My Sweet Emily

I touched a little on Emily and encouraging her dreams and talents today in the Halloween blog. But this subject is really dear to my heart. I am so many times surprised by her insight, her mind and her emotional capacity for accepting love. And sometimes I am fearful that I will not be able to give her everything that she deserves from a mother. But I think every mother feels that way.

Fortunately God stretches me everyday past my preconceived ideas of what I thought I was capable of.

God is good. He alone knows where we are going in the future and how He is preparing us. And for some reason He blessed us with this beautiful, special girl and it is my gift and joy to join in the ride of a lifetime. To be instrumental in shaping her in His image and unveiling her gifts.

I can't help but think of the refiner's fire. What tests, what challenges, what joyful experiences will she go through to reveal the character and the talents that He gave just to her? And how will we as parents play a part in that refining process?

Who knows what she may be able to do? She certainly is thinking further ahead than even I ever did as a child, and believe me I have always been a big dreamer! Maybe that is why God made me the way I am, made me such a big dreamer, so that I can understand and encourage that side of this beautiful being that is my daughter.

Maybe I didn't do everything right in my life with my talents and gifts, but I certainly recognize them in my daughter and my son. And I'm grateful that I see them at such an early age. And I'm even grateful that I've always recognized my own weaknesses, though they have caused me no end of self-doubt and self-criticism, and even though they've plagued me and been difficult to overcome.

But aren't they always difficult to overcome? That's exactly why weaknesses are called weaknesses.

Hopefully I am learning to recognize and guide my children at an early age so that they can fulfill their gifts fully. It is actually exciting to see how Emily is thinking so far ahead of what I ever did!

Looking forward to the possibilities, I never want to limit my children's possibilities or beliefs in what they are capable of if they are willing to work for it. Even if it what they dream may seem impossible to me at the time. (And that seems pretty farfetched to me right now, as I have never seen anything as impossible at the outset really, just maybe deep down I may not have believed it might be possible for me to accomplish it myself.)

So Emily and I were talking about the presidential race and she asked whether or not a kid can become president.

She said, "Can I be president?"

I said, "If you want to, sure, someday."

She said, "But is it legal for a kid to be President, Mommy?"

I said, "No, honey. But if you really want to be president someday, there are a few things you should do first to prepare yourself to be a really good president. Because you're going to have to run the country, you know."

She was all ears. "Like what?"

"Well, like go to school, learn everything you can. Serve in the military for a time, so you can lead your troops. Run your own business. And travel the world and learn as much as you can about the world." She was pretty much in awe.

I said there was a lot of work involved, but that was a good start. I also said maybe she could be even be the first woman President. She thought that was cool.

Anyway, enough rhapsodizing about the future…..

Suffice it to say, I feel blessed. In awe, overwhelmed at times at the responsibility and my own frailties, but blessed.

I love you, Emily.

I Love My Mummy!

Halloween is just around the corner and the kids are so cute! Blake insists on wearing this "I Love My Mummy" halloween t-shirt for the last two days. It's so cute. He just liked the scary shirt and I of course loved the joke, too. He doesn't get the double entendre obviously. But the other cute thing is that the mummy glows in the dark! Too funny!

We usually stay away from all the scary stuff completely, but we were looking for some pants for Blake as he is growing so fast he is almost completely out of alll of his pants and we stumbled across this really cheap t-shirt. And such a cute sentiment, too! He-hee. He just would NOT leave me alone about it. Oh well.

I've got to get to work on his costume, like QUICK, though. I am retrofitting his fireman's costume from last year. It is Navy with orange and silver stripes on the bottoms of the legs and sleeves. And the silver stripes reflect the light, which is very nice for trick or treating!

Since he is so set having a Thomas the Train costume and those costumes are either so expensive or cheesy looking, I am going to sew strips of red fabric over the orange to make it the colors of Thomas the Train.

I hope I can find some sort of Thomas emblem to sew on the jacket. That would be great. A conductor's hat would really top off the costume perfect, but getting Blake to wear any hat is impossible. Even Thomas the Train hat. Too bad. But I think it is going to look great!

As for my sweet, crazy, all feminine little girl.....for some reason, Emily is all about the scary stuff this year! She just is enthralled with anything spooky! The scarier, the gorier, the better. Fortunately she is still excited about being a fairy. She was going to be a black fairy, with these beautiful wings, after we found this beautiful black skirt at Walmart. It had a button that made the little filaments inside the skirt glow and undulate in different colors. Too cool! Really verry pretty. Man! What I wouldn't have given to have these kinds of things available as a child! There are so many cool things out now! Truly amazing technology for everything under the sun, even kids costume!

Anyway, we couldn't find the black skirt, so I was really starting to freak out inside, because she was so set on this black fairy thing! We just hadn't been able to fit it in the budget yet, and I was afraid this might happen.

But Lord be praised, we found the exact same skirt in white when we went back to get it, and she was just as happy with it, especially when we found the beautiful wings that went with it. All white and pink and purple, with a little bit of orange and yellow, with some silver glitter on them! So we added a pink leotard, white tights, and pink satin gloves and she's set. We've already got lots of cool dress-up makeup to play with, and some glitter and rhinestones. She is going to be just so precious! She is sooooo excited! I'm going to take lots of pics for sure.

And honestly I'm really glad it worked out this way, because if it gets dark earlier than usual, the white will show up better than the black costume anyway.

If I have time, I think I might try to add some extra glitter or sequins to the wings to make it glisten better (like every little girl dreams of). She will just love it! And then some velcro to the leotard and the wings. 'Cause I wanna make sure the wings don't flop down all the time like they always do with those costumes. lol.

Oh, speaking of wings flopping.....Emily was telling me, very seriously mind you, how she wanted to install some strings on her wings that she could pull to make her wings flap while she was walking. Hilarious! Already a little engineer. She's always listening to me talking about how to make things work a different way and she already thinks outside the box. I love it!

I just want to make sure that she develops a real sense of self discipline and direction. Her teacher is very impressed with Emily and her exceptional intelligence. (We just need to work on her focus.) Emily and I both are working on that, in fact.

So, off to the store to get some red fabric, velcro and back to the sewing machine! Wish me luck in finding a Thomas decal and getting this all done!

Dream It, Believe It, Do It!

Business, Family, and Life

Well, life has a way of throwing you for a loop doesn't it?

No sooner did we get hit with this huge opportunity on the coast, just as soon, it dried up, so to speak.

But then another opportunity and another company has kept Lance's business even busier here in San Antonio! One of the largest premier event and catering companies in central texas, Rosemary's Catering, has been using us for the last 3 or 4 weeks and we now have an exclusive contract with the company and boy is it keeping us hopping.

I even did a couple of jobs with the company last week. One of them was at this big old fashioned ranch, a complete western saloon-style event, you know complete with dirt roads and old buildings that looked like an old movie set. The other was for the Culinary Food Institute where chefs from around the world flew in to sample their food for eachother under this big tent. It was just my luck though that both my events were outside.

But a couple of other events that we staffed that evening were weddings; one was this huge beautiful event held in Austin where both the groom and the bride were pilots and they both flew off at the end of the night! How cool is that!

Man, I wish I'd seen that!

Anyway, the business is growing, the kids are growing even faster.

Emily is at the head of her class. I got a note from her teacher saying that she is being nominated for submission into the gifted program for "study" if I will give my permission. Of course! Wow! Her teacher had told me at our conference that she was already at the end of first grade reading level and excelling at all her subjects, the only issue she had at all was that she needed to concentrate a little more on listening. The teacher has to repeat things to her.....Yeah. This is a problem. I completely agreed with her. We are working on this at home as well.

I remember I had exactly the same "report card" at the same age. I excelled in every subject, didn't act out, wasn't a problem student at all, but I was at times "distant".

But I remember distinctly my side of the story, too. Because it wasn't that I wasn't focused, because I was. I was just focused on something that interested me more. I remember one day in particular, (this was in Duncan, OK) I was "daydreaming" as the teacher would relay it, but what I was actually doing was "inventing".

I was creating a machine, a flying machine, a kind of combination between a bicycle and a helicopter, with wings off the side. I was watching the birds outside the school window and seeing how they worked, intently trying to figure out how my machine could work.

Anyway, I was caught "daydreaming". But I was so excited about it! Because I was so sure it would work.

I later told my mom about my machine and how I'd actually figured out how the gears would work together to turn the propellors and help to maintain some sort of lift, at least if only for a little way. But she completely poo-pooed my idea and told me it was ridiculous and that it was impossible and wouldn't work and really just ended up totally stealing my dream. I was crushed! I mean I was a little kid with this great idea! I'd spent a lot of time on it and it was a lot of intricate design and engineering that went into it. But hey, if my mom didn't think it was going to work I guess she was right. Of course I gave up on the idea. I mean I didn't ahve the means or the money to make it happen on my own anyway if she wasn't going to support it, so what was I supposed to do?

But then, a couple of years later, I saw on TV another person, (an adult, of course) on a news story who did almost EXACTLY my same invention! Someone ELSE created MY flying helicopter/bicycle! I was so mad! Yeah! It wouldn't work, huh?

Anyway, back to Emily. She is like me in a lot of ways. She has a lot going on "up there" all the time. She is an inventer, a thinker. She is curious. She is a problem solver. She helps me come up with ideas and solutions all the time for things. I encourage her to think outside the box.

And I am fascinated by how her mind works because I understand it. I only pray that God gives me the wisdom to channel it well so that she is actually able to reach her potential in life.

She is such a bright light in my life! Often, I don't even realize I am down until she walks in the room with her smile and I have to shake myself out of it for her sake.

But she is also different than me in so many ways! I believe God gave her to me to bless me but to teach me as well. And I believe that God will give me everything I will ever need to give Emily everything she will ever need from a mother. For whatever reason He gave her to me and me alone to mother. I am the only one in the world that can fulfill that role for her in the same way and so I am trying to grow and stretch myself to become the best I can be, fallen though I am right now.

I pray that I will be a mother who challenges her to grow and stretch herself, not by pushing her but by giving her the gift of seeing her own mother challenging herself. Because children ultimately learn what they see. They do what they see, not what they are told.

I have spent the blog on Emily today because I have needed to spend more time with her so she is on my mind. But Blake is growing llike a weed! He is attached at the hip. He is definately a mama's boy right now! He doesn't get to see daddy much right now because of business so I think he's a little miffed at daddy and clings to me a little more because of it. But he is also just with me all the time because Emily is at school and he's not. I'm thinking of trying to get him into a pre-k program when we can afford it just to get him used to being away from me some more. He's already spelling words and writing and interested in math so I think he is ready for school next year. And I NEED some mommy time!

I also am hoping to get some of my jewelry bags online this christmas, so check back soon everybody.....