A Holiday "Not Me, Monday!"

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It's Christmas vacation at the Kincaid home. So, today, I did not let my 7 year old sleep until NOON. No, you didn't read 12 pm - as in "lunchtime." Because I would never let a child so small develop poor, lazy sleep habits like that! I'm a much better mother than that. And, when she did finally get up, she did NOT find her mother and brother both still wearing their PJ's. We always get up early, eat a balanced breakfast, shower, dress and get ready for the day in an orderly and timely fashion. ALWAYS. Even when we are on Christmas break. If I was still in my PJ's, I most certainly wouldn't be contemplating whether or not to stay that way ALL day, just for the fun of it, because, hey, it's not often that we can play "lazy" ALL day!

Since it is Christmastime, we do have our home decorated (yes, we really DO). But if I noticed last week that half the lights on the tree had gone out, it most certainly would not have been driving me crazy. Because I don't let little things like a half-lit Christmas tree ruin my Christmas spirit. It hasn't been bothering me so much that I dug through the tree to find all the plugs, checked the fuses, and wiggled those little lights til my fingers hurt. And when I did, I wouldn't have found that we have not one, but two half-lit strings on our tree right now. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle some more. And now, only one half-lit string! If I found that I only had one half lit string, and it was fairly close to the top, I wouldn't stretch and re-arrange the strings above and below it to fill in the unlit part. Nope, not me! And if I had done such a thing, I also wouldn't have done it only on the sides of the tree that you can see, ignoring the back completely.

See, you can't even tell, can you?

So, what have you NOT been doing this holiday season?

Not Me, Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.
Last Thursday while my little girl practiced gymnastics for an hour, I did not take the laptop and work on blog posts for the whole hour. I would simply never take my child to a sports practice and not watch every single minute of it. Nope, not me!

After receiving a comment on my “Not Me Monday” post last week from Elizabeth at “Confessions from a Working Mom,” I did not join her Blog Carnival called “Truthful Tuesdays.” I did not do this because I am simply not getting obsessed with jumping from blog to blog reading the posts of all you other ladies out there! Nope, Not me!

I did not TOTALLY enjoy some holiday shopping with the Waffle for two hours yesterday afternoon sans children. I always feel completely at a loss when my children are not with me. If I had enjoyed my two hours of shopping sans children, I might want to say “Thank you” to Nick’s momma, who blogs on this page, for allowing Mallory to join Hayden at Nick's birthday party. But, since I didn’t enoy it, I won’t say "Thank you." Nope, Not Me!

Because I started my holiday planning an entire month ago, I am prepared, organized and at peace with all my holiday planning. I do not feel completely unprepared and disorganized, being unable to make up my mind what to buy for the children, much less anyone else. Nope, Not Me!

I am not overly eager and excited for our annual trip to Michigan to see my parents and sister for the holiday. I am also not ever-so-anxious to go shopping on Black Friday, even though I have no idea what to buy and no plan of attack whatsoever. Nope, Not Me!

Well, I suppose that’s enough Not Me for now. Tune in next week to hear what I didn’t do on our family trip and Black Friday shopping adventure!
Happy Monday everyone!

A "Pasta on Parenting" Not Me, Monday!

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

The kids are growing up right before my very eyes. Quickly, so quickly, they change and grow. I find myself having thoughts that contradict each other (Spaghetti). “Oh, look at her dressed up so cute and trendy,” I think as I hear myself say, “Here, honey, wear the dangly earrings with that outfit.” Me, encourage my little girl to grow up too fast? Never. Ever. Nope, Not Me!

Then, not 48 hours later, getting her out of her bed this morning, I hear myself say, “Bring your blanky and mom will snuggle with you in the chair while you wake up,” as I cuddle, snuggle and rock her, like she was 7 months old, rather than 7 years old. Me, try to keep my baby little forever? No way. Never. Not Me!

And as our eldest gets older, and we notice his growing interest in more things “guy,” we have tried to encourage some of those man-ish tendencies. Here’s the list just from this weekend. Learn to build a fire in the fireplace, then, later, after the fire is going, add a log. Take out the trash. Go to a pro basketball game with Dad and our buddy Josh. Watch football on Sunday afternoon. See – guy stuff. He’s growing up. So, when the Waffle and I discussed the idea of letting him walk from school to the YMCA, I didn’t feel a little sadness in my gut, thinking about the fact that he really isn’t so little anymore, thinking that, yes, I DO have to let him learn how to do these grown up type things. Nope, Not Me.

And, on Sunday evening, when he started to melt down from being over-tired from all the guy stuff, I did not allow him to curl up on the pew next to me at church service, put his coat over his head and take a little nap - like he was 9 months old, rather than 9 years old. Nope, Not Me!

I also did not feel a rush of love and gratitude when the Waffle leaned over to tell me, “You’re a good Mom.” Because I was not feeling just a tinge of guilt about letting a 9 year old sleep during church, rather than pay attention to the lesson. Nope, Not Me!

We all have “Not Me” moments when parenting our children. Thank you for letting me share mine with you today.

Happy Monday everyone!

An "Extreme" Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Yesterday, instead of making a big Sunday lunch after church like I normally do, I did not feed my family a smorgasboard of leftovers from the fridge.

I did not do this simply so I could have a quick lunch before begging the Waffle to drag me and my family to a big muddy field in the middle of nowhere over an hour away from our house to watch (from a distance) many, many people, all wearing the same blue t-shirt, volunteer to do lots of work building someone else a new home.

We did not have to wait in line for over an hour and a half inside an airplane hangar just to get on a bus to take us to this muddy field in the middle of nowhere. And if we did wait for an hour and a half in line, I would not have enjoyed every minute of it.


My children also would not have enjoyed this very long wait to get on a bus. They would not have passed the time by playing silly games like thumb wrestling, "Rock, Paper, Scissors," "Mercy," and the hand slapping game called "Hot Hands."

If I had not done all of these things yesterday, we would not have arrived at the Extreme Makeover Home Edition Build Site in Bunker Hill, IN, about 3 hours after we originally left our home. I also would not have been completely amazed to see all of this:

Ty: You are totally AWE-SOME!

Here are the children in the "spectator tent" making a sign for the family.

"Move That Bus!"

Mallory wanted her picture taken by this pink tractor - pink is for Breast Cancer Awareness month

The episode of the home built for the Cowen-Brown family is set to air sometime in January - watch for it! It's sure to be awesome.

Happy Monday everyone!

"Not Me" Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

It’s been a few weeks since my last “Not Me Monday” post. Trust me, it’s not because I don’t have dirt to tell, I think it’s because it takes a lot of effort to make that “dirt” sound clever, funny and interesting. So much pressure! Self inflicted, of course, because remember, I’m not living up to your expectations! I’ve come to realize that the expectations I have the hardest time with are my own – that's Spaghetti for ya!

Oh, alright already – here we go:

While emptying out the dishwasher this weekend, it wasn’t me who used her fingernail to scrape the dried up, baked on food from the edge of the soup ladle, and then proceeded to put it away without even rinsing it. Nope, Not me!

It also wasn’t me who saw a spider on the window blind in my daughter’s room, and just looked the other way because nobody else saw it and I didn’t feel like getting a tissue and killing the little eight-legged creep. Nope, Not me!

It isn’t me who is hoping that the new had-to-get-it-for-a-school-project “pet” Anole in our home doesn’t last long and is secretly considering Anole murder in order to make this wish come true. Nope, Not me!

And it wasn’t me who took a guilt-free 3 hour long afternoon nap yesterday and had absolutely no problem at all going to bed like normal at 11 pm last night. Nope, Not me!

Happy Monday everyone!

Next year - double digits

A few weeks ago we celebrated Hayden's 9th birthday. You may recall that on Mallory's birthday, I wrote this very special post about the day she was born. Well, you also may have read the Not Me Monday post where I said I am no longer pressuring myself to live up to the expectations of others. So, I didn't do a "day he was born" post on Hayden's birthday. Come on folks! I've just been TOO busy! And I know that I am also a few weeks late writing the post about his birthday, but at least I'm doing it, right???

We chose to keep it simple, as we did with Mallory's party (which I didn't write about, by the way), and go to the movie theater. He was allowed to invite a limited number of friends - the movies aren't cheap, you know! We went to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, which was VERY cute! Highlights from the day included Hangman, air hockey and a very interesting round of "Would you rather?" Hayden received many cash gifts, which he promptly exchanged for his much anticipated Nintendo DSi. It's all the rage these days.

His guests included Julia and her sister Anna (who was really Mallory's guest), Christian, Brendan, Jack and Jacob from his baseball team, his cousin Haleigh and his sister Mallory. One little girl from his class couldn't make it, but it turns out that nine was plenty of children to keep me busy!

Here are a few photos from the day.

Waiting outside for all the guests to arrive.

Gift table and the baseball cupcake cake that Hayden requested.

Playing air hockey is always tons of fun.

Show time!

We really did NOT need another version of Monopoly in our game closet,

but it did make the birthday boy smile!

"Not Me" Monday

So I was reading the blog of a co-worker, and I found this link on her blog.

I. LOVE. IT. SO. MUCH!!!!!!

I have recently decided that too much of my life has been about living up to other people’s expectations of me. Sometimes the expectations others have of you can be encouraging, motivating, even empowering. But so much more often, they can be the monkey on your back (you know, like the Capital One commercial . . .)

Anyway, Not Me Monday is a way for me to say, “I don’t live up to anyone’s expectations but my own, and I’m not afraid to say it!” Imperfect? Yes, I am, and “Not Me Monday” is my way of proving it. Ready? Here we go . . .

I didn’t gain 3 pounds this weekend because I shamelessly overindulged ALL weekend long: at Abuelo’s and Cheesecake Factory on Friday, at a pitch-in dinner where I ate way too much dessert on Saturday, and on Sunday with leftover pitch-in dessert (a la mode), Culver’s Frozen Custard and cheese curds, AND fresh chips and salsa with sour cream. Nope, not me!

I didn’t buy myself a new, sure to be awesome, by my favorite author, sappy love story book to read, nevermind the almost 2 dozen other books that I already own and haven’t yet read to completion. Nope, not me!

I also didn’t sit and read said book for over an hour yesterday afternoon when at least a half dozen loads of clean and dry laundry sat in baskets around the living room getting wrinkled while waiting to be folded. Nope, not me!

I didn’t get just a *tinge* of baby envy while playing with the cutest 7 month old I know, little miss Naomi, this weekend at the pitch-in dinner, even though I have told my husband repeatedly that I no longer get the urge to have more children. Nope, not me!

And, finally, I didn’t wish that my little one would wake up this morning with a random fever that was just high enough that she couldn’t go to school so that I could call in sick and crawl in bed to snuggle the day away with her. Nope, not me!

So, what do you think? Like it? I. LOVE. IT. And, if you don’t like it, please don’t tell me because I have decided that I am no longer living up to your expectations. I like it, and therefore, I will be doing it again. YEP, that’s ME!