Robin's Chicks

Nudge The Nest & Pray They Fly

You are here: Home / Archives for Momma Said

A Day In The Life

by

THIS is just one of the many reasons I’m off my blogging game. Sadie is everywhere. She is everywhere all at once. Right before I took this picture she had opened the cabinet, grabbed a bag of coffee and ate a handful of coffee grounds. Sadie is busy, therefore I am busy. Pretty much any time she is asleep or immobile, I collapse in a heap.

My freelance work has picked up some which is awesome, because they pay me in DOLLARS, and I’ve started working on edits for Book 2. I got my notes back from Agent Jenny & I’m really excited about getting this book finished and sent to her so we can move forward. (Sometimes I really have to pinch myself that this is even my life. I am writing and people are READING it? Other people are PAYING me to do it?? Jenny Bent is my agent?? Shut. Up.)

At any rate, I’ve been crazy busy writing and chasing my kids and I’ve gotten involved with an AMAZING program. YoungLives is a mentoring program for teen moms and we are getting geared up to really start making a difference in these girls lives. I’m super excited to be involved and can’t wait to tell you more about it!

I just wanted y’all to know why I haven’t been obsessively blogging!

What’s been keeping you busy lately?

Anybody Seen Paula Deen?

by

Last night I made my kids some Kraft Easy Mac for dinner. It was Friday night and we usually do pizza or take-out but Momma is tryin’ to get her groove back so I made a very healthy and slightly disgusting dinner for me and Hubs and Mac and Cheese for the girls. (You have NO idea how hard it was not to face plant in the bowl when it was done.)
I got the family-size box because one little box just isn’t enough to feed all three kids anymore. Normally I just make it. I don’t read the directions, I add a little milk and that magical orange powder and maybe a tablespoon of butter and stir. But last night I happened to pick up the box and look at the directions and I almost passed out, right there in my very own kitchen.
Do you SEE how much butter it calls for? (It says margarine, but WHO on God’s green earth is going to put margarine in it? If that’s you, don’t tell me because I can’t handle it. Margarine disgusts me.) Four tablespoons of margarine disgusts me even more than an ENTIRE STICK OF BUTTER.
Are these people serious?? I love butter, but this seems excessive even to me. I’d like to know where Paula Deen was when Kraft needed these directions written up. I’ve got my money on her standing in their test kitchen.

Dinnertime Conversations

by

Me: I’m making hamburgers for dinner. Who wants one?
Aubrey: Can I have a turkey and pickle sandwich instead? I don’t feel like a hamburger.
Me: Sure. *inwardly giddy for a little less cooking* I make her sandwich and hand it to her.
Me: Emma what do you want?
Emma has been stealing snacks out of the pantry all afty.
Emma: Just a pickle sandwich, wike Sissy.
Me: Do you want a whole one or just a half? Are you hungry enough to eat a whole one?
Emma: No. I just want half.
Me: *gets one piece of bread out and starts to make a sandwich*
Emma: Two halves. Just like Aubrey.
Me: *groans*
It’s been a rough day. I fried bacon to put on my hamburger and one strip a piece for the girls, as soon as the smell hit the air Aubrey said, “Sometimes you just gotta eat bacon. Huh, Momma?”
Me: You got that right.
Aubrey: Momma, I am going to be a grownup before Emma, huh?
Me: Yes.
Aubrey to Emma: YOU are going to be so happy to be little when I’m an old lady.
(She is 6 and Emma is 4, soooo.)
What’s going on at your house during Hell Hour? (If you don’t know what Hell Hour/The Witching Hour is, you obviously don’t have kids. Email me and I will describe it in detail for you. Then, who knows, maybe you’ll never have kids.)

10 Things I Learned in 2010

by

10- Emma knows the words to every song she’s ever heard.

9- If I ever need prayer or encouragement I just need to ask Aubrey to share a few words. (Ahem, please contact me to book her for speaking engagements.)
1- I wouldn’t trade places with anyone in the world.
I’m ready to kick this year in the butt as my screen door slams shut behind it. Bring it 2011. Bring it.

And Then There Was One…

by

My kids are already out of school for Christmas and my mother came into town to rescue me from one of the worst weeks in recent history, and to take my oldest two back to Birmingham with her from some grandmother bonding time.

I was excited to be able to give Sadie, my youngest, my undivided attention for a few days. About 5 minutes after my mom and daughters left, Sadie started asking for Shuggie (my mom.)

Sadie: I want Suuuuggie.
Me: Shuggie is gone, baby. But you have Mommy ALL to yourself. We can do whatever you want…
Sadie: NO! I not wike it! I wan see Shuggie wight now!

Sadie has simmered down since then and realized I’m not such a bad second choice. We have sat down to eat meals together, built towers of blocks, read stacks of books (as the third child I’m not sure if she even realized that I knew how to read,) and spent plenty of time snuggled up together watching Barney.

No matter how many kids you have, when you have one less, you MARVEL at how easy life is. Take away two kids? And seriously, it’s like being on vacation over here. Having just one child in the house went straight to my head and I actually thought I could sit down for a few minutes to drink my coffee and watch the news this morning. Something I haven’t done in MONTHS. When I walked into the kitchen I remembered WHY I haven’t done it in months…


That’s tumeric. I have absolutely no idea why I bought it or what I’ve ever put it in but I will tell you that it stains your skin yellow if you touch it. I look like I’ve been making mustard sandwiches and using my hands as knives.

Fewer children in the house means I also have unlimited time to spend getting Sadie in the bed at night. And when she closes her eyes and pretends to sleep to make me stay in her room longer, I really couldn’t care less what color my hands are…

‘Sup Boos?

by

I kind of, sort of, got in trouble tonight with my new friend Heather. (‘Sup bestie?) Because she says that I am thwarting her attempts at cyber-stalkage by not posting enough. And I REALIZE this, and I just wanted y’all to know that I haven’t forgotten about you and my bliggedy blog. I’ve just been so busy living life.

I completed my second book and sent it off to Agent Jenny to read. (Fingers crossed still waiting to hear from her.) I’ve been working on my presentation for all the ladies at FUMC in Jasper, Ala., and like I said, we’ve been really living over here.

We’ve been falling into bed at night exhausted and happy from spending the day playing with friends and laughing until our tummies hurt. (Don’t get me wrong, it’s still total chaos. Heather came by the other day and in the ten minutes it took for me to give her what she came for, Emma peeled a carrot with a butter knife and left shavings all in the floor of the kitchen. And Sadie ate an entire bag of Luden’s cough drops. I’ve been thinking about it for days and I STILL don’t remember where or when I bought them, but every time I turned around she had another one in her mouth. )

So yes, it’s still insane at my house most of the time but the crazy is slowly starting to be more manageable. (I know I’m probably going to be so sorry I wrote that, but for now it’s true.)

I’ll be traveling and speaking for the next two days but then I’ll be back, and I’ll be all yours. And I promise I’ll get back to posting so many times a day that you feel like you live in my house with me… m’kay?

Thank YOU!

by

As Halloween’s high fructose corn syrup high has faded, the leaves have turned brilliant shades of orange and yellow. They swirl off the trees in my yard making a damp carpet for my children to fall on as they play and remind me that another year is coming to a close.

There are so many things to be thankful for this year; I’m overwhelmed at where to begin. I am beyond thankful that the most serious problem I’ve faced in the last week was arranging for the burial of multiple goldfish, although I did learn that the death of a goldfish is quite a serious matter to some.

I find it hard to believe that I’ve been in my new home in Greenwood, Mississippi, for less than a year, it seems more like ten. Moving to Smalltown, USA has been above and beyond what my husband and I thought it would be, and after growing up in Jasper, Ala. we had pretty high expectations. We’ve been so fortunate over the last twelve years. We have lived in some of the friendliest cities in the country: Savannah, Ga. Mount Pleasant, S.C., Fort Worth, Tx., Auburn, Ala. Moving as often as we have could have been a difficult thing, but it’s proven to be one of my life’s greatest blessings.

This year I am thankful for the friends I’ve made, for the people who have challenged me and made my life better, for the people, in all of these cities who welcomed me with open arms and helped me to make their city my temporary home. I’m grateful for the group of women who are in my life now; women who make me laugh until I cry and who pull me through life when I can’t make it on my own.

Among the blessings I hold closest to my heart: my family, my friends and you, my reader. I’m thankful for your acceptance of the real me. The me that is flawed, quirky and occasionally (fine, always) overshares. The me that works out until she can’t get out of bed then runs through a drive-through for lunch, the me that chases her baby around the country club swimming pool then falls in head first, the me who loves her family desperately but gets motherhood wrong a million ways every day. Thank you for laughing with me, encouraging me and actually taking the time to read what I write.

This Thanksgiving as I sit down with my family and give thanks, my prayer will be simple. Lord, thank you for so many places to call home and so many friends to call family.


Don’t forget to enter to win my latest BLOG GIVEAWAY!!