This weekend we went to friends house for a party. We were very excited for a fun night out with friends; a lot of people we know would be there, as well as some friends of theirs we didn’t know.  We were running late which I hate, but by the time we got there the party was in full swing.  We walked into lots of drinking, (let me pause the story to say I have no problem with drinking, I am fine to be with adults who drink) ok, back to the story, the friends house we were at knew that we don’t drink because of personal preference as well as my husbands position as a pastor.  It should be no big deal whether you drink or not; well the friend made a huge deal of it, announcing to everyone at the party the coke products are for the Prouty’s only!

He went on and on and on for quite a while and it threw me right back to high school -suddenly I feel weird for not drinking? My husband and I are looking at each other like, “how do we get out of here?” Keep in mind my kids (all four of our kids a 10 yr old 11 and two 14 yr olds) are watching this. Finally the friends said something like, “it is so much fun to give you guys a hard time about not dinking!” and my husband said in a very direct tone, “fun for who?” Well, he got the message and the harassing stopped. We had a nice evening after that and met some really nice people.

At the end of the evening, when it was time to leave I started to wonder,  how were all these people getting home? They had had a lot to drink; not just a drink with dinner, but beer followed by martinis, then margaritas then some wine and then more beer. Keep in mind they all had kids with them ranging in age from 4 to 16. As we drove home I start to think how do you tell your teens never never drink and drive, and then go to a party, have them watch you drink all that, and then get in the car and drive home? I don’t get it!  What I do know is that our kids learn more from watching us than they do by what we tell them.

Drinking is a hard thing, I am not at all saying that we have never drank, or that we wont have another drink in our lives,  I just think the older our kids get we have decided that it is just better not to now. I want my kids to know you can be with friends and have a blast and not drink. I want them to know it is not okay to drink and then get in car and drive, no matter how old you are. I want to make sure that I don’t tell them one thing, and do another. I guess the best thing about the evening was that our teens got see us stand up to criticism for not drinking, and they got to see we had just as much fun as the next person there.

Here is to doing only what you want to do and standing up to peer pressure no matter what your age!

Tonight was back to school night for Graham and I. They kids have been in school 4 days, and tonight was parents night; to go talk to teachers, hear from the principal, and meet other parents. I love this night because it is your first exposure to your kid’s teacher. Graham on the other hand – well lets just say usually turns into the class clown. I often have to remind him he is someone’s father as we are going in. But tonight he was very subdued, quite unlike him, maybe he is maturing.

The good news is we like both of the kid’s teachers, they both have great personalities and seem like they will work well for our kids. I always feel sorry for the teachers because they spend their days talking in front of a class full of kids, but get them in front of parents and they just freeze up. So I sit there and try to give them non-verbal encouragement. “It is ok, just relax,” I am thinking in my mind. I wonder if in college for teachers they should have a “how to talk in front of parents” class?

Anyway, we LOVE our kid’s school. It is actually a charter school, I never pictured myself as a charter school supporter – we have always had our kids in our neighborhood schools, until last year.  We had good friends who sent their kids to this school and my friend was on the board so we tried it, and I love it! It has smaller classes, which I love, and the kids get to be someone – not just a number. The kids wear uniforms, which older ones don’t love, but it is a great equalizer for jr. high kids and it makes our morning much easier. I am so glad we found this school, Thanks Monica!

Here is to a great year of school: may there not be to much homework, may jack not talk to much, and Lord help us with all the 6^th grade girls Drama!

It is not easy to find TV shows that the whole family can watch. So when we heard the makers of 7^th Heaven were coming out with a new show we were very excited – we were big 7^th Heaven fans. We related with the pastor’s family, lots of kids, always something needing to be solved, but that is really were the similarities end, because those Camden’s, who could be like them?

Anyway, the new show is called The Secret Life of An American Teenager.” So we all set down to watch and WOW we were a little shocked – lets just say they aren’t the Camden’s!  The premise of the show is that the “nice” girl goes to band camp, gets together with the “cool” boy and gets pregnant. It all takes place in high school and they have “Christian “ kids who they portray as the goodie goodies; openly talking about how they aren’t having sex before marriage, and then the boy ends up getting involved with the “bad” girl of the school (saw that one coming). The pregnant girl struggles how to tell her (separated) parents and keeps it from them for a couple episodes. Then when she tells her mom she begins the struggle with the decision to abort the baby, adopt it out, or keep it herself. She decides not to have an abortion, and well, the rest we aren’t sure about yet – we have to keep watching. Now she is struggling with going to school and having everyone talk about her, because she was going to her grandmothers, but she just found out her grandma has Alzheimer’s!

I was not sure about this show at first and actually hated it.  I thought they were really pushing things and was shocked about all the sex talk. I have since changed my mind (although teen-agers have LOVED it from it’s firs showing) what I realized what great conversation it brings up in our home,  and with their friends that watch it too. The week she was considering abortion we got to talk about abortion.  We get to talk about the stupid way they portray the “Christian” kids, and that being a Christ follower doesn’t mean you can’t have fun! I don’t know if that is what the producers were thinking – that it would be a great show for teens and parents to watch together – but it is great for us. Also, don’t tell my girls but it is a very addicting show, it sucks you in. It is certainly not for younger kids as they discuss a lot of sex issues.

Don’t get me wrong I still don’t love the way they portray the “Christian” kids and having the” Christian “ guy mess up so quickly is a shame, but it has been a great way to talk about second chances and learning from failure.  Prepare yourself not be shocked and watch it with your teen, see what kind of conversation it may bring up in your home. There are so many ways we can loose touch with our teens I find I have to be intentionally looking for ways to connect.  Oh yeah, it is on Disney family (which cracks me up – it is no Hannah Montana show) Tuesday nights at 6:00.

Let me know what you think!

I can’t believe it is time for school to start! Where did the summer go? I always ask that question. It seems like as your going through it summer is long and the kids are bored, but about 2 weeks before school starts you switch to, “wow that went fast.” I always have that summer regret of,  “I wish I had done…..”

But school does start Monday, so it is time for the dreaded school supply shopping. Don’t get me wrongI love the feel of new paper and pencils. I am all about finding the coolest folder in the class, but  it is the actual shopping part I hate. Everyone   and their brother in the same school supply aisle, all with kids who are holding things up to see if they need or can have it – ugh… I get a cold sweat just thinking about it!

Not to mention the shock at the checkout when you realize that all these little things add up to a lot. It is my least favorite part of back to school. Yet every year we have to do it, I sometimes wonder how much we have spent this far in their schooling on l supplies? On the flip side there is nothing like watching your kids pack up their backpack with all their new stuff.

It will be quite a back to school for us this year;  we have 2 starting high school, 1 starting Jr. high and 1 going into 5^th grade. How did they all get so old? Where did the time go? There will be a lot of nerves on Sunday night, and that is just Graham and I!  Soon we will be back in the swing of our new routine of school and homework and counting the days until our next break.

Here is to summer and all the stuff we didn’t do!

I love a nice lawn freshly mowed with nice lines. Our back yard was getting a lot of weeds in the rock border around the grass. So today I decided it was weed-pulling day in our house. Let me tell you everyone was very excited when I announced this fun was on tap for today. So happily all the kids and my husband went outside to start the pulling process. Some weeds come out easy and other needed a lot of work. Afterward, we sprayed with weed kill to help keep them from coming back.

Then we mowed,  edged,  and raked; it looks so much better! I am sure some of the weeds will come back and we will have to continue to work at them, but today you don’t see weeds, just a beautiful manicured lawn.

It got me thinking about what in my life prevents me from being my best?  What are the big weeds that keep coming back that I must continue to work at?  What are the little thing that creep in and spread until that is all people see when they look at me?  It is time for me to do some weeding in my life, get ride of those things that prevent me from being who God intended me to be and do some preventative thing to keep them from coming back.

It is a good time to do some weeding in my life.  I am reminded that the thing about weeds is they don’t go away on their own, they just spread.

Happy weeding!

I love a good friend, one you can tell anything to and know she will understand, one that you can call just to tell one thing and 1 hour later you get off the phone.  You can spend hours at Panera just talking about nothing. Or that you can go to a movie with, and talk through the whole thing!  One that will cry with you when life is hard, and laugh till you cry when you do the dumbest thing ever. I have a great friend like that, her name is Amy and she is the best friend a girl could have – only problem; she just moved.

Suddenly I feel like I am 12 and just lost my best friend, of course I know we will be friends no matter what the distance but, there is something that happens when you don’t live close by. Soon you talk about people that the other doesn’t know or you run out of things to talk about; life gets busy and soon the phone calls and emails get farther apart. Good girlfriends are hard to come by, you know, ones that you get and they get you. I will miss her dearly: she was a regular part of my life and I find myself wondering what I will do with all that extra time.

It is good in the sense that it forces me to get out of my comfort zone and reach out to new friends. I tend to get comfortable with my friends and not look outside of that circle. Oh, how I hate the beginning of friendships, the small talk, trying to figure out where you want to go to lunch, trying not to step on each other’s toes, ugh I hate it! I am such a comfort zone person.

I keep thinking of that song they would teach you when you were little

“Make new friends but keep the old, one is Silver but the others Gold”

Here’s to making some new friends, but I sure do miss her.