Muffins with Mom – A family bonding moment

Family bonding

What happens when one of your children goes away to college? His sibling is left home with the parents. Some days it is really evident that my sixteen year old misses his brother. Like when he says, “I’m bored,” then wants to wrestle with me.

Now that football season has ended, my son has more time on his hands. The other day, after working late, then running errands, I arrived home ready to put my feet up and relax. No such thing occurred.

As soon as I slipped out of my shoes, I heard my son yelling from the other room, “Ma, come here.” When I opened his bedroom door, I saw that he held his dad captive, playing cards.

“It’s family night,” My son announced.

I smiled a fake smile as I said, “I don’t want to play, you guys go ahead.”

“No Ma, you have to play too.”

I slunk onto the corner of my son’s bed and picked up the cards he’d dealt. I released a deep sigh and organized the cards in my hand. When I looked up, my son was snuggled up next to his dad. He handed me his phone and said, “Take my picture, we’re bonding.”

My son snuggled closer as dad tried to pull away. He then looked at me and said, “This is what it looks like when it’s not your day to watch the kids and they want to bond.”

When I finished laughing, I found the energy to play cards a little longer. After all, if I refused to play, my son would snuggle up to me next and want to take a candid photo.

If his older brother was home, my son would not have the need to snuggle with me or his dad. Family bonding would still take place, it would just look a little different.

What was your most recent family bonding moment?

 

Fun Friday - Trick or Treat – A parents night out

You can't go wrong with Dollar Store jewelry as part of your comedy ensemble.

As a child, at Halloween, my friends and I used to chant the phrase, “trick or treat smell my feet, give me something good to eat.” There were no tricks, only treats at the Evening of Elegance event hosted by the Women’s Ministry at my church. The event was open to everyone, but I viewed it as an opportunity for a parent's night out.

As a parent, how often do you take the opportunity to do something fun? If you had to think about your answer too long, it’s time to get out. Take the time to rejuvenate, relax and reward yourself. The opportunity presented itself for me to be on the program at our Evening of Elegance event. I took a leap of faith and signed up to entertain through comedy.

In search of something to wear to the event, I perused the selection of high fashion in my closet (not). I chose one of the long gowns that I wore in somebody’s wedding over the past ten years. On my way to the church I stopped by the Dollar Store and purchased my most precious jewelry…a plastic necklace with matching earrings. I couldn’t resist the old school candy necklace, so I wore them all.

Felling like the belle of the ball, I glided around the room with as much grace as I could muster up. This sometimes meant remembering not to walk hard like I was wearing combat boots instead of high heeled shoes with a platform. The room was transformed into a café type atmosphere with faux candles and colorful centerpieces on the tables.

Some of the youth from church served as waiters and waitresses. They took our orders from a predetermined menu of sandwiches, fruit, veggies and dessert. I tried to coax my sixteen-year-old son into attending the festivities with me, but he would rather stay home and do chores than to hang out with me. And that’s how my outing turned into a parent’s night out.

The entire event was a treat to those in attendance. There was guitar music, poetry reading, youth mime, singing and comedy (me). I’m not a comedian by trade, but as with my blog, I have plenty of stories of things that happen in the throes of parenting. I told my son that if he accompanied me to the event, I wouldn’t include him in any of my stories. He took his chances, he stayed home. I was bluffing anyway. Most of the stories included his brother.

Have you experienced a parent’s night out? What will you plan as you next outing?

Words of Wisdom – How is a being a Christian like being a pumpkin?

photo credit

A woman was asked by a co-worker, ‘what is it like to be a Christian?’

The co-worker replied, ‘it is like being a pumpkin. God picks you from the patch, brings you in, and washes all the dirt off you.

Then he cuts off the top and scoops out all the yucky stuff.

He removes the seeds of hate, doubt, and greed.

Then he carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine for all the world to see.’

Author Unknown

Pumpkin days of long ago with my boys