Owner: Becoming Me URL:www.becomingmethruhim.blogspot.com Join Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2008 20:30:10 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: I'm a stay-at-home mom of two children sharing some poignant and some ordinary life experiences. With every experience I learn more about who I am in Christ...more about becoming me...the mature me God designed to be completed in Heaven. I have written st Site statistics:Click here
A Party of the Bloggity Kind 2008-03-07 11:37:00 Two parties in one week? Wooo - hooo! The ladies at 5 Minutes for Mom are throwing "The Ultimate Blog Party
" and like I wrote earlier I'm not one to miss a good party or miss throwing one. To honor the rules set by 5 Minutes for Mom I'll include some information about my blog and then to the fun stuff. Since I threw myself a bawling bash earlier this week today's party will be of the praise variety.History of Becoming Me (It's a short trip)Birthed in February of this year, Becoming Me is the baby on the block. I prayed about starting a writing ministry for several months, conducted some research, and was inspired by many amazing bloggers like Antique Mommy, Bea from Bub and Pie, and Elisa at Extravagant Grace. I spent weeks searching for the appropriate blog name and nothing seemed to fi Read more:Bloggity
I Threw Myself a Party 2008-03-05 22:35:00 I’m a party girl…not the cliché rootin’ tootin’ dance on a table top, swing from a chandelier "girl gone wild" type. I’m more of the games, themed decorations, cutesy door prizes type of soiree socialite. What I enjoy even more than attending parties is planning them. In the past ten years I helped organize seven weddings, more than thirty business events, twelve bridal showers, six baby showers, and at least twenty birthday bashes. This morning I decided to throw a party of the pity variety and deemed myself the worthy honoree. After all, Pickle and Pumpkindoodle greeted me before the sun rose. I had been playing nurse aid to the Professor who is recuperating from back surgery, and legions of irritants dumped straw piles on this old camel’s back for three solid hours Read more:Party
I have a button 2008-03-05 14:41:00 My sweet and creative blog friend Elisa at Designs by Elisacrafted a button
for Becoming Me. Feel free to copy and past the code to your site.Please take some time to stop by Elisa's site. She's very talented and truly a servant of God. In addition to her Web design skills, Elisa is a magnificent writer who authors the encouraging blogs Extravagant Grace, The Ruth Project, and Refresh.Thank you, Elisa!
"I'm Such a Beautiful Girl" 2008-03-03 21:57:00 A few weeks ago Pumpkindoodle stood in front of my mirrored closet doors awaiting her bath. Uninhibited by clothing she danced and twirled while singing a whimsical song spontaneously created for that moment. “I’m such a beautiful girl. I have a beautiful body, such a wonderful beautiful body. Because God made me and he made my beautiful body. Ohhhh, I have a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, bodeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” The Professor smiled at me and said, “Do you think she’s going to have some vanity issues?” After initially responding with laughter I shook my head “No, I think she’s going to be just fine. God did make her beautiful and it is lovely how she is still young enough to see that beauty. I hope she never loses thi Read more:Beautiful
, Beautiful Girl
Overflow of the Heart 2008-02-29 08:21:00 A story I wrote about about overcoming adversity and the power of words has been published at Refresh. It is my hope that the story will be a blessing to those who read it. Read more:Heart
How much am I worth? 2008-02-27 10:45:00 It's funny how life changes. What was once considered a thrill can now be dreadful. For instance, I once loved getting mail. I had lots of pen pals and couldn't wait to read the latest news from a friend in Iowa, Philadelphia, or Germany. Today, I'm not so much into getting the mail unless it is my birthday, Christmas card season, or I'm expecting a care package for the kids. Why the change of heart regarding the postal system? Because bills, like the ones that were once only addressed to my parents, are now addressed to me. I'll be honest, once the bills are paid and groceries are bought, and other household necessities are purchased, there is not a whole lot left over. I'm not complaining. I am blessed. I have a hardworking husband who is a wonderful provider for his family and enabl
Trash Day 2008-02-22 12:52:00 "It takes more than a twitch of the nose and a bottle of bleach to clean life’s heavy-duty messes… it starts with a powerful cleansing agent." Courtney’s least favorite day of the week was trash day. A tried and true pack rat, she waited until she heard the squawk of the garbage truck brakes before she hauled her refuse to the curb. The large black plastic bag in her kitchen overflowed with snack boxes, fruit peels, candy wrappers, Styrofoam take-out containers, and gobs of UGO’s-- unidentified gooey objects. Using her right hip to hold open the refrigerator door and her left arm to secure the monstrous bag of grime, Courtney added plastic containers of molded food and a carton of cracked eggs to the pile. With an empty cereal box she smashed the garbage as far down a Read more:Trash
It’s not my fault; the Girl Scouts made me do it 2008-02-18 21:28:00 I have a sweet tooth. That’s an understatement. All 10,000 taste buds on my tongue along with the 32 teeth in my mouth hanker for chocolate confections. Thankfully, my self-control is in top form at the grocery store. I can walk down the cookie aisle cucumber cool and give the bakery and frozen delight sections only a wistful glance and perhaps a moment of yearning without adding a single cupcake to my cart. Sure, I’ve bought a few pints, eh hem, gallons of ice cream in my life time and I do like to bake, but in general my “all in moderation” mantra keeps me balanced and on the low-sugar track at the local Piggly Wiggly. In the comfort of my own home, however, my resolve is as firm as the Swiss Miss Cherry Chocolate Mousse shelved in my refrigerator. The pudding was purchased b
Not That Wife 2008-03-19 14:28:00 Earlier this week, during a phone conversation with my soul sister Jaime, I giddily recounted several falling in love with The Professor stories. The backdrop for the tales was painted more than nine years ago. Colors representing excitement, adventure, love, passion, yearning, searching, and expectation splattered the canvass of our love story adding texture to the abstract illustration. While enrolled in premarital counseling class a pastor shared a story about a young couple struck by tragedy only weeks after their “I do’s” were spoken. A car accident rendered the husband paralyzed from waist to toe. The resolve of the young wife to honor and love the man she married never wavered. She nurtured him without complaint and worked both inside and outside their home. The pastor sm
Flavors of Salt 2008-03-18 11:23:00 I share something in common with more than 4 million teenagers. Nope, there are no Justin Timberlake ditties in my iPOD, in fact I don’t even own an iPOD. Nothing in my closet bears an Abercrombie & Fitch label, and if I say something is “off the bone” I’m probably referring to a breast of chicken, not a party. So what could this über quirky mommy of two possibly have in common with a fifteen-year-old? It’s all in my grin. My tin-grin. I wear braces. When someone with small teeth and sensitive gums dons the latest in orthodontic fashions she’s likely to encounter a few canker sores or other mouthy maladies. Two weeks ago my orthodontist noticed an infected molar bordering a metal band. He quickly instructed his assistant to remove the band and counseled me to massage t Read more:Flavors
Crayons Cost a Dollar; Children are Priceless 2008-03-26 00:32:00 Not all adults treat children kindly. I learned this cheerless nugget of information before I mastered tying my shoes. The event took place during a play date at my neighbor’s home. The Dijon shag carpet scratched my knees as I leaned over and enthusiastically accepted Adam’s invitation to a coloring contest show down. With a carnation pink crayon clutched in my fist, I pressed the dyed wax against paper and vigorously shook my writs. Snap. The crayon didn’t bode well against my childish fervor. The green crayon snapped next, and then the orange. Adam’s father was incensed. “Those are Adam’s new crayons,” he barked. “If you break one more I’m going to spank you.” Before he finished his sentence the metallic crayon buckled under the pressure of my chubby four- Read more:Dollar
, Children
, Priceless
Big Threat, Little Girl 2008-03-27 20:53:00 Only minutes after holding a purple faced yowling infant Pumpkindoodle, my friend Anita produced a sympathetic smile and frankly stated, “This girl’s got opinions.” Four years and forty thousand words later my girl still owns copious opinions along with a deep seeded belief that said opinions require an audience. One night I sat in the front row of P.D. Opinion Fest 2008 and boy did I get an earful. Sent to bed 15 minutes early for disobedience my three-foot charge was ticked. She wallowed in self-pity and handcuffed me to the trough. “This is not fair. I have a horrible life and I’m not going to take it anymore. I’m not going to live here either. I’m going to live on the street.” Reeling, my first thought was where on earth does this girl get her material? In my c
If Only I Could Eat my Words 2008-03-31 05:00:00 I love object lessons. Scouring parenting magazines and Web sources for creative methods to cultivate learning became a pastime shortly after Pumpkindoodle’s birth. One of my favorite illustrations involves toothpaste. Each participant is given a travel-sized tube of toothpaste, a paper plate and one ooey-gooey mission: squeeze the tube dry. After the tubes are flattened, participants receive a tooth pick and are given the daunting task of putting the tooth paste back into the tube. It’s an impossible feat. The lesson? Words
are like toothpaste. Once they’re piped out, they cannot return. Last month, the Professor read through student evaluations from the previous semester. While many students expressed positive feelings about his classes and astuteness, a fair share of malevolent
Spring Makeovers 2008-04-04 19:44:00 I don’t know about you, but there is something about the spring air that ignites that proverbial bounce in my step. Spring
cleaning, fitness goals, and outdoor excursions edge their way into my schedule. Strawberry picking, an arts festival, Afternoon Tea with Pumpkindoodle, and Pickle’s first birthday party will mark seasonal events. An internal makeover of sorts tops my list of must dos. My heart weighs heavy with bitterness as we face yet another eminent move as early as May and as late as October (An upcoming post that will first appear at the Five Minutes for Mom Sampler sometime this month will explain the turn of events). God’s word clearly states how He feels about bitterness and to completely serve my Father, better my life, and bless others, ugly feelings must be moppe
A snake by any other name 2008-04-09 20:20:00 (The story below is my adaptation of Aesop’s fable “The Farmer and the Snake.”) “Snow in April,” sighed Kara. “This afternoon it looked as if spring finally arrived.” “False alarm. Weather changes quickly in the Eastern Adirondacks” answered Dr. Gibson, while examining the ears of a stray Golden Retriever in her care. “Do me a favor Kara,” continued Dr. Gibson, “please return Buffy to her crate before you lock up this evening. I need to scurry or I’ll miss Lily's recital. “Not a problem, Dr. G.” Kara viewed locking the clinic a perk of her job as a veterinary assistant. An avid animal lover, she considered herself a friend to all God’s creatures and took care making sure each patient was tucked safely in its crate before she went home. St
Measuring Motherhood with a Broken Ruler --My Journey through Postpartum Depression 2008-04-13 11:11:00 (Author’s note – Sometimes God leads us through struggles and asks that our survival stories be shared for His glory. This is one of those stories. It’s the first in a series about my two journeys with Prenatal and Postpartum
Depression (PPD). I am sharing these raw experiences as an offering of hope to those who battle an illness affecting at least 60 percent of new mothers; and to share with you a beautiful victory that was won for me by the paradoxical gentle and mighty hand of God.) Part 1 - When fear rocks the cradle Pregnancy creates peculiar oddities in a body and mind. A case of the “What ifs” besieges many expectant mothers. “What if my feet stay this size?” “What if my water breaks while I’m driving?” “What if I’m not cut out for breast feeding? Read more:Measuring
, Motherhood
, Broken
, Ruler
, Journey
More spice than sugar? 2008-04-15 21:27:00 Gender differences present themselves early. Little boys like weapons. I am certain that a preschool lad raised by pacifists can bite a cracker and turn it into a gun. Their sugar and spice laced counterparts, on the other hand, create hierarchies. A little girl can walk into a room, dart her steely eyes from corner to corner, and gather useful information to help determine which of her classmates will be princesses and which will be royal maids. Yes. I am sad to report that it happens in preschool. When collecting Pumpkindoodle from her Sunday school class, I saw two blurs, I mean boys, pretending to be warriors while running around a table that doubled as a refuge to a gaggle of bow-headed little girls. My little lassie, with her bow askew, was standing outside the table giving her f
A Holy Kiss 2008-04-18 04:39:00 Bad news. As far as I’m concerned it comes in three categories. Minor. Such news is easily remedied like discovering Pumpkindoodle’s latest chalk masterpiece drawn on the backdoor, or learning that my favorite T.V. show has been canceled (unless the show is Lost because that nugget of bad news would befit the next category). Major. Bad news of the major variety invokes temporary calamity and requires an exhaustive solution. Breaking an arm or discovering a rat colony in the basement fall under major. Cataclysmic. This is the doozy of all pandemonium inductive bad news with rippling consequences. Losing a job or learning that a loved one acquired a life-limiting illness crash into the realm of cataclysmic. Click here to read the entire story at The Sampler
Happy Birthday Pickle 2008-04-17 00:50:00 My Sweet Boy, As I press your marshmallow soft body close to my chest and accept your sloppy kiss and enthusiastic embrace, my heart swells with love. Can it be possible that earth has already circled the sun since we first met? I remember that day, your birthday, with flawless clarity. You surprised us. I didn’t expect you to wait until the predicted arrival, but I also didn’t think you would greet us a little more than three-weeks before that date. Trembling, I strained forward anxious to meet you, my newest love. The tips of my fingers barely touched your dark, matted hair before you were whisked away for measurements. You were so quiet. I feared your silence meant you were not well and I kept asking your daddy if he could see you. He and the nurses told me that you were perf Read more:Happy
, Birthday
, Pickle
, Happy Birthday
An Honor 2008-04-23 15:39:00 Today I received my first blog award. My new friend Shera from the fun and informative site, A Frog In My Soup, has honored me with the "You Make My Day Award."I agree with Shera in that this award certainly does have a flip-flop factor, because my day was made by knowing that my blog has touched her heart.All day I have been thinking about whom to honor with this award. There are so many who make each and everyone of my days special and I am tempted to award ten people, actually, the same five names have echoed in my head since I first read of this award.But after thought and prayer the one name that always dashes to the top of the list is Linda from Mocha with Linda. She has been kind enough to share editing tips with me and help me out of a few grammatical jams. I am also pretty sure sh
Measuring Motherhood with a Broken Ruler - My Journey Through PPD - Volume 2 2008-04-22 14:26:00 (This is the second segment in my personal series regarding my struggles with Postpartum Depression. Click here for the first segment. Please know that Postpartum Depression is a very real illness that is treatable. The stories I am sharing deal only with my personal experiences. There are many women who experience different symptoms than I had. This post is a bit longer than usual because it includes some additional resources below.) Better Off Without MeSome maladies are easily defined. If my arm bleeds, I know that somewhere on it exists an open wound. After quick examination I know if the gash requires a simple bandage or a trip to an ER for stitches. Postpartum Depression is not so easily defined and often presents itself differently in women. The list of possible symptoms easily Read more:Measuring
, Motherhood
, Broken
, Ruler
, Journey
, Volume
Cast of Characters 2008-02-08 06:44:00 Many of the experiences shared on this blog come from lessons I learn from every day events. Let me introduce you to the main players.The Professor - Husband, father, friend, teacher, scholar, aspiring comedian (in his own mind) and basketball enthusiast.Pumpkindoodle - Preschooler, daughter, God's little princess, artist, friend, self proclaimed ballerina, and aspiring event planner.Pickle - Baby boy, son, God's little prince, explorer, Pumpkindoodle's biggest fan.Me - A 30-something wife, mother, friend, quirky neighbor, writer, recovering perfectionist, and God's not-so-little princess. Read more:Characters
About Becoming Me 2008-02-08 06:34:00 Becoming MeEach person accumulates stories from life experiences. Some stories tell of blistering, bitter, frightening seasons when emotional fires, droughts, or floods brought devastation to a heart. Other stories derive from adrenaline enhancing joy and blissful happiness from seasons decorated with wonderment and adventure. And then there are stories that may not carry emotion but still garner enough weight to impact life. The creator of the universe is both the author of and lead character in my life story. With every experience I learn more about who I am in Christ...more about becoming me...the mature me God designed to be completed in Heaven. Read more:Becoming
A Few of My Favorite Posts 2008-02-07 19:49:00 I'm Such a Beautiful GirlIt's Not My Fault; The Girl Scouts Made Me Do ItNot That WifeTrash Day Read more:Favorite
Mother's Act 2008-04-25 15:46:00 Dear Friends,I usually reserve this blog for personal stories and rarely deviate from that form. However, in light of my recent posts about my struggles with PPD, I feel comfortable sharing this information with you about the petition in support of the Mother's Act, also known as the Melanie Blocker Stokes Act.The bill is designed to promote more Postpartum Depression research and provide additional services for those struggling with Postpartum/Perinatal Mood Disorders.To read the bill in its entirety, click here. For additional information and updates about the bill and PPD progress, visit Katherine Stone's Blog Postpartum Progress. Below are some organizations that support the Mother's Act.O.K. No more PSA's, I promise. I'll be posting some heartfelt stories soon.Postpartum Support Int
Brevity is Not My Strong Suit – My Memoir In Six Words Plus 477 2008-04-26 19:46:00 More than a week ago, I was tagged me for a meme by Jennifer at Grow Where You are Planted. Usually I only put meme’s on my personal blog, but since the tag was for the recently popular “Six Word Memoir
” I thought I could come up with something profound to turn into a story for Becoming Me. Throughout the week I thought of myriad ideas to complete this meme, but not one yielded anything resembling profundity. Each idea I came up with was at best cliché and at worst nonsensical. The more blog posts I read featuring this pithy meme, the more I was convinced that this was not the game for me. Some memoirs were witty, some were awe-inspiring, and some were draped with such simplistic beauty and eloquence that I had to close my eyes and quiet my heart as the message resonated within. Read more:Strong
, Words
A Recognizable Voice – One Reason of Many I’m Glad I’m a Mom 2008-04-30 22:18:00 (This story states two reasons why I’m glad to be a mom. The first you’ll find rather obviously written below. The second is the fact that having a child has given me a deeper understanding about what it means to be a child of God. This piece is written for my sweet friend Elisa at Extravagant Grace as part of her “Why I’m Glad to Be a Mom—Mother’s Day Contest.”) “Ma-ma-mama-maaah! Bhooo! BHOOOO!” I didn’t need to lift my eyes toward the floating Mylar ball resting near the produce section of the grocery store to know that it was the object enticing my one-year-old son. Pickle loves balloons. During his first birthday party, while tugging the string attached to a gigantic helium-filled frog, my little man added the word balloon…rather bhoo to his vocabula Read more:Voice
, Reason
The Question Mark 2008-05-04 22:50:00 I find myself incapable of resisting the delectable combination of chocolate and peanut butter, tickling tiny toes, and completing multiple choice personality tests. Perhaps it’s the puzzle of trying to figure out what I have in common with a pair of cotton pajamas, a Golden Retriever, and a Daffodil that swells the intrigue? Or maybe it’s because I have never taken one that lived up to its promise of defining me? Regardless the why, and despite the let downs, I still take the tests. The most recent was the highly unscientific ditty What Punctuation Mark Are You? The title screams DO NOT TAKE ME SERIOUSLY. But still, I checked five boxes and I read that I was most like a comma. Sadly, yet not surprisingly, this test didn’t “get me,” either. Now, the comma and I are tight, but no Read more:Question
A Heart Sister 2008-05-09 05:39:00 (Writer's Note: I wrote the following story for a writing contest at Satisfied Heart
. It is a story of friendship. The Lord has greatly blessed me with many sisters of the heart who have held my hand through times of pain and have rejoiced in seasons of blessing. I chose to focus this story on my friend Jaime because of God's provision of that friendship at a specific moment in time cannot be disputed.)Moving is hard. Moving across the country with a three-year-old drama queen, a three-month old nursing infant, and an epileptic dog…harder. Add moving away from a band of Christian friends, who became our chosen family, to a city where no one is known and the word hard changes to Herculean. And did I mention that I was being treated for postpartum depression and that this was our eighth m
Recommend Site To A Friend
