My Sweet, Sweet, South

Not long ago, as a little Christmas gift to myself, I bought the book My South by Robert St. John. First of all, the book is full of fun little one liners that only Southerners can truly appreciate. Things like "My South uses knives and forks, but biscuits and corn bread finish the job." Second of all, you all know I eat this stuff up...

Here's a poem by Christine Carr from the book:

In my South, there is a spirit, a holy spirit that

heals old wounds, melts the heart,

and brings all people together.

It's that spirit that is the source of our progress.

We are moving - we are moving forward, you know.

And now that we are moving and

We've got all this progress and that's great.

But you know, I can still have my front porch,

my sweet tea, and that good home cookin' -

even on a low-carb diet.

We can hold on to the beauty of this

old, old place, as we're moving.

We are moving forward and we are moving forward together.

I love this. One of the things I like the most about the South is that it is a place that sort of stands still in time. We are really good at preserving our culture, which I think is so important. You can't know where you're going until you know where you came from.

With that being said, I also think it's important that we move on. Let's face it, this is an amazing place, but it has a sorted history. It's a well known fact that the South is by no means perfect. We need to let go of as much of our history as we should hold on to, which I think we are doing.

I love my South, and this poem really sums up how I feel about it. Just because we hold on to what is great about our history, doesn't mean we are behind the times. We can live in harmony and sip sweet tea together. We can let go of our hate, but keep our cornbread, and that's my kind of South.

Ok, this is insane...

The deck in our backyard is covered with snow. When it snows in Mississippi, it never sticks, but this is incredible.

We're supposed to be having a Christmas party tonight, but I'm kind of thinking that nobody will show. I'm not rescheduling. I dipped strawberries in chocolate all night, so the show will go on. My husband and I may end up eating lots of chocolate covered strawberries by ourselves on into the night.

Rude Awakening

This morning I was awakened by a shrill shriek. "It's SNOWING! It's SNOWING!" I thought my poor child was going to have a heart attack. Snow in MS. A perfect Christmas...

Unanswered prayers...hopefully

This was my daughter's prayer at breakfast this morning:

Next time my mommy has a baby in her belly, please let it be a girl and two boys, Alexa, Brady, & Austin. And please let them be in there now.

I know full well that God answers prayers, but in this case, I'm hoping for an unanswered prayer.

I love kids

"Get up! You need to marry me!"

This is my daughter and her friend, sometimes "boyfriend." Breaking up is a regular occurrence in their "relationship." They really act like brother and sister. I love kids. They are hilarious.

The Mustard Seed

The Rankin Ledger just ran my story on the Mustard Seed in Flowood. Stop by and pick up one of their ornaments or ceramics as Christmas gifts to benefit a good cause.

Thanksgiving in Clinton...

I had the pleasure of visiting Brittany Brown's 1st grade class at Clinton Park Elementary to write this story. The kids were so much fun and had lots to say about Thanksgiving. Thanks to Sandi for all your help!

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

I love Thanksgiving. My daughter got up this morning and was mesmerized by the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, as was I when I was her age. I remember waking up and watching the parade until my parents made me get dressed to go to either my grandmother's or one of my aunt's houses. I love this holiday. It's a time for family, which I love.

This year will be a bit different. My grandmother was recently diagnosed with dementia and that in itself has caused a bit of turmoil throughout the family. It's my hope that everyone will put aside their differences and come together for her sake, at least. She's a great lady that deserves a great holiday, and I'm so thankful to get to spend one more Thanksgiving with her.

I hope you all have a great day with your families or whoever you may be spending the day with! Be thankful, I know I am.

Black Betty is a creative genius

After the virus, my computer decided to crash. I'm a horrible blogger...

Anyway, Black Betty took some pictures of my girls this weekend in hopes of getting a Christmas card picture... Success!

I couldn't have been happier with the way this one and all of the rest turned out. She did such a great job and is very reasonable!

I was also proud of my girls for being cooperative at the same time, which is unheard of.

Thank you Betty! I love the pics!

The Bug

This week a vicious little stomach bug has taken over my household. This is why I've been absent from the blogging world this week. Baby girl #2 had it first, then #1, then it hit me. And now, my poor mother has it too. Let me tell you, it was VIOLENT. And, of course, it hits us when my husband is out of town. Of course. He's back in town and is quite happy that so far, he's dodged a bullet. Usually, if anyone gets sick it's him. I rarely catch what the kids have, but this week it hit me with a vengeance. Today I've been scrubbing my house from top to bottom trying to get rid of all the nasty germs.

I've been hoping to lose a few pounds, but this is not at all what I had in mind. I'd much rather be fat.

My thumbsucker

I was determined to break my first child of the pacifier before she turned one. This was stupid. DON'T DO IT!

So now she's four years old and sucks her thumb like crazy. We have tried EVERYTHING. Everything. The bitter liquid you put on the thumb, bandaids, shameless bribery. No success.

The dentist says she's fine as long as she stops before she turns five and her teeth start falling out. Our current attempt is saying that Santa will bring a big girl bike if she stops sucking her thumb before Christmas, but it's doubtful.

Anybody have any ideas or suggestions??? Please. Please.

psha - women!

So the other night my husband sat me down and gave me a good talking to (Well, it was more like I kept asking what his problem was and he finally told me). Lately I've been burning the candle at both ends and apparently he's noticed.

Growing up, I was constantly busy. By my choice, not by my parents' choice. I was involved in anything and everything. In high school my dad told me if I wanted a car, I could work and buy one, which I did. I worked two jobs in the summer and during the school year I had school activities, sports, and worked a lot. Same thing in college. So, needless to say, I'm used to working and working a lot.

In March, I quit my really great full-time job to stay at home with my girls. I wanted to stay home when I had my first daughter, but it was financially impossible. So now we've been blessed enough that I was able to quit in March. Dream come true. The first few weeks were great. I hung out with my girls, read a few magazines, yadayadayada.

Then, what I thought was "unproductiveness" started to eat away at me. My husband would come home from work and I'd find myself jealous that he had this "life" outside of our house. After a few minor emotional breakdowns ("I'm just your wife and their mom! I do nothing that's just mine!" cry, cry, sniff, sniff), he suggested I start writing again (He's a genius, in case I've never mentioned that). So I did. And it has really taken off.

I also have a problem with volunteering for anything and everything. Which has also really taken off. So I am tired and I think he feels neglected...

What is wrong with us women??? We have this innate desire to be with our kids and yet another desire to make something (whatever that means) of ourselves. When I was working, I wanted to be at home. When I'm at home, I want to be working. We really are complicated creatures. I completely understand how men don't get us.

I am blessed beyond belief to have the best of both worlds. Although at the time, I took offense to my husband's little talk, he's so right. I can't have it all at the same time. I have to slow down and focus on what's important. I'm going to slow down, not volunteer for everything that comes along, and hang out with my kids while they still want me to. But I'm going to keep writing (the things I really want to write about) - it keeps me sane, I've decided.

For once in my life, I'm going to chill out.

Wingard Home & Mac's Cove

If you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, you know about the Wingard Home and how special it has become to me. Fortunately, I'm not alone. Natasha McLaurin, a local fashion designer recently read about the Wingard Home in the Rankin Ledger and is now hosting her first annual Mac's Cove Wingard Home Ministry Benefit Show this Saturday at Mynelle Gardens. She's a very talented designer who not only has a passion for fashion, but a passion for keeping it here in Mississippi, which you know I love...

Read my story on the show here.

The Sweeteas

I spent the day yesterday at Mistletoe Marketplace and miraculously, I left with only one thing. I bought this adorable children's book, Sweeteas, for my girls for Christmas. It's about little girls from the South and you all know, I'm a sucker for Southern stuff. I know my oldest will love it and hopefully my youngest will when she gets a little older. The web site is www.thesweeteas.com. Go check it out! My favorite line of the book is:

These are things every Southern girl should know,

'cause it's true the farther South, the sweeter they
grow!

And it is done...

First of all, thank goodness the election is over! No more political commercials, at least for a while. We can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Congratulations to our new president-elect. Although I don't agree with Obama politically in any form or fashion, witnessing history in the making is pretty cool. Like John McCain said in his concession speech, it's time for us to join together and as Americans support our newly elected president. I'm sure we have an interesting four years ahead.

Happy Election Day

Go vote!