2008 April — We are THAT Family

Motherhood

7:30 am Bykristen

Last summer, my siblings and I surprised our parents with a 40th Anniversary party. I snuck into my parents attic, found my mother’s wedding veil and put it on her when she walked into the party. I have never seen her smile so broad, giggle so freely or kiss my Dad so much. It is a night I will never forget.

Thank you Mom, for marrying Dad 40 years ago. Thank you for teaching me perseverance. You have lived your life to be my mother, making sacrifices along the way. I hope 26 years from now, when my children celebrate this milestone with me, I look just like you: Happy.

Mother's Day 2008 - Giveaway Event

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Proverbs 31:28
“Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.”

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Lost

7:00 am Bykristen

*Update* Thank you so much for offering your opinions about this very touchy and difficult situation. I have learned a lot about what you all have shared and you’ve given me much to think about. The bottom line is we need to remember to pray for all involved. That is the least we can do. And that is a lot.

http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/world/article/36750

I don’t normally talk about current events, politics, Hollywood. . .

Normally.

But I have such a heavy heart today. I thought I’d share my burden and you can share your thoughts.

What do ya’ll think about the polygamy group in Texas, more specifically, how it is being handled by the state? I’m all against cults, multiples marriage partners, you know, weird stuff.

I was reading the latest issue of People’s magazine, that’s how I stay informed, my friends, and the article on the polygamist compound broke my heart. The kids have been separated from their moms- One shelter for 100 people with two bathrooms, no change of clothes, some children have contracted chicken pox. Without their moms. Since most of these mothers were married as young girls to older men with multiple wives, aren’t they the victims too? These ladies don’t have many choices from what I have read.

I’m all about removing kids from abusive environments. I’m not exactly a fan of polygamy either. But couldn’t they have kept the moms with the kids while they try to sort out this mess?

It’s a terrible situation and there aren’t easy answers. The article quotes one child who woke up one night distraught, looking for his mother, scared. And I couldn’t help but think of my own five year old son.

Lost.

And that stayed with me. All night.

Tell me what you think.

Matthew 19:13
[ The Little Children and Jesus ]” Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them.”

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Secret FAITHBABY Giveaway for NEWSLETTER READERS ONLY!

6:59 am Bykristen

*UPDATE* Congratulations to PunkinMama! Thanks y’all. Secrets are fun!

Hi y’all! Thanks for reading and being a part of my blogworld! I love that each of you are striving to parent like Jesus wants you too!

I love today’s giveaway. It’s sponsored by FAITH BABY!

Visit her great store and tell me what you’d like your faith baby to wear…One blessed winner will get their choice of a onesie or shirt.

If there was still a tiny tush in my house, you better believe they’d be wearing one of these:

This super secret giveaway won’t last long!

PLEASE IGNORE THE FIRST FEW COMMENTS ABOUT MOSQUITOS—I WROTE OVER A VERY OLD POST SO A NEW SECERT POST WOULDN’T SHOW UP IN EVERONE’S GOOGLE READER, BUT I COULDN’T DELETE ALL THE OLD COMMENTS FOR SOME REASON.

IF YOU’D LIKE TO WIN THE ABOVE GIVEAWAY, LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW!

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Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You Carnival Guidelines

8:00 am Bykristen

Thanks for your interest in this blog carnival. I’m not a big rule follower, so I don’t have many rules. Just write a sincere post from your past and link up:

The purpose of Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You (every Thursday) is to link up a post about something from your past. You can reach back all the way to your childhood and bravely post pictures of your ‘fro or post something from last year and tell us about it. I’m not picky. We just want to read about something that will never see the inside of a scrapbook either because it’s not worthy or because you can’t find your fancy crinkle cut scissors.
Please use a permalink that sends readers directly to the correct post.
You can put the ‘fro button on your site, if you dare, but if you choose not to, it would be great if you’d include a link in your post just so others know how to join.
Have fun and can’t wait to see what you’ve got!
P.S. I don’t have a scanner to scan my old photos. I grabbed a big pile of ones that ‘spoke’ to me and used a Kodak photo machine at Walgreens. For like $2.99, you can put the photos on a CD. Don’t let this stop you, grab a photo from yesterday if you need to because that’s the past!
I’ll be putting up Mr. Linky every Wednesday evening, so grab the button and let’s get sincere! Here are some tips for using Mr. Linky if your new to this. (Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer explains it well).

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Sincerely ‘Fro Me to You-The Big Twin

7:00 am Bykristen

Thanks for joining me for my weekly flashback. Today, I dove deep into my photo box and pulled out a bit of history. If you want to read why I’m sincerely offering this ‘fro me to you, and just how sincere blah blah blah I am, click here.

I am a twin.

My sister was born five minutes after me. I am older. As a twin, this is important.

Growing up twins made my sister and I a little more unique than the average singleton. We shared a birthday, a room, clothes and sometimes we were nice to each other.

Sometimes. Notice I did not choose often. Stay with me.

I think the best thing about being a twin was always having someone with me, especially in difficult situations.

The worst thing? Those difficult situations: We could be scratching each other’s eye balls out in the privacy of our closet one minute and holding hands like the greatest allies, when we were caught by our parents in the closet scratching each other’s eyeballs out.

Oh, yes, we hid our wounds and quickly became best friends again. Unity is born in the midst of anger from the parental units.

We are not identical. Actually, we’ve always had our own look. She has green eyes. Mine are brown. As children, she was fair, I was olive.

And, not only was I the older twin, I was the bigger twin.

My parents always referred to me as the big twin, you know, to differentiate between us. I guess because saying, “the brown-haired one or the blonde one” would be confusing.

I have always been bigger than my sister, at least several inches taller. I was born at 5 lbs. She was only 3 lbs. and so, I guess it was natural from the beginning to label us by size. I grew up with the label.

It was like a trait. “Oh yes, she has wavy, thick hair. And she has straight, fine hair. Yes, she is tiny, isn’t she? Oh, and that one? She’s the big twin.”

During high school, we quickly migrated to our own interests. I loved sports, drama and journalism and my sister loved all things music. We found autonomy and it was good.

I will never forget the day I referred to myself as the big twin. I was in college. (Yes, I know it is sad that I still characterized myself this way.) Someone mentioned that I was petite.

I argued and others joined in, pointing their fingers and proclaiming me petite.

Well, never in all my 20 years had anyone ever used that word to describe big, ol’ me.

It was such a revelation, once I returned to my dorm room I called my Mom.

“Mom, did you know I was petite?”

“Of course, honey, you’re 5’2″.”

“But, I’m the big twin!”

Well. After my mom stopped laughing, she went on to explain that compared to my sister who was just under 5 foot, I was big, bigger, oh, um, tall, yes, taller.

Oh.

And that’s when it dawned on me that I wasn’t that big after all.