Grateful For Kids Who Aren't Afraid Of Work

November 15, 2013

I realized today I have raised kids who understand the value of work. With the many financial changes this year I've had to say no to their requests more than I like. But, I also see now where fortunately the groundwork I've laid over the years has made my "no" to them less harsh to hear and, even more importantly, has given them incentive to find ways to make it a "yes" on their own.

Kid 1 is working full time before he leaves for Navy boot camp in two months. Even last year when he was only working part time while in high school he bought each of his brothers and sisters a Christmas present with his own money. This year he is also buying presents, but when he babysat for me recently I offered him some money to get the kids dinner. "No, I'm working now. I got it", he told me.

Kid 2 is dual enrolled as a junior in high school and a first semester at the local community college. He works part time at the local YMCA in the youth station and child care. He works to help pay his college tuition and car insurance and is never late on a payment. He saved for months to buy his girlfriend a ring. (No, not that kind of ring!)

Kid 3 is too young for a real job at just 15 years old. But he is the go-to babysitter for a friend and her two young children. He also does odd jobs such as mowing yards and helping the dance school owner construct a new dance floor. He still sees the money he's earning as a ticket to Game Stop, but recently he said he is going to start saving part of his pay in a savings account as well.

Kid 4 wants to go on her Honor Society trip this year, but it is just totally out of my budget. I told her if she could find a way to pay it herself she could go. I honestly expected her to just forget about it. But, no, she thought it through and came up with a plan to earn the money herself.

Tonight she really made me proud. Her friends invited her out to dinner and a sleep over. But she had already committed to help a pregnant friend of mine clean her house once per week between now and her trip in June. Kid 3 has been sick all week and couldn't do his regular babysitting job, so kid 4 stepped up to clean and babysit tonight. I wasn't sure how she'd do at first knowing she was missing a night out with her friends. But she didn't once complain. In fact she said, "If I can keep this job for a year I can make a lot of money!"

Even kids 5 & 6 have stepped up to offer their own limited finances when they felt it was necessary. How sweet to have a 10yo offer you his prized $2 bill to help pay for a dinner out for the family. Of course I would never take the money, but just to know they are willing to chip in is all I really need.

I want my kids to enjoy the luxury of childhood and not have the financial worries that I do.

But I am very grateful that they don't feel entitled to luxuries and are willing to work for what they want.

MSOD: My Favorite Yet Most Challenging Yoga Class to Teach

November 14, 2013

Tonight I am grateful for my yoga class at Millington School of Dance.

It is one of the few yoga classes I am still teaching after taking on one full time and an additional part time job this year. There's just not much time left to teach but I was adamant I not lose my MSOD class.

I've written before about my MSOD girls here on the blog and even over on Elephant Journal.  This year we've actually expanded the class to include the teen girls from the pointe class, other dance students, dance moms & dads, students who used to take my classes outside the dance school and the occasional special appearance by kid #5.

With three other competing dance classes going on at the same time, it's not my most quiet, serene class. With the lights on, ballet barres stacked in the corner and dance shoes scattered around the room, it's not my most yoga-studio like class.

It's the only class I teach where I have to use my loud aerobics instructor voice to be heard over the music in all the other rooms leaving me with a strained throat every week.

But it is absolutely without a doubt one of my most favorite classes to teach. I never go in with a plan because I never know what the ratio of teen dancers to adults will be. I will be kind and just say the teens have just a tad bit more flexibility and just a tad bit more ADD than the adults usually do. Although it's one class, I'm really teaching to three or four different populations.

I absolutely love the challenge.

How can I explain the importance of building strength over flexibility to young girls without boring the non-dancers in the room? How can I instruct proper body mechanics to protect the lower back to the adults without boring the younger students who plop into a backbend without a second thought?

Oh and let's not forget the nights I do forget and don't separate the teen boys from the teen girls. The googly eyes looking across the yoga mat at each other and the boys "accidentally" knocking the girls out of a yoga pose are enough to keep me on my toes.

The adults have no trouble dropping into savasanna even with hip hop music pounding from the room next to us. The younger students usually start out tapping their fingers, then gradually even they become quiet and restful.

By Thursday evening I've already worked almost 50 hours for the week and I'm exhausted. But once we all get into the room and lay mats down, my energy is restored. I have never walked out of that class without a smile on my face.

I am thankful to MSOD for providing me a place to teach yoga and students who challenge and inspire me.

November 13: First World Problems

November 13, 2013

Tonight I am blessed and grateful that most  all of my problems are first world problems.

November 10 - 12 Gratitude: Food, a Warm Home and Doctors

November 10, 2013

1. Big Sunday dinners with my table overflowing with food and family.
2. Friends who collect iPhone cases and give me their perfect condition hand-me-down cases.


November 11, 2013

1. Finding out someone remembered an off-handed remark I made a month ago and suddenly I have concert tickets!
2. A house with heat and the ability to pay the gas bill.

November 12, 2012

1. My job.
2. Midday texts/calls just to say hi.
3. Access to quality medical care.

November 7 - 9 Gratitude List

November 7, 2013

1. Help in unexpected places.
2. Friends who have turned into family that my kids know they can depend on for anything.

November 8, 2013

1. Kids who know they can always call their momma and I will be there for them.
2. A job that pays me to do what I enjoy with the flexibility I need.


November 9, 2013

1. Homemade chicken noodle soup.
2. Listening to the laughter of goofy girls braiding each others hair.

As Usual, It's Friends on the Gratitude List: November 4-6

November 4, 2013

1. Friends who are willing to turn their car around at 10:30pm and comfort me.
2. Friends who make me laugh when I want to cry, even if it means I blow snot out my nose crying and laughing at the same time.

November 5, 2013

1. Days that end much better than they begin.
2. My mom for introducing me to and beginning my love affair with the theater.  

3. Friends who give me their orchestra seats to the theater.

4. Friends who share my love of the theater.

5. Friends who walk me around downtown Memphis at night having dinner, drinks and enjoying a rare evening out. 

November 6, 2013

1. Rekindling my love of teaching yoga

2. Noisy dance schools, little girls in tights and leotards, and loud blaring music that little girls smile and dance to all night.

Month of Gratitude 2013

It's that time again.  Bloggers and others are listing what they are grateful for each day of the month of November.

I've participated for the past two years. My 2011 gratitude list was very different than my struggle to find gratitude during my very difficult 2012. This year I'm in a very different, yet better, place and I'm not sure where my gratitude list will go.

I do know though that these past couple years have taught me, if nothing else, even in the darkest of times there is always something to be grateful for. Always.

November 1, 2013

1. Safely guiding my unsafe car to a place I can pull over and call for help.
2. Having car insurance that includes roadside assistance and towing.
3. A pink mohawk tow truck driver who wouldn't leave me alone on the side of the road.
4. Kids and a staff who were willing to drop what they were doing and come rescue me.
5. Long distance phone calls.


November 2, 2013

1. New friends who willingly hand over keys to their brand new car so that I'm not without transportation to work.
2. Old friends who save me money by fixing my car for me.


November 3, 2013

All the kids piled on my bed waiting their turn for one of momma's back massages.