Thursday, February 24, 2011

Living An Honest Life

Good Morning! Has the coffee kicked in yet? I'm still waiting for mine to do it's job. Hopefully it will soon, otherwise this may be one of the most interesting posts I've ever made!

Thank you for all the well-wishes in the past week. I really do appreciate them and have used them to fuel a big boost in my recovery. I was feeling so healthy and optimistic that I decided it was time to get crafty!.... Okay, so it was a combination of feeling healthy and needing a concrete way to give my son a message about life that he can come back to whenever he needs a reminder.

Since I've been in a creative funk, I looked around for a sketch that was simple, but still gave me a chance to add my own preferences and style.



Easy peasy lemon sqeezy, right? Thank you, Nicole Nowosad and Creative Scrappers! And what I made:



This has to be one of the flattest pages I have made in a long time; but I like it. Since I'm trying to get my groove back, it would do no good to force myself to create in a way that is not true to me right now. You could say, I wouldn't be living honestly.... In staring at it right beside me as I type, yep! I am definitely happy with this one.

Like I wrote above, I wanted to create something concrete for my young son to (hopefully) come back and re-read again and again; especially in his more challenging moments in life. This past week, he had a moment-of-choice while I was upstairs and it was just his grandmother (my mom) and himself downstairs. He convinced her to share part of her treat with him, as if THAT's ever been difficult, but it was HOW he did it that bothered me most. Evidently, he told my mom, "Now, if Mommy asks this was all my idea so you don't get in trouble."

He's not even four years old yet. Reflect on that a moment.... He's several weeks shy of turning four and he's making sure that accomplices get the story straight so Mommy won't frown. He knew for a fact that I had told him he wasn't eating anything else until he finished the peanut butter-banana-waffle-wich he had begged me to make him and then snubbed. He knew I was serious, but as soon as I was out of sight, he was out of his mind.

Reflect further on the understanding of "what goes around comes around." Twice, I have done what I could to appease my son after my husband laid down the law, making sure he understood that we didn't need to let Daddy know that we had done so. Super! I taught my child to be sneaky. But, so have my parents because this is certainly not the first time he's gotten a special treat when I've left the room.

Super....

So, I'm working on changing that. I really do want my son to live an honest life. I want him to be able to grow and stand with his shoulders squared and own all of his choices because they are the best choices he can make at the time. I wanted to type out the following sentiments on a tag that would tuck behind the photo...but I forgot that plan and adhered enough adhesive to prevent it. Hence, the rub-on journaling at the bottom.

* Tell the truth, EVEN when you know you'll be in trouble.

* "Sneaking" food is not necessary.

* Only take what you need.

* Focus on function over fun.

*Learn who you are. Accept it. Strive to enrich your strengths. Grow from your weaknesses.

* Say "yes" because you mean it; not because it will make someone else feel better.

* Same for "sorry."

* Bravely (and knowledgeably) speak in what you believe.

* Follow your heart's advice.

Surely, there are 100 other things I could have added, but space was at a premium.

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