Write From Karen

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Let the drawings begin!! Please check back every day as I reveal, number by number, who the lucky winners of The Gift for Mom are!

Here we go! The fifth lucky winner is:

CONGRATULATIONS Tami @ Muddlin’ Through Motherhood!! (Tami, please contact me with a mailing address so I can mail your prize!)

Beginning May 12th, I will randomly draw one name for five days. The winners will receive one of five gifts.

May 17th, I’ll draw one more name, the winner will receive a customized Write From Karen journal. Perfect to keep in your purse and jot down quick notes!

To satisfy everyone’s curiosity about who received what (and to give the winners time to RECEIVE their gifts and not spoil their surprise), I’ll post the winners along with their prizes on May 26th.

Please click on the participants below to find out what motherhood means to them!

You can find guidelines and rules here. Any questions? Please feel free to contact me.

Which post affected you the most?

This was originally published on my Blogspot blog, February 2005. Back in the days when I really spoke my mind. Now? I’ve been tamed.

Somewhat.

Is it pay day yet?

Living from paycheck to paycheck. Boy, I remember those days. Right after graduation, I moved out of mom and dads. I was ready to be on my own! It was scary, but exhilarating at the same time. My first apartment was the attic of a house that had been divided into four sections. The ceilings were sloped and it was small, but I felt right at home. (My sister and I shared the attic in the house I grew up in). I was hot stuff. I had my own pad! I remember this creepy guy that lived downstairs…he was a big dude with a gut, looked like he had swallowed a bowling ball, one of those perfectly rounded bellys that stuck straight out from his body. I caught him staring at me several times. Really creeped me out. And it wouldn’t just be the staring, it was the gradual sneaking up on me. I’d see him at a distance, staring at me, and then I would look up five minutes later and he was still staring at me, only the proximity changed. Ew. I learned not to hang out outside for long period of times.

One time, a friend of mine, Mike, came over. He was 6′1 and hefty, a big dude only in a good way. I pointed out the creepy guy to him and Mike stared the guy down. Just stood there with his arms crossed and stared at him until the guy slinked away. Funny, the creepy dude never looked at me again.

But I digress.

Money was tight. Every single penny went to something: rent, car payment, gas, food - in that order. I never had to live by candlelight because I couldn’t afford the utilities (like someone in my family who shall remain nameless) but it got so bad that I had to ration my gas. I knew exactly how far it was to work and back, how many gallons that would burn and how much time I had until I could afford to put more gas in the tank. Needless to say, if I didn’t bum rides from friends, I didn’t go anywhere but work.

But that’s the payoff of being on your own and it’s a valuable lesson to learn - that you have to be responsible with your money, prioritize and budget. It’s part of growing up. Young people start accumulating debt. Credit card companies feed off these baby birds leaving the nest because they are vulnerable and because they need the cash.

Adults have new eggs to crack. Marriage and children. Those two things drastically change financial needs. The challenge here is to distinguish between needs and wants. And herein lies the point of this entry.

What’s wrong with this picture: A woman is in the checkout lane at Wal-Mart. She has a toddler and a crying baby. They both look malnourished, dirty and just plain miserable. The woman plops down dry cereal, powder for formula, candy bars, and beer. She then digs out the food stamps and promptly gets defensive and glares at the people around her.

Her cell phone rings.

She talks/boasts loudly to the other person on the line about how her man does this or doesn’t do this and in the meantime, she’s motioning for a pack of cigarettes. Do you think this woman has her needs and wants screwed up?

It infuriates me. I used to work at Wal-Mart and would see, first hand, the careless way people took advantage of us, the taxpayers. It’s one thing to help a person who WANTS to be helped, it’s another when they are obviously taking advantage of the system because of their own personal agenda.

It saddens me when I see children involved and obviously suffering. What’s wrong with people?

I used to work with a gal who was on the verge of getting kicked out of her apartment. She had two kids and a car that worked half the time. She was so skinny, I seriously worried about her health - there wasn’t enough money to feed herself after taking care of the kids.

Though she had cable TV, smoked, and owned a cell phone.

*Sigh* The difference between needs and wants. It’s really as simple as that.

Me and my sister, sharing a secret. Taken about … 1970.

Now that I really look at this picture, I think I might be asleep. I bet my sister was trying to wake me up.

Brat.

With another school year drawing to a close, you’ll want to make sure your young graduate gets his just desserts — such as a jelly roll diploma wrapped in a fruit leather bow.

RECIPE INGREDIENTS:

2 eggs plus 1 egg white
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
Jelly
4 oz. cream cheese, softened
3 tbsp. butter,softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Decorator’s gel
Fruit leather

DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a 15- x 10-inch jelly roll pan with waxed paper and grease the paper well.

2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and egg white with an electric mixer on high speed for 5 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of the vanilla extract, then gradually beat in the sugar at low speed. Stir in the dry ingredients until well mixed.

3. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 12 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

4. Invert the hot cake onto a clean towel sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar; remove the waxed paper. Trim the cake edges with a sharp knife (adults only) and roll up the hot cake and towel from a narrow end. Let it cool on a wire rack.

5. Unroll the cooled cake, remove the towel, and spread on jelly, leaving a 2-inch strip at one end plain. Reroll the jelly-covered portion of the cake.

6. In a bowl, beat together the cream cheese, butter, confectioners’ sugar, and the last 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and use to frost the cake.

7. Use decorator’s gel to pipe “roll lines” on the cake ends and the class year or your child’s name onto the unrolled portion. Finally, add a fruit leather bow.

Google is my home page. It always has been, it most likely always will be. I see it every day when I sign on. I love Google; and I’m not just saying that to brown nose a rank from them (as if that would work, anyway), but because I like the fact that they have it together, are professional and courteous, and their search engine is honestly top-notch (I always find what I’m looking for, and then some, when I use it).

Anyway, the other day, when I signed on, I noticed it was time to vote for the Doodle 4 Google drawings. If you don’t know what this contest is about:

Doodle 4 Google is a competition where we invite K-12 students to reinvent Google’s homepage logo. This year we asked U.S. kids to doodle around the theme “What if…?”

If you haven’t clicked over to see the entries, really, you must. They are so cute and don’t forget to read what the kids wrote about their drawings, too. Below are my top four favorites - one for each grade level.

Here’s what the kids had to say about their art pictured above:

K - 3 Drawing:

If the Whole World Rocked

I think that people can express themselves in a creative and energetic way with music. I think that the whole world would be happier if they rocked out to the music they love. (I totally agree with you, kid. There is definitely something about music that can defuse life’s little stresses).

4 - 6 Drawing:

Thinking Like a Goldfish

What if fish could think? Would they teach the world to think green? Small changes can make a difference. We switched over to biodegradable pesticides and less toxic cleaning supplies. Water pollution is a major problem…What are you going to do about it? (What ARE we going to do about it? Being aware of the problem is certainly a start).

7 - 9 Drawing:

Imagination

Imagination knows no bounds. It knows no limitations for what you can dream, achieve, or aspire, or believe. The desire to innovate, with newfound capabilities, helping to change doubt into possibilities. Imagination is an endless rainbow of thoughts, that may lead you to wonder, can pigs fly? Well, why not? (Ah, a kid after my own heart. Imagination is THE KEY to life’s possibilities. Think outside the box. Heck, just THINK).

10 - 12 Drawing:

What if Peace was Possible?

My doodle is showing the hope that we all have, of someday having peace in our world. If we all work together, and love each other, someday, this hope may become reality. (If only this were possible. But we’ll never achieve that perfect peace until Christ comes back. Until then, I’d be content just to peacefully co-exist with people).

I’ll be honest, my choices were swayed by what they said. Such optimism … doesn’t it just warm your heart?

These drawings are pretty darn good (especially the younger kids - unless these kids are minature Picassos [and it’s certainly possible!], I think mom and dad must have helped. Which is fine, but it always irritates me when parents “help” children with their art - they’re kids, let them be kids. But, whatever. I can’t preach too loudly as I’m certainly guilty of “helping” the kids with their schoolwork/projects nearly all through elementary school *ahem*).

You can see, and vote for, the kids’ submissions here. The winning entry will be displayed as Google’s logo all day May 22nd.

You can also find out more about Google Webmaster Dennis Hwang and watch a short video of him drawing a Google doodle. I’ve always been fascinated by artists. I suppose because I can’t draw a stick figure to save my life. And I’m TOTALLY jealous of this guy’s tablet. I WANT THAT TABLET. Very cool.

If you have a few minutes, go vote. These kids are probably on pins and needles hoping to win some really awesome prizes for their art.

MK had his first solo recital at the place where he takes private lessons this past Saturday. He was pretty nervous and when I noticed his hands shaking, I nearly broke down and cried because my instinct was to shield him from the discomfort. There were six kids that gave a solo recital that day and all of them were very nervous; in fact, two of the girls cried shortly after their performance. I was a basket case by the time it was over. (I’m a crier - I cry at mushy commercials so you can imagine how I reacted seeing these scared and weepy kids).

He did well. Of course, he was very critical of his performance afterwards (he comes by that critical self-assessment naturally, both the hubs and I are perfectionists). But honestly, even though he missed a few notes, he did really well. Especially on the second song, which was difficult by his standards because of the complicated notes.

The first song was hauntingly beautiful; I had goosebumps by the time it was over. Can’t you just hear that kind of song on a dying scene in a movie?

Overall, he’s glad it’s over. We told him he has surpassed the hardest part - playing solo for the first time. Now he knows what to expect the next go-around. He has two more concerts - his 7th grade concert tonight and then a jazz concert at the high school next Thursday night. Then he’ll be done for the school year. He wants to take lessons over the summer, but I’m thinking I might suggest he take a few months off and resume in August, I just really don’t want him to get burned out. I’m not going to say anything right now, I think I’ll wait until his concerts are over and ask him again.

We’re just so THRILLED that he has an interest in music that I’m reluctant to push him too hard too fast or he’s liable to call it quits before he really gets into the fun stuff. I’m hoping that when he hears the high school jazz band play at next Thursday’s concert he’ll be fired up to try out for the band in a few years.

Here’s hoping.