Confessions of a pack rat

Confession: I am a pack rat in remission.

I like to keep stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. I don't like to throw anything away. I might need it later. Consider clothes. I grow out of clothes sometimes. I want to keep those clothes forever because I just keep imagining that maybe one day I might loose that extra couple pounds I've put on, and I might need them. Or I keep some clothes that have special memories. The outfit that I was wearing the night Lance proposed, I kept that for years. A pink striped tank top and short khaki skirt. Yes, I am just a little bit sentimental. Some clothes I really like but they just don't work for me. I am have been given clothes from friends. I really like the clothes. I want to keep them. They are cute, just not on me. No matter how cute an orange t-shirt may look on someone else, it will never look good on me. Orange clashes with my skin, and sadly there is no way to get around that fact. Yet, I still don't want to get rid of the cute t-shirt.

Clothes are not the only problem. I like to keep a lot of other stuff too. Remember how I said I am sentimental? Well......I think at one time I had in a couple drawers, about 99% of every card/letter/note that Lance has written me since we met in 2003. I'm not just talking about sweet love letters. That is worth keeping. I had the notes that describe his teacher's monotone voice, how slow the clock is ticking, and how he can't wait to get out of class. Not exactly worthy of keeping for a lifetime.

I have a bad addiction to expired samples and old coupons. If I get a sample of a beauty product, baby ointment, or laundry detergent I have a strong desire to hold on to it. I rarely use these samples. I just keep thinking that maybe, just maybe, I might run out of the 700 containers of diaper rash cream I got at my baby showers, and I might have need for one of the sample packs. Or I think maybe I'll try this laundry detergent one day, and three months later it's still sitting on my laundry room counter top unused. I also am crazy about cutting coupons. I try to only cut coupons that I will use, but occasionally I will clip one for a product I have never tried. I go to the store and quickly discover I don't want the product after all because the store brand is cheaper than the name brand even with a coupon. However, for some reason I never throw those coupons away. This is a major issue.

However, there is good news. I am in remission! Yes, I have fought my pack-ratty tendencies. I have thrown away clothes. I have donated clothes. I have gone through notes and letters, kept the important stuff, and thrown away the rest. I am proud to say that most of the samples are either used or in the trash. This decluttering of all my junk is a process that has taken about a year. And I am still finding things that I need to get rid of. Today, while switching my winter clothes out for summer clothes I went through my clothes for about the 3rd time this year. I decided that if I came across a piece of winter clothing that I had not worn all winter, I would find a new home for it. Well, I threw away four faded t-shirts, and I set aside five or six shirts and two pairs of pants for donation. I am moving forward. I have to admit I slip up sometimes. Sometimes my pack rat attitude flares up again. But, I see progress!

Privacy

I have been thinking a lot about privacy this week. Let me give you a little background story that got me thinking.

Over the past few months, I have been involved in an online group of other moms in a public forum. Most public forums and groups that I have looked into have been a waste of time. However, I stumbled upon a really great group that I actually benefit a lot from. The group is for women who have children born in March of 2010, like my little man. We discuss what challenges we face with a toddler or what milestone our baby is trying to conquer. I was really thrilled to find a group of really nice women who were going through most of the same stuff I was. Well, this week something went terribly wrong with my happy, little group. One of the moms made us all aware that the comments and pictures we post are not as private as we believed. A new search engine out there called boardreader.com has thrown everyone for a loop. The search engine works like this: You type in your screen name and in 2 seconds every conversation you have ever had on an online message board pops up. Because of this realization, many of the ladies started checking other search engines. They found out that if you google your screen name, pictures of your own child start showing up.

Needless to say, everyone started freaking out. They felt violated and mistreated. Fingers started pointing. People began to blame the website for the problem. Nasty letters were written. Ladies started spending countless hours trying desperately to delete every comment and post they had made in the last year. Many of these ladies had posted inappropriate content, pictures and comments in other groups on the site. Some shared very personal and private infomation. My cheerful little group filled with teething questions and encouraging advice sort of fell apart at the seams.

Okay, so what's the issue? Upon a little investigation, I discovered that the website we are part of is indeed a public forum. That means that nothing is exclusive. Anyone wanting to join the discussion is welcome. Anyone wanting information about say...a teething 12 month old, can google that phrase and come upon our message board. Nothing is private.

My husband always tells me that anything I put online is open to the public. Anything. Even the things that we think are private. Think about a private email. We like to think that if we send an email to someone discussing personal matters it will be seen by the recipient's eyes only. Well, what is to stop that person from forwarding the email to someone else without our knowledge? The same occurs on facebook. We can set our privacy settings to allow only friends to view our information, videos, and pictures. But, who is to stop a "friend" from copying and pasting one of your pictures? Or your phone number or address. (Just to make myself perfectly clear, it is NOT a good idea to put your phone number or address on your facebook page. Make sure to check your information tab. It may be there and you don't realize.)Not to mention that anyone can add and tag you in a picture, but not everyone has their privacy settings set to a very high level. Statuses talking badly about a teacher, friend, or coworker are easily shown and read to anyone. The status on facebook has become for some people some kind of a diary. We must remember that those posts are for everyone to see.

Have you ever noticed that people get braver behind a computer screen? Myself included. I am much more outspoken in print. In fact, I have a shameful memory of "cussing out" a boy from my high school online. My friends and I chatted on MSN messenger almost every night. I was angry at a guy for treating me wrong, and I cussed him out. It was horribly mean. I regretted it almost immediately. I said things that I would never have said in person. I hate that I said those things. I hate that I wasn't myself. And I hated that I hid behind a computer screen instead of facing my problems head on.

David Webb from Cademons Call said You would be more godly if you knew your thoughts would be on the 5 o'clock news. I think they same should be applied to the internet. You would post more godly if you knew your statuses, pictures, and comments would be on the 5 o'clock news.

Uncle Jon meet Caleb- the grouchy, overmedicated zombie boy

This picture makes me smile. Last week, we had the privilege of my brother Jonathan coming to visit us. Jon had never gotten to meet his nephew Caleb, and we were so excited for them to meet. Jon booked his ticket months ago. We set up his bed in the extra bedroom. We cleaned the house top to bottom. We were very excited! I told Caleb all about how cool his Uncle Jon is and how much fun they would have together. Jonathan is the oldest of my three younger siblings. We were best buds growing up, and I still consider him a close friend. He lives in Colorado, so I don't get to see him often. I couldn't wait!

Sunday night came, the night before we would pick up Jon from the airport, and of course.....Caleb got sick. He had a high fever, congestion, and a terrible cough. He couldn't eat, drink or sleep. He woke up every hour and even vomited because he could not stop coughing. Poor Caleb. Immediately Monday morning, I called the doctor's office. I was so thankful they had an early morning appointment, so I threw on some clothes, snapped Caleb in the car and sped my way to his appointment. I just knew he had some terrible disease. I was picturing my phone conversation with Jonathan, telling him that I couldn't pick up up from the airport because I had to rush Caleb to the nearest hospital. (I can be a little bit of a drama queen occasionally.) Dr. McGuire checked Caleb out and declared it was only the croup, which is not really very serious but pretty miserable. The doctor prescribed some great meds to get Little Man feeling better as soon as possible.

After a quick trip to the pharmacy for medication and the grocery store for popsicles, we were off to the airport. Somewhere along the way, Caleb's meds began to kick in. The lessening cough was a welcome relief to my ears as he slept soundly in the back seat. Unfortunately, as I soon found out, drug-induced sleep is not all it's cracked up to be, with or without coughing. (Do you remember at the beginning of this post I told you how excited I was for Caleb to meet his uncle? Well, let me explain that I was not really excited, I was ecstatic! I kept picturing scenes in my imagination of uncle and nephew first setting eyes on each other and becoming instant, life-long friends. I imagined Jon tossing Caleb into the air with soft motivational music playing in the background, and Caleb falling into his uncle's strong hands in fits of laughter.)

So, here's how the introduction went: "Caleb, this is your Uncle Jon." (blank stare) "Caleb do you want to go play with your Uncle Jon?" (blank stare) "Uncle Jon flew all the way from Colorado to meet you." (blank stare) "Do you want to show Uncle Jon your toys?" (blank stare) "Okay Caleb, I'm going to put you down so you can play with Uncle Jon." (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!) So, the introduction didn't go quite like I had planned.

Well, days passed. Medication continued to do it's job, along with turning my happy baby boy into a groggy, grouchy, whiny little zombie. Poor kid couldn't even walk straight. (A few days into it we noticed a teensy-tiny label on one of the medications that stated: May cause drowsiness and slight dizziness. Slight? Ha. The kid couldn't even walk straight!) Somewhere about day four or five of Jon's visit, Little Man began to come out of his zombie-like state. After two crazy days at the beach with a sick kid, we decided to spend the rest of the visit at home to let Caleb catch up on his rest. That ended up being a good strategy because a couple of days before Jon's departure Little Man was back to his normal self. Getting into everything! We played in the backyard and went to the park. Jon put up Caleb's tepee tent, and Caleb spent an entire afternoon peeking in and out of the tent's windows and doors. Before we knew it, it was time for Uncle Jon to go back home.

The morning of Jon's departure, I left Caleb in the living room watching the Sprout channel while Jon was checking his email nearby. After a quick change of clothes and brushing my teeth, I returned to the living room to see the sweetest picture: There was sweet, smiling Caleb sitting snugly in Uncle Jon's lap listening to his favorite book.

I guess our visit started off pretty rough but ended up being a total success as Caleb waved bye-bye to Uncle Jon as he headed off to catch his plane.

I Have the Best Job in the World

At least, it's the best job in the world for me....I am a Stay-At-Home-Mommy. When I decided to become a SAHM, it was a tough decision. I was looking at cutting our family income in half, going from good state insurance to awful seminary student insurance, and missing out on a fun job as a teacher. I realized that I would no longer have daily adult interaction. I wouldn't have praise and encouragement from coworkers and administrators any longer. (Who tells a SAHM how fantastically she is folding her husband's socks?) And I would miss out on the great joy of teaching a child how to read. I was worried about all of that. I talked to countless friends, asking for direction and advice. I planned. I created spreadsheets. I made pros and cons lists. I prayed. I cried. I worried. And I prayed some more. I finally made my choice. This is how:

I knew I was faced with three jobs: A teacher. A mom. And a minister's wife. I knew myself pretty well. I knew that I could not do all three jobs well. I was afraid that I would focus too much energy and time on being a teacher and mom that I would neglect my husband and our ministry, or maybe I would spend so much time being a mom and wife that I would slack as a teacher. So, I decided to pick two. Two jobs. I knew I could handle that. I chose the most important jobs. A mom and a wife. Looking back on the last year, I know that if I had to do all three, I would have made it. But to me, just making it is not enough. First Corinthians 10:31 says "...whatever you do, do it for the glory of God." How could I do everything for the glory of God if I over committed myself and stressed myself out? There are some very amazing women in this world. They can work, be an awesome mom, be a loving wife, and do it all amazingly. They can multitask like nobody's business. I can't. I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time! I respect those women a lot. But, since I am not one of those women, I decided to be a stay-at-home mommy.

It didn't make sense financially. One time, I had a lady say to me "Oh honey, it's nice to stay home-for those of you who can afford it." Well, mam, let me tell you. We couldn't afford it. But....God has provided. We don't have a lot. We don't have much extra. But we are richly blessed. Because God's will for my life was to stay home with Caleb, He made a way. I am so glad He did.

Today, was a great day. Not every day is like today. I don't want you to get the idea that being a SAHM is a piece of cake. It's not. It's hard work. However, today didn't feel so much like work. It was fun. This morning I woke up, got ready for the day, and had breakfast with my family. I rolled a ball around the living room and stacked toys with my son. I did dishes, laundry (of course), and cleaned the bathroom. I ran a couple errands and had a shopping spree at The Salvation Army. (Got three men's dress shirts, a tie, and a pair of baby shoes for 9 bucks!) Then, I got to have lunch at Gulf Coast Community College in Lucedale with Lance and some cool college kids. This afternoon, I sorted out the laundry/storage room (AKA junk room) and played outside with Caleb. I sat in the sun and watched him toddle his little self all over the backyard. Then my husband came home, and we got to sit and talk for a few minutes before he had to go back to church. Next, I got little man up from his nap, and we got to go to church where I get to sing in the choir and go to youth group. Today was a good day. Not every day is as easy as today, of course. You have the long days and even longer nights with a grouchy teething baby. You get tired of the huge lack of adult communication, and you start referring to the restroom as "the potty." And your Ipod is set to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Hokey Pokey! Nevertheless, all in all being a Stay-At-Home Mom is a wonderful job. It is definitely rewarding. I promised myself to stick this out for a year. I thought, "I can do anything for a year, and if I hate it...it's only a year." Fortunately, I love it. Here I go on year number two!

Seasons!

When I taught first grade, one of my favorite science units was Seasons. We read fantastic weather books like The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. We would do fun crafts such as cutting snowflakes from extra copy paper that I snagged from the copy machine or crayon leaf rubbings from leaves we collected on the playground. I told my students that there are four seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. However, because my students were six, and six year olds have a tough time grasping sarcasm and exaggeration, I didn't completely explain all that I know about these so-called 4 seasons of the year. Luckily for you, since you are not six (I assume) I feel it is necessary to explain a little more into detail about seasons, both here in Mississippi and in Alaska.

First off, Alaska. Alaska does not have four seasons. It has five. I know my Alaskan readers are very aware of this, so if you would like, you may skip this paragraph and move on. As for the rest of you... Alaska has five seasons. First, we have Spring, which doesn't really start in March and finish by the end of May like my first graders were led to believe. In Alaska, we were lucky to see Spring around late-April. Spring weather continues throughout the entire summer, except for the occasional lucky weekend in maybe July or August where the temps might reach the whopping high temps of 70-75 degrees! Yes, in Alaska, 70 is seriously hot. We stripped down to our shorts and tank tops, pulled out the sprinklers, and danced through the water across the lawn to get some relief. (Sometimes looking back on my life in AK, I wonder to myself why in the world did I bother buying shorts?) So anyway, after that lucky occasional summer weekend, we move on to Fall. Fall begins around September 1st and ends.... oh-somewhere-around September 3rd.... Nah, j/k. Fall in Alaska is pretty short but not quite that short. So after a couple weeks of Fall, we enter into freezing cold Winter. It doesn't start snowing till after Halloween, but pretty much after Labor Day you might as well kiss your shorts and sprinklers goodbye. The season of Winter lasts and lasts and lasts. Don't get me wrong. I love Alaska. I love Winter. I love snow. I love sledding and hot chocolate and snow angels. But only in small quantities. Snow on the ground for five months out of the year is a bit much for me. Finally, we get to the fifth season: Break-up. That is when the snow "breaks-up." Genius name isn't it? Me and Break-up, we have a love/hate relationship. During the day, all the snow and ice that has been accumulating for the past 5 months melts. And then during night, it freezes all over again. This causes dirty brown slush by day and dirty brown ice by night. I'm not crazy about that whole process, but I can't help but love the fact that Break-up brings Spring. And I think I'd rather be in Alaska during the Spring more than any other place in any other season of the year. It is beautiful. Nothing is more beautiful than tiny light-green leaves budding on hundreds of white birch trees with a backdrop of snow capped mountains.

Now, on to Mississippi seasons. I would say that Mississippi has four seasons, but I would change the names of a couple of seasons. Season 1: Summer. Season 2: Fall. Season 3: Winter-ish 4. Wummer. Yes, I did say Wummer. That is not a typo. Right now, we are in the season of Wummer. This word is not necessarily one you would find in the dictionary. See, when Webster wrote his dictionary, for some reason he didn't contact me about my made up words and phrases, so that is why this perfectly legit word Wummer doesn't show up. The word is sorta like brunch....a mixture of breakfast and lunch. Or at the Banks' household we liked to have Bupper or Binner. I always liked the name Bupper better than Binner. It sorta rolls off the tongue better. Anyway..back to Wummer. Wummer is summer and winter all mixed into one. It is when the atmosphere gets confused and can't decide whether to get cold or hot and just kinda goes nuts for a couple months. We will have an entire week of 70 degree temps, and then the very next week we'll have to pull back out the mittens and wool socks. Good grief! It's craziness! I used to have two different closets with two sets of clothes: summer and winter clothes. When summer came, I'd pull all my tank tops and shorts from the extra bedroom's closet, and I'd switch them out with my winter clothes in my bedroom closet. Well, what ended up happening is that I would experience one of those fake-out weeks of warm weather, and I would switch my clothes, only to discover that we still had 3 more weeks of winter! Then I was stuck to going to the extra bedroom to get dressed every morning, which kinda gets old after a while. So, I've just kinda given up on that idea. So, that is Wummer. Next time you see good ole' Webster, let him know he's missing a very useful word in his dictionary for me, will ya? I'd appreciate it.

Well, now you know all about the seasons. I hope you learned a lot. Sorry it has been forever since my last post. I've been out enjoying this nice Wummer weather!

Caleb's First Year

I've heard the saying time flies when you are having fun. This year I have found out, that saying is very true. I can't believe that tomorrow will mark one year since my sweet baby was born. To celebrate Caleb's first birthday, I thought I would share a few memories of our year with our little munchkin man.

Caleb Joel Sudduth 7 lbs, 6 ozs

March 2, 2010

At 4 weeks old, Caleb was always alert and taking everything in.

Happy little 4 month old starts to show his personality and smiles!

And there's some 7 month old personality! Into everything!

Haha! Almost a year. All boy.

Lance and I are so thankful for our adorable baby boy. We are blessed that God has trusted us with such a precious gift. Happy Birthday Caleb!

Pasta makes me happy.

I hope there is a lot of pasta in heaven. I think plates full of pasta made in many different ways with different types of meats and vegetables is just about the best food imaginable. When I was a kid, if you asked me "Sarah, what is your favorite food?" I would tell you, macaroni and cheese. Unless I happened to be in the mood for some ice cream or pizza, which in that case, my preferences might have changed. But for the most part, it would be mac and cheese. Macaroni and cheese is a delightful comfort food. I loved it so much, that sometimes my brother and I would make it for an afternoon snack, and together we would eat the entire box with a glass of grape kool-aid! How I managed to stay a size 4 throughout high school eating like that, I cannot tell you. Fast metabolism I guess. Surely, I could not eat that way now and expect to stay out of the range of morbidly obese. Anyway. As I was saying, mac and cheese used to be my absolute favorite.

Now, I can't choose a favorite. I just love pasta. Spaghetti, ziti, shells, lasagna, penne, ravioli, fettuccine, linguini, rigatoni, tortellini, rotini, and macaroni. With lots of different sauces, meats and veggies like tomatoes, mushrooms, broccoli and etc. I recently started creating pasta dishes with whole-wheat pasta. It may sound weird, but honestly I can't tell much of a difference. The color is different obviously. And the texture might be a little different but not much.

A few years ago, American eaters went on a big no-carbohydrate diet kick. The main culprit was that guy Atkins. He convinced everyone that they could have as much protein as they could hold, but they would still be able to loose weight because they were not eating carbs. Well, it worked pretty well for a lot of people. A lot of people lost weight, and even today dieters continue going on these kind of diets and successfully loose weight. However, there are some major drawbacks to this diet.

Drawback number 1: Large quantities of animal fat is not so great for your heart.

Drawback number 2: People were able to loose the weight, but then once they started eating carbs again, they gained the weight back.

Drawback number 3: Grouchiness. Consuming little to no carbs zaps your energy and makes you very grouchy.

So, health experts started noticing these drawbacks and started doing some more studies. They soon found out that the key is not to eliminate all carbs from your diet, but instead to eat the right kind of carbs. You know, instead of snacking on a bag of potato chips pick up a small bowl of popcorn. (Disclaimer: I am not talking about popcorn dripping with high fat butter and covered with half a pound of salt! Light popcorn or lightly salted should do the trick.) Instead of white rice, try brown. Instead of white wonder bread, try whole wheat. (Make sure it says 100% whole-wheat on the bag. If it just says wheat, you are not getting much extra nutrition.) These are good carbs! They give you energy, and don't make you grouchy. Who wants to be grouchy anyway?

So grab a bowl of whole-wheat pasta and eat to your little healthy-heart's content!