Blogging!

Everybody's doing it now... I have been blogging since 2001. I was on livejournal for a very long time and actually, that's where I met some of my closest friends. I loved LJ, although now I have abandoned it for Facebook.

I think when I didn't have kids I had time to blog. Now that I have kids, I have more fodder but not time. BOO! Something has got to give. My friend KN just started her blog a few days ago and she's already up to four posts. I haven't blogged since 2012. Oops... I am feeling a bit guilty.

Okay, here I go...

What have I been doing since October, 2012. A whole lot! Shizz got real in November when my colleague (Elisa) and I began working with a family whose 19 year old son was missing and was later found murdered in an abandoned warehouse in South Hayward. I tell you, I cannot imagine the grief and the anger that they wake up to every single morning. It's a very sad story and this family has become more than just "clients" they have become family. Sitting with them daily, trying to help them navigate systems that are in place to help them but that are so confusing when you are experiencing trauma. Working with the media and law enforcement to help this family get the justice that they deserve. It was at that moment that I realized that my ministry would take on a whole different meaning. My ministry has always been about service. I'm a total Martha when it comes down to it. I'm no stranger to serving the community.

Elisa and I worked all through November and December. In January, we knew what needed to be done. We knew that we needed to help other families whose children were missing or whose loved ones had been murdered. There are families out there that need help getting the assistance they need to get through these traumatic moments in their lives. Our ministry was born: South County Family Services.

We are currently working to raise money so that we can pay for the filing fee for a non-profit status. It's $850 and where that sounds like a drop in the bucket for some people, it's a lot for us. It's hard to get the attention and the word out because this is just not a "feel good" kind of thing. It would be easier if we knitted blankets for sick kiddos or read to people at convalescent homes. And to be honest, those types of activities are needed and are certainly a comfort to those that they are serving. Looking for missing kids or helping people after their loved ones have been murdered doesn't bring a smile to peoples faces.  This is what Jesus has called us to do. So you know what we do? We march through it and know that we will have the money soon and work towards our goals. We are being creative though and that's what's got me feeling really good about things! We are going to do a Tamalera fundraiser. Up to 10 people can get up to four hours of instructional tamale and salsa making by 3 of the best tamaleras in the world. Okay maybe not the world but certainly in our circle here. It's going to be great! I'm looking forward to it. Not only will they learn to make tamales, they will get to enjoy some margaritas and learn a little bit of history of the tamal. You know you want to... There are other things that we have come up with but we're not firm on things yet. It'll all work out, we know it.

So I think that I'm done with this entry. It's not nearly as entertaining as some but it's certainly not boring either. Life is rarely ever boring around here.

No Good Title For This One

It's been a very long couple of days. I seriously have no more patience. I also don't have any more smiles or eye lash batting left in me. I can't make any babies smile right now or even whisper to kittens to be good... I'm done for the week. I'm just done.

I got an ingrown toe nail removed yesterday. Yes, TMI, maybe but almost everyone gets one in their lives and well there you go... It would be such a big deal if I didn't have the DIABEETUS! I was telling my friend that I can't even say "diabetes" without saying it like "diabeetus!" It's funny and I always laugh to myself. But I digress, so I got this "nail spike" removed as my doctor called it and he told me to keep off of it for a couple of days. Umm, I'm a mom. A mom of twins. A mom of very active twins. There is NO SUCH THINGS! Since I got the toe shot I was toe numb so I decided to go have coffee with mah homegirls. Then it happened, the pain. Shooting through my toe, holy crap! Came home and I swear codeine didn't take the edge off so I od'd on some ibuprofen and that worked. The MIL picked up my kids at school and she brought me a big old Jamba Juice which is delicious but I think that she's secretly trying to kill me since she often forgets that I have the diabeetus. But you know that a mom's time to recuperate is only so long, dinner had to be made and the kids had to be bathed and what not. Everything got done and my day was over by 11:00pm.

Fast-forward to today... I had a rough start. Mostly because I have the most comfortable sheets in the world and I didn't' want to get out of bed. I can be perfectly functional in my bed I think, except for that pesky take the kids to school thing. I suppose I can't do that from the comfort of my bed... took the babies to school (they are not babies but sometimes i call them that) and drove over to Peet's and picked up the wrong coffee, doctored up said coffee with a nice amount of nutmeg and then got called for the right cup of coffee. CRIPES! So the guy whose coffee I doctored up was such a nice guy. He asked me, "What did you put in it?" and I told him sheepishly, "Umm, some nutmeg" and he's all, "Hey that's great! Thanks! I'll take it!" WOW! That was awesome! So I picked up my right coffee and then while trying to put nutmeg in, I broke the nutmeg thingy. Oh no! The nice boy (Jeanette's boyfriend) fixed it for me and I got my nutmeg! Victory! Then as I was walking back from buy pumpkin pie bagels at Panera (no, not diabeetus friendly) I dropped the monstrosity of a book that my book club is reading on my big toe. You know, the one that got the "nail spike" removed. Oh the pain. Moving on, moving on... off to Big O Tires to get some tires for the swagger wagon. 3 hours later, for real, three hours later, even after the guy told me to hang out, it won't take long, the minivan was ready. Had some lunch with mah homegirl and then it was off to do some O's and E's before I went to pick up the kids at school. Teacake had a cub scout meeting, HRH had to get feathers for her pumpkin in disguise, then before I knew it, time to pick up the boy child and come home, get homework done and make dinner.

My toe hurts. I'm kinda done. There is no point to this story. This is just my life.

What Amy Can't Forget

Last night my kids spent the night at the ILs house. They do this quite often but last night was different.

I had just read a book called What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. In short, it's about a woman who bonks her head and loses her memory. She doesn't remember the last 10 years of her life. A lot has happened in those 10 years. She doesn't remember her kids, herself or that she and her husband are going through a nasty divorce. Long story short, she starts to remember bits of her 10 years and she realizes that she doesn't really like the person she became and she wasn't the person she thought she was going to be.

Last night, the Husb and I were talking about our lives. Now I'm not kidding when I say that A LOT has changed in 10 years. 10 years ago we were career focused and buying a house in the suburbs. We were engaged to be married but not quite ready to start planning a wedding and I was still at the point where I could leave California if I had to and not look back.

Fast forward to today, I have twin babies that are going to be 8 years old in August, I am a stay at home mama who has a great group of friends that I am going to miss terribly when I go away on vacation for 3 weeks and I have a husband who I couldn't imagine my life without. It's amazing what 10 years can do. I could still leave California but there would be a piece of my heart staying behind.

If I lost 10 years of my memories it would be a sad thing. It would be terrible! I would miss the very things that have made me the person I am today. I would have missed so much that make me the spiritual, emotional, funny person I have become. There are some things I would change, I think everyone has those, you know, I would have probably taken better care of myself so I wouldn't have diabetes now but in general, I am happy with who I am. I am happy with the people that are in my life and I am happy at how my life is going. Life is good. Life is what it is because the last 10 years have helped shape me and our happy little world...

Girl Power

My daughter's Brownie troop are a group of kick ass little girls who don't take "no" for an answer. Seriously. Today they made $300 giving lemonade and brownies away. People took the brownies and lemonade and made donations. They are going to donate the proceeds to Living Water International.

We didn't know what we would make. I mean, the kids had a lemonade stand with their friends this summer and made like 40 bucks so we really weren't expecting too much. Our girls pushed it. They went up to people and told them about building a well in Africa and offering a brownie and when people said they didn't want a brownie they said, "You don't have to take a brownie to make a donation!" and you know what, most often than not, they got some money outta them. WOW! Gumption! Even middle schoolers gave spare lunch money and change to the girls for a brownie and some lemonade! It was great to see them all working together to make this well a reality.

Girls can do anything. I remember my Mama telling me that. I remember my Grandma telling me that I could be anything I wanted to be in this world. I chose to be a mother. I am raising my daughter to know that she can be anything in this world. She doesn't have to take NO for an answer.

7 days!

I did in fact finish off the 7 days of no yelling. It was a success however about 15 days into it, I yelled at my kids because it couldn't be avoided! AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I felt better and now I am very careful about what I yell at them about which is a good thing.

All in all, it made me realize that I yelled at my kiddos way too much. Not saying that it didn't feel good because yelling for me is a release but it made me really start tinking about other ways to communicate with the kids and make things really happen. There was a couple of days there that they just flat out didn't listen to me at all because they knew that I wasn't going to yell at them. Those little turkeys but that pretty much stopped after I told them that I wanted to yell at them so bad that I was doing everything I could in my power not to yell at them. They bought it and stopped.

Anyway, YES! If I can do it, you can do it too. Try it!

Going on Day 5 (the no yelling experiment)

By day three, the kids hadn't even noticed that I hadn't yelled at them for 3 days. They were still acting terrible though and I had to muster all my patience and strength not to just blow my top and scream at the top of my lungs. I know yelling doesn't solve anything but damn it would feel good to just get it out of my lungs!

So, so far, no yelling. Day 5 is going well.

Last night I had very little sleep and weird dreams when I did sleep. Just kid of long drawn out dreams that involved me being in high school and being late and having a cut above my right eye brow and the counselor making kind of a big deal and me basically skipping all my classes and just kind of hiding out. What the heck?!?!

Since I've been Gone

I've been gone from the bloggersphere... It's just because I was on vacation for 3 weeks and then school started and then and then and then... well you know, being a stay at home mom is tough! Who am I kidding? It is tough but in a totally different kind of way.

So I started this thing yesterday. I'm going to try to go 7 days without yelling at my kiddos. It's going to be hard because my first reaction to when they do something that I know they know better is to yell. So far I have not yelled for 24 hours. That's a start. I'm going to pray on it though... I need help with this. I keep telling myself that yelling doesn't solve anything. It really doesn't. It just irritates me and makes my kids feel all anxious and what not.

I was talking to a friend today and she reminded me about how we, mothers, are like the heart of our household. That whatever we are feeling and how we are acting is kind of the tone that is set in the house. It's true. I forgot about that. When I'm calm, the kids and the husb are all calm. It's nice. When I'm stressed out, everyone is grumpasaurus'... So we will try this little experiment out. I will try to remember to write about it and see how it goes, maybe I will never yell at my kids again! HA!