Archive for Month: April, 2011
On Motherhood {Part III}
As a mother I have hopes and dreams for my children. There’s so much to teach them, so much for them to learn, but if they only remember one thing about life, it would have to be….
…to smile,
…to be gracious,
…to beam,
…to express pure joy and friendliness,
…to ALWAYS be tender, love each other, open their hearts, and express it—always—on their beautiful faces.
It is my hope and wish that with love, happiness, and smiles they will radiate; the world will be a better place for it, I know!
On Motherhood {Part I}
On Motherhood {Part II}
This post is part of a four part sponsored Tiny Prints Mother’s Day campaign. Tiny Prints has Mother’s Day cards that are fully customizable, and can be sent straight to the recipient. For someone, such as myself, who always forgets to send out cards on time, this new service that Tiny Prints is offering is just awesome. You can schedule your cards or gifts to go out, letting all the mothers in your life know how special they are, and how much you treasure them! Stay tuned for more of my reflections on motherhood.
On Motherhood {Part II}
I can still smell the sweaty air of the gym room where the competition was being held. He had been preparing for months to enter the sparring ring, and while he prepared I tried to put it out of my mind that I could not be in that ring with him to defend him from round house kicks or punches. With each minute that passed my heart would jump up into my throat. Sitting on the edge of my seat I surely worried that he would be hurt. Ultimately, I knew that he would be all right. I knew that no matter what this was the beginning of letting go. And, his success was dependent upon my ability to let go, watch from the side lines, and be there when it was all said and done.
He looked so small amidst all the players. He was my oldest, but he was still a baby to me. Do they ever become anything other than your baby? I don’t think so, but, regardless, you still have to let go.
A few weeks ago I felt the same way when I dropped him off at the day-long air-soft playing field. I looked around at all the other “boys”, and they seemed so much bigger that my new teenage boy. What was I doing dropping him off to run around while little plastic bb’s were shot at him?
“You reeeeeeeally like this, Mikey?”
“Yes, Mama, I reeeeeeeeally like it. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”
“But, but, but, they look so big. And, they have knee pads. Do you need knee pads?”
“Mama, I’m fine without knee pads. I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
“Well, I guess I should go now. Be careful.”
“Yes, Mama, you should go now. I’ll be careful.”
“Can I hug you?”
“Not right now.”
“Ok. I love you.”
“Yeah, me too, Mama.”
Recently I was asked, “What has been the most surprising thing about motherhood?”
That answer’s simple….the most surprising thing is how easy (albeit bittersweet) it has been to let go the older the kids get.
I could tell so many stories about letting go, and the fear that’s associated with it. Though it’s been really astounding to me how easy it’s been, there is always this stomach churning fear, right before the actual act of letting go. But, being the mother to four children (who aren’t staying babies, even though I have begged and pleaded with them not to grow up so fast) means that I have to let them go. I have to let them make mistakes. I have to let them get hurt. I have to let them find their own way in the world.
With every frustrating, hair-pulling, gut-wrenching day that passes, they learn something, and I have complete faith, that no matter what, they will step one foot in front of the other and make the right choices in their lives. Whether it’s in a sparring ring, an air-soft field, “walking like a big-boy” in Wal-mart, at a sleepover at a friend’s house, or walking to the library my Mama instinct tells me that they will do the right thing. That? Makes it easy (read: easier) to let go. Plus, they know that I’m always there for them, no matter where life takes them.
What’s been the most surprising thing–about motherhood--to you?
This post is part of a four part sponsored Tiny Prints Mother’s Day campaign. Tiny Prints has Mother’s Day cards that are fully customizable, and can be sent straight to the recipient. For someone, such as myself, who always forgets to send out cards on time, this new service that Tiny Prints is offering is just awesome. You can schedule your cards or gifts to go out, letting all the mothers in your life know how special they are, and how much you treasure them! Stay tuned for more of my reflections on motherhood.
Weekly Winners {The Easter Edition}
Egg Dyeing on Holy Thursday
The First Holy Red Egg
“Crveno Belo, da rastiste golemi!”
Easter Baskets
Getting Ready For Our Easter Egg Hunt
Time to Play: The Egg Cracking Game
{Sweet} Traditions
Thank you to Log Cabin for sponsoring my post about updated traditions in my household.
To learn more about Log Cabin Syrups (which are all free of High Fructose Corn Syrup), breakfast for dinner, and other new ways to update traditions in your home, click here.
I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.
Growing up in a Macedonian family we followed many traditions. Over the years, as I have grown as a mother, I have realized how important it is to keep traditions alive. While they might not be exactly the same as they were when I was a child, keeping family traditions is very much a goal of mine as the matriarch of our little-big family.
Most recently I adapted the Orthodox New Year’s tradition of hiding a coin in a strudel to hiding it in our family favorite…cornbread! I’m sure I could probably give a go at making the cheese strudel like my mother and grandmother do, but, over the years, we have come to love cornbread so much that it was a natural evolution of the tradition.
Before I met Michael I had never even tried cornbread. However, becoming the wife of a man who was born and raised in the south, and eventually living in the south, has really broadened—not only—my taste buds, it has also supplemented my tradition bank. Now I have Macedonian traditions to draw from, and southern traditions too!
One of my favorite traditions is the one that involves eating Red Beans and Rice on Mondays. When we lived in New Orleans we found ourselves eating out a lot (I mean, it is dubbed the “Fat City”), and one I enjoyed the most was eating our traditional Monday meal, in the French Quarter, on a balcony like the one at Bourbon Vieux or Cajun Cabin.
Making Red Beans and Rice, at home, is super simple, though. And, when we make a big pot of them we always make a big pan of cornbread. There’s nothing like mixing it all up, dousing it with Louisiana hot sauce, and gobbling it up till your belly hurts. The sausage, the beans, the rice, the cornbread, the flavor—it’s definitely one of my favorite comfort foods.
The best thing about making meals with cornbread, though, is having leftovers for breakfast. The kids love it so much. They pop their leftover piece in the microwave, for a few seconds, and top it with our *family’s favorite syrup. Adding milk and fruit makes it one of the best breakfasts ever.
It really is funny how so many traditions revolve around the dinner table. Food brings family together, and traditions bind us to our past. I hope that our children continue them, and pass them on to their children someday.
Every tradition grows ever more venerable – the more remote its origin, the more confused that origin is. The reverence due to it increases from generation to generation. The tradition finally becomes holy and inspires awe. —Friedrich Nietzsche
*Our family’s favorite syrup is Log Cabin, and it has everything to do with the fact that it is free of high fructose corn syrup. Good syrup doesn’t need to have any of that stuff in it, and I am happy that Log Cabin realizes that! While this is a sponsored post from Log Cabin Syrup, I am emphatic about foods that are free of HFCS, and hope that others do their best to eliminate it from our daily diets.
Weekly Winners {The Dogwood Edition}
Any man that walks the mead
In bud, or blade, or bloom, may find
A meaning suited to his mind.
—Alfred Tennyson
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