Today my baby is back home after being in Kindergarten for just one week.

Today I am conflicted. You see, last week I went through one of those moments that every mother hates to face: I said good-bye to my baby. It has taken me several weeks to come to grips with the fact that my little buddy wasn't going to be at home anymore. After all, I had gotten used to the preschool schedule which left Mommy time in the afternoon! I talked to all of my friends about my feelings; I had lots of people praying; I understood I was entering another stage in my life. You know what? I actually did OK saying good-bye that first day. I didn't even cry until I said "I love you buddy" and then I dashed from the room leaving my husband and daughter to finish the good-byes. That day my son entered elementary school and I realized that nothing would be the same again- or so I thought.

First, let me give you a few highlights of last week. On the first day of Kindergarten after meeting his teacher, my son looked at me and asked "why didn't you tell me she was going to be a little kid teacher?". Huh??? Is it just me or is that not something a mother is supposed to instinctively know to tell her child entering kindergarten?

On the second day of school, my son came home talking about even and odd numbers. Of course I was impressed thinking (like every other mother on the planet) "my son sure is smart". I then went on to ask him to give me an example of an even number. He quickly said "two". Then mother of the year that I am, told him "no, that is odd". OK, give me a break, I was cooking dinner at the time. Fortunately, my son argued with me and I was able to correct my mistake- I admit it, he may be smart but I'm not.

On the third day, I walked my son into the classroom and realized that I had completely forgotten to put the kids lunches in their backpacks. I explained to the teacher that she would have to help my son buy lunch for his first time. Well, just as I was saying this, my son pulled his lunchbox out of his backpack. What??? I then learned that my third grader had taken it upon herself to pack the lunches. Yes, another mother of the year moment trying to explain this to my son's new teacher.

On the first day of the second week, my son was sick. He was sick on the second, third, fourth, and fifth days also. My son just had a fever and truthfully, really wasn't acting all that sick. He was home with me again, a little cranky, and bored. Now, to be honest, I know I'm not supposed to admit it but I had a pretty good week that first week. My neighbor (yeah the one who keeps bailing me out of trouble) took me out for breakfast. I had breakfast with another friend the second day; I went shopping; I got some work done around the house; I was able to think clearly again! And now, my son has been home for a whole week with nothing to do.

Does this seem ironic to anyone else? I mean it took me weeks to accept the fact that he is growing up and it was inevitable that he would leave me. Now one week later, he is home again!!! What is going on here? Maybe God knew he needed a little more mommy love; maybe God knew that I wasn't as ready as I thought; or maybe God is just up there laughing. The only thing I do know is that God will be with me through every step of the way. God is there whispering encouragement to me through good-byes and sick days too. I pray that you will hear God's encouragement in your life no matter what irony you might find in your day.

Today I am wondering just how many people I flashed at the mall!

Yes, I flashed all of the back to school shoppers in the Augusta mall yesterday. You see, when I went back to Ohio a few weeks ago, my sister was talking about that beautiful royal blue color and how much she liked wearing it. That conversation led me to think about how much I liked the color and how I should look for more clothes that color. It really is a nice color to wear. Don't you agree?

So when I saw a royal blue shirt at Target (on clearance, in fact), I was thrilled. I love getting deals. I get a high off of finding great deals and I was flying high! I did, however, ignore that little voice that said "there may be a reason why such a good looking shirt is SO cheap". Since I had the kids with me, I decided purchase the top without trying it on and continued to ignore that little voice. Um, looking back at things now, I realize that it may have been a mistake.

Now to the flashing... We had a full day yesterday: haircut for my son, pictures and then shopping at the mall, and a run to our local chocolate store. To be honest, I am not sure when the flashing started, but I can tell you that we went many places before I noticed that half of the buttons on my shirt were undone. We successfully got my son's haircut and ate lunch. We then headed to the mall. This is where I believe the problem began. The man taking the pictures was acting oddly and quite honestly I thought it was because there was a very strange odor in the studio. Now I realize that wasn't it. He also took only a few photos, much less than usual. In fact, I had to ask him to take some more. I wondered if they were trying to save money- no, that wasn't it. When reviewing the photos, he put very little time into selling me those expensive packages. I thought that my no-nonsense attitude told him I was a good steward of my money (aka, cheap). Could it be that my frugal ways were causing him to sell the photos so quickly? No, that wasn't it.

We left that store and went to a children's clothing store. A young father buying something for his son distinctly turned his back on me. Was he embarrassed that his son was so mouthy? No, no, that wasn't it. When we left that store to head into the glass elevator, I saw it. To my utter dismay, a number of buttons on my beautiful royal blue shirt were unbuttoned. These buttons just happened to be the ones directly over my chest!!! Now all I can say is thank heaven for a Wonderbra! It is fair to say that I am not well endowed and if I am going to flash everyone in the Augusta mall, at least I could show them something! I desperately tried to remember that this was a good learning experience for my daughter. I told her that I was indeed embarrassed but that it was also funny. Do you think she noticed that I wasn't laughing?

Now I think you can understand why this is all my sister's fault right? Even though she is several hundreds of miles away in Ohio, she really is to blame for suggesting to me that royal blue is a nice color to wear- right? Am I wrong here?

I recently had an experience where someone I knew made a simple mistake and called me to apologize. She could have ignored what happened or blamed someone else, but she didn't. Even though what happened wasn't a big deal, she took responsibility. I was so impressed with her character that I am looking forward to working with her again.

This person reminded me that the act of asking God to forgive our sins is more about attitude and less about going through the motions. Truth time: a humble attitude is all that God really wants from us. He doesn't expect us to be perfect; God doesn't get mad when we make a mistake. He just wants us to acknowledge that He is God. It seems so simple but sometimes it is so hard. Our job isn't to play the blame game or try to fix things. Our job is to admit that we can't do everything perfectly and we just simply need God. We need to be humble enough to acknowledge that God is the one who knows best. God is the one who will perfect us, the One to complete us. OK, I admit it- my sister really is not to blame for my embarrassment, and I will wear the shirt again, but with a few safety pins in place next time.

Today I would like to give you a penny for your thoughts.

I know it is still July, but in this part of the country we are beginning to think about the kids going back to school already. Somehow 90 degree weather and buying school supplies just seems wrong. In fact, it is such a contradiction I believe that it is shorting out my brain waves. Today I would like to declare that it is the schools fault that I can be so scatter brained. You believe me don't you? I think someone, somewhere could probably prove the fact that since summer is so short it causes things like forgetting to make dinner, not remembering the wet laundry in the washing machine and sleeping through the alarm. It really can't be my fault. Right?

Well, I guess I must accept the fact that summer is over and both of my kids, including my baby, will now be in school for the entire day. As I thought about that fact, I have also reflected on the things that happened to my daughter last year. As I mentioned before, my daughter was caught up in some girl drama and to be honest it was difficult to watch her go through that experience. After some prayer and reflection, I realized that I hope my daughter can turn the other cheek.

In the Christian community we have been taught to turn the other cheek for so long that I think the concept may have been skewed. When Jesus told us to turn the other cheek, He was talking about forgiving another person. Christ was not telling us to just sit around and allow other people to walk all over us. Christ was telling us to forgive other people and not spend our emotions and time worrying about something that is not important. That is what I want for my daughter. I want her to have wisdom to know what is important and what is not important, to easily forgive because she has the wisdom to see the offence from Christ's persective.

So I sat down with my daughter and a jar of pennies. I explained that in life we need to budget our time, money and yes, even our calories. I also told her that we need to budget our energy. We can gain emotional, spiritual, and physical energy from all sorts of things. I took the pennies in my hand and listed several things that we can do to earn energy pennies. As I listed things I slowly dropped pennies in her jar. Some things I listed were: depending on God to take care of problems, getting a good night's sleep, developing friendships, eating well, prayer, trying her hardest when practicing a difficult piano piece, exercising.... We talked about how it is hard to earn these pennies and we don't want to waste our energy on things that don't matter. We want to spend our pennies carefully and wisely. I told her that when other girls try to make her cry they are really trying to take her pennies; I told her that when she doesn't cry she will then take their pennies. Now when she begins to get upset about things that aren't really a big deal, I remind her to spend her pennies carefully. I hope that this idea of budgeting her energy will help her gain perspective on what types of things are worth her pennies. We talked about how you need to spend your pennies on friendships, trying your best at school even if it is difficult, time with God. She came to see that spending her pennies on the right things would give her more pennies in return.

Now the real question is "what are you spending your pennies on?". I think the time is coming for us as Christians to start spending our pennies on more important things. Maybe it will take a lot of your pennies to stand up to someone who is trying to take away your rights as a Christian; maybe we need to love someone and show them who Christ is; maybe we just need to get back into the habit of going to church. Wherever you choose to spend your pennies, please spend them wisely. I would love to hear from you. Please post any comments you have. In fact, I'll send you a penny for your thoughts. I know your thoughts are worth much more than a penny, but we are in a recession you know!