I F**ked Up

As a mom, I do my best to shield my kids from many of the ugly things in the world. I don't watch shows above a PG-13 rating while they are awake. I allowed my son to create his own playlist of children's/educational music.

I watch my mouth.

However, the other day, my son Biggie asked me to help him pass a level on his Wii video game. I took the remote from him and did what I thought was helping him through the level. Then he turns to me, looks me right in the eyes and in an even tone says, "Yaya, you're f**king up."

[insert long pause]

"I what?"
"You're f**king up."

Now for a split second, I thought to myself "Am I?"


Lets rewind.
Biggie has a photographic memory. He can remember exact details about a day if you show him a picture of it or ask him about it. He also remembers everything I say. A few weeks ago, my mother came over to help me clean the house and run errands (I was recovering from knee surgery). We went outside to go to her car when a man who was dressed like a woman jumped out of his boyfriend's moving car spewing profanity. The boyfriend left the car in the street and went after his love only to be slapped and pushed and cursed at and hit with a purse. Needless to say, this caught Biggie's attention.

He can repeat the exact conversation ver-ba-tim. He told everyone in my family what happened. My grandfather got a kick out of it. I had to let him know that those were not nice words to use and we don't say things like that.

Back to the present day.
How he used it in the correct timing and context, I will never know. However, I explained to him that we don't say things like that to people we love and he apologized and gave me a big hug.

Sidenote: It was kind of funny. My grandma calls me twice a day just to tell me the same thing and laugh. I had to tell myself not to laugh when he said it.

As much as I try to be protective, I cannot shield my kids from the world. It's out there. I just have to be ready to use those moments beyond my control as teachable moments and pray that I'm raising some awesome individuals.

Goodnight Cyd

Cyd Charisse, the long-legged beauty who danced with the Ballet Russe as a teenager and starred in MGM musicals with Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, died Tuesday. She was 86.

Her name was Tula Ellice Finklea when she was born in Amarillo, Texas, on March 8, 1922. From her earliest years she was called Sid, because her older brother couldn't say "sister." She was a sickly girl who started dancing lessons to build up her strength after a bout with polio.

"I was so frail they were afraid to touch me," she recalled in that 1996 interview.

At 14 she auditioned for the head of the famed Ballet Russe, and became part of the corps de ballet and toured the U.S. and Europe. To appear with the nearly all-Russian company, she was first billed as Celia Siderova, than as Maria Istromena.

At one point during the European tour, she met up again with Nico Charisse, a handsome young dancer she had studied with for a time in Los Angeles. They married in Paris in 1939.

The Ballet Russe disbanded after the war broke out, and the newlyweds returned to Hollywood. In 1942, a son, Nicky, was born.

In 1948, the year after she and Nico divorced, Charisse married Martin. Her second son, Tony Jr., was born in 1950.

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Don't Hate...seriously

Dear Hater,

I am who I am and do what I do, but that doesn't take anything away from who you are and what you do. Me being smart doesn't mean that you're dumb. Me being cute doesn't make you ugly. So don't hate on me...you're revealing too much about yourself. You're hating because you're too afraid to look in the mirror. You're afraid that you may not like what you see. It's sad that my accomplishments seem to magnify your insecurities.

Maybe no one has told you the truth. The truth is that you can do anything you set your mind to (Phil. 4:13). Know that every time you speak ill of me, you're uncovering more about yourself (Job 15:6) and (Psalm 12:2).

It's time to look at yourself and make a change (2 Corinth. 3:18). Every time you find yourself starting a sentence with "She thinks she's..." or "He thinks he's..." replace that with "I think she's (he's)" because that's what you're really saying.

"She thinks she's cute"
"I think she's cute...and I don't like it" (which you know is the truth).

We were made to talk about better things (Psalm 63:3).




More to come... Stay tuned.