I heart country music

The older you get, the more you look back. Truer words were never spoken, paritcularily when you become a mother. When you see your nose on someone else's face, you begin to think about where that nose came from.





In public, I am an indie-pop music fan, but in the quiet of my heart, when no one is around, I am a country music fan. Mostly, because as much as I try to hide it, or run from it, I am a steel magnolia. I come from a long line of strong southern women. I come from cotton fields, spanish moss, and boiled peanuts. And even though I'm a California girl, there's a little piece of me that will always be southern. And when I miss that part of me, or if I'm being totally honest, when I miss my mama, I listen to country music.

The sounds of a hard day's work on a tractor, a small town, and going to church on Sunday are so familiar to me, with a slide guitar and a southern twang it hits the spot whenever I start to miss my roots.

Sometimes I wonder if my kids will ever understand this part of me? If they'll ever even know it? I don't really know the answers to these questions. But I do know that until I can reveal that part of me to them, I'll introduce them to a little downhome music (while they're dad ISN'T in the car).

To plus or not to plus

If you know me at all, you know I buck against change, particularily electronic change. When DVD's came out, I was skeptical that anything could be better than VHS. In fact, I almost had to be hogtied to the chair to actually WATCH a DVD. Then came laptops in college, when I thought the clickity clack of typing during a lecture was beyond annoying. (Now I'm wondering how much better in college I might have been had I gotten over that). Then came the Blu-Ray player - which I STILL remain skeptical about, the Kindle, that took me forever to even understand the point of. And, ofcourse, the iphone, which I broke down and bought last month.

I'm not what you would say technologically advanced. I can recall in 2005 when this handy dandy thing called MYSPACE came out. I had no idea how to even upload my picture let alone deal with the mass confusion of html. But being 3000 miles away from anyone that was familiar to me, I was desperate to connect. And thus began my journey into the world of social networking. Myspace was where I learned to blog, where I found out about new and interesting bands, and where I reconnected with a lot of old friends I thought were lost forever. So when people started slowly switching to facebook, I being my old-fashioned self, adamately was against doing it. But after a few months, I felt like the last kid on bus. I was blogging, but who was reading? I was updating my status, but no one noticed. Finally, I reluctantly moved to facebook.

Ofcourse, facebook wasn't without it's share of annoyances. I could no longer post music, video posts were limited, and they constantly changed their formats which really made me mad. Fast forward to 2 weeks ago when I got an invitation to join google + a "new" social networking site. I didn't think anything of it, until I saw all of the cool features it had. So I, Erin- I -hate- new- technology Warkentin, decided to be on "the cutting edge" and joined. I have to say, I love the new features, and even though there are still a limited amount of people I know on it, I feel like I am somehow a part of something big. Or at least, something that WILL be big. And by then, I will know all the ins and outs of the system instead of being miserably behind. I am making my prediction now... Google + is going to be the next BIG trend in social networking. If nothing else, because I'm willing it to be so.

So stand back world and be amazed.

A few teeth and a whole lotta attitude

So I've blogged about teething before. I'm quite sure of it. Yet, I notice that as time has passed, I have forgotten all about the teething phase. I'm convinced there's a reason for this.

My nearly 9 month old baby girl is smack dab in the middle of this tumultuous stage. She has cut 2 adorable teeth and is in the process of cutting 2 more. However, along with those adorable teeth has come a not so adorable attitude. If I didn't know better, I would think we had started a charasmatic church with the amount of flailing, and falling to the ground this kid does. Unfortunately, this bout of teething comes with a wicked bad temper tantrum stage. I've got to say, it is trying my patience. Mostly because I cannot put her in timeout-boo.

I am pretty convinced that when it comes to labor and teething God gave us an incredible ability to forget things. Otherwise we'd never have more kids.

Warky Banter: The truth about potty training

As I've posted before, I have been trying to potty train the boys. Elijah gets it for the most part, as long as you keep him naked all day. Noah is much more stubborn. This is a conversation Tim and I had today about Noah's potty training blunder.

Me: Noah pooped in his underwear and I had to hold his turd while feeding Olivia

Tim: That's disgusting, I could have gone without knowing that.

Me: Just another day in the office

Tim: I'm currently holding an ipad 2.

Me: That's so much better than a turd.

A baby shower of love

This is my best friend Lauren. She's weathered life's great storms alongside of me, and I am thankful for her. She has been hoping, praying and trying to have a baby for several years and in December she found out that it was finally her turn to have one! I was thrilled. Ofcourse that sprang me into baby shower planning mode. It's a place I've been for about 7 months now, and on Saturday I was so happy to be a part of Lauren's special day.

The thing I loved about her shower was making her a part of the mom circle and sharing with her some motherly wisdom and encouragement and just a time of prayer and reflection for this baby love.

We have laughed, and cried, and been excited and been nervous about this baby. It's just so amazing to see her glowing and so overjoyed to become a mommy. She's going to be so great at it. I love that she tolerates my crazy... I think it's preparing her for motherhood quite nicely.

Baby Sharkey, I cannot WAIT to see you and be your crazy Aunt Erin that let's you stay up way too late and sneaks you some ice cream when your mama isn't looking!

The Things No One Tells You: On Sick Leave

So my friend, and fellow blogger, Bethany mentioned to me last week that she was putting together a collection of mommy bloggers out there to talk about mothering insights, etc. It got me thinking, and I decided to start a blog series entitled: The Things No One Tells You. Because I feel like, especially as a mom, there are just so many things you walk into blindly. After I had my first child, I wondered how I managed to get so much advice about some things, but then there were so many that no one ever told me about. I intend on addressing some of those things, and hopefully shed some light on dark topics.

Whenever you start a new job, they always have an employee manual that tells you how much vacation time, personal days and sick leave you have. That is not the case for motherhood. And do you know why? Because...there isn't any. It's true there are a lot of company perks to being a mom, countless actually and the perks far outweigh the negatives. But when you're a mom, especially a stay-at-home mom, there just aren't any days you're actually allowed to be sick.

Today I woke up with my kids, a typical Monday morning. They were hungry, needed diaper changes and the list of demands started. The only problem was, I was up all night throwing up. Still unable to keep food down, I had to take care of them while the husband went to work. It sucks. Because you are at home every day, and because your kids get used to giving you their morning demands, it makes no sense to them why you've suddenly baracaded the bathroom door and are making strange noises in there. They pound on the door, and cry and then push each other over because they're each fighting to get into the bathroom. Ofcourse then an argument and full-blown wrestling match starts and you're attempting to referree from the inside of a toilet. Or better still, it's quiet...too quiet. And when you finally gain enough energy to walk out of the bathroom, you only discover the toilet paper all over the floor, the garbage strewn all over the house, your favorite lipstick on the walls and a very guilty looking two year old standing there grinning. Right, just what you needed. But you continue on, because you have to. It's all part of the job.

Also weekends can be very confusing as well. It's Saturday morning...ahhhhh.... what a wonderful thing right? Well, not really for you. Because you see, it's the weekend for your husband, not for you. You still have to get up with the kids like every other day and do the routine. It's not to say that your husbands a bad guy, it's just that your kids are used to waking YOU up each morning, so they do. And suddenly Saturday morning turns into every other morning. Shoot it could be a Tuesday for all you know.

This is the thing no one ever told me. I never realized that when I had children I would be sacrificing my ability to vomit in peace, or to sleep past 7am. I wish I had known that, so that I could at least have been more prepared for it. I know that one day I will spend my sicktime alone, with no one there to scream at me. Ofcourse, there will also be no sweet voice asking "Are you okay mama?" and there will be no gentle 3-year-old to sit on my lap and tell me "It's okay mama, I take care of you." These are the sweet things nobody tells you that being sick brings.

One day I will sleep in all day, maybe have a nice brunch, go for a walk in the park, enjoy a leisurely weekend. But there will be no exuberant 2-year-old who bursts through the door and says, "Mo-nin' Mama!" or "Mama, you up? I so happy!". These are the things about weekends nobody tells you about.

It's those tender moments, those tiny voices that keep you going when the lack of vacation and sickdays take their toll.