Saturday, November 28, 2015

I am Thankful for blended families.........

     I know it has been years since I have posted in my blog.  I stopped because the kids did not want me to post about much of what we were doing and with all the teenagers life got crazy. Terry and I are now almost to the empty nest phase.  I am looking forward to it.  I know, what a bad mom!  I am looking forward to time with just my husband, shame on me. The truth is I became a mom in 1992 and a step mom in 1996 and I am tired!  I love my kids but I am tired!  I won't lie, when Dylan graduated there were some tears of sadness because my baby was graduating but now they have changed from tears of sadness to tears of joy.  Why joy you ask?  Because your kids are supposed to grow up and move away.  You teach them to be good, strong young adults.  You nurture them, pray for them, cheer them on and then you let them go.  I would be more upset if they never left because I would then somehow failed as a parent.

     So this year I am thankful for all the step parents out there.  I am thankful for my husband who step in with the boys when they were not always happy with him.  I am thankful for my step children's mothers.  I am thankful that I got to be a part of the lives of their children.  That the kids got to be a part of our family celebrations.  I am thankful for my children, all of them.  The boys I birthed and the children I married; as I didn't just marry their dad, they are just as important to me as he is.

     I am thankful for my husband, who loves me when I can't love myself and who tolerates my crazy.  We make a good team.  It is a lot of hard work and dedication but it is fun as well.  He is my best friend and I thank God daily for my little niece Faith who picked me out for him when she was four.

     To those of you struggling this time of year remember you are not alone.  There are other parents and step parents struggling with the same questions you are.  You will get through.  You will survive.  You are not alone. 

Shoes...................................

I am a lover of shoes, funny my last two blogs are about shoes, but lets face it most of the children have banned me about blogging about them so I am left to blog about shoes.  Due to the size of my house and the number of children living in it, I started to get rid of the excess this year and only bring new things in if I got rid of something old.  So I have parted with a great many shoes from my collection.  I am not kidding, I went for a collection of 100 plus pairs of shoes to 12 pairs (most are cute flip flops). Due to not having an excess of wearable shoes yesterday I was forced to buy a new pair of tennis shoes for work.  My old ones had developed a squeak loud enough to wake the dead or sleeping so they had to go.  I personally think that my children did something to them so I could not sneak up on them when I came home from work but I will not go down that road.

Yesterday while getting new tires installed on the truck we had some time to kill so we did a little shopping, not a lot due to the tire purchase but I did need some shoes.  Before I took this new job in May I ran a day care from my home and most of my shoes came from Wal Mart, however now that I am on my feet most of the day I need more from my shoes than I can get there so I went to a store that specializes in shoes.  Imagine my surprise when I realized that tennis shoes cost me more than my monthly electric and gas bill.  When exactly did this happen?  I know that the boys basketball and track shoes normally ran upwards of $100.00 but I didn't think it was all shoes.  Anyway, after several minutes of looking for shoes and a very frustrated husband, I found a pair on the clearance rack for less than the monthly cable bill, can't say I was happy about it, but I settled.  I mean come on, these aren't even fun shoes, they are for work.  Given the choice may fall and winter foot attire would be my boots and summer and spring is flip flops, neither are appropriate for my new employment.  I guess the last six years that I have worked from home has put me out of the loop but I will survive and definitely with only one pair of tennis shoes.

However, on the way out of the store I found some purses.  They may be even a greater love than shoes.  I have no problem dropping good money for a good purse, my husband does not understand that concept, and I am sure he never will.  I didn't buy one, there is no way I want him to know what I will spend for a good purse.  I reason this addiction with the fact that I do not smoke like he does, I use that one more than I should.  However, purses will be a blog for another day.