Rachel Callahan

Kid Play at Kid’s Gym

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Wordless Wednesday - as IF I could be wordless.

Ali and a gaggle of her friends had a great time on Monday at Kid’s Gym…

The Queen at the top of her throne:

Ali’s favorite: The Rings.

If you didn’t fully grasp her odd fear of slides in my post on Saturday, here’s the proof:
She was as long as the slide, but still hanging on for dear life.

Mia, however, had no fear. She did great flips.

The boys were gravitationally pulled to the ball pit:

And the girls were gravitationally pulled to the boys:

One look at each other, and they realized that they were in the same boat.

Evie was sporting the 80’s-workout-with-Jane-Fonda look, with her legwarmers, vintage T-shirt and headband:

Playing house is serious business. Ali was already practicing her nagging wife skills. “Leave it closed!! I don’t want it open. Don’t open the door!”

Luke and Titus defending their castle by throwing legs over the turrets:

Eli already knows that to do something right, you’ve gotta stick out your tongue.

As the morning wore on, it got emptier and emptier. The queen liked having her kingdom all to herself, so she went to climb upon her perch one last time.

But don’t worry – if anyone got hurt (which would be hard to do with foam upon foam upon foam floors), Doctor Luke was in and seeing patients:
Check out my other Wordless Wednesday and help me answer a burning question at B-Sides.
Check out everyone else’s at 5 Minutes for Mom!

UPDATED Update on my Mom

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Newsflash

Ali and I spent the morning at the hospital with my Mom, who seems to be in pretty good spirits.

The surgeon came in while I was there, so I got the actual info straight from him, rather than from my slightly-goofy-due-to-pain-meds Mom. She broke three bones in her right ankle – the main ones on each side, and the one in the back. To fix it, he’s going to put a plate and two screws on the left side, two screws on the right side, and that should hold it together good enough for all three bones to heal.

She will not be able to put any weight on it for 1-2 months, and then will have 3 months of therapy after that.

They didn’t have any operating rooms available all morning long, so Mom didn’t go into surgery until 2pm (with nothing to eat or drink after midnight – I’m pretty sure that’s the epitome of misery). So, Mom is currently in surgery, and we would all appreciate your prayers.

While you pray, I’ll share the more entertaining moments of the morning. Apparently, the newest trend in surgeon garb is to have huge white rubber rainboots with your scrubs tucked into them. It’s quite classy. Of course, Ali noticed. So, the whole time the surgeon was in there, she was saying not-so-quietly,

“Look at his boots, Mommy!! He has white boots like Ali has pink boots!! He has his boots on, Mommy!!”

I’m pretty sure that she would have been quite happy to go splash in mud puddles (or “dirty puddles”, as she calls them) with Mister Surgeon.

Besides that, Ali was wound up, and of course bouncing off the walls in Mom’s super-fancy-new-wing-of-the-hospital room. So quite accidentally, we discovered that the couch was a pull-out bed. However, it also had a nifty drawer in it, or, as Ali decided, a little bitty seat:
So she spent quite some time sitting across from Pop, while I’m sure Pop was looking forward to her removal so that he could try out that couch for a well-deserved nap.

As we were leaving, I showed Ali the great view from the hospital. She was mesmerized, as was I by the photo opportunity:

Okay. That’s it – quit procrastinating and go pray!

I’ll update THIS blog post as soon as I hear that she’s out of surgery and all.

Update: Mom got out of surgery at 5:20pm. All went well, and she will be back in the room she was in, most likely overnight one more night. Thanks for your prayers!!!

We Might Have Waited Too Long For This. . .

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Toddlers: The Experience

Someone asked me the other day if Ali knew her whole first name.

Err, no. But I guess she DOES need to know that.

Her first name is Alana – with a soft a, like Drama. Not Alaina, which she gets called by the nurses and receptionist every time we go to the doctor’s office (I’m not really the “correct you about my child’s name pronunciation” type – especially if it’s her whole name that we never use anyway).

She’s been going around a lot chanting her whole name as she knows it – “I’m Ali Grace (last name)!!!”, so I figured it was time to explain to her that there is more to it than that.

So, a few mornings ago at the kitchen table (where all of our formal learning happens, like geography, counting, and learning to say “excuse me” when you burp or toot), it all went down as follows:

“Ali, do you know that your WHOLE name is Alana?”

Her puzzled response was “hmm.”

“Do you like ‘Alana’?”

Approvingly, she said, “mm HMM.”

“Would you like me to call you ‘Alana’?”

“Did we see a Llama at the zoo zoo zoo?”

“Yes. But your first name is AlaNa.”

“Can we go see another Llama at the zoo zoo zoo???”

“Sure, baby.”

I give up. Ali it is.

Good News and Bad News: Answered Prayers and Needed Prayers

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Newsflash, On a more serious note. . .

The good news is that my extended bible study time went amazingly well this morning. It’s so neat when the verses you read in the order in which you’re studying directly apply – God’s cool like that. It’s as if He moves verses around to make them come up in the course of reading, but He doesn’t have to, because He planned it all out in the beginning.

But the verses that were really great were in Isaiah 1:

19 If you are willing and obedient,
you will eat the best from the land;

20 but if you resist and rebel,
you will be devoured by the sword.”
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

And the coolest part is that I had a note in my Bible that I had read the exact same verses a couple of years ago right after Chris and I had obeyed God in a meaningful way and He had immediately let us see the fruit of our obedience! So needless to say, it was very encouraging.

And thank you all SOOO much for your encouragement on that post! It really means quite a lot to me to know that I have that support system.

However, there’s some bad news as well: My Mom broke her leg and hurt her head this evening while helping my Dad build a deck. She’s still in the ER currently and they’re putting her leg in a splint until they can schedule a surgery date. Apparently it’s pretty serious – it will involve plates and such.

Mom always has a lot on her plate and a lot of people that depend on her, because she has QUITE the servant’s heart (as I have blogged about previously). Because of that, I know that this will not be an easy time for her. Besides all of her own things to take care of – a large vegetable garden, chickens, a house, BUILDING a house, etc, she’s also involved in a lot of Church stuff, most currently VBS next week. Pray that she can know when to slow down to heal and let other people serve HER for a change.

In the meantime, Ali and I will be brushing up on our weed-pulling and chicken-wrangling skills.

Thanks!

Regularly scheduled blog programming will pick back up tomorrow.

Setting my Heart: Accountability.

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories On a more serious note. . ., Thoughts about Faith, You Make Great Accountability

I have continuously found myself distracted and sidetracked from writing this post this (Sunday) afternoon. It’s not that I don’t want to write it, but it’s just that it is so much easier for me to craft words that entertain and make people laugh than to craft words to share my heart and be vulnerable. But here goes anyway. . .

Our Pastor taught an amazing message this morning (which can be played directly from the main page on our Church website – it’s well worth the listen). When I got into church, the title on the notes page immediately caught my attention, and I was excited to hear what God had spoken to him about this topic.

The title was:

Can He Not See…Or Is It Me?
A Theology on setting your heart to seek the Lord.

This is so where I’ve been for quite some time in my spiritual life. In my pre-Mommy days, I had some amazing spiritual highs and depth and very personal relationship with Christ like I didn’t even know was possible. Of course I had my spiritual valleys as well, but the amazingly passionate spiritual highs always made up for them.

However, since I had Ali, my life has really, in a lot of ways, become much easier. The stress that I had (working as an Accounting Manager) that continuously drove me to God’s word for strength and sustenance is no longer there. I also was dealing with two years of infertility that I had to seek God to be able to trust Him through the hard times.

Now, I have so many more close friendships, and I love my life as a Mom.

However, a potential pitfall of an “easier life” is definitely spiritual stagnation. And it seems like no matter what I’ve tried in the past couple of years, I can never even get close to the depth of relationship with Christ that I had previously.

Hence, I immediately knew that this sermon would apply to me. And, of course, it did.

The passages that Pastor Walls taught off of were in 2 Chronicles 14-16, about the ups AND downs of King Asa’s walk with God.

Ups AND downs. I can relate to that.

Asa was a very relatable man. He was not a “good guy” or a “bad guy”. He had some times of amazing spiritual highs where God did some unbelievable miracles for him, but he also had some times of forgetting God, compromising, and depending on human solutions, which led to destruction, defeat, and ultimately, his death.

The introductory verse was a familiar one, 2 Chronicles 16:9:

For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

Pastor Wall’s premise was that God is searching for people whose heart is loyal to Him so that he can show Himself strong and show his capacity through them to glorify Himself. Our lives have the potential to be enriched and fulfilled beyond our wildest dreams if we set our hearts toward God. And, if Christians truly did this, the evidence of God in everyone’s lives would be undeniable by everyone around them.

I can totally relate to that statement – when my walk with the Lord was at it’s deepest, despite the overwhelming stress and difficult situations in my life at the time, I was so unbelievably joyful, enriched, and passionately excited about God and what He was doing in my life. He was using me to help others more, He was showing up in real and tangible ways in my life, and my love for Him overcame most other priorities in my life.

The sermon was captivating, convicting, and encouraging. I take notes in outline form – I find it easier to go back and read – so here are my notes:

(but I highly recommend listening to the sermon – there is SO much more depth in it than I could possibly relay)

(and as an added bonus, you’ll get to hear him use his famed big words – including “axiomatic” at least twice!!)

How to Set Your Heart to Seek the Lord:

  1. Decisively choose and proactively seek exclusively after the Lord God. (2 Chr. 14:1-7, 15:1-4, 15:12-15) Do this in the following ways:
    1. Formally (2 Chr. 15:12) – make an intentional commitment.
    2. Wholly (2 Chr. 15:12) – give your whole self with no held back compartments of your life.
    3. Seriously (2 Chr. 15:13) – know that your decision will effect your life and your family’s.
    4. Joyfully and Hopefully (2 Chr. 15:14) – It’s a moment of excitement and anticipation because it is a decision that will unleash the unrivaled capacity of God!
    5. Earnestly (2 Chr. 15:15) – Make it a passionate priority. We will do all sorts of things for our hobbies, we need to do the same and more for God. “When you seek with ALL your heart, you WILL find me.”
    6. Biblically – We can’t do God on our terms. Yes, we all have a personal relationship with God, but that doesn’t dismiss the fact that God ordained His church on His terms.
    7. Sunday (Ps. 27) – The Holy Gathering of God’s people is the biggest testimony of God’s glory, and very necessary for our spiritual growth.
  2. Get rid of ALL rivals to God – throw out and clean out all barriers to seeking God and remove all competitors to God. (2 Chr. 15:8,16)
    An idol is ANYTHING that takes precedent over God. Don’t have anything to do with anything that is a rival to God or even promotes a rival to God, compromise, or a divided heart.
  3. Stay the course (Ps. 24:1-6, Mk. 7:18-23) – Be steadfast and loyal no matter what the consequences. When we rely and depend on God exclusively, God is huge in our lives. When we forget this and start to compromise and depend on ourselves, things go south (2 Chr. 16:1-9).
  4. Deal with your sin. When God confronts failures, humbly respond and repent (2 Chr. 16:10-12).

The most convicting point to me today was to get rid of ALL rivals to God. This is so difficult, because there are most definitely things in my life that are rivals to God that are not in and of themselves bad.

Most obviously to me was, you guessed it: blogging. It is not bad in and of itself – it’s not like my hobby is snorting cocaine or grand theft. Blogging has many benefits and good qualities. But it does most definitely rival my relationship with God at times – sometimes I put it first. So it’s a matter of dealing with the heart issue rather than just dumping it out of my life.

I prayed long and hard for God to give me specific direction on how to remove this rivalry without throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and I feel like He gave me a word to start with: mornings.

I typically wake up at 7am, take a shower, have my bible time, then come downstairs and do blogging-related stuff until Ali wakes up (she’s normally a late sleeper). However, this creates a rivalry, because if I have something on my mind that I want to get done or write about, I am distracted and rushed in my time with God so I can “get everything accomplished” before Ali wakes up.

So, I am going to give my mornings completely to God. I am making a commitment to spend time with God until Ali wakes up, to remove the rival of getting downstairs to have some “me” time. I’m sure He will lead me through those times of more things that I need to adjust, but this is a start – and that’s what’s important.

And, by telling you this, I have some measure of making that formal commitment – speaking it publicly makes it a lot harder to disregard or compromise my decision. (Not to say that you need to get onto me if I have a blog post at 6am (like this one) – I promise you that I never blog at 6 am – that’s just my typical “scheduled” post time when I write things ahead of time.)

However, feel free to ask me how I’m doing on this commitment and on my desire to put God first and foremost, with no rivals at all.

If you made it this far into this long and serious (for me) post, thanks so much for hearing my heart. It is exciting to know that I am making a change – a decision that will hopefully help revitalize my relationship with Christ. Because I never want to look back on my life and wonder whether my compromise or indifference in my relationship with Christ effected my family negatively. I want to leave the legacy of personally experiencing Christ, not always trying to make my Christianity fit into MY life.

Fabulously Fun: What a Summer Saturday is Supposed to Be.

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories A Day in the Life, The Blissfulness of Life, Toddlers: The Experience

We had a fun family adventure today at a place that we didn’t even know existed until yesterday!! Spring Valley Beach is a waterpark in Blountsville, about an hour out of Birmingham.

It was ideal for Ali.

There was plenty to do, but without the mile long walk to the car, the huge lines, and the overwhelmingness of other water parks.

When we arrived, Ali was stunned:

They have a Gigantonourmonstrosity of a pool – I don’t know how big, but it looks like about five Olympic sized pools all stacked next to each other:
The pool has multiple small water slides into it,
as well as a HUGE kiddie portion with all sorts of toddler sized attractions:
We made the mistake of taking Ali straight into the huge kiddie pool, with water spraying and buckets dumping and kids running and screaming. Let’s just say it was a bit overwhelming for her cautious spirit.

So we ended up at the side of the pool (where they have a nice concrete-beach-like slope into the kiddie pool), where she was perfectly content to pour from cup to cup for endless amounts of time:(Yes, we could have done that at home, but there wouldn’t have been AS MUCH water available to her. Plus, she loved the people watching.)

(Oh – and Lianne – this picture’s for you. See how MULTI-PURPOSE those sour cream containers are?? They held snacks on Monday and Pool Water on Saturday!!)

After letting her enjoy herself on her terms for a bit, it was time to seriously stretch her comfort zone. They actually have a waterslide that you can take two year olds on!!
So after watching Daddy test it out by himself, Ali and I took to the slide.

Now, it must be said here so that you understand the full breadth of this endeavor: Ali is scared of even the smallest of playground slides.

I was SO proud of her for only slightly whimpering when we got to the top and she realized what was to come, and then UNBELIEVABLY SHOCKED and proud when she screamed “YAY SLIDE!!!” with me on the way down, and actually squealed in enjoyment:

That is, until we got the the bottom and we both went significantly underwater. I tried to hold her up but wasn’t strong enough. That just MIGHT have freaked her out a bit:

But she didn’t panic like I was afraid she would. She did, however, declare that she was done with the slide.

Then Chris and I tried out the set-into-the-ground concrete slides:
You have to wear a very classy helmet on these – I suppose since they’re concrete:
It goes with my swimsuit, don’t you think?

There were six large slides in all (not counting the four or five that go into the pool), but the most original (and scariest) slide they have is called The Sidewinder, but I think “The Halfpipe” would be more appropriate.
You start out going almost STRAIGHT DOWN (It really feels like you get airborne), and then slide up the other side, back down, back up the original side, etc. Here’s Chris’ ride:

Doesn’t that look fun? It really is. Here’s the one shot that Chris got of me on my ride. It looks like I’m casually sitting still on an almost vertical wall. I assure you that I was doing no such thing.

After that, we convinced Ali that the original slide was “FUN!!” and “made” her go down it one more time before we let her go back to the pool, this time with Daddy. I think she would have enjoyed it had she not been dreading a dunking all the way down:

He, being stronger, did a much better job of holding her up in the air, and she managed to stay dunk-free,

But not panic-free.

But hey – she’ll certainly remember that experience!! And, since we bought summer passes (it really was that much fun, and they let us apply today’s admission to it), she’ll be getting more practice on the slide, whether she wants to or not because she’ll love it, I’m sure.

I highly recommend Spring Valley Beach, and we will most definitely be returning! Let us know if you want to tagalong sometime!

I wrote a review of Spring Valley Beach at Alabama Bloggers.

Now Hiring: New Marketing Executives. Please.

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Quirky quirky quirkiness, Weird Strange and True

I know that blogging makes me see things in a totally different light (i.e. I’m always subconsciously looking for the humor in EVERYTHING, so maybe sometimes I over-emphasize the funny factor in my own head), but I have seen some unusually odd products lately.

Or maybe it’s just my warped mind.

Whatever the cause, I’ve been collecting some of these in photographical form, so I’m here to share them with you today.

For instance, there is an easier (and more accurate) way to prevent the need for this:
Although my Mom DID know a lady in England (when Dad was stationed there in the Air Force in the 70’s) that swore by drinking a glass of Brandy every night before her baby’s bedtime feeding for optimum sleep-through-the-nightness.

In that case, I suppose the ole’ English Mum would take one of those tests to ensure she drank ENOUGH Brandy for baby.

If that doesn’t work out for baby, then there’s always:
No thank you, I’d really prefer the DROWSY formula for my sleep aid.

And finally, maybe I just have a dirty mind (or am culturally over-paranoid), but it seems like the American Girl company is modernizing a bit TOO much. Gone are the days of innocent, old fashioned Molly McIntire. . .

Now they’re trying to look more like the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition!

But that’s nothing. What really got me. . . was. . . REALLY? Do we have to have a centerfold picture PAIRED with the term “Girl of the Year”???
Really. No need to get our daughters wanting to be in THAT sort of magazine layout.

June Reader Appreciation Giveaway!

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Giveaways and Contests
We interrupt our regularly scheduled Conquer the Caption programming to bring breaking news. CtC will be back next week. However, today’s special is. . .

Photobucket

So I missed appreciating you all last month, and so I’m going to do an extra personal giveaway this month. JUST to show you how very much I love you all, and that I haven’t forgotten to stop and appreciate you!

Disclaimer: Depending on who you are, you might find this giveaway COMPLETELY USELESS or maybe possibly nice.

Sooo. . . .

You might or might not have noticed, but I’ve been dabbling in a bit of blog design on the side.

And by “on the side”, I mean “I love doing it, but I can’t very much because I’m so stinkin’ busy in the bloggy world already”.

However, I really do love it, and so this month, I’m giving away a free blog design!

Designs resized

With the following caveats and guidelines:
1. Blogger blogs only – Sorry I don’t know WordPress HTML yet.
2. I am new so still limited in my abilities, but I will try my bestestestEST to make it what you want it! (You will pick out the “kit” you want, and then I will design it with your input)
3. I might not have it done overnight or anything, but I’ll be relatively expedient.
4. This blog design includes a background, header, “link to me” button, and signature button.

For some examples of my work, visit (and say hi to these awesome bloggers!!) these blogs:
1. Sparks’ Notes
2. Diana’s AUsome Creations Etc
3. Long Days, Short Years
4. Alabama Bloggers

Now as I said, I know that this prize means NOTHING to those of you without blogs, with happily designed blogs, that hate my design work, or have WordPress blogs.

And to you, I sincerely apologize, but this prize is like a coupon: it’s cash value is 1/100th of a penny. I promise to have a more general interest prize NEXT giveaway.

But I hope there are some of you that would want to win this, and if so, you can enter one or all of the following ways:

1. Comment on the post
2. Follow this blog
3. Subscribe to this blog in a reader
4. Follow me on Twitter

(Comment on this post separately for each of those entries).

Oh – and, of course, because I am infinitely appreciative, my top commenters get extra entries. Since I didn’t do a reader appreciation giveaway last month, I combined the comments from the last two months together to get this list of top ten commenters, who get five extra entries each!

As always, I am SO grateful for your feedback and comments – it means the world to me! And you are (in alphabetical order):
1. AmyG
2. Ann Marie
3. Carol
4. Gina
5. Jennifer
6. Kitty
7. Leanna
8. Lianne
9. Mama Hen
10. Rachel (and Kariya)

(Just FYI – If you got entries for being a top commenter, win, and can’t/don’t want to use the prize, you can either give it to someone else or I can redraw.)

This giveaway is open until Monday, June 22nd. I will randomly draw a winner and announce it Tuesday, June 23rd.

Good luck, and thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!!

Domestic Trials and Tribulations

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories I embarrass myself just for your amusement., Just My Luck

I have never claimed to be a very good domesticated woman. Really. I do love cooking, but that’s about it. I hate cleaning, and feel like it is more efficient to NOT always put things away “Just So”.

However, two things I do try to stay on top of is keeping bugs out and keeping things from stinking.

BOTH of these items I have struggled with this week.

As I’ve mentioned before, my personal and ONLY irrational phobia is of roaches. I seriously cannot function with one in sight at all. And if I see one within twelve hours of going to bed, I will dream of them all night.

However, I really don’t have phobias about any other bugs – even spiders I can handle. Spiders are Chris’ pet phobia.

When we got home Saturday night, I ran upstairs first, with Chris and Ali trailing behind me.

All of a sudden, I heard Chris yell out in a wavery voice for me. I came to the stairs, and he said, “Take Ali. It’s bad.”

I looked down towards the basement, and even though it was 15 stairs away, I could see him.

A MONSTROUS spider. Like the ones in Harry Potter that lived in the woods and ate people for snacks.
I offered to do it, since I am not horrified of spiders, even though one that large IS pretty disconcerting. But Chris’ “Man of the House” instinct outpowered his dislike of arachnids, and he got a piece of Gladware out of the cabinet and went downstairs.

After a bit of him dancing around it and me throwing him things to help in his task, and Ali giving a running commentary of the chase, he managed to catch it.

He brought it up, and it really was HUGE. We put him (in his Gladware home) on top of a quarter, and his BODY (not counting legs) was longer than the quarter.

Now what?

After discussing options, the only non-gory, non-risking-letting-him-out way we could think to kill him was to freeze him.

So we stuck him and his Gladware coffin in the freezer.

I felt guilty about this because it just seemed like a long, cruel way to die. But I went and checked on him in an hour, and he was already on his back and curled up.

But just in case he was playing dead, I left him until the next morning. When I took his Gladware out the next morning, he clanked around it like an ice cube. A very large ice cube.

Needless to say, He AND his Gladware were thrown out.

Now. To smells.
It started on Monday. A funky odor coming from the kitchen.

Trash? I took it out.

Putrid odor still there.

I tore apart the fridge, which I had surprisingly not-too-long-ago cleaned out. I thought it was the cilantro, so I threw it out.

Putrid odor still there and getting WORSE.

I tore apart the fridge AGAIN. Found a bag of tomatoes that were hiding. Threw them out.

Putrid odor still there AND ABOUT TO DRIVE ME MAD.

I begged Chris to check and see if he could find it. He found nothing.

For the THIRD time, I smell tested every shelf, nook, and cranny in the fridge. And I finally found it.

I hadn’t found it before because it should NOT have smelled yet. It shouldn’t have even been rotten. AND it was in a sealed container with NO leaks!!

But let me tell you. Black beans can make some F-U-N-K-Y odor.

We had made Burritos not long ago, and I have been enjoying the black beans at Moe’s lately, so for the first time ever, I cooked some. They were quite delicious!

However, I now know something about black beans. If you leave them for longer than just a few days, they create an unbelievably puke-inducing smell that will penetrate rubber, metal, plastic, 10 foot thick stainless steel walls, and The Great Wall of China.

We, of course, had fun discussing the newly-discovered Weapon of Mass Destruction that we had unknowingly grown in our fridge. Was there anyone that we would like to bomb?

In the end, after choking our way through throwing them out, we decided that NO ONE deserved that sort of fate.

And now, you’re all making a mental note in unison to never accept a dinner invitation to my house.

I’m a Serial Crayon Breaker.

Posted on Posted by Rachel Callahan Categories Deception: A Parent's Best Friend, Just My Luck, Parent of the Year

The first step to recovery is admitting it, right?

There is nothing I like better than a new, pointy, pretty crayon. And, I’m sure that you other Moms can agree that it’s quite relaxing and therapeutic to sit down with a toddler and color.

After all, that’s what they encourage patients on mental wards to do. It’s nice to have an excuse to color without having to be locked up in a room with rubber walls, isn’t it?

However, I have a major problem. I can’t color without breaking nearly every crayon that I use. Not the tips, mind you – that’d be easy to fix. No, I break them clean in half, leaving both halves too small to hold onto.

My love of a nice, bold line coupled with the fact that I grip writing instruments very tightly works terribly against my love of a perfect-in-every-way crayon.

(And no, I can’t use the fat crayons or triangular crayons to cut down on breakage – I need the exactness of the narrow ones.)

Ali doesn’t appreciate my “issue” at all. She loves her stuff to be perfect too, and so every time I break one, I try to hide it really quickly or pretend it’s still okay by holding it straight with my guilty hand.

In fact, if I were really honest, it was probably me that broke the crayon in this post.

So, even though Chris tries to fix my mistakes for Ali’s sake,

Most of her crayons end up looking like this.
Because of me.

Sad, isn’t it? She never breaks her own crayons.

So I decided that she needed a brand new box of crayons because I was tired trying to color with broken ones since I broke them all – she deserved them!

I wanted to buy this amazing collection of crayons:
But unfortunately, they apparently don’t carry that at Toys R Us. So we settled with this behemoth of a box of beautiful, bold, shiny, pointy new crayons:
Of course, a couple of days later I saw the original set that I wanted at Michaels. I salivated over them, wishing that it wasn’t impractical to buy 15o MORE beautiful, perfect crayons.

At any rate, I tried my hardest to not be so hard on the new crayons. And I was actually quite surprisingly successful!!! Ali and I colored this whole duet of pages and I didn’t break a single crayon!!!
Notice my nice, bold coloring. Without breakage!! It IS possible!!

Yes, Ali did color on my page too.

And – believe it or not, I was totally okay with that!!

It’s a real sign of letting go of your anal-retentive ways and embracing parenthood when you can say “Yay!! Thank you for your help! That is beautiful!!” instead of “Color on your page, kid!!!! You’re messing mine up!!”

I’m quite proud of myself. Now that I’ve figured out how to color therapeutically without creating color-breakage-angst or color-on-your-own-page-stress, maybe I can avoid that rubber-walled room after all.