homemade broth and all fresh veggies for dinner and brownies for my kids. Is that blessing my people? I hope so. Do I do things to try and impress people…gosh, I hope not. To me that is a number one ear marker of insecurity. That is literally as annoying as unsolicited advice. 

But really. What do I know? 

Today was the best we rocked out to seventies music in the kitchen and made dinner. We sang Bohemian Rhapsody at the top of our lungs and played air guitar. We belted Midnight Train to Georgia with Gladys and Rocky Mountain High with John. My life is far from perfection. It is flawed and I make lots of mistakes. I haven’t figured it all out and I am still learning EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I am better at listening than telling you what to do and I complain sometimes….more than I should. But I love days like this one. I love jamming out with my kids. I love eating good healthy food. I LOVE that I am not tempted by the hot brownies sitting in my kitchen making my house smell like home. They have M&M’s pressed into the top and I made them for the kids lunches tomorrow but there’s already a few nibbled corners missing. I love picking my son up from football. I love that he knows I will say yes to drive a friend of his home who doesn’t have a ride. I love that Ellie used her Amazon gift card to order a book and she won’t take her nose out of it since it arrived in the mail.  Today during some sentence practice my second graders got a full on hearty laugh out of me…head down shoulders shaking. I think I’m really going to love them, in fact, I already do. 

XOXO- Blessings. The Sunny D