I saw this on facebook. It was getting a lot of ‘likes’ and actually, I liked it too. Very few would disagree with the saying. It says:

“Family isn’t always blood. It’s the people in your life who want you in theirs; the one’s who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what.”
~Unknown

We all certainly have friends who are like family. Sometimes, they even seem more like family. They are so much like us that it’s a wonder we are not attached physically.

But you know what, the older I get the more I realize that there are great friends, but there is also family and family always trumps friends.

The people in you life who will want you in theirs, the ones who accept you for who you are and the ones who would do anything to see you smile and love you no matter what…

They are your friends when they do all that for you for a time. We all move on in life and very few of our friends will be there from beginning to the end. Enjoy the phase of your life with them. You will treasure them forever.

Now your blood, your family, they have no choice but to do all that. Your family had no choice whether they want you in their life or not, but they accept you for who you are and love you no matter what anyway. They would do anything for you including make you smile, make you cry, and make you so frustrated you wonder what you’re doing with these people.

Sometimes you may wonder how you even became part of ‘that’ bunch. They are so nothing like you. Your friends are more like you.

But the thing is, your friends only reflect how you are on the outside. They are like mirrors. That’s why you are so much alike.

Family is what makes you tick inside. Family is all that gory, unsightly stuff inside you that somehow makes you work the way you do. Family is what makes you able to see, to feel, to breath, to think, to move.

Family is what makes you who you are inside so that you can look good outside.

So maybe next time you think your friends are your ‘real’ family, think again. No matter how awful or how diseased your family, it’s what’s inside you and when you don’t take care of what’s inside you, nothing you do outside will ever work right.

Tick, tock…
 
 

Tags: family, friends, musings

I look in the mirror and and wonder where I had gone. Where did that flawless, youthful looking me go? Why is this middle aged woman with slack, lackluster and wrinkled face staring back at me? I had started to panic, I was scared I had missed something in between youth and middle age. How did I get here so fast?

Then, swift like a douse of cold water, I remember. It was that thing that happened a long time ago when I decided I deserved more. It was that time when I chose to follow my heart and be with a man. Not just any man, mind you. I wanted one who could make me laugh. Well, he was handsome too, but that’s not supposed to matter

The thing is, the more I look at myself in the mirror lately, I remember now why I look this way and it makes me happy. I get more beautiful the more I stare at myself.

I see every line on my face and remember the countless moments when we laughed so hard our stomaches ached.

I remember all the times when I cried I was so happy.

I was always beautiful even during the times when I looked worn, fat and unkept. I didn’t need a mirror then, I just needed his eyes.

When I went to look for a new bathing suit this past summer, I realized why the skirted one piece and tankinis were so popular with women my age and there were no yellow polka dotted bits in that department.

But I looked closer and realized that my body has become a map. It has gone and done what even my journals and blogs could not do. It has recorded every important milestone in my life and created this landscape on me. Every peak and valley, every twist and turn were all right there. All the parts are laid out just as they were meant to be. Raw, unaltered, honest and well-worn.

All I have to do is to look and realize… Hey, I don’t look bad at all! In fact, I do believe that man is not joking whenever he marvels at how beautiful I am…. wrinkles and all.

 
 

Tags: aging, family, relationships

Today is my youngest daughter’s 14th birthday. We are not having a birthday pary. She doesn’t even want us to sing to her! I suppose she is now officially a teen ager. One tradition that we do have for their birthdays that she still wants to stick to is the one that involves food.

Every year on their birthdays, they get to choose the meal. On previous years, when it came time to my youngest daughter’s birthday, everyone else in the house will start dreading the day because they know what is coming. SPAGHETTI!

No, my spaghetti isn’t that awful! It’s just that it’s the Clone’s favorite meal. She requests it at least once a month but especially on her birthday because she knows she’ll definitely have her wish granted.

This year though, you can tell someone is getting older because spaghetti did not even come into play. What did come into play though is spaghetti’s more sophisticated cousin, LASAGNA!

This year, she requested Spinach Lasagna, roast beef with lots of gravy and collard greens. Yes, she specified COLLARDS because she was tired of malabar spinach which is the only green that we had a lot of from our garden this year. She didn’t want anymore spinach, well except for the small amount used in her lasagna, so off to the market we went to buy collards.

Her main request of spinach lasagna, we discovered a year or so ago when I participated on a blogging carnival called Daring Kitchen where food bloggers were encouraged to try challenging recipes that they would normally not cook in their kitchen. For this particular challenge, it was making your own pasta, and spinach pasta at that!

The recipe looks a bit daunting, but I assure you, by the time you’ve made this dish a couple of times, it really does get a lot easier. This time around, I was thankful for the girl’s penchant to play with dough. I still haven’t got a pasta maker so was I glad when she asked if she could roll out the pasta! She did a great job, too, even managing to roll out wide sheets that almost covered the whole pan in one whole swoop!

It was also a great way to spend a birthday afternoon together. Fun and satisfying

Tags: birthdays, family, food

All parents think their children are exceptional. I certainly think mine are gifted! And I didn’t need a list to tell me they are, they just are. However, if you’re wondering and if you just want to be sure, here’s 20 signs for giftedness which were adapted from Austega:

1. Has early interest in words and reading
2. Has exceptionally large vocabulary for their age
3. Learns rapidly, easily and efficiently
4. Is curious about objects or situations, asks provocative questions; enjoys exploratory activities
5. Has an unusually strong memory, but is bored with memorization and recitation
6. Is flexible in thinking patterns; makes unusual associations between remote ideas
7. Is independent
8. Has a wide range of interests
9. Demonstrates unusual reasoning power
10. Likes structure, order and consistency
11. Show unusual degrees of originality, concentration and persistent hard work on projects that capture their interest and imagination
12. Is perceptually open to his or her environment
13. Has an advanced sense of humor
14. Is sensitive to the feelings of others
15. Shows more interest in creative effort and new activities than in routine and repetitive tasks
16. Shows an intense interest and aptitude in an artistic activity, such as drawing, singing, dancing, writing, or playing a musical instrument
17. Is intellectually playful, interested in fantasy, imagination
18. Acts as a leader among children of their own age
19. Tries to excel in almost everything she does
20. Senses when problems exist; always trying to adapt or improve things

Whether your child fits all those characteristics or none of them, I bet you still think your child is gifted don’t you? GOOD! Because they are!

Every child born is gifted. They are a gift in and of themselves and whether they accomplish great things or not is not really the point is it? The point is that they are yours to take care of and love no matter what.

Tags: children, family, gifted child