Raising Magnolias
Welcome to Raising Magnolias!
Magnolias, a symbol of the south where I grew up, are associated with beauty, perserverance, dignity, nobility, purity, innonence and joy. Created by God, and for His Glory, they are a breathtaking reminder that the dark and dreary days of winter never last. Spring always comes. (Although when you live in a place like Nebraska, it sometimes comes a little late).
I’m the mom of two seriously precious children. Coulter (7) and Emma Claire (3 1/2 ). They are beautiful and funny and smart and so totally full of joy. They are kind and well mannered (except for the fact that “toots” are hysterical and must always be announced). And as for the table….well, we are still working on that. Napkins sometimes become puppets and hotdogs make a perfect sword (not that I would ever feed them a hotdog!) They are strong spirited (read: stubborn) and they do. not. give. up. They are competitive and sometimes fight like the two guys from “Grumpy Old Men” (even though one of them is a 3 year old girl). They make me laugh and think and cry and silently scream (opera style) and they inspire me to try harder and work harder and love better and grow stronger. Every day. They inspire me.
I am in the process of divorcing my husband of 14 years (Oh, wait, he filed, so I guess I should say I’m in the process of being divorced by my husband). I love Jesus and I already know that God hates divorce, so please don’t feel the need to enlighten me. If there had been the “Most likely to stay married forever; least likely to ever get divorced” category in our highschool’s Who’s Who, I can assure you, I would’ve won. I am humbled and stunned and saddened and angry and did I mention humbled to be in this place. But, here I am (single and approaching the big 4-0) and raising my sweet magnolias. I am writing this blog primarily as a form of free therapy (well, technically the .com cost me $18) but also to hopefully show my journey of faith as I lean hard (and I’m talking h.a.r.d) on our loving Father; my journey of forgiveness (for those who neither deserve or seem to desire my forgiveness and by those I mean “him”) and my hope that tomorrow will be better (and tomorrow WILL be better). Sometimes I forget to filter; sometimes I forget to proof, but I always tell the truth. Sometimes I’m funny, but it’s not on purpose. I just like to laugh and I kinda have a funny life. I mean, you don’t have to be a comdian to tell the story of how everyone (including the dog) got sick on our last car trip (that’s two kid-pukes and one doggy-puke in case you’re counting) or that I just this minute overheard my Mother telling Emma Claire that we shouldn’t put glue in our ears. These are things that just happen to me. I am sometimes angry and I’m often times sarcastic. If you think I’m being arrogant then please refer back to sarcasm. I also tend to be a little self-deprecating, and again that’s nothing that I have to work toward. I don’t like to cook, but I’m a mom so I do. Some days, though peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread is a perfectly well-rounded meal. I’m terrible at house work and I see no reason to put away the playdough. I spend time with my kids; not with my broom. Also along the journey it’s entirely possible that you may find a few jabs directed at my soon to be ex-husband, but again, I promise to always tell the truth and be respectful of the fact that he is the father of my children, although I NEVER want to talk about how that happened. And one day friends, Lord willing, there’s going to be a book, (HALE YEAH, there is!) so yall might as well start reading now so that we can go on this journey together!
Raising Magnolias 