But I AM a MOM and Even A Grand Mommy!

I just don't get it. I truly don't.  It seems that society doesn't want us to look like Moms, and we are biting in on the propaganda. 

Mom jeans is a humorously pejorative term for a specific type of fit of women's jeans, considered to be both unfashionable, and unflattering to the wearer's bodyshape. This style usually consists of a high waist (rising above the belly button), making the buttocks appear disproportionately longer, larger, and flatter than they otherwise might. It also tends to have excess space in the zipper/crotch and leg areas. The jeans are usually in a solid, light-blue color, with no form of stone washing or fading. Other attributes of the style often seen are pleats, tapered legs, and elastic waistbands. The style is often accompanied by a blouse or shirt that is tucked into the jeans. This style of jeans was popular with women in the United States until the mid-1990s, when lower rise jeans started to become fashionable. (google source, wikipedia)

I mean...I earned my stretch marks.  I earned my wrinkles. I earned my grey-hair.  I earned my thunder-thighs.  Yet, every time I turn around I am hearing about not looking like a Mom.  Even new moms don't want to be seen with diaper bags, they have to have something for the baby necessities that doesn't suggest they are a mom. Now what is funny is, doesn't that baby on your hip yell, "MOM"?

Okay, I don't need to look like a hag, but I am proud of the fact that I have survived parenting for over 30 years and birthed six children from my womb.  I can now brag about being a Grand Mommy, and therefore, if there is anything I wear, or do, or buy or say that suggest the journey I have taken, well bring it on!  I may not enjoy wearing the jeans from the 80's, but to warn me about "not wearing mommy jeans", well I would say that is the wrong wording.  Let's call them "out of style"  I haven't owned jeans like that in years.  Even with my larger body I had given those up.

Just google "mommy" jeans and your computer will go on overload with advice to not look like a mom.

http://www.oprah.com/style/Denim-Dos-and-Donts/5

Just open up Yahoo and all you see is bodies without a "mom trace" that would suggest the birthing years or with titles on how they look better now than they did before they had children.  Then you have the "hot grandmothers".  I am sure neither of my grandmothers worried about being "hot".  I mean, whose eye are you trying to attractive? The only eye's I want to attractive is my own silver-headed husband.  He still view me through early married eyes and in no way has every!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, made me feel my "mommy" body looked un-attractive. I also don't want to hear my grandson's describing me as their "hot" Grand Mommy.

So I will say, do and be the Grand Mommy I am....I have earned it.  Don't plan on seeing me on the latest run-way, my thunder thighs have never allowed me to walk on that floor.  I will, however, exercise, try to eat right, and wear a style of clothes that doesn't scream....YOUTH.  

Come on ladies..............can't we grow old gracefully and leave the SEXY for our husbands?  Maybe if us "wiser" women would let go of this new "don't look like a mom" mentality then the younger women wouldn't have such insecurities about their looks, which leads to so many problems.  Just saying...from the one who is going to wear "Grand Mommy" jeans proudly.

It Was Towed!

I wasn't looking for it...

I hadn't even thought about it.

My "word for the year" wasn't even on my mind.

Then this picture came and I heard my "word" loud and clear.

Tears started to roll down my eyes...

I told myself..."compose yourself, you look like a blooming idiot."

The truth is... the things of God usually look foolish to the world.

This was the original car (a 1971 Mustang) which was bought in 2000 by our oldest son...Kenny (now 30), Allen (now 27) and Stephen (now 18).

Now why in the world would a old car being towed make me find my "word" or bring tears?

Because behind this car is a veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery long story.

This car was being towed to be restored.

It has been an over-a-decade-long project that my boys started undertaking in their teens.

It once drove... before it caught on fire.

They have all set in the seat of this car...dreaming of the possibilities.

Now, our recently-married, second-born son and his wife are making the dream finally come to pass.

My mind thought back over last year's "word".  I could never have imaged what the year 2013 would hold when my understated word, "transition" was picked.

So, as the word rolled over in my mind... and my thoughts... and my emotions...I stopped.

Instead of trying to figure it out, I went the the source...THE WORD of God.

My 2014 "WORD" - RESTORATION!!

His Daddy started the project....his Uncle is going to finish the dream.

My mind needed to stop on what all God meant by that word for this year.  My flesh cries out for many things to be restored.  As I read through His word, I knew that the restoration was to first start internally.

Psalms 51:12:

"Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation

And sustain me with a willing spirit

Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways"

Jeremiah 30:17-22:

"For I will restore you to health

And I will heal you of your wounds, declares the Lord"...

Each scripture was the Lord telling His  people what He would do, not something in their own efforts. He stated, "I will restore," over and over again through these verses.

Psalms 80:

".....stir up Your power

And come to save us!

O God, restore us

And cause Your face to shine upon us, 

and we will be saved" 

With the word restoration, I got the words "good deeds" and "the written word."

Later, I looked at the three and saw they needed to come in this order: 

First, The Written Word.......then, Good Deeds......then, Restoration!

So, my header shows my thoughts for this coming year.  I look into the future, having learned from my past, but not turning back.  I will be writing this year!  I will read His written word and put words on paper this year...allowing Him to be the author.  I am going to dance with my silver-haired husband.  It is time to bring this relationship back to the front burner.  I look forward to the Lord walking this word out in my life...

and I hope He'll do the same for you.

This Year is the Number 8!

The first week of January we celebrate birthdays in our house...three birthdays!  This year our birthdays have the number 8 in common.  I have always been interested in some of the meanings others give to numbers.  So in celebration of 8, I am listing some of what I found.

• The eight beatitudes of the sermon on the mountain. (Mt 5,3-11)
• The eight sentences of the Magnificat or Hymn of Mary. (Lk 1,46-56)
• Jesus was circumcised eight days after his birth, according to the law established. (Lv 12,3; Gn 17,12 and 21,4; Lk 2,21)
• The eight steps of the staircase leading to the external square of the Ezekiel's temple. (Ezk 40,26)
• The eight creative words of God in six days, in Genesis chapter 1, verses 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 20, 24, 26.
• The eight persons who were saved from the Flood in Noah's Ark. (Gn 7,13)

Stephen turned 18!!  Happy Birthday Precious Brown-Eyed boy.  He is the only one of our six children with brown eyes.  When he was little I made up a song I sang to him about him being my brown-eyed-baby-boy.  He is not longer the baby of the family, but he will always be my brown-eyed baby boy...even if he towers over me with the height of 6'4".

Benjamin turns 8 today!  He had a wonderful birthday party with his friends at the Wild West Show in Fort Worth, Texas.  He will remain the baby of the family, but at age 8 he is loving his new title of Uncle Ben.

I turn 53 on the 8th of January.  5 + 3 = 8.  So I have will share the number 8 with my boys, if you add my numbers, on the the 8th day of January.

Somewhere in this month I plan to re-do my header for my blog.  I hope to write about what the Lord is showing me, but  for now I just need to keep up with work and home.  I am still learning how to juggle all these new adventures.  What an exciting year this will be.  God will once again take the pen from my hand and write my story.