Girls....that word might conjure up some thoughts like drama queens, squabbles, cattiness, and on and off relationships. Girls will be girls right? I mean we have all been there, the one not included in a group, the odd girl out. It's no fun but it can change as quickly as the weather. One day no one is talking to you the next they are your best friend. It's just part of being a girl right? You get through it. Your mom always said tomorrow will be better. They will be your friend again. I have said those very same words to my daughter. I've dismissed those complaints about friends as girls just being girls. I mean she is only in 3rd grade how could it be that bad. Don't they save the really mean stuff for middle school? I know better than that though. So my sixth sense kicked in and I just knew something was going on with gigi and her friends. She would say little things here and there. I assured her things would get better and tried to arm her with every tactic to handle mean girls. I secretly prayed that things would smooth over quickly. Then I went to gigi's class to watch her star in a play. It was very fun and all the kids did a great job. I noticed after the play that none of the girls were talking to her. Some were gathered in groups taking pictures with each other, sharing hugs and secrets, but gigi was quietly standing by my side. She would give a meek smile when someone said good job. She even tried to give a couple of girls kudos for their parts in the play. I knew something was wrong. After school the two of us headed off to gymnastics. In the car I decided to ask how the friend thing was going. She gave a weak, okay and then the tears started to fall. Mom, I just don't understand why A is being mean to me. C told me that B was having a birthday party and had an invitation for me. A told B not to invite me so she threw away the invitation. In that moment I actually felt my heart break right inside of my chest. What on earth could possibly cause someone to want to hurt my girl. How could her "friends" be so mean. I sucked it up and asked her if she had done anything, her adamant no told me she was telling the truth. I explained to her that sometimes people just decide to be mean. Sometimes we do absolutely nothing to them. We headed for the ice cream shop and had a nice chat about friendship. Once a smile was back on her face I dropped her at gymnastics and cried all the way home. Trust me I have dealt with mean girls and I can hang with the best of them but let me tell you, there is nothing like watching your girl make her own way in life. I felt like someone had stomped on my heart. Once I pulled it together I called A's mom to help me get to the bottom of the whole thing. We are now on the other side of this bump in the road. I wish I could say that it was a big mistake and those girls were not being mean. The birthday thing was true. They did it. They apologized and really had no reason for what they did. I think that gigi has tried to forgive and move on. I have tried to do the same. So what did we learn from this, well really what did I learn from this? I am thankful for this beautiful girl God gave me. I am beginning to realize the influence that I will have on her life and it scares me just a tiny bit. I have learned to pray for wisdom because when those big brown eyes are searching mine for answers I want to have the right thing to say. She is only in 3rd grade but we have already had to cover the rules of girl world and how to survive. So what will I do the next time she encounters mean girls. Well, I will refrain from running them over with my car and we will head down to the ice cream shop to discuss the mystery of girl world and I know that at the end of the day, she will have a smile on her face again.

Day of Love

Valentine's Day. Some think of it as the day of love, the day to celebrate those that have stolen your heart. Some think of it as a holiday coined by Hallmark and Russell Stover. Another way to get you to spend a little on cards, candy, and flowers. However you view it, we can all remember Valentine's Day as a child. Parties in grade school with candy hearts that say be mine. I remember getting ready for Valentine's Day, carefully filling out each Valentine and making sure the right person got the right card. Fretting over what to give that one special boy, should it say you knock me off my feet or just be mine. Then there was the Valentine box, gluing and coloring and glittering until it was perfect. Well, this year was no different in my house with my kids. They both filled out their Valentine's carefully filling out each name. This year in gigi's class they had a Valentine box decorating contest. She desperately wanted to win the coveted trophy. She surfed the internet for ideas and carefully chose what she thought would be the winning box. She planned out the design, gathered her supplies, and began to create. This is what she created.....


yep, you got it a toilet. Nothing says I love you like the porcelain goddess. I was proud of her creation and how brave she was for being willing to take this into school. Needless to say, she won first place and came home with the trophy for most creative box.

Way to go girl!

My Boy

I was walking the dog today along the canal. I swear I have walked this path a thousand times or more. It has been our spot for fetching and swimming in the summer and walking or sledding in the winter. We discovered this place when we moved into our house 5 years ago. It was a wondrous place for my kids. I know it looks brown and muddy and weedy but let me tell you, it is 10 acres of treasures. It is full of rocks, sticks, and snake skins. When the canal is empty in the winter there are old cans, lost shoes, and tennis balls. My kids will trek over to the field to explore. My little man has fought wars, used his Jedi powers, and hunted lions in this field. He has been in Africa, the Antarctic, and Narnia. It is a magical land. When we first started trekking through this field my little man was 6. I would watch him wage his wars and listen to all his sound effects. Today was an ordinary walk, nothing special. Our time to unwind and breathe some fresh air after sitting behind desks for 7 hours. Time to watch the horses and listen to the birds. Time to let the dog run off his energy. A typical walk until I looked up and saw the picture above, I grabbed my phone and snapped it. I know you are thinking what is so special about that picture. Well today when I looked up I didn't see that 6 year old boy, I saw my not so little man that just turned 11 and I thought how did he get so big. He looked tall and strong and independent. All the things you would want your son to be just not so quickly. My heart skipped a beat though when I heard those sound effects. He is still waging war on imaginary creatures. Fighting the fight and coming out victorious. So I listened and watched and enjoyed the moment. I watched my boy who is moving quickly on his journey to becoming a man. I listened to him play caught somewhere between childhood and teenager and prayed the God would slow it down. My boy.

Well here we are a month into the new year and I am wonder where the time has gone. I am sure many a new year's resolution has been long forgotten or put on the back burner. As I have said before I do not make resolutions. I do have little things stored in the back of my mind and on the bottom of my to do list that I would like to get to when I have extra time. It's my one day list. You know one day I would like to catch up on the 8 years of scrapbooking that I need to do, one day I would like to create that compost pile, one day I would like to cook like an iron chef, one day I would like to create a masterpiece for my dining room wall, one day I would like to have a fabulous blog that makes people oooh and ahhh and wonder where I get the time to do all the wonderful things I am blogging about. Oh well, for now this is it. It is about all I have time for between basketball, guitar, 4-H, archery, gymnastics, bible study, small group, work, newspaper advisor, and mom aka cook, laundry attendant, dog walker, maid, homework supervisor and taxi driver to all the above activities. So instead of showing you my fabulous blog I will share a few that I have managed to discover in my spare time. Okay one actually that I stole from my SIL clover's site. I can steal it because it is kinda a mutual sharing site since it belongs to a family member. Let me just say I need to invite this girl to holiday dinners or not because she would probably cook the pants off clover and I or hey, might not be a bad idea cause then clover and I could sit back, drink wine, and relax for once. Maybe then we could document our holiday dinners with fabulous scrapbook layouts. It would be a heck of a lot easier to catch those super cute kid poses without turkey grease running down your arm or worrying about your dinner rolls burning. We might actually get to be in one of the shots. Maybe then our children would grow up and realize they did have a mom despite the lack of her photos in their baby books. So I know you are probably wonder what this wonderful site is called. Here ya go http://cordonpink.com/ It has some fabulous recipes that I can't wait to try so check it out. One day I might have time to be this creative in the kitchen. For now I make some mean mac and cheese with hot dogs! No really, I think I will definitely try some of these dishes very soon. I found a couple other sites that I thought were pretty cool and put them under my favs. I also put it on my to do list to update this little blog more often. Hopefully someone out there is reading it, if not at least it is inspiration for me!

~Scarlett