Dear Emerzon

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

When we started sponsoring Emerzon through Compassion International, I did lots of reading on their site and other Compassion sponsors’ blogs about the importance of regular correspondence with your sponsored children. So I vowed to not wait long before we sent him a letter and some goodies.

Sending goodies is tricky because you are limited to paper items and the total package can’t be any more than 1/4″ thick. For this package, in addition a letter, we sent a picture Brooke drew of our house, some stickers from the Christian bookstore and a heart Brooke had made at church on Sunday that said “Jesus loves YOU”.

Goodies for Emerzon

One benefit that I hadn’t anticipated when I signed us to be Compassion sponsors was the opportunity to teach Brooke letter writing skills. That is probably something that isn’t stressed too much anymore but I think its a very viable skill to have.

Brooke’s first letter to Emerzon:

Hola Emerzon!
My name is Brooke and I am 3 years old. I live in a house in Tennessee. I live with my daddy, mommy and our dog named Sheed.

Everyday I go to school while my mommy and daddy go to work. At school I like to play with toys, sing songs and read books.

At home I like to play games with my mommy and daddy and I really like to sing and dance. What do you like to do?

What is your favorite color? My favorites are purple, pink and green.

Do you like sports? I am learning to throw, catch, hit and kick a ball. It’s lots of fun!

At church, we’ve been learning about Easter and how Jesus died and came back to life!

I drew you a picture of my house. I hope you like it.

My family is praying for you.

Your friend,
Brooke

I can only imagine how their letters and notes to each other will evolve as they get older and hopefully get to know each other.

The same day we sent off our package to Compassion, we received our first letter from Emerzon!! Stay tuned for that!

Let’s Get This Party Started!

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

Ultimate Blog Party 2012  Hello!! If you’re coming from the Ultimate Blog Party 2012, welcome to Tired Mommy Tales!! I’m glad to have you here. Let me introduce myself….

I’m Sarah and I’ve been blogging since 2009. I’m married to a college athletics ticket guy and we’re getting ready to celebrate our 5th anniversary. We’ve recently booked our flights and hotel for a trip to Vegas as an anniversary gift to each other!!

Together, we have a 3.5 year old daughter, Miss Sassy Pants Brooke. We moved to Tennessee almost a year ago from Houston and dearly miss our family back in Michigan where we grew up.

I work for an insurance company but am taking classes in Early Childhood Education for a possible career change down the road. A couple summers back I got certified as a Child Passenger Safety Technician and enjoy helping families keep their kiddos safe in the car.

Tired Mommy Tales is my spot to brag about my kid, share my working mom trials and triumphs and maybe even a recipe or two. I attempted the UBP back when I was still a newbie and had not a clue what I was doing. I still don’t have it all figured out but I decided to join the party again this year anyway!!

So grab a glass of wine, coffee, whatever your drink of choice and make yourself at home!! I hope you’ll enjoy yourself and get to know me! You can also find me on Facebook and Twitter!!!

The Problem With Equal-Opportunity Chores

Posted on by Sarah Marshall

I’m very blessed to have a husband who doesn’t balk at the idea of throwing a load in the washer or cleaning up the kitchen after dinner. As a working mom, I’d be a wreck if housework wasn’t shared between us.

But there is a downside…

There will come a night when you clog up the sink. With food you’ve left in the fridge too long. And you’ll be up to your elbows in gross and struggling with pipes trying to fix it.

photo credit: spierzchala

In your frustration, you’ll be silently cursing your husband for leaving you with this “man’s job” while he’s in the bedroom.

Then you’ll remember that tonight that same husband did a load of laundry, emptied and loaded the dishwasher after dinner and vacuumed the majority of the floors in the house. And isn’t just vegging out and watching TV but actually folding laundry in the bedroom.

So you take your frustrations out on the stubborn pipe and it will finally come loose and you finish unclogging the stupid sink.

In the end you decide that being left with gross “man jobs” occasionally is worth it to have the support of a man who doesn’t bat an eye at “woman’s work” and does what he can to keep things running smoothly every day.

Do you ever find that you don’t always give your husband the credit he deserves for what he does? What has it taken for you to realize that you might be taking him for granted?