PM Celebrates DG at 13

Two months before Makayla's birthday, I started thinking how to celebrate her advancing to teenager. And that's all I did...

Until 2 weeks before her birthday, when I realized I had an expectation of what this was all supposed to look like. And so, PM (meaning "perfectionistic me") put the ideas for celebration on a shelf next to paint the downstairs and learn how to play guitar and exercise...

Until 2 days before her birthday, when CM (meaning "childlike me") started planning on behalf of Procrastination Me.

13 candles, 13 presents, 72 balloons, PG-13 movie, and 26 degree temperature for ice skating.

13 Favorite Gifts:

1. Cereal: Lucky Charms

2. Gum: Orbit Mango

3. Dessert: Yogurtland

4. Nail Polish: Pink

5. Candy Bar: Twix

6. Chips: Funyuns

7. Christmas Gift Accessory: New Rod for Pictures

8. Cookies: Chewy Chips Ahoy

9. Girlie Thing: Lotions

10. Smelly Thing: Reed Diffuser

11. Accessory: Wallet

12. Surprise: Eye Pillow

13. Birthday Tradition: Honor Board

She's a perfect teenager with the experimental parenting she's received for the past 13 years. But I was unsettled about my competence as a mom of a teenager, and even though I've not fallen past my knees so far, still...

Maybe my mom felt the same way for my oldest sister or even for me especially during a time when she probably didn't feel capable. But she didn't have to do it alone; He carried her...and me for that matter.

And so DG (meaning 'daughter of God'), realized Makayla is a DG too. And even if I'm PM or CM (meaning 'crazy mom'), He'll not let her fall past her knees either.

Happy Birthday, my first born DG.

Hurry Before They Outgrow Their Clothes

I could have changed my 'Post Options' to make it look like I actually wrote this in January with its 2 lonely posts. And I should have because this post is all about my new motto for the new year.

Who finds their motto in February?

This year is in a hurry. I can tell. Just like my daughter hurrying to outgrow her clothes every 2 weeks. She should have been warned about her sudden sprouting every year for the past 12 years before she purchased 2 pair of jeans.

While she is celebrating trumping my height at 13, I'm celebrating a quote I came across in my most recent Amazon purchase.

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. ~Martha Graham

This caused an inner reflection of how I express my uniqueness or even embrace it. Because embracing it is the step before expressing it. For me.

And maybe before that I actually accepted it.

And imagine if moment to moment to moment, I don't accept it. Unless I do. Trusting every decision is divinity unfolding; even the decision to ask, buy the book, and read the quote.

And just as if the momentum of this year isn't enough to cause immersion, the urgency of expressing this life force will be. For me.

As a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend, but mostly as a mother. I imagine if I don't accept, it's particularly awful for my children.

The energy is surging. And fast. About as fast as shrinking clothes.