Stumbling Block

When is the time to look at something in your life that you don't like and change it? Do you wait until you just can't take it any more or do you nip it in the bud from day one? I ask myself this question a lot, not because there are a lot of things in my life I don't like, but because I want to be a better me.

I also ask myself if there are things that I am doing that may be a stumbling block to someone I love and if so what can I do about that? Is there a simple fix, like "defriending" someone on Facebook, so that my loved one isn't faced with a past memory that haunts them, or does this require more from me. Such as changing the way I communicate with someone close to me.

Do I need to worry about these things at all?

Yes, yes I do. Scripture tells us not to be a stumbling block for another, making sure our actions do not cause another to sin. That's heavy stuff if you ask me. I don't know if Paul was intending this to go outside of eating idol sacrifices, but what I do know is that I can apply his words to my life. I think it's hard sometimes to look at something you are doing, and know that it is causing someone else to slip and fall. You then yourself struggle with guilt, remorse and often times anger because now you have to change how you behave.

ooh, excuse me *steps down off her soap box*

I find myself in an introspective place at the moment, some from reading my sister's blog, some from an epiphany I had at work today. Each morning I come in to work and my Director and I exchange good mornings and I ask how she is and she asks how I am. Usually she tells me fine, and I...well I'm more detailed and I realized today that I complain a lot about my life. I seem to find myself wrapped up and bothered by the little things. So I decided just then that the next time she asks me that I will say two positive things first and only one negative, then follow that up with one more positive. I truly don't wish to be the stumbling block that causes my co-workers to have a bad day or for their thoughts to turn negative because of my attitude toward my own life.

Wish me luck!

~Sarah

The Gluten Nazi

As you know my youngest daughter was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder and so we try our best to keep her diet as gluten free as possible. This is a very difficult task as she is a carb-aholic. I scrutinize every label for every product I buy. I search out and have found some really great products and some really awful products.

There are times when I feel like a bit of an ogre when she asks for something and I have to say no, because it has way too much gluten in it for her to consume. So I've taken to calling myself the Gluten Nazi.

For those of you with children who or you yourself have a wheat allergy, are on a GFCF diet, or have celiac disease know what I am talking about. I will say that I am not as diligent as I could be and probably should be and I always appreciate new ideas and solutions to this particular issue in our life.

My sister shared a website with me for gluten free products and I thought this would be a great time to share it and some other websites I use.

Be Free For Me is a site for coupons for people with gluten and other food allergies

The GFCF Diet is a great resource for recipes, products, community support and other things for the parent with a child on the GFCF diet.

The Gluten-Free Trading Company has a plethora of gluten free products for just about anything you could want gluten free.

The GFCF Cookbook has some really great recipes for everything from pancakes to soup.

Stranger Danger

What does that really mean? I tell my kids often not to talk to strangers, don't tell them your name, don't engage in conversation, and never ever ever go anywhere with anyone you don't know. But then I turn around and talk to strangers, engage them with conversation, the only rule I follow is not going anywhere with them.

What message is this sending my children? Should I not talk to the other moms at the park, just to live by those rules I've given my children? Should I never speak to the checker at the grocery store. Do I not answer my phone when it displays an unknown number?

Obviously I can't refrain from those conversations, but then how do I lead by example? Where is the line here? Honestly I don't know.

I write this because I am sitting an indoor playground, you know one of those places with ten different bounce houses, this particular one has a foam blocks pit for the kids to jump and dive into. K was in the pit and had hurt herself, and asked another mom to find me. The mom, said she'd be happy to call me if K knew my cell phone number, this happens to be the only phone number she does know, since we have 3, and K rattled the numbers off and the mom called me.

Was this a violation of don't talk to strangers or adhering to if you need help find a mommy or a person in uniform? I'm not really sure, mostly I just feel uncomfortable that the mom asked my daughter for my cell phone number. I would much rather she'd asked K my name and called that out into the big open air that is this place.

Perhaps I am being over protective, this mom really was just trying to help, but it seems to me that if we want to teach our children to be cautious of strangers, then this is not the best way to do that. But then I am left with this dilemma... If I make her scared of strangers, will she become withdrawn and never speak to anyone? If I allow her to speak with everyone not worrying about it, will I lose my baby to an enterprising kidnapper? Where is the balance here?


What I learned today: Nothing really, just a lot of questions and that my daughter's philosophy of "There are no strangers, only friends I haven't met yet," scares the crap out of me.

The School Lunch Revolution

I am appaled as I sit here and write this post. I stumbled upon the blog Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project and began to read. I was so fascinated that I started from the very beginning and read through today's post. It is unreal what her school's cafeteria is serving the children and calling nutritional.

What is it in those lunches that they consider 1/3 of a child's daily nutrition. Is a fruit cup really considered a serving of fruit and do those little ketchup packages stand in for their second serving of vegetables?

It makes me very glad that the lunches my children are served at least look smell and taste like real food and they are offered several vegetable and fruit choices. When I have eaten lunch with my girls, I have noticed that most of the children have at least one of those veggies and one of those fruits on their tray with their main dish choice and their carton of 1% milk.

So I have done some more digging and I found Jamie Oliver's Food Revelution. If you have children of school age, I urge you to visit both of the websites and get involved to the best of your ability.

I can only hope that we can cause our government to really look and see what it is that these school districts are feedin gour children and calling it nutrition.


What I learned today: All children, not just my own need advocates, we need to fight for what they are learning and give them the tools to make good food choices, especially when they only receive that teaching at school.

awwww

I recently took the profile questionnaire for the 5 Love Languages and discovered, unsurprisingly that my love language is Physical Touch supported by Words of Affirmation. That simply means that I feel loved when I am touched, a pat on the shoulder, a hand on the back, that sort of thing makes me feel acknowledged and loved. But an encouraging word will do the same.

Today I was asked to work with the 2's class as their teacher had an appointment this morning. One does not expect much from 2's beyond getting to each place and having fun while we are there. In this class the little girls are very girlie and come dressed to the 9's, well for a 2 year old. Today they all happened to be wearing hair bands. One had a large pink flower, another a smaller pink flower surrounded by feathers and jewels and the other little girl's had a big pink with black polka-dots bow on it. I told them how pretty their hair bands were. One of the girls said "You're wearing a hair band too, we all are."

I said, "yes, but mine isn't as fancy as yours is."

She tilted her head to the side, crinkled up her nose and studied me for a moment. "It's a little fancy, so you still look pretty Ms. Sarah."

My heart just melted. She wanted to make sure that I felt included in the all pretty girls wear hair bands circle they had going. It was not said to gain anything from me, or to change my mind on something, but to make me feel as loved as she felt in that moment.

How amazing that children can understand that the people around them feel the things they do, with out prompting or discussion. That little girls intrinsically know that we all just want to feel pretty, especially when the sky is cloudy and gray.

What I learned today: Kids can sometimes be the most life affirming things on the planet.


For more information on the 5 Love Languages visit: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/

Crazy Little Thing Called Temptation

I do not resist temptation well. Case in point, I have a little glass fish candy dish, (thank you for the sweet birthday gift B,) sitting on my desk full of miniature version of several different candy bars. I have this as a ministry to my staff. Because when you work with 9 small children from 9 different families with 9 different parenting philosophies, you need a chocolate fix every once in a while.

I usually buy a mix that has very little of what I enjoy eating, but this time I bought the Hershey's miniatures, and I happen to love all but the dark chocolate ones, so I find myself pulling a piece out of the fish's mouth several times a day. I rationalize this with, it's just one little piece it won't ruin all the hard work I'm doing to try and get myself to a healthy weight so that I can look into corrective surgery for my shoulder.

I have on many occasions tried to remove caffeine from my diet and I find that it is all I think about, over and over and over...man I need a coke, I could use some caffeine. This does not just apply to food, but to other things in my life as well.

I am tempted each and every morning to stay in bed, just five more minutes which usually turns into 9 (you know when the snooze goes off again). The same is said for stopping for coffee, though I can prevent that most times by being in the wrong traffic lane for turning into the H-E-B that houses my favorite coffee shop.

But what did you learn today, you ask? Ah, today I learned that I can in fact resist the most insidious of temptations, goofing off. I left work early so that I could be with my kids while my husband attended a meeting via webcam conferencing. (They stayed home from school due to fever.) And what I really wanted to do was lay down in bed and chill with my handy dandy laptop. I even came into the room, plugged in the machine and pushed the little button.

As I sat and waited for it to boot up, it occurred to me that I would not be home during my usual chore time tonight due to praise band rehearsal. So I sent the machine back to sleep, after a bit of an inner debate over what I needed to do and wanted to do, and went into the kitchen. I got all the dishes washed, swept and swiffered the floor, and started a load of laundry. It felt good to get those chores done. When I was finished it was time to take the girls to the doctor. While there, instead of playing silly clicky games, I got half a chapter in my novel written.

I'm actually quite proud of my choices today. :D

A New Skill

I do not like to be uncomfortable. But then who does? I am not very good at asking for help or for someone to do something for me. Nor am I very enamored with the idea of approaching complete strangers to do this asking.

With that being said, I am finding that I am in fact better at this than I believed. My preschool is holding a silent auction and it is my job to procure items for this auction. I have had to step outside my comfort zone and ask complete strangers for money, in a fashion.

Thus far I have been rather successful with this endeavor. Though I am still not enamored with doing it, I do have a better confidence in my ability to do so. I can in fact walk into a business and tell them my name and why I am there and ask them to donate to our school.

My heart still beats fast, and I have to take several deep breaths before opening that door, but I can and I have and it is wonderful to know that I can still learn a new skill.