Thanksgiving is Thursday, Black Friday is Friday! Period!

Okay- here it goes- MY personal thoughts and opinions on Black Friday:

Black Friday shopping is a tradition that me, my sisters and my mom do every year. It is our favorite day of the year! (excluding our children's birthdays, of course) Black Friday is the best! It is a sport to us that we train all year long for!

I am that Target lady! Yes, I am! My children count the days down for me because they know how much I love it and because that is the one day of the year I don't ask them what they are doing!

It really, really bugged me (all of us) when the stores opened at midnight instead of 4 am.

And then when they started opening at 6 pm on Thanksgiving and calling it Black Friday, that really, really, really bugged me (us)! That is a no no! There is NO "Black Friday" on Thursday, NONE AT ALL! Thursday is Thanksgiving and it needs to be left alone! People need to be home with their families and then leave them like at 2 am the next day!  Like us! There is a BIG difference between going to the mall at midnight and going at 3 am! You cannot wear the same day makeup for Thanksgiving and Black Friday! You need the three hours to lay down for a cat nap, bathe and apply fresh makeup!

If you feel like you need to go the mall in pajama pants and slippers, we are going to roll our eyes at you. (Even my mom! Matter of fact, she will be the first one to say something! Oh yes, yes she will!) Go home and go back to bed until you decide you can get dressed.

So, for all of you wondering if we will be out and about on Thanksgiving night, stop wondering. We will not. We will Black Friday shop on Black Friday. Period. We will have a wonderful Thanksgiving with our families and then go to the mall on Friday at 3 am completely dressed, with fresh makeup, and we will smell good. We will zoom up my mom's driveway and she will run into the car with her coffee canteen and crackers for fuel in the back seat, our papers will be in order of importance with coupons and Doorbusters, and our plan. We will excitedly race to the mall where we will happily wait in the line to get into Pennies and receive our snow globes, (Last year, the buttons stunk! Hooray for bringing the traditional snow globes back! If you a true traditional Black Friday fan, you will agree with that one!) make the rounds accordingly and shop until we literally drop! We will wear cute shoes and bring extra ones to change into or buy new ones when our feet are sore from the pair of shoes we started in!

We will go whenever and wherever we want, but always making our traditional stops for our traditional Black Friday favorites, including Chic-Fil-A mini's, Starbucks latte and lunch at Red Lobster or Olive Garden, topped with a cupcake or two somewhere along the way. We will fight (okay, I will) over the last pillow in the bottom of the bin, that apparently is a tradition too! But last year I did it for sis! We will see our fellow groupie Black Friday gals out, you know who you are, we love you and will see you soon, and we will see them all in the same places we saw them last year!  It's like magic!  We will laugh, we will laugh some more and we will remember all the years gone by and be grateful we get another one together. So very grateful.

***Our gratitude to be with each other is where we bring THANKSGIVING into Black Friday, never Black Friday into Thanksgiving!!! Big difference!!! 

We will come home when we are ready to, and not one second before. And then we will spend all evening telling our husband's how much money we SAVED!  That friends, that is Black Friday and it can never happen on a Thursday! The end!

P.S. "It's ALMOST here!" 

Strolling down memory lane with a few photos from years past! 

This is how we roll home!

We always makes sure there's room to bring mama home!  :)

My son left me this note on our front door last year and when I was leaving to go shopping, I found it...Memories, so many memories!  I am so very grateful for all of them and the opportunity to make new ones!  Blessed!  Totally blessed!

I am not a "writer," BUT I am a Mama!

It is November 1st already!  This year has gone by so fast!

I have been enjoying some down time off of the computer but had my hands busy in many other things!  I am working on some special words to share with you all in time.  (Bear with me)  I have been processing a lot lately and processing  is a necessary part of life for me from time to time.

Today I wanted to share a few of my thoughts on an article I read a while back.  It was about "writers" and that everyone that writes thinks they are a "writer."  I have been thinking about that a lot lately.

I am not a writer.

Yes, I write here on my blog, yes, I write at Still Standing Magazine and yes, I even wrote a book and am going to write another one and maybe more after that.

But, I haven't been educated on writing or editing, I haven't taken online classes or had any training other than a single comp college course way back when that I cannot even remember.  I haven't engulfed my brain in countless hours of literature or poetry. I don't know when it is proper writing etiquette to use a semi-colon and such but I love these little dots.....and I use them a lot!  (for all of the "writers" in this world, I am sure that drives you crazy.)

But that's okay, I am not a writer.

I am an author, only because I wrote a book.  (and apparently, that gives you the right to carry an "author" title)  But, I don't even like that word.

I am simply a mama!  I am a mama that writes (shares) her heart, her passion and the way a little baby boy completely changed her life!

I misspell things, I use dots (......), I punctuate improperly, I probably break all of the "writer" rules, but I am okay with that too.

I am not a writer.

I am simply a mama that has experienced the gut wrenching pain of child loss and living life after.  

And if a misplaced comma disturbs someone, then you probably should be reading someone else's blog.  But if you are looking to read words from my heart and you are okay with all the dots...then you have found the right place to sit a while and read!

Being a mama is something I am good at,"writing" is not.  (the proper kind of writing, anyway.)  The one beautiful way I can mother Matthew is here through my words and there is never going to be an article I read that tells me I am not a mother!  

When I was growing up, I loved to write poems and such and I was pretty passionate about writing (sharing my heart) but I never dreamed one day I would be writing words that I write now.  Never.  

Many years ago, I read Max Lucado's book, A Gentle Thunder, and in it he speaks of two maestros listening to a young soprano sing.  It was said that the young soprano would sing much better once her heart was broken.

My heart was broken.  And writing to me is far different now than I ever would have imagined.  I would have to agree with the words that Max Lucado used in his book when applying them to people that write.  After loss, the pain creates a different kind of passion that before loss would have never been attainable.

If I were going to be technical (without training) about how I write, when to use a hyperbole or any of those other things I don't understand, for me, it would take away the beauty that lies within the words that come from my heart, that come from a place that is unedited and sacred to me.  I would place too much pressure on myself to make it all "right."  I definitely fit into the "unedited" version of life and writing.  I am good with that.  I tried to edit myself once, and it was a hot mess.  Never again!

This place, these words are sacred to me.  Being Matthew's mama is sacred to me and is a gift.  My words aren't wrapped in a neat little package with a degree, and they are certainly raw and messy but they are always real and from my heart.  

So to all of my fellow writing friends that have spent years studying and lots of money to earn your degree in literature or what have you, hats off to each of you!  I give credit to you and to every one of the carefully constructed words, proper etiquette and all that stuff that comes along with it!  I know you each have worked so hard and you deserve proper credit for doing so.  I give that and then some to each of you!

I have never wanted anyone to think I am a "writer" but simply want everyone to know I am a mother!  To three boys!  And writing is how I do that!

So, here's to all of you writing with  me!  Share your heart and your stories!  And don't be afraid to use a lot of dots.........SMILE!

*Photo Credit- Madella Jordan, Shutup and Smile Photography