The Crabby Issue

You get married and realize you’re selfish. You have a child and realize you’re still selfish. Then you have another kid and realize you’re STILL selfish! So instead of getting over my selfishness, I’ve just been crabby a lot the last few months. Brad informed me I need to quit being crabby if we ever want to talk about a third child. I’m not sure I want to be taught that I’m yet again still selfish, but still I’ve been working on this crabby issue.

I’ve realized I’m crabby because instead of tending to little people needs, I want...

uninterrupted sleep, 

to experiment with phyllo dough, 

to have a clean house, 

to be organized, 

to eat breakfast in peace, 

to read, 

to workout, 

to blog and surf the blog world, 

to hang out at a coffee shop with my husband,

to talk on the phone without interruption....  

Grant it some of those things made me crabby because they weren't happening before I had kids and I still make some of them happen now, but it’s so much harder to make them happen and they’re often squeezed into nap time and after bed time. So lately I’ve been working on dying to myself, realizing I can’t have all my wants right when I want them, and happily caring for my kids.

(I have still pondered why people say we’re going to miss this. I've wondered if it's because I’ll have forgotten how to read, how to go on a date or how to talk about something other than childrens’ bodily functions? Is it because I won’t care anymore if I only have five different things I make for supper, if my house is clean or if I’m fit? Will I have given up on being a blogger and not know what to do with my time?)

  

I worked four days in a row last week. When I came home after the fourth day, I just wanted to sit and smother my kids, talk with them, make the giggle, and squeeze them. I realized I have other things I want as well. I want to...

cherish my kids, 

listen to them,

treasure their sweetness, 

be intentional in what I do with them,

teach them to follow Jesus,

to have fun with them,

help them develop their talents,

read to them,

make them feel special....

I certainly don’t want them to think I’m crabby all the time.

When my kids are out of the baby and toddler stage, although I won’t miss someone screaming at me because they're not getting their way (where would they get that kind of an idea?), I will miss little people cuddles, hugs and kisses. I’ll miss watching them learn and develop, their quick forgiveness and their giggles. I’ll miss hearing Elliana sing “I’m in the Lord’s Army” and Wyatt’s excitement to see me.  I’ll miss Elliana cheering and clapping when anyone finds a match playing Memory, and Wyatt laughing when she plays peek a boo with him. Why does it have to take me being gone from them days in a row to remind me of that?!

So here’s to a fresh start – crabbing less and loving more! Here’s to pleading with God every day to help me be the mom my kids need and dying daily to all my self centered wants.  

To any woman out there who dreams of being a mom or who has children already with Jesus, I am truly sorry for ever being crabby about being a mom. Here's a hug for you. (  )

Smart People

I mentioned a few posts back that I'd explain to you why some people were smart for having Brad do electrical work for them. Here you have it.

-His mom's smart because she's having him put in extra outlets outside for Christmas lights and some space heaters in a room in her basement. That means less work for her come next Christmas and less that she has to heat her basement since she can just heat one room instead of the entire thing.

-His brother's smart because he's getting an electrical upgrade in his shop. This means some different lights, more outlets and a new panel. He'll be able to enjoy his work out there a lot more with all that!

-Our neighbors are smart because they're moving their electrical panel and upgrading it as well. Now they'll be able to use their wall where the panel used to be better and have more power for their house.


They are also all smart because they're having Robertson Electric do their work for them. Here are a few points explaining this.

-The mister of mister Robertson Electric has a true farm boy work ethic. He works so hard and efficiently it's almost annoying. If you're his customer it's not annoying at all, unless you want to have someone to chat with all day while your electrician is working on your house.

-He's also a smart man. He married me for starters. He also has a bachelors degree from the great University of Nebraska-Lincoln and is an incredible problem solver, especially when it comes to figuring out things that need fixed. Lately, he's been spending quite a bit of time trying to learn new electrical things as well. Don't ask me what. I have not been a good listener.

-He has experience. If you were worried about hiring him to do your work because he's a new electrician, you need to be educated. He's NOT a new electrician. He has been an electrician for 7, yes 7, years.

-Then there's the character of this man. Let's just say he would be a "character counts" valedictorian.

Need I say more?

Slogan Vote (Updated)

Due to the fact I had a terrible typo in the heading of my poll  (remind me not to blog any time past 10 pm) and that the 10 people who were going to vote already did, the poll is now closed. It turned out to be a 3 way tie between "Big or small we'll wire them all," "Lighten Up Your Life," and "Shockingly Affordable." Maybe we should combine them into one - "Big or small we'll shock up your life." It's getting close to 10. I better stop before I type anything else ridiculous, use bad grammar or make up a childish dare.

Thanks to my 10 voters!

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Just for fun, please take a minute and vote for your favorite slogan over on the side bar of this little blog. After you vote, find a blank label, write "I voted today" on it, and wear it for the rest of the day. I dare you. We're all about lightening up around here.

If you have any other slogan ideas, just let me know and I'll take them to heart and maybe add them to the list. We're not committing to using the one that wins, but you never know. Your vote may change what comes to mind when people hear of Robertson Electric. You know like Menards....Save Big Money at Menards!

A very special thanks to Jody, Logan, Susan and Jack for sharing their slogan ideas.

Hostess With The Mostest

One of my goals in life is to be a "Hostess With the Mostest" (that's for you Love Hall Ladies) and if you know me, you know I'd be dreaming of plastic surgery if I was talking about cup size. I just want to be a great hostess. To me that means I make people feel at ease, have a welcoming home, people love to come over and I serve delicious food.

For some reason recently I started subscribing to Food Love Writing. Due to my need to keep my reader from hitting 329 unread posts it may be one I end up unsubscribing to, but it will have served me well in the mean time because of their post about when you never never apologize. In the post she says this "...I was letting my insecurity and pride at wanting someone to think I make only delicious things put my friend into the incredibly awkward situation of trying to make me feel better about food that I had made..."

I'm an apologizer and really I'm largely an apologizer because I want people to like me - insecurity and pride. It's just another one of my issues. I had never considered how apologizing about food I made puts my guest in an awkward position. So as of now I am no longer an apologizer when it comes to food I make for others. Brad helped me see this also means I can't make negative comments about my food either, like "I think it will taste better than it looks." It's one small step in my journey of becoming a Hostess with the Mostest.

What this actually means is I need to only make food I know will turn out for other people. Doing that means I have to fight another one of my issues, which is fearing I'll become stuck in a rut and only make the same five meals for the rest of my life. It's a price I'm currently willing to pay. If I ever get to feed you, and I hope I do, just don't be surprised if I feed you roast from a crock pot or banana chocolate chip muffins. I can usually get those to turn out at an unapologizing, no negative comment level.

Thankful Thursday

This week I continue in my theme of being thankful for little things I wouldn't want to live without. So ponder with me how you would like to live without a toothbrush. It's an awful thought, isn't it. I've seen and smelled the reality of this on several little elementary kids.

Here's a little glimpse into my job if you're interested: 
Try looking into the mouth of an unbrushed 2nd grader who can only spit on you and say 'thhhh' when they're supposed to be saying 's!' Then without breathing due to their rank breath, try explaining what they need to do differently while they pay no attention and just beg you to play a game. 

Really my thankfulness for a toothbrush is largely personal. On those extremely rare, terrible mornings when I don't get my teeth brushed I hardly know if I can cope through the rest of my day. I love having freshly brushed teeth! That's all there is to it.

Now on to ponder what little thing I want to be thankful for next week. It's a very entertaining task. You should try it.

Reader Issue Update

So I've worked a bit extra last week and am trying not to be a slave to the internet. The result: my reader hit a high of 329 new items to be read! I now have it knocked down to 92, some of which I've looked at but kept as new so I could attend to them later or because I didn't want to forget something they said. I actually added a couple of subscriptions, one of a neat photographer and one about being a better blogging. I'm going in the wrong direction. I have not yet weeded things down.

You know how I said I was going to wait until some of them had 15 posts? Well, some of them are going to take a long time to get to that. I'm now considering getting rid of the ones that post like crazy (who has time to do that?!)  and keeping the ones that don't. Whatever, I will be weeding it out soon!

Here are some other thoughts I've had in this process....

-If anyone else out there reading this also has a burgeoning reader, they're probably right now wondering why they're wasting their time reading about mine.  Sorry. I don't really even know why I'm blogging about it. 


-After categorizing the blogs I read, I realized I need to diversify my blog selection. Anyone know good blogs about something that's not on this list? I need more to read, you know. 


-I also wondered if anyone I know reading this has a blog that I don't know about it. You'd better tell me about it or else! 

Electrician's Helper

Whether it's pushing the flatbed cart at the home improvement store or learning the names of electrical material or moving conduit, this 2 year old loves being her daddy's sidekick!

Moving Along

 The business cards arrived and they look TERRIFIC! We were encouraged to think that maybe our marketing/advertising skills aren’t all like our slogan generating skills.

Speaking of which, we’ve had some new ones surface.

“Shockingly” Affordable  - The brain behind this one texted the idea to his mom at 11:30pm. She was thrilled.)

Lighten Up Your Life – wonder where that idea came from

Your Neighborhood Electrician – Brad actually thought of that one. He was concerned it was maybe too Mr Rogers. 

I thought about telling you all about his first job as Robertson Electric, but I’m not sure which one that was. It seems he’s in the middle of three at the moment, so do I count the first one he started or the first one he finished. Really doesn’t matter, we’re just thankful that Brad’s mom, brother and a neighbor needed some electrical work done and asked Brad to do it! Smart people!  I’ll tell you why they’re smart in a post coming your way soon!

Thankful Thursday

I've realized I'm so much more thankful for things when I've had to live without them for a while. It's made me ponder what life would be like without random things, like the kitchen table for example. I think that'll be my twist on Thankful Thursday for a while - little random things I don't want to live without.

Today my item is actually electrical in nature. I'm really thankful for the dimmer switch Brad put in our nursery. He put one in our Lincoln nursery, then we moved. I'd go in the middle of the night to take care of our five week old, and it was either blazing bright light or hope there's enough moonlight coming through the window to help you handle the situation. I know lamps are useful too, but the dimmer switch is the best! I recommend them to all people with a nursery. Thankfully I now have a dimmer switch in Wyatt's room here. I smile inside every time I use it. If you're not comfortable installing one yourself, I happen to know a very capable electrician who could help you out!

Overloaded Reader Issue

I currently have 191 new items to read in my reader. I so want to sit down and check them all out, but even if I do get a reasonable chunk of time, it's not enough to tackle them all. Some take more than a few minutes to read, others take time because you have to do these few steps to get this free item, then there's the ones that tell me where to print coupons from, and the ones that tell me something happened on my facebook which make me open up facebook and you know how that goes.

I counted.
64 subscriptions =
9 different deal/money saving blogs
25ish (I sort of lost count.) blogs of friends and family, some of whom I wonder if they even still know they have a blog since I don't know that last time they've posted.
7 blogs that are supposed to tell me how to be a good mom and homemaker, although I wonder if all the time I spend trying to find time to read them is counter productive.
8 blogs of families I don't really know but really enjoy spying on.
3 cooking related blogs
4 Husker related blogs and twitter feeds
2 other random twitter feeds
and some other miscellaneous junk

The result - I never have an all read reader. I try to check it here and there to weed out a few that don't apply or check out someone's pictures but seem to always do that when I really should be paying attention to someone else. I've got to figure out what to do.

This is my 2 steo plan to lighten up my reader and deal with this issue.
- I think maybe 9 blogs telling me ways I can save money might be excessive. I'm going to have to let go of worrying if I might miss a deal and get rid of some of those.
- Then there's all the ones that tell me how to be a good mom. I think I'm going to wait until they have 15 posts, which for some of these ladies might only take 1/2 a day the way they seem to post every hours, then I'll look at them in one sitting. If that sitting doesn't encourage me or direct me substantially, they're getting the boot.

That's going to have to do it for starters. I'm not ready to quit spying on people I don't really know and I will not quit reading about my friends. Those are my favorites and I wish you would all blog more!

Sorry about the lack of pictures on this blog. That's another issue I'm going to have to figure out another day.

Slogans

Did you notice Mr. Robertson Electric can now be reached by phone? Business cards will be coming soon now.  Did you also notice all the good things I've been subtling telling you about him? He drinks water and reads history books. Sounds like my kind of electrician.

So it seems like a company should have a slogan. I lay in bed pondering this on the rare night where I'm not completely exhausted when I finally make it to bed. Here's what we've come up with.

Tired of getting charged too much by the big guys, call Robertson Electric and we'll stick it to ya!

Big or small we'll serve them all!

Robertson Electric won't rob you!

Looks like we may need to find someone who knows something about marketing.

Christopher Columbus

For us, starting a business means we don't really know what our income is going to look like this year. I really haven't been worried about that because I know God will provide for us. My issue is that I've been concerned we might not get to eat at that amazing burrito restaurant whenever we want, that we will need to live in our current townhouse for the rest of our lives, that I may never be able to afford hiring someone else to clean my house, and that I'll always have to wonder if it's okay for me to buy something that's not absolutely necessary. Really my concern is that I won't be able to live a life of luxury. I know that sounds absolutely ridiculous and self absorbed on so many fronts, but that's the truth.

Then Brad started telling me about this history book he's had his nose buried in the last few days, "The Light and the Glory" by Peter Marshal and David Manuel. He would highly recommend it.  I currently remember what he was telling me about it going something like this...

"Blah, blah, blah"
(I'm nodding and listening as best I can.) 
"blah, blah, blah, we should read this book to our kids when they're learning history in school."
(Still nodding and listening and saying how I'm terrible with my history.)
"Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and Christopher Columbus, he started out seeking the Lord but then got consumed with seeking fame and fortune."

It litereally came to me then. Wham right up side the head!
Matthew 6:33 "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."  Read the whole passage here if you're interested. It's so refreshing. I may never have a housekeeper, but I can focus on living for something that matters so much more than that!

As for Christopher Columbus, if I remember what Brad said, his seeking of fame and fortune didn't help him out very much in the end.

The Water Glass

Here is our water glass issue.

Brad and I usually each keep the same water glass for a couple of days. He used to have a red one and I’d have one of the big ones that you’d get from a Husker basketball or football game. Well, I got tired of the flimsy white game cup and his red cup is not around so we’ve both been using cups that look exactly alike. I don’t want to change cups and he doesn’t either. Actually, at our country house we don't have any other options other than kids cups.

We never know whose is whose and end up with about four glasses sitting around because we just get a new one when we don’t know which one is ours. It's starting to irritate me. I think it’s even causing me to drink less water because I’ll see a cup and think, “I don’t want to drink out of that because I don’t know if that’s mine or his.” How dumb is that? If we share germs when we kiss, we might as well just share germs when we drink our water.

Maybe we should start having one married community water cup. On second thought, maybe we should just sit down and have a discussion about designated spots for our own water cups. Healthy discussion about such things is good for a marriage.

The Inside Story

Now to tell you about lightening up my inside…

Here’s my thought process. I read other blogs where they promote their jewelry business and blog about life at the same time, so I can do the same thing except with an electrical company. Right? Well, that’s what I’m going to do.

I’m hoping to “lighten up my inside” by blogging about my issues. I think I can make anything an issue, so I basically can blog about whatever I want. I’ll just use the word issue when I’m blogging about it. I’m sure it will evolve as I go, but I plan to keep it light at times so I can lighten up in the way of a little humor. On the other hand I also have issues I’ll blog about that weigh me down inside. I hope to be appropriately vulnerable and talk about steps to their resolve ideally. It’s healthy and therapeutic for me and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope you’d be encouraged by it all too.

Examples of each are coming in the next couple of days.

Announcing....

It is with much anticipation that I announce to you that Robertson Electric is now an official LLC in the state of Nebraska. The business has officially begun! It will be shamelessly promoted on this blog by me, its vice president. Due to the fact that we currently have dual citizenship on both sides of this nice state, we can currently serve a wide portion of the state of Nebraska. Start spreading the word and start praying for us if you think of it!  

Since we just heard that we can officially have the name of Robertson Electric, we are still working on getting a phone number and business cards, but they'll be coming soon. If you have any questions or would like to be in touch with the company president and electrical contractor, you can email RobertsonElectric at live dot com or call one of us if you know our number.

I'll let you know soon about the lightening up your inside part of the blog.