Lots of Boys

I seriously love this picture SO MUCH! Kaydon's best friend had a birthday last weekend. His best friend is a girl. She is "perfect in ever way," if you ask him. And, she is. So is her family! Love them! Well, he earned money to buy her white roses. They were beautiful. I ran him to the store, then to her house to doorbell ditch her and drop them on the porch. I love that my boys are good to girls. I love that they think of them. I love that they respect them. I love that they treat their mama so dang good.

Those Girls

These little beauties came to see me again! I cannot get enough of them! They even sang, "Gethsemane" for me. They really are perfection. They might have eaten my chap stick. And the donuts and some candy.. but they love their Heidi!!

For The Love

Yesterday, Miss T and her two youngest beauties stopped by to see me. It seriously filled my heart so full! These baby girls are magical. They raided the candy bucket, drew lots of pictures, made the biggest mess and all the while made me so happy!

I love their mama, too. We've known each other for 24 years! That seems insane. Their mama is beautiful, inside and out. She is such a good mama and such a good wife. She is my Younique supplier, and inspires me everyday to love myself just the way I am... because, as she says, "I'm enough!"

So much love in this picture!

Pity Party

You might know you're being raised by a single mom when... the 16 year-old comes home with three boxes of ice cream bars, the 14 year-old instructs the 13 year-old to put in a sad movie, and the five of you sit on the couch --- eating the entire three boxes of ice cream bars and watching a sad movie. The 14 year-old is "breaking up" with the "girlfriend" who he broke up with last year. The 16 year-old was sad about the girls he has broken up with over the years. The 13 year-old is quite proud of himself for not having a girlfriend at this point. The 12 year-old just wanted to play with his Legos.

Seriously, we had THE best pity party ever!!!

Another Open Letter to Another Girl

This is becoming a theme that I would rather not continue. Mama Bear writes again. Dear Different Girl - Regarding Different Son: First, I need to take some responsibility here. I actually encouraged this son to just "ask you out." NEVER AGAIN. What was I thinking? Ninth graders and eighth graders DO NOT need to "go out." Please see an older post that was directed toward another girl, regarding another son. This is like an epidemic! Or, maybe I just have a lot of kids so it just seems like an epidemic. Anywho, you're kids. I know that in this world you might not feel like "kids." Maybe you feel grown-up. You're not. An eighth grader isn't much different than a seventh grader (see other post), and therefore I would like to suggest doing eighth grader things like watching "Lizzy McGuire," or making crafts like elastic bracelets, or painting your nails. Heck, get your mom to sign a waiver so you can go tanning! But, boys just shouldn't be like a big priority for you right now. Similarly, my son has been told that girls should not be a priority for him, or his younger brothers. I might have also added in that conversation that girls are a bit crazy. I don't mean you are crazy... just girls in general are a little crazy. I am a girl and I am fully aware that I am crazy.

I would also like to discuss the issue of how people act after a break-up. For instance, your friends are giving him dirty looks and are ignoring him. Not cool. Let's all try to get along. Your friends were his friends. His friends are your friends. Boys don't tend to do the dirty looks/ignoring game. Way to go male chromosomes! It's not okay for kids to be mean to other kids. Just because y'all aren't going to be "going out" doesn't mean y'all can't just be friends. It also doesn't mean that the friends of each of you can't still be friends with each of you. I hope that makes sense. Finally, life is hard enough. Throwing in extra hard stuff is simply not necessary. Be happy. Be happy with yourself. Spend your time doing what makes you happy and having friends that are also working on being happy with themselves. When we fully realize that we are God's children and that He loves us perfectly, we tend to radiate that. It's a pretty simple concept. Be kind. Be smart. And, I really love my kid. This picture is of me and him, because those are the kinds of pictures I post when I am writing these open letters. He's a great kid. You're a great kid. Just be kids for crying out loud.

Love Is In The Air Up Here!

Jackson has a girlfriend. Like, he asked her to "go out" with him, so apparently it's official. She is a wrestling manager for the team. I really like her. She's a cute girl. She seems very down-to-earth and not involved in the drama that I witness every single day with these junior high kids.

This morning, I was a few minutes late to work because Kaydon had woken up EXTRA early so he was up when I was leaving. I just had to spend a few minutes loving on this gem! Every single day, this boy tells me that I'm beautiful and he loves to get squeezes from his mama. I had to just eat him up for a few minutes!!!

Open Letter to The Girl

Dear Girl Who Broke My Son's Heart: He is in 7th grade. SEVENTH grade!! I explained to him last night that this is one of the many reasons why having a "girlfriend" is not necessary in the seventh grade. This is not something that seventh graders should have to deal with. However, he is dealing with it. The best part is that you are also a seventh grader. I was once a seventh grade girl and I'm pretty sure I was just like you. My apologies go out to everyone I knew between the 6th and 12th grades. Really, I am so sorry! Back to you - my son was pretty smitten by you. He even bought you a birthday gift for your birthday which happens to be today. However, in awesome seventh-grader fashion, you sent your friends to "break up" with him yesterday after the wrestling meet at your junior high school. Yeah, seventh graders rock! Oh, but wait - it gets better. Last night while we were eating dinner as a family, you sent one of those said friends to our house to knock on the door and tell him that you wanted him to call you. FYI, we have a landline. It's like an old-fashioned in-home, attached to walls phone. You can call there, well you could call there before this happened. Calling now probably wouldn't be a good idea. Why? Because if I answer, you and I are going to have a chat about seventh grade boundaries and etiquette. In fact, I will put Braxton on ANOTHER in-home, attached to the wall phone (yes, we have more than one. We are ancient!), and he will participate in this conversation with you and I because all seventh graders need to hear that this is just unnecessary. I'm relatively certain you should be worrying about braces, how to apply eye shadow in the most minimal amounts possible, and figuring out which Disney movie is your favorite. It is completely unnecessary for seventh graders to be in relationships. Period. I am throwing in a picture of Braxton because he's pretty dang cute, and because his mama bear is in the picture with him, which is appropriate, considering what we are dealing with here.

Anywho, having friends of both sexes is important, no matter how old you are. Having a "boyfriend" or a "girlfriend" is not important, especially not in junior high school. I know that you think that are mature and responsible. Maybe you are. I know that my son is not. I mean, don't get me wrong, he is a GREAT kid who is caring, funny, kind, compassionate, sensitive, quirky, silly, and just plain awesome. But maturity is not one of his strengths right now. In fact, it might not be for quite.some.time. This is one of the many reasons why "dating" in the seventh grade is ridiculous. How do seventh graders date anyways? You can't go anywhere unless you hop on your scooters. You don't have like a job to pay to go anywhere. Heaven knows my kids don't get an allowance. They do chores and in turn, they are provided with three meals a day! I'm getting off track again. I'm sorry. What you did was mean. But I can't really blame you because you should have never had to "break up" with him in the first place! You are children. Children do not need the responsibility of relationships. It's not necessary!! But, because you were in a "relationship" you were eventually going to break up and you did. But, the way you did it was mean. Again, this is a life lesson that would have been better learned, say 6-7 years from now. However, it happened. Two children broke up in a not nice way and this mama is not happy. My advice to you and my son (who already heard all of this from me last night): A) be a child for crying out loud, B) No relationships until you actually understand fully what that means and what it entails, C) don't send your little friends to break up with your "boyfriend. It's cold. It's immature. It's mean. It's cowardly. Do it your dang self, D) don't call my house. Ever. Most cordially, Mama Bear