Wisdom, Whimsey, and a Whistle.
Helping Moms Live JOY! No matter the challenges you face, or will face, as a mom, you have been divinely equipped to face them and grow through them. God is the Potter and you are the clay. He is molding and fashioning you and, through you, your children. That truth holds great beauty and divine security.

About Tracey

On a good day you’ll find me outdoors hiking and squeezing in some writing. I love my man and my children, [read more]

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Gross Idea Boys Will Love

Jul
26

Your sons will think you are the coolest mom on the planet if you buy them jelly beans…not just any jellybeans mind you!  Special ones. {gag}

Did you know there are jelly beans that are described as skunk spray, ear wax, and booger? Oh yeah, and if you want to have some rip roaring fun…gather a group of brave children and serve em up!

So, these little boxes of jelly beans are called Bean Boozled they come with 20 jelly beans in a box, 10 colors. For each colored jelly bean that tastes yummy, there is an opposing jelly bean of the exact same color that tastes disgusting. I’m not talking a little, “ew, that tastes kinda’ yucky” bad. I’m talking, face contorting, gagging, spit out of your mouth “someone give me a razor blade so I can shave my tongue” bad.

Don’t believe me? Here are the flavors of yummy jelly beans and the opposing foul offerings:

  • Buttered Popcorn vs Rotten Egg
  • Licorice vs Skunk Spray
  • Café Latte vs Ear Wax
  • Coconut vs Baby Wipe
  • Juicy Pear vs Booger
  • Berry Blue vs Toothpaste
  • Plum vs Black Pepper
  • Caramel Corn vs Moldy Cheese
  • Top Banana vs Pencil Shavings
  • Peach vs Vomit

What has the world come to? There is actually a food product bought by our children that has written in plain English, right on the package, booger and vomit. Enjoy…cough, cough!

I might add – you owe me … because you have the option to not buy them, but now when your sweet little child looks at you with a smile and says, “Mom, want a jelly bean?” You now know the answer is, “No thanks, no booger for me!”

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Father Love

Jun
21

Sweet memories tumble through my head and slowly spill out of my eyes as salty tears.

It was supposed to be just another one of my daily walks through the nearby lush green park, but it ended up being a walk down memory lane.

I saw her running through the play ground, her dark hair that was skillfully pulled back with a big red bow was bouncing to the cadence of her tiny thumping footsteps.  She lingered in front of the brown metal stairway, placed her soft sweet tiny hand on the bar and looked up at her Daddy. She slowly lifted her other hand to his and grinned.  When I heard her playful giggle waft up to her father’s dutiful ears and glide wistfully across the play ground it tickled a memory…I was frozen…in a distant time.

I was propelled backwards, some sixteen years, to a day in the backyard of the tiny 1,400 square foot home we moved to after I retired from my career and became a full time mom.

My hubby had built our daughter a large wooden play set in the back yard.  The memory safely tucked into the recesses of my brain was propelled forward and I could see her little lively body, the long brown hair, the bow, her father and her complete delight in his creation of her very own back yard play set.  My memory is divinely crystal clear as I can see clearly her looking up at him, eyes wide with wonder, a smile curving on her lips and a loud cheerful giggle as he quickly stooped down and her little alabaster arms encircled his Daddy neck.  She smothered him with kisses and shrieked with delight.

Suddenly my walk, became a stop and linger…in the memory.  I realized my cheeks were damp with tears and I heard myself softly sigh and wonder aloud, “Where have the years gone?”

My heart ached and I silently surrendered to the blessed assurance of God’s love as the creator of that giggle.

Father God, thank you for the privilege of being a mother to my delightful daughter for 18 years…I know you revel in her giggles much more than I.  As the arrow that is her life is launched may You guide her, protect her, draw her ever closer to You and give me the strength to let her go with gladness. I am forever thankful that as her head tilts upward now, it will be in gratefulness to the goodness of Your love and the assurance that she belongs to You…forever.

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Mom To Mom In Israel

Jun
13

Have you ever seen another mom in a crowd of people and just for a MOMent you make a connection? You know…one of those, “I get it, I’ve been there, I feel you mom, you can do it!” kind of connections.

Just days ago I had a surreal experience of just such a connection. I refer to it as surreal because it happened halfway around the world, during my trip to Israel and the other mom was an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman…at least that’s what her attire and the neighborhood I was in would indicate.

My head continues to swirl with all that I learned, saw and experienced while on a recent 14-day tour of Israel.
If you would like to read more about this “chance meeting” with this mom I hope you will join me today over on MomLife Today and stay tuned here on my personal site where I will be sharing lots more photos and mind broadening adventures with you!

BTU!

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Mom Surfer Dude Here!!!

Jun
10

To my frequently visiting friends I must ask…”What do ya think?” Like my new diggs?

I am blessed to have a magnifico friend, Katie who somehow managed to decipher my ramblings and perfectly capture the “vision” for a new site that was floating around in my head! She put the most amazing finishing touches and functionality into my new and improved Mom Life Out Loud home!!! Thanks Katie … you are awesome!

I have had quite the banner day…my new site going live….and my teen son went with me this morning to run errands. Now I must confess that I hate, hate, hate, double hate running errands. Basically I try to see just how fast I can get them done so I can get back home. Well, son was noticing I was a bit tense and rushing quite a bit and he said to me, “Mom…you need to learn to chill out, like a surfer dude and just go with flow…ya know, just sort of hey dude, how’s it going. [his head was cocked back and his eyes half shut} Well, be like a surfer dude…minus the drugs…that would be bad.”

Point taken.

A couple errands later when he asked if we could just go out to eat since it was so close to lunchtime I said, “Sure, that sounds good, you pick the place.” (Surfer Dude MOMent #1.)

Then I explained that we had one last errand – a stop by the bank. We did that. As we were pulling out of the lot, fine young son said, “Hey Mom…let’s go see a move.” I thought, “Are you crazy we can’t just go see a movie, we have things we need to do at home.” I started to blurt that out of my mouth and suddenly, instead I said, “Hey, yeah, let’s just do it, right in the middle of the day…spontaneous movie going…just for the heck of it!” (Surfer Dude MOMent #2)

By the way, we saw Super 8 – it was VERY good, sort of like E.T. on steroids x 1,000 ! (There was far too much foul language and a couple scenes may be a bit scary and one scene bordered on gross…but all in all it was a great movie for my 15 year old son and me to see together!)

We got home and ate some ice cream … why not?! (Surfer Dude MOMent #3)

Then he played a video game while I got my bu-twar kicked by Jillian Michaels doing The 30 Day Shred … because in real life I am not a cool Surfer Dude who rides the waves using perfect balance… I am a mom who is fighting gravity.

But hey…I have a snazzy new site and I had a great day with my son…life is good – Woo Hoo!!

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CWAHM Helps

May
10

Well hey friends, thanks for stoppin by!

Visit me over at CWAHM today as I share with those work from home mommies the importance of multitasking…the right way!

Here’s a snip it of what you will find over there…

Mom life is filled with busy-ness.

At times I thrive off of that fact…skillfully moving from task to task and smooth sailing through the day feeling quite good about my busy little self.

I must admit though, sometimes when I am in high task mode I have been guilty of forgetting about the other “little selves” in my home.

I learned long ago that being a successful multi-tasking mom means that I need to play just as hard as I work! That may sound backwards, but trust me…to work and not play becomes counter productive in the long run because we were not designed to constantly be on task.

Do me a favor mom…

 

 

 

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Are You An Overprotective Mom Too?

Apr
25

You have heard it said that confession is good for the soul…right? Well, I confessed…about my overprotective mom ways today, right out for the world to read about over at Family Matters.

Here’s a smidge of my guest post over there…

Being a mom brings out the absolute “protect and preserve” gene in all of us, which can be a great thing. But it can also be a not so great thing.

Case in point: my need to over-protect and preserve my young son at all costs. Admittedly, this need was born out of concern because the little guy had received four concussions before he was five years old. Yeah, I know, you are wondering, “How does that even happen?” Well, it happens when your son is “all boy” and busy, busy, busy. Which by the way, pretty much all boys are!

Due to his toddler year mishaps I ended up being one of “those moms” who constantly chided my son to “be careful” and “don’t do that” way more than I should have. Can you relate?

Click on over and read more of what I have to say and then spend some time checking out their blog…they are great folks over at Family Matters and they have lots of good parenting info to share with you!

L8r!

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Short and Sweet

Apr
19

My daughter is a Senior.

She has less than a month until graduation.

A day turned into a week…turned into a month…turned into a year…turned into 18.

How old is your child?

Do the math.

I honestly cannot grasp how time has brought me here.

Mom’s…enjoy every MOMent with your child.

{heavy sigh}

 

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Stay At Home Mom Thoughts

Apr
15

Moms need to stick together…because we all need every drop of support we can get! I get most frustrated when the whole “stay at home vs work outside of the home” mom wars rip through the headlines. I have seen that more than I care to the last few months. I won’t even provide links, the articles will probably just frustrate you…as they do me.

I am of the mindset that we all should support and educate one another regarding our lives so that we might better understand each other.

Join me over at MomLife Today where I share my thoughts on the  Top 10 Stay At Home Mom Myths.

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Senior Daughter = Bling With Wheels

Apr
14

Oh my gosh!

I have always said April and May were the crazy busy months for all moms. Well, let’s ramp that up a gazillion notches when your daughter is a Senior in High School.

So much to do…so little time – is no longer a cliche – it is my existence!

I am enjoying all that we are doing, even though the pace seems a bit much! But hey, I think I am managing to stay on top of things, so it’s all good.

Graduation photos, invitations, events, preparations, plans for the future…it’s a never ending sea of “to do’s” for her and me! But it is all very exciting – although I am learning that my daughter at times does not have a clear grasp of reality.

Today said Senior daughter informed me as follows: “It seems the typical graduation gift my friends are getting is a car!”

Her eyebrow arched mother said, “Well, interestingly we are not typical!”

I was substitute teaching today at her school and I was hearing other kids talk about who got what car from their parents. Humpf.

One of her friends father’s pulled into the school parking lot today with a convertible Mustang for his child – somebody needs to slap that man. Didn’t he break some sort of “parent code” with that move?

My daughter then offered, “You have always said I would have to buy my own car, insurance and gas – I think it makes more sense for me to buy the insurance and gas, but you guys to buy the car…but actually I want a truck!”

You gotta give her some props for trying!

Unless the “car fairy” tucks some keys under that girls pillow…it’s not happening.

So tell me your thoughts does Senior Daughter = Bling With Wheels?

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37 Teens Die in One School

Apr
5

When I was in High School I had class mates who died as a result of traffic accidents, as did my siblings. It always seemed to happen in the Spring…maybe it’s a symptom of Spring Fever among teens. Driving a bit too fast, experimenting with alcohol, being out having fun a bit more often, not believing that cell phone usage and text messaging while driving is a bad thing.

Yeah, I used a dramatic headline … to get your attention, but those 37 deaths in one High School did happen through this extremely thought provoking “scared straight” event at a High School.

This is a great idea and I applaud the officers, school system and parents who allowed it to happen. No doubt it will be effective for teens! And maybe more teens will be spared from the memories of classmates dying as a result of Spring Fever.

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