U is for Uncomfortably numb

Ah, there’s nothing like the discomfort of a church pew on a Sunday morning.

I’m kidding.
Sort of.
But most of you probably know what I’m talking about.

Why is the most uncomfortable place to sit the same place the I’m supposed to sit the stillest?

Sometimes that boney spot on your back that sits pressed against the wooden pew goes numb and you can’t do a thing about it. If you move, the people behind you can see you. If you stretch, the people behind you can see you. If you look over at your kids and give the “stop pinching each other and listen” look, the people behind you will see you. And I don’t want to be a distraction to the people who were unfortunate enough to sit behind the chick with a boney spine and pinching kids.

I’ve tried a few casual moves to temporarily relieve the numbing pain of the church pew.

The Arm Around – This is the move where you place your arm on the back of the pew and rest it to allow our spine to shift slightly to the side so it’s no longer digging into the wood. I always feel too manly when I do this. So it doesn’t work for too long before I have to move so I don’t feel like a dude.

The Lean and Head Bow – This is when you lean forward and rest your elbows on your knees and bow your head. Obviously, this is only used during prayer. Used any other time could be mistaken for sleeping; no bueno.

The Spousal Slump – This move is practiced when your spouse is doing The Arm Around. Casually slump into The Arm Around because when you’re leaning on them, it relieves the pressure that’s on your back. This is mainly for the ladies, since I don’t know many men who are going to slump over into their wife’s arms during a church service. But for the guys who do, rock on with your bad self.

Since none of these do much to alleviate the problem of uncomfortable pews, I’m considering bringing a sports cushion to Sunday morning service. We could get them embroidered with “Team FBCWC” so they’d be church appropriate.

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

T is for The Sweetest Thing

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

S is for Small town parades

If you’re from a small town, chances are your town hosts a festival of some sort each year.

Our town is no exception. Every year, in April, we have a festival, complete with a barbecue cook-off, a southern belle type pageant, and lots of carnival rides. Carefully assembled, totally safe, carnival rides (for those who detect sarcasm, you’d be right).

Plus the food. Oh man, the food. The funnel cakes alone are enough to make me want to go stand in line for a half hour holding an unleashed toddler in our humid Texas heat.

But no small town festival would be complete without a parade.

And this year, the parade had a special guest…

Rapunzel, aka AH. Was she in the parade? Nuh uh. Was she in the pageant? Nope.

She was a mere spectator who’s favorite part was getting candy people tossed out from their floats and waving at strangers while yelling out the names of LD’s friends like she knew who she was waving to. (in her defense some of LD’s were actually in the parade).

Plus, she got a hug from her daddy, who was in the parade, passing out water with a group from our church. And my best friend’s son, who I claim as my nephew, gave her lots of his candy, too.

She was the cutest parade goer ever.

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

R is for really behind

For some reason, the letter R has been my downfall in this A to Z Challenge. Okay, maybe staying caught up on the current letter has been my downfall. But coming up with something to write about for R hasn’t been easy.

I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been so focused on work lately or if I just subconsciously have a grudge against the letter R and don’t find it worthy of its own post. Pretty sure it’s the former.

Typically, when I write, I don’t have to struggle for a topic and the title is something I come up with after I’ve written the post. It’s usually the editing that gets me because I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I have other letter posts completely or partially written, yet I’ve been hung up on the R post; this one has given me a bad case of writer’s block.

I know after I publish this post, I’ll think of an awesome blog topic or something really great I could’ve written about.

I hate it when that happens.

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

Q is for Quick! Somebody get me my camera

I take tons of pictures. I take pictures for my blog. I take pictures because I enjoy photography. I take pictures because time is fleeting and I want to memorize every moment. It’s almost as if capturing the moments in pictures, making them more tangible, will somehow slow down the hands of time.

But my family doesn’t understand this.

I’ll admit that I’m a little snap happy behind a camera. And my poor children are my victims. The husband would be too, except he covers his face some of the time and I can’t pull rank and use the “because I am your mother and I said so” technique to force him into a picture he doesn’t want to take.

Sometimes they humor me and just go with it. Other times, not so much.

And that’s when I get some of my favorite shots of them…

(We were about to leave for school and I asked them to smile…this is what they gave me.)

(After coming off of a ride at the rodeo.)

(He didn’t want to pose for the picture so he put sunglasses on to hide his eyes.)

(When I asked her to say cheese, she just showed me the ice cream in her mouth instead.)

(I was trying to get a Christmas card photo…they were laughing and making jokes. I love it.)

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

P is for Puddle jumping

This past Friday started off warm and sunny, but by the afternoon, it was stormy outside. This is not unsusal for Texas weather. Still, it didn’t make for a fun trip to my car after work. Last week was the most stressful, crazy week I’d had in a long time and this was just the icing on the cake.

But my the time I got home, 45 minutes later, the storm had passed.

I walked in the house expecting to start on my usual evening ritual of cooking dinner, starting laundry, etc., when AH came up to me and said, “Mama! Mama! Let’s go jump on da trampoline!”

Given the fact that the trampoline was soaked and the amount of standing water in our yard, I said, “No, baby. The trampoline is wet and there’s water all over outside.”

She looked up at me and said, “Okay…Mama! Let’s go jump in a muddy puddle!”

I’m not sure where she thought this up, but it was the best idea I’d heard all week.

So, we got our rain boots on, and headed out the door.

AH loved it. And to be honest, so did I. To jump up and land in a rain puddle as hard as you can; It’s actually quite a stress reliever.

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

O is for Overtired

I wish I had some clever story or funny anecdote about how my day was. Or maybe some delicious recipe for a meal that starts with the letter O. If I really wanted to challenge myself, I could try and catch up by posting the letter P blog entry (I’m a day behind).

But the truth is, I just don’t have it in me.

I am exhausted.

Last week was busy. But this week has been insane.

It’s the kind of week when you don’t have time to go to the bathroom, and you skip your lunch hour and scarf something down at your desk.

And even after working through lunch, I still left the office over an hour and a half late.

On the upside, AH was over the moon excited to see me when I finally to home and The Husband had dinner done.

I’m so tired I can’t see straight.

So, now I’m going to put down my iPad and try and get some rest.

Sweet dreams.

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

N is for Never marry a man who won’t color your hair.

I get the question all the time, “Is your naturally that dark?”
The answer is yes. And no.
I was born with black hair, had black hair all my life.
Until a few years ago when I had to start coloring my hair to cover the gray.
Some of you will feel my pain and others will be shocked to find out someone my age (32) has to get rid of gray hair.

But this post isn’t about what color my hair is.

Meet my colorist…

The guy in the stylist gloves posing like a hand mannequin is The Husband. He’s got mad hair color application skills.

Now, I realize the title of this post may be a bit extreme. Of course, I’m not saying that the determining factor in what is good marriage material is whether or not your man will do your hair.

But it is kind of a big deal.

If you’re going to marry someone, chances are you’ll be through some pretty crazy times in which you’ll need to support each other when it might not be easy.

Take child birth for instance. During labor, he’s supposed to be there to encourage you and support you during the most painful experience of your life. If he can’t soldier through a few gray hairs, he won’t stand a chance in labor and delivery.

And ladies, our version of this is The Superbowl (this isn’t really a fair analogy since I happen to like sports). During the game, be as supportive and pleasant as possible and then be there to comfort your guy when his team experiences agonizing defeat. And by comfort I mean bring food.

When it all boils down, this post isn’t so much about hair color. It’s more about the fact that here is a guy, fulfilling your tedious request when he would probably rather be doing something, anything else. Simply because it will make you happy.

That is a beautiful thing.

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

M is for My kids could teach me a thing or two

Lessons I could learn from my kids…

Forgiveness.
I’m amazed at how quickly children forgive and forget. How quickly I am forgiven by them for the mistakes I make as a parent. As you get older it seems harder to forgive others so freely and forgetting is nearly impossible.

I’m a good mother.
I know many times in my blog I talk about my anxieties or shortcomings as a mom. But sometimes there are moments when you see your children and the people they are becoming and think to yourself, “maybe I am doing something right.”

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.
Work is serious, sometimes boring, and lately really insane. When you’re a kid there are no worries about work; your job is to play all day. I need to make time to play more instead of worrying about work outside office doors.

Be selfish.
Children, by nature, are selfish creatures. We teach them to think of others as they get older. We teach them to share, be compassionate, do unto others. Sometimes parents don’t take enough time for themselves. I know I don’t. We give so much to our families that sometimes we neglect our own wants/needs. Sometimes, a little selfishness isn’t a bad thing.

Feel the music and move to it.
I remember when AH could stand up on her own, the next milestone was shaking her diapered tush. Little ones have no inhibition. They hear a beat they like? They dance and clap to the music. They’re inspired. Be inspired, and let it move you.

Don’t take yourself too seriously.
The further we get into adulthood, we begin to form this candy coated shell on our exteriors. Composed and solid on the outside but if we get a little goofy, that exterior will crack. But kids don’t care. They’ll laugh at themselves and be goofy just for the fun of it.

Enjoy the good stuff first.
I my family, we do something called Dessert First Day. It’s a day that I let the kids pick a dessert and they get to eat it before their dinner. I tell them they still have to eat some of their dinner but that sometimes in life, you should enjoy the good stuff first. Shake things up a bit. Don’t save it for a special occasion because today is special in its own right.

Find the Hallelujah in everything.
AH went through a phase where anything that excited her would get a loud, “Hallelujah!” Sitting on top of LD’s shoulders? “Hallelujah!” Finger-painting with new paints? “Hallelujah!” Having her dinner plate sat in front of her? “Hallelujah!” I began thinking, “I should be learning from her.”

Don’t procrastinate.
This post is proof that I am a procrastinator (the A to Z challenge is now on N). But my kids don’t give me the luxury of procrastination. When they want something, whether it’s my attention or money, it usually can’t (or won’t) wait. And by the time I get around to what needs to be done, I am too exhausted and choose sleep instead.

(AH yelling “Hal-eh-loo-lah!)

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian

L is for Let the GIVEAWAY begin!

Since Google friend connect is no more, I want to try and make sure I don’t lose too many readers. I’m in the process of figuring out Google+ but I figured in the mean time, I’d try to sustain my readership by increasing the number of peeps who access my blog via my blog’s Facebook page.

So, when trying to come up with ideas on what might motivate people to “like” my page, I thought to myself, “Hmm, what motivates me?” This led me to thinking about when I need motivation the most…early in the morning. Which then led me to…COFFEE. Starbucks coffee.

So, as motivation to go “like” my Facebook page, I’m giving away a $20 Starbucks gift card.

Now, I know many of my readers may live in a small town without a Starbucks or you may prefer to purchase your Starbucks packaged to make it yourself. I usually buy my bagged Starbucks coffee at Target. So I figured, to make it enticing to more readers, I would give the winner of the giveaway a choice between a $20 Starbucks or $20 Target gift card.

Now, how to enter:

First, go to Facebook and like The Working Momaholic page.
Then, come back to this blog post, leave a comment letting me know you “like” my page AND tell me which gift card you would prefer if you won.
That’s it. Entry granted.
**Note: if you already like The Working Momaholic page you can still enter; just leave a comment.

For up to 3 additional entries you can share this giveaway via Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook (just leave an extra comment with the shared URL link).

Contest ends at 11:59 p.m. on April 22, 2012. Winner will be selected randomly and announced on April 23, 2012.

(This giveaway is not endorsed by Starbucks or Target. I have not received any compensation to promote either brand and any opinions given are purely my own).

UPDATE:

First, thanks for entering my giveaway and, more importantly, reading my blog!! Now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for.

And the winner is (drum roll please…)

I used www.random.org to select my giveaway winner. The winner will receive an email notifying them they have won and the prize will be mailed out no later than April 30, 2012.

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I’m participating in the Blogging From A to Z Challenge April 2012. Go check it out–you may find a new favorite blog!

Happy Blogging,

Adrian