February 2020 - laxmom.net

Pinterest. . . Need I Say More?

Pinterest, YouTube, Google What Else do You Need. . .

Pinterest can show you almost anything, I like it almost as much as I like YouTube. I have found inspiration, travel tips, cute hairstyles, crafts and some incredible recipes. Check out my board, “Things I have made and Like.” It contains recipes that I found on Pinterest and made that my family loved.

Broiled figs with balsamic vinegar and mascarpone cheese.

Travel and Explore. . .

Travel and Explore is one of my new boards on Pinterest. I have pinned places that I would like to explore. This board has come in very handy these last few months. The hubbs and I are planning a visit to see Sprat play lacrosse in Maine and Massachusetts next month and we are beyond excited. My pins for this board are all about where to go and what to eat. I may have to call this our food tour of New England.

Frugal Me. . .

What on Earth do I mean by frugal? Frugal is one of those old timey words that means; economical, sparing, or thrifty. On this board I pin things that I think will help me as I continue my Dave Ramsey journey. If you read my posts long enough you will realize I am a huge Dave Ramsey fan. Do not know Dave Ramsey, Google him. He is the author of Financial Peace University and The Total Money Makeover. If you are looking to be debt free, or want financial peace check him out.

Things that Make You Say Hmmmmm??

This board is all about the absurd things you might see on social media. It is all about humor and the silly things you find on the internet. I pin things that make me laugh and that make me say hmmmm, how about that…

Working Marriage and Family. . .

Before we had kids. . .

My very sweet hubby and I will celebrate twenty-seven years of marriage in a few months, something I am pretty proud of. These days couples just do not stay together, for what ever reason, the marriage ends. Ours is not perfect, we argue and fight, he has his opinion and then there is mine. Our biggest fight was very early in our marriage and was when we bought our first home. He knew what he wanted in a home and I knew what I wanted. Our realtor asked my sister-in-law if we were still together after the first six or so years of marriage. I had to laugh because we used him again when we started looking for our home we are in now fourteen years ago. He is divorced, maybe he should have fought a little more with his wife.

Working marriage. . .

Ours is a marriage of compromise and helping each other. My husband cooks and goes to the grocery store to buy our weekly groceries and has a full time job. We work together in our family and we do things together, not because we have to but because we want to spend time with each other. I shared above, we do fight and argue, I think that is part of being human. It is not all sugar and lollipops but we make it work. Marriage is work, do not be fooled, it takes two people working very hard to keep a marriage and family together.

The boys. . .

While Sprat was at home over Christmas break we had several opportunities to talk about school and growing up. Sprat shared some things with me about how school was going. He opened up about the fact that not all of his friends and acquaintances grew up with the same home life. Sprat told me how thankful he was to have his dad and I in his life. Some of his friends parents were not a part of their lives and some only had one parent.

I am not a helicopter parent although, some have said I was over protective. I have to laugh at the over protective part, especially since my oldest is fourteen hours away in college. Maybe I was “over” protective of my boys when they were little but I have always encouraged them to do what they love and to work hard in everything they do.

Big T has always been like a little adult since he was about three years old. He says what is on his mind and does not apologize for the fact. Both of my boys have very strong opinions on things; life, politics, and rock bands. He wants to go to a college that is ten hours away and play lacrosse, just like Sprat.

Conclusion . . .

Marriage and family life is work and it takes two people to love each other and work together to make it work. We have our ups and downs and we fight and argue but that is what being an adult is about. Stay tuned as my blog chronicles our ups and downs. Please check out my previous posts and leave me a comment so I know you were here.

Happy Valentine’s Day. . .

A little text goes a long way. . .

I got a text today from Sprat, “Happy Valentine’s Day momma.” I thought that was the sweetest thing. It brought a little tear to my eye. I had just dropped off some of Mom and Dad’s old clothes to our local charity and then got that sweet text. I was a little down thinking about cleaning out Mom and Dad’s house and thinking about all the things Mom had saved of mine over the years.

Valentine’s Past. . .

Growing up my parents always gave us a small heart shaped box of chocolates for Valentines. It was always sitting at the breakfast table when we got up on Valentine’s day. I carried that tradition on to my boys, every year they got that same heart shaped box of chocolates only their box had a small teddy bear on top. Even now with the boys older I still get that small box of chocolate with the teddy bear on top for their Valentines. Sprat got his box early since he would be at school on V day. He told me he was going to give it to his new “friend” Jacki. He wanted to pass that tradition to her. One, two, three. . . Awwwwww!!!!

Traditions. . .

I love that Sprat wants to pass/share that tradition of the Valentine’s box of chocolates with the teddy bear. I hope he will share that tradition and all of the other ones with his family when he has one. That thought does this mama proud, it is nice to know that the little things did mean something. We try so hard as parents to do things right, you may or may not ever know if what you did had any impact.

Stay tuned as we continue this journey. . .

Hidden Gems We Find. . .

This is Me, no filters, on college move in day with Sprat September 2019

This Beautiful little girl is me, not sure how old I was.

We found all sorts of gems at Mom’s house while getting things ready for the renovation. The above was a surprise found in the piano bench. There were a set of three of these; my brother, sister and then this one of me.

I had to laugh when I saw the picture because of my mouth being wide open. It all started at birth, the whole mouth wide open thing, I was always a very happy little girl. I still laugh with my mouth wide open.

Not sure how old I was here but this one is framed at my Mom’s. Again the mouth wide open loving life. I hope that is how I will be remembered, always laughing and loving life.

When my boys were born, I thought they looked like my husband, now I think they look more like me. I will let you guys be the judge, tell me what you think.

Big T at preschool, I believe he was three.

Your task if you choose to take it, who do these handsome boys look more like? Will you choose Me or my very handsome husband? I think they look a little like us both. I will take the middle ground. Please leave your comments below.

Updates on House and Home. . .

The day before Thanksgiving my mom’s power went out and when she got up to check on things she tripped, fell and broke her hip. I rushed home to get to see her just before hip replacement surgery. She is doing great now and we are in the process of renovating their basement so that Mom and Dad can go back home after rehab.

It took some time to find someone to take on this renovation project. Mom and Dad have lived in this house for about forty-seven years. You can imagine the things that have accumulated in those many years. My sister, brother and myself did contribute a good bit to the accumulation of things.

My Mom saved all kinds of things from our childhood. I was cleaning out a closet to try and help prepare for the renovation and found my sister’s white go go boots she used to wear when she carried the banner in the marching band. Those boots looked brand new, I also found my old roller skates and they also looked brand new. Stumbled across one of our old dummies that we made for Halloween one year. We stuffed an old pair of pants and shirt with news paper and would set it up on the porch to scare the little kids.

Mom kept an entire set of National Geographic magazines, and do you remember the World Book Encyclopedia, she has that set too. I have not so fond memories of writing papers using those Encyclopedias. My kids do not know the joy and drama of looking facts up in the Encyclopedia, of course when you got the information from those books you knew it was fact. These days on the internet you could be getting anything but facts.

Mom also kept most of the Appaloosa Journals that they received along with Muscle and Fitness, Southern Living, Our State, and all of the NC State magazines. We purged those all except the most recent ones.

After going through all of those magazines and tossing a good portion of them I realized, I am my mother’s daughter. I have come home to throw out my old magazines, I have only kept the ones that have something of interest to me. I am also going to clean out my closet to donate what I cannot and do not wear.

Stay tuned as we continue to prepare for the renovation, Lacrosse season College and High School, and living our best life.

Background on Our Crew. . .

This is my crew many years ago, Sprat lower right, Big T on the left and of course the hubby and I. This was taken at one of their birthday parties at a tumble gym.

Mom and my sister and myself, this would have been Christmas 1986 or ’87. I cannot remember which.

We took the boys on the Polar Express train ride. We had a blast, when I made the reservation the lady said, “wear your PJ’s everyone does.” We all showed up in our PJ’s, to my husbands chagrin, and we were the only adults in PJ’s. Sprat said, Mom you all are the only parents in PJ’s, I simply replied yes and we are the only ones that know how to have fun.

The boys enjoying the Fair and the bumper cars. The hubbs and I always took the boys to the Fair each year. We always went when the boys could get the ride all day bands. These are just some of our family traditions.

We also used to go tubing with the boys in the Summer. When the boys were little we had a couple Summers where we did stay-cations. The boys loved it, we went to local AA baseball games and I took them to the pool during the day, this was during my stay at home mom days.

We took a few trips here and there with the boys. This is on our trip to Sea World. This was the boys petting the Rays, notice the hubbs holding Big T by the shirt so he does not fall face first in the water.

This was just a little background on my family. Stay tuned for updates on the boys and all the goings on with high school and college lacrosse.