A Meme for my 1 month-a-versary

*for the record, I can't figure out how to change the date - I started this post last night and that's the date/time that it's listing... I posted it this morning, but it still says yesterday. Help? But anyway... here is the post:*

This blog is celebrating it's one-month birthday! Woohoo! And to celebrate, I'm going to talk about me? Don't know how interesting it will be, but hey - Jenna tagged me, so here goes.

10 years ago:
Newly married. Struggling. Sressed out. Suffering from fainting spells and bad headaches that turned out to be migraines. (After CT scans and tests of every kind...). Blame that on the evil hormones in the evil Pill. Don't get me started.

We were both in our last semester of college, living like 1/2 college students and 1/2 married folk. Funny place to be. Not my favorite time of life to remember. God is gracious and loving and he literally carried me through that time. Moving on...

Things on My To Do List Today:

• Finish this post
• Do 2 loads of laundry AND put them away
• Take a shower without having any children ingest toilet water
• Teach flute to and inspire the future adults of America (aka. go to work)

Three of my BAD Habits

• I pick at my cuticles until they bleed. I always wished I had nice looking fingers, but I don't, and frankly probably never will.
• I have no etiquitte. Peggy Post would frown upon me. Try as I might, I'm not good at remembering birthdays, sending cards, and calling people on important days. And forget about thank you notes. And, therefore, I am afraid that I will raise children with no etiquette either. HELP!
• This is a real, true confession of a bad habit that I am prayerfully trying to change in my life. It is no secret that I am not a good multitasker. It's just not the way God made me. My faux sister, Aunt Dawn, can talk to me, "attend" a business conference call on her blackberry, eat a muffin, and paint her toenails all without missing a beat. But me, I start to read an email, and a child could fall down the stairs and break her leg and I wouldn't even hear it. When I'm cooking, especially if I'm following a recipe, I'll often hear this (the first thing I hear) -

(shouting) MOMMY! CAN I HAVE A DRINK OF WATER?!

Me: PLEASE don't shout at me!

Child: But, I've asked you lots and lots of times, and you're not listening!

oops.

So I know this is a problem, and a few weeks ago, I heard my daughters discussing this bad awful habit of mine. It went something like this:

(I am guessing that Ava asked me something and I didn't hear her- but then I DID hear this)

Ava: Mommy doesn't listen very well

Corene: I just think she doens't hear you, sometimes you have to go shake her and make her look at you, then she'll listen.

(!!!)

And THEN, as if I needed more conviction (but obviously I did), one night after I taught, I came home and was comatose as usual after a long night, brainlessly reading an email or something, and apparently someone was asking me something, and I was... not listening... I saw "the look" from the man, and we talked about it later that night. The decision, and my realization that something needed to change, was that it's not a good idea for me to read my email after I come home from work, until after the kids go to bed. I am just too single-focused and out of it on nights that I teach to be able to be a good mommy AND check my email. Maybe sounds stupid, but I am determined not to have my kids remember me as being "out of it" and "not a good listener". How to do it, I don't know... but I'm starting with asking God about it every morning. Lord PLEASE help me to not get so focused on what I'm doing that I don't hear my children. It's hard! There's so much to do in the mom job that's not simply playing/engaging with the children. Lord, help me.

If I Suddenly became a Billionaire:

I would give a million dollars to Northwestern College as an endowment for Music Scholarships. I've thought about this before, that's why it's so specific. But this does say Billionaire, so maybe I would give more!

I'd pay off my house, hire someone to finish the rest of the basement so my hard working hubby could be done.

I would pray that pride and greed would not enter my life, because of this truth in Scripture:

23Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Matthew 19: 23-24

I am afraid of wealth. I frankly don't want to be rich because I'm afraid of what it would do to my heart. I hope that I would give enough away to only have enough left to live comfortably. But I don't know. Makes me neeervous!

Five Jobs I've Had:

• The Yogurt Mill, yogurt dispenser
• The Hanalei Hotel operator ("Aloha, Hanalei Hotel, where can I direct your call?")
• Turning Point Ministries, credit card inputter (David Jeremiah's radio ministry)
• 5th/6th grade Band teacher
• Private Flute Instructor

Five Things People Don't Know About Me:

1. We've used Natural Family Planning as our birth control for much of our marriage. (TMI?)
2. I use oil to clean my face. Really. Check it out.
3. I do not consider myself a writer. I'm sure I break every grammatical rule in the book in this blog. (see? in the book in this blog???? that doesn't even make sense!)
4. I was born on the island of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands.
5. I used cloth diapers with my kids for a long time, and loved it. (We don't currently, but maybe some day again soon).

There. That wasn't too painful. So, I will tag Jennifer and Amanda.