The Pure, Unadulterated Delightfulness...

Of the most cheesy-made-for-TV-movie time of the year!  ABC Family, Hallmark, and Lifetime each have their own festive offering, so it's bound to be a delightful cinematic season.  The Hallmark Channel begins airing new movies this Saturday.  Queue up the DVR! To get us in the spirit, here are a few notables in my pantheon of:

Made-For-TV Christmas Movies (MFTCM)

You know that happy glow you feel looking at a lit tree?
That's how I feel about these types of movies.

A Christmas Kiss- My first delightful MFTCM of 2013.   Basically an assistant to a mean ol' boss (think a very B-version Merle Streep from The Devil Wears Prada) falls in love with the boss's boyfriend and kisses him in an elevator.  Of course, she's incognito and he doesn't recognize her when they are introduced.  But they both felt 'flutters' (Gag me.  The guy says this repeatedly).  Dude's rich and has amazing hair a la Gordon Gecko of Wall Street. The actor comes off as very vanilla, but the female lead has two sassy best friends/roommates whose wise quips keep things from getting too queso.  The two lovebirds are thrown together planning Dude's Christmas party.  Of course they fall asleep on each other's shoulders watching movies.  Of course it's innocent.  Of course Boss Lady/Girlfriend goes on the attack.  And of course the sassy friends intervene.  This one is currently on streaming Netflix.  If you like to put your mind on hold like me, you could do worse for entertainment.


Hitched for the Holidays- Joey Lawrence of Dancing with the Stars and Blossom fame stars.  He carries the film well.  Quite dashing and roguish as memory serves.   He's an ad exec who hates to be tied down to anything (lost little boy inside and all that).  His love interest needs a date due to her family's growing concern for her after being jilted at the altar (there's a story there).  He's Catholic, she's Jewish, and both need a date to save face at holiday functions.  And his dying grandma's last wish is that he find true love.  But she's not really dying.  Oy!  Crazy family shenanigans! Watch it!  Airs this Saturday at 10 p.m.  And copious times thereafter.

Holiday in Handcuffs- This had me at Mario Lopez (a la Slater from Saved by the Bell and Dancing with the Stars). Anyone see a pattern developing here? 90s star plus DWTS stint equals revitalized MFTCM career. Melissa Joan Hart (again with the 90s teen stars) is a scatterbrained, struggling artist that needs to bring home a suitable date to her family Christmas in a remote cabin.  She flubs an interview, gets a bad home perm, and basically grabs a pistol at her waitressing job and hijacks Mario/Slater at gunpoint.  Yeah, he could wrestle her.  And the pistol is an unloaded antique just hanging out by the register.  Details.  Crazy eyed Melissa/Sabrina (the Teenage Witch) gets him in her car, secures him with novelty handcuffs and voila, instant boyfriend!  Of course they see through the kidnapping and fall in love.  She puts on an ice skating routine for him.  They play chess.  He stops trying to escape.  That's a formula for true love right there.  

Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade- This is a cute one and I was struggling to remember the exact title until I followed my own advice and scheduled my Hallmark movie marathon via my DVR!  This plays Sunday at 4 p.m. on Hallmark.  She's the Thanksgiving planner who wears vintage everything (a nod to her deceased mom); he's a slick suit brought in analyze her event and rain on her parade (wink).  They bond over a chance meeting at the grocery store and share cute phone calls while watching holiday movies.  It's fluffy, mindless, and the good girl gets the right guy. Not a bad distraction while you're folding towels.

Mrs. Miracle - This stars James Van Der Beek (aka Dawson) which should make this a lock for my generation.  A magical nanniy (Doris Roberts of Everybody Loves Raymond) helps a young widower (Dawson) with his young sons and surprise, not letting love slip through his fingers.  Real sentimentality, not schmaltz.  Very sweet. 

Recipe for the Perfect Christmas - I watched this a few years back and it has some decent acting.  Food critic (Carly Pope) and chef (Bobby Cannavale) meet cute.  Overbearing mom tries to live through food critic daughter.  Complicated relationships, second chances... all staples of any good MFTCM. 

Snowglobe- Another loud, eccentric, overbearing family causes our heroine (Christine Milan) to dream of a perfect Christmas, the one she sees in her snowglobe.  The magic of this snowglobe whisks her into the wholesome land of a perpetual Christmas.  Turns out fantasy is way more boring than reality.  Especially when your imaginary snowglobe boyfriend shows up in real life.  Yeah, that happens.  She still finds true love. Christmas movie magic, people.  

A Very Brady Christmas  Words fail at such a wonder.  If you need to laugh and have 90 minutes to spare, I highly recommend watching it in its entirety here on Youtube.  I probably watched it with my sister for the first and only time 15 years ago and I still remember some of the lines.  Wondering if you should make the first move, ladies? "If the idiot won't ask you, ask the idiot!"  Entertainment and solid dating advice. 

All that's left to due to look up the newest offerings from these fine channels to help plan your viewing season.  Delightfulness guaranteed! 

ABC Family Christmas Movies 2013

Hallmark Christmas Movies 2013

Lifetime Christmas Movies 2013

That darn clock setting

This headline caught my attention today:

American women and having babies: Not often and early, but rarely and late http://t.co/ExCWl8e8h7
— HuffPost Parents (@HuffPostParents) October 13, 2013

Nothing in the article was surprising: The more educated (in terms of degree acquisiton) a woman is, the older she tends to be when she has her first child.  This particularly caught me eye:

"Only for mothers with full bachelor's degrees, or more, does 30 signal the start of peak child-bearing years. And only for them has there been a major change in the likelihood of having a first child after the age of 30."

The article did a good job of reporting these statistics without bias for or against a particular maternal age. I think we ladies can agree that we all have plenty of thoughts and feelings on this topic whether or not we are a mother.  And said thoughts and feelings are in a constant state of flux.

For myself, I had the "10 year plan" approach.  College, First Career Job, Marriage, Early Married Years, Babies.  That's how it fell out for me, along with all the unexpected life that comes along with best laid plans.


I barely "beat" the above statistic, having my first child a few months before my 29th birthday.  Like I said, there is nothing truly newsworthy in noting that 30 is this generation's benchmark for family life. What interests me is our generation's priorities. My priorities and the value of motherhood. And setting aside one dream for another.

I've stepped off the career track indefinitely. I wonder if I could step back in and if I'd be viable. I have some fuzzy dreams of growing myself as a writer. But for now, growing my kids' minds and hearts is definitely my aim and big dream. No, not mutually exclusive with a traditional career. But for me, for now, it is.
The one income thing?  Hard.  Stressful.  Don't want to eat Alpo at 75. We're a work-in-progress.

Still,  as I approach that all-too-soon distinction of ADVANCED MATERNAL AGE (buh, buh, BUHHHH), I look back and think I was a bit too concerned about "the checklist".

I remember thinking people who got married before finishing college were a tad bit, um, crazy.  That college degree in hand and mortgage in place before babies came was the responsible thing to do.

And while those are nice things to hold, I can speak for myself that I put security above dreams of motherhood.  I very carefully guarded my desires to be a mom for the first years of our marriage to protect myself in case they wouldn't be fufilled.

That worked out about as well as you'd expect.

I pretty much came to the realization one fateful day that that it was time to start a family, jack.  In a completely adoring way.  (I was a screaming, emotional lunatic.)

Jeremiah was on his way the next month. Never underestimate the power of tears on a husband.  (But seriously, folks.)

All of that to say that it's neat and orderly to map out your life, but it's not always so relevant to actually living it.

It's time to have a child when it's time to have a child: when a husband and wife agree before God to accept and love the child He might give them. (Insert Nike tagline here.)

So I can say to myself at the same time: "What took you so long?" and "35-ish isn't that bad."  I don't know what the future holds and I never did.

That's the thing about becoming a parent.

It changes you.  And your schedule.  That's what makes it an adventure.  It's hard.  Much harder than I imagined or can imagine still. But I believe it's worth taking.

Toddler Fashion Throwback

 Rachel, September 2013, 12 months.

Sarah, January 2011, 12 months.

I sincerely believe part of my life's purpose is having a little girl to dress.  Having sisters and seeing formerly loved preciousness on another child delights me.  I'm already giddy at the thought of putting Rachel in Sarah's Christmas outfit.  If only I could exert this mental energy on other productive tasks.  Like budgets.  Or flossing.

We went on our first field trip with a group of homeschooling friends.   Our last visit was when J was almost 2 and Sarah a few months old.  

Since I'm on a roll, here's something that lays me out in awe and gratitude.

Three 1st birthdays

I'll close now before I start chasing down "coming home in the baby seat" and ultrasound pics to compare.  You know I would in a New York minute.  Til next time ;)

Whether Broccoli or Prime Rib

As I sat at the breakfast table today, I decided to read the Message, a bible paraphrase.  Now, lest I set myself up falsely, let me disclose that more often than not my daily morning reading consists of scrolling through a newsfeed and at best reading some inspirational blogs.  Consistent scripture reading continues to be a discipline that I too often neglect.  But today, I opened to Romans 12-14  and the modern paraphrase of the truth contained struck my eyes in a new way:

Romans 13:6-9 (The Message)  What’s important in all this is that if you keep a holy day, keep it for God’s sake; if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli. None of us are permitted to insist on our own way in these matters. It’s God we are answerable to—all the way from life to death and everything in between—not each other. That’s why Jesus lived and died and then lived again: so that he could be our Master across the entire range of life and death, and free us from the petty tyrannies of each other.

Which reminds me of these verses also written by Paul:

1Corinthians 10:31-33 (NIV)

 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 32 Do not cause anyone to stumble,whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33 even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

1 Corinthians 10: 31-33 (The Message) So eat your meals heartily, not worrying about what others say about you—you’re eating to God’s glory, after all, not to please them. As a matter of fact, do everything that way, heartily and freely to God’s glory. At the same time, don’t be callous in your exercise of freedom, thoughtlessly stepping on the toes of those who aren’t as free as you are. I try my best to be considerate of everyone’s feelings in all these matters; I hope you will be, too.

So maybe you've picked up on that fact that I sometimes get caught up in people pleasing and the opinions of others.  I can often be tossed about by every wave of "the best way of do everything better... now!"  Specifically as it deals with health and nutrition.

Much like the discipline of scripture reading, I want to mind my health better and the way I raise my kids to eat well and exercise.  But so often I feel a nagging sense of guilt that I DON'T think is from the Lord.  Certainly, I know my body is the vessel of His spirit.  It is a gift.

However, just as He wants me to know Him more because I love him (less out of duty, more out of love), I think he wants me to improve my health and eating habits out of this truer motivation. Not out of guilt or shame from a blog or blurb I've read.

As both a typical mom trying to navigate the perfectionistic and false ideals we've created about what it means to be a woman, wife and mother and as an 'autism' mom, I feel this extra pressure to be better about what we eat.  It's a repetitive battle, "I know I should, I know I should, I know I should."

But this little engine's not ready to climb that particular mountain today.

We're climbing constipation and withholding.  Climbing expectations and reality.  Climbing relationship buiding.  And we are gaining. We are gaining!

So when I read that little bit about "if you eat meat, eat it to the glory of God and thank God for prime rib; if you’re a vegetarian, eat vegetables to the glory of God and thank God for broccoli,"  I smiled. 

God's pleased with me whether I eat broccoli or prime rib.  Even if I eat two icing-from-a-can cupcakes and and my kids eat Cheez-Its (solely for explanatory purposes, you understand).

He's pleased with us as believers whether we eat a certain restricitve diet, or we don't.  Whether we're fit or we're not.  Whether we fit into an ever-changing defintion of "good" or not.

Because He is Good.  The Only Good.  He is God.  

And because of Jesus,  He is pleased with me.

Despite and in spite of my behavior.

So know that today.  In Christ, God is pleased with you.  Right where you are.