I am a mother of four who is insanely passionate about raising kids who are responsible, compassionate, curious, ethical and fun. I am often considered a cross between Mary Poppins and a drill sergeant, but who asked? By day, I am a social media enthusiast, Internet marketer, wife, mother, friend, tennis junkie and owner of Wonderfish Creative Solutions.
While Momma Courageous is For Mommas and By Mommas, there is definitely something for anyone who has considered pulling out her hair, divorcing the kids, or laughing to keep from crying. So if you've braved the unthinkable and lived long enough to tell the world about it, feel free to share your stories about parenting teens with courage and candor here. Together we will survive these years of teenage angst.
Time sure does fly when you're having fun. Imagine my surprise when my 13 year old told me she wanted to become a model. Having been in the modeling industry myself, I was a bit apprehensive. Then it dawned on me, she was wanting to follow in my footsteps. At a time when most teenage girls want nothing to do with their parents, here was my child saying Mom, I want to be like you.
So I decided to support her in this endeavor and to walk with her through it. I scheduled her first photo shoot with Atlanta-based photographer Antoine Carmichael, who did a phenomenal job and dedicated his entire day to getting the best shots for us.
I must admit while I thought this first shoot would be a bust, given her lack of experience, she absolutely blew me away. I knew then she was serious.
Stay tuned... Part 2 of "The Making of a Supermodel" will be posted shortly.-- From Mika L.
Move over Cupcakes! Shake a leg Scones! There won't be any cute little morsels covered in sprinkles served at Gabrielle's 18th birthday party -- Momma Courageous' new passion is gourmet donuts! Kamal Grant, owner of the hot new spot, Sublime Doughnuts on 10th Street in Atlanta., is going to hook me up with a few special concoctions that would make even a apathetic teenager drool for hours -- Mango glazed, Reese's peanut butter cup, Chocolate Berry, A-town Cream, S'mores and Orange Dream Star varieties are to die for! What's more, I'm ordering them in special shapes to commemorate this special day. Surely I'll be the lunchroom hero when I have these melt-in-your-mouth morsels delivered to her school on Friday.
I'm so thankful that Grant, a graduate of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America, is unashamedly reintroducing these decadent delights in our American consciousness. On his Web site he declares, "DOUGHNUTS are the street thug of the pastry world; strutting past Cupcake, snatching the cream from Éclair and making Danish 'break bread'."
Very courageous indeed! I love it. Sublime Doughnuts | 535 Tenth Street, Atlanta, GA. 404.897.1801
I would love to spend the rest of the evening scouring the Web for pretty little dresses for Gabrielle's upcoming prom (I've already received my marching papers...Floor length. Chest in. Back out). I even found this cool upscale consignment shop on the Web that has the most amazing dresses at prices my husband would even give me a high five on.
But....duty calls. Instead of giving way to the reverie, I had to slap myself back to reality. These doggone financial aid forms for college are not going away, and someone has to spill the beans about the cash we need to send our little one off to school in the fall.
I'm embarrassed to say it, but I spent just 10 minutes filling out the CSS preliminary profile before my eyelids began to shut involuntarily like the train doors at Hartsfield International Airport. Gosh. Could they have made this process any more intimidating?
I know. I know. Filling the forms out is way more important than finding frou frou dresses and boutonnieres, but I'd rather have my eyelashes pulled out one by one than do this....okay, I take that back. I'm on track now. I'm focused. It's Momma Courageous vs. FAFSA! May the best woman win. After all, the last time I checked, no dress ever paid for four years of college.
Words are not enough to describe the devastation taking place in Haiti. I can't even begin to imagine it. So, I'll just share in simple terms, what we mere mortals can do to help in the wake of such tragedy.
In no particular order:
1) Text "HAITI" to "90999" to donate $10 to the Red Cross.
2) Text "Yele" to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele Haiti -- Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) created this foundation to permanently improve the lives of the most impoverished in his home country of Haiti.
3) Donate to Partners in Health - PIH (@pih_org) is already on the ground in Haiti and mobilizing their relief efforts. If you have heard of Paul Farmer, this is the organization he co-founded. Working to provide health care and education to the poorest of Haiti.
4) Donate to charity:water -(@charitywater) works to bring clean water to the 1 billion people on the planet who don't have it.
I tried to keep my cool today, and for the most part, I succeeded brilliantly -- If I say so myself. But reality hit like a ton of bricks and blindsided me. It's January 1, 2010 and why on earth I chose to begin the New Year fighting with a 17 year-old about the best way to tell colleges how wonderful and academically talented she is, AND submit her application to the University of Virginia in time to beat today's deadline, I have no idea. In fact, I can think of about 20 things I would have rather spent my day doing...sleeping is one of them, and attending my co-worker's New Year's party is another. Going to the movies to see "Sherlock Holmes" with the hubby and kids, was also definitely up there as one of my preferred choices....But NOOOOO....instead, my soon-to-be college bound senior almost made me shave my head today.
You heard me right. My confident teen suddenly turned into a sniveling two year old incapable of submitting what is supposed to be the best thing since sliced bread -- the Common Application. Accepted by over 130 institutions, I thought the forms and essays required would be a snap to complete considering she had completed most of the information when she was in the final rounds for the Posse Foundation Scholarship to Bard College.
Silly Me. Yes, Momma Courageous, once a high school senior adviser, forgot that each school usually requires a supplemental essay or two in addition to the two essays required for the Common Application. I also forgot that teenagers are unpredictable creatures capable of outlandish outbursts. So, at approximately 4:00 p.m. when we're all headed out for probably the coolest New Year's shindig ever, Gabrielle had a meltdown of monumental proportions. Pure Mayhem!
"It's too much. This is stupid. I just won't apply. Why do I have to do all of this? I probably won't get accepted. My GPA sucks...." Yep. Everything short of calling me a devil in a blue dress!
But Momma Courageous put her keys back in her purse, kicked off her high-heeled boots, and stuck to her guns (I promise I did not resort to physical violence or shoot my daughter, regardless of the what the voice in my head was saying). For the next three hours, I sat by her side (sort of), and played the admissions cop. The application is complete. The admission material has been submitted, and now $60 and several strands of hair later, we must sit and wait. Ugggggggggh.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=e8e6d398-c85e-47bd-965e-327742a32810)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6a12642f-f4ad-4dc5-af19-bf1e94701609)
