120/365 Happiness is...

You can't get happier than a puppy hanging it's head out the window to feel the breeze.  I'm just happy to have a nice day after all these rainy icky days.  April Showers bring May flowers.  Tomorrow is May so I'm hoping we finally get nice weather.  I think Gabrielle and Dallas are getting stir crazy.  I know I am. 

119/365 date night

Not a plug for Netflix!  I know I have blogged about this before but I can't stress enough that date nights for married people is important.  We are lucky to never need a sitter because Gabrielle goes to her dad's every other weekend.  I miss her the whole time she's gone, but I get to reconnect with my husband.  Our dates can be as simple as a lunch date or movie night.  We just need that time where we just turn off the Iphones and all computers.  We just relax with each other.  We have rules we can only talk about us, no medical crap, no court junk, no bills, nothing that's stressful.  We talk about hopes and dreams for each other and gabrielle.  It's an amazing time.  I know that I'm not an expert on marriage (with only 3 1/2 years under my belt) but I still know that date night strengths our marriage.  I suggest it to all married couples. 

118/365 MOM2MOM what a blessing

This was our craft at our end of the year program.  You can switch out the Bible verses.  This one speaks to me right now.  But I love the option of changing it from time to time.  Mom2Mom has been such a blessing.  I have learned so many tips on being a better mom and wife.  I have made new friends.  I just really love it.  I'm so glad that I joined.  The speaker yesterday had this wonderful idea about the summer.  She said pull out a calendar and each day put a lesson you want to teach your child about God.  It's never to early to teach about the Bible.  I think this is wonderful.  Gabrielle and I will be doing this. 

115/365 Oh the Places You'll Go!

I love this book.  It's such a positive uplifting book.  After a rough day at yet another doctor's appointment, I was pleasantly surprised when Gabrielle chose this as one of her night time stories.  It is real and talk about the rough patches in life and how they stink.  But it gives hope.  It knows the rough patches won't last.  My favorite part (hit home tonight) was the waiting game.  This last year I have done so much waiting that I could just scream!  But I refuse to give up.  The waiting will be over.  The doctors will find the answers or at least away to make me more comfortable, either way it will get better. 

113/365 Arran Ragon

We were walking into our church for prayer time.  In a small tree, Mike notice a yellow balloon with a note.  He thought it might be one of those balloons that schools send out and try to get people from other towns to contact them.  I pulled down the balloon with Mike's help.  It was a balloon remembering Arran Ragon who died on March 1,2007.  My best guess is they sent off the balloons on the anniversary of his death March 1st.  The balloon traveled all the way from Perry, MO, which I'm not sure exactly how far but that's still far to make it that long and over that time frame.  To find the balloon on our way into our church to pray was surely God's doing.  We prayed for his family.  His mom left her address and e-mail address. I sent her an e-mail letting her know how we found the balloon and that his family/friends are in our prayers.  I looked him up on-line.  He died in a car accident at the age of 21.  I have lost a ridiculous amount of friends in car accidents and way too early in life.  So it really hit home.  So please pray for Arran's family.
Update: His mom released the balloon on the 21st of April.  So it didn't take long to get us.  She released it a bereaved parents meeting.  Keep her and the entire family in your prayers.  

112/365 doesn't this say it all?

 

 Our church has been having 24/7 hour of prayer the week leading up to Easter.  The church is open and you come in to pray anytime.  There are different stations to pray for the different ministries like small groups or community outreach or global outreach.  By the cross in the main church, you can write down your personal prayers.  Then others can pray for you.  While Gabrielle and I were reading people's prayers, she asked to write her own.  This was her prayer. Brought tears to my eyes.  She gets it.  My prayer is that those needing to "get it" will soon.  I pray that I shine God's love always to lead others to Him. 

111/365 Christian parents must check this out

I was volunteering at church this even.  I help with the child care during the care groups.  I saw this and had to share.

The picture didn't turn out the best but these glass containers are filled with glass beads representing time. The paper in between the containers says: Towers of Hours
The large tower (on the left): 5,110 hours a year that parents are responsible for the child's spiritual development.
The small tower: 78 hours a year that Eastview (my church) is responsible for the child's spiritual development.
This really made me think.  Too often parents rely on the church to spiritual develop their children.  You have to do it at home.  Just like school learning needs to continue at home for the child to really get it.  We as parents need to continue the spiritual learning at home.  Look at those towers.  I take it very serious.  I hope you do too. 

109/365 never too late

I love Erma Bombeck.  My Grandma introduced me to her writing.  My Grandma and Erma are long gone but I still feel connected through the books.  I was reading "If life is a bowl of cherries-what am I doing in the pits?" It was written in 1971.  Some of it may feel a little out dated but a lot still hits home.  I wanted to share this one with you:
My Turn
For years, you've watched everyone else do it.
The children who sat on the curb eating their lunches while waiting for the bus.
The husband you put through school who drank coffee standing up and who slept with his hand on the alarm.
And you envied them and said, "Maybe next year I'll go back to school." And the years went by and this morning you looked into the mirror and said, "You blew it.  You're too old to pick it up and start a new career."
This column is for you.
Margaret Mitchell won her first Pulitzer for Gone with the Wind in 1937.  She was 37 at the time.
Senator Margaret Chase Smith was elected to Senate for the first time in 1948 at the age of 51.
Ruth Gordon picked up her first Oscar for Rosemary's Baby in 1968.  She was 72.
Billie Jean King took the battle of women's worth to a tennis court in Houston's Astrodome to outplay Bobby Riggs. She was 31.
Grandma Moses began a painting career at the age of 76.
Shirley Temple Black was named Ambassador to Ghana at the age of 47.
Golda Mei in 1969, was elected Prime Minister of Israel.  She had just passed her 71st birthday.
     You can tell yourself these people started out as exceptional.  You can tell yourself they had influence before they started.  You can tell yourself the conditions under which they achieved were different from yours.
     Or you can be like the woman I knew who sat at her kitchen window year after year and watched everyone else do it.  Then one day she said, "I do not feel fulfilled cleaning chrome faucets with a toothbrush.  It's my turn."  I was 37 at the time.
 
Like I said some of this is out dated.  But it still rings true.  It is never to late to change your path in life. I'm 30. I did.  I changed my career path and my health path which made my happiness path increase.  Stop waiting and do it! 

107/365 my inspiration

This is my inspiration, my beautiful daughter.  I was so proud of her singing at church today.  She did a beautiful job.  She and my wonderful husband inspire me everyday to be a better Christian, wife, mother, and overall person.  I am blessed with such an amazing little girl.  I was in tears of pure pride in her today which happens very often with her. 

106/365 living life to the fullest

You never know when your clock will stop ticking.  Today is the 2nd anniversary of Barry's death.  Barry went to high  school with me and was one of my brother's best friends.  He left behind a 8 month pregnant wife.  (She and her son are doing well.) So today I'm thinking about death.  I can't believe how many people I've known who has died before they were 30 some before they were 20.  Life is short.  Even the people I've known to live 80 years feel like it flew by.  I think we get so wrapped up in unimportant things and don't focus on the important stuff.  My goal is do to the opposite.  I'm striving to focus on the important stuff.  I'm working on creating a bucket list.  Don't save your bucket list.  Do it now and start working off it.  The laundry will be there tomorrow.  Let the facebook be alone for a few days.  Get out there and spend time with your loved ones.  Try something new.  You don't know if you have 50 years left or one hour.  Life is crazy like that.  I have faith that God has a plan.  That plan makes no sense to me but that's because I don't know the whole plan.  Some days I hate not knowing all the plan.  I just know that I have to treasure the time I have because any second it could be all over. 

103/365 Easter

I know you are thinking, really Easter?  Yes Easter.  It will be here shortly.  Today in my Mom2Mom group we put together baskets for families who are at risk of the parents losing their child to foster care.  We filled the children's baskets with all kinds of goodies.  We also included Jesus eggs (I'll explain later).  With the mom baskets we filled with goodies, hand written encouraging cards, etc.  What a great project? I had a blast. 
Also we talked about great ways of sharing the meaning of Easter with our children.  I going to share those with you now.
-Jesus Egg- Fill Egg with 8 jelly beans (in the following colors) and this note:
Black is for the evil planned that night.
Yellow is for God's Son Who is the Light
Red is for the precious blood that Jesus gave
Green is for the grass that grew by the grave
Orange is for the setting sun as soldiers slept
Pink is for the rising sun as Mary wept
Purple is for rulers who couldn't win
Whit is for the cloth He left within
An egg full of jelly beans; help us tell
A story of love, we know so well
Share the candy:share the joy
Jesus died for each girl and boy!

Resurrection Rolls
1 can of refrigerated crescent rolls
8 large marshmallows
1/4 cup of melted butter
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
2 tablespoons of sugar
Dough=the tomb
Marshmallow=body of Christ
Dip marshmallow in melted butter and roll in the sugar/cinnamon mixture=oils and spices on Christ's body
Put marshmallow on the dough and wrap it around the marshmallow.  Make sure all seams are pinched together well.
Place rolls on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray and bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees.
Let them cool.  Break open the tomb and see the body of Christ is no longer there.

Empty Egg
Tell your child that you have the best gift ever.  It is worth more money than anything.  It is more valuable than you can imagine.  Hand them the egg.  Let them guess what's inside.  Whatever their answer is tell them that it's better than that.  Have them open the egg.  Ask what is inside.  They'll say nothing.  You tell them, "Oh my that's the best.  It shows that Jesus body is not in the tomb.  That He loved you enough to die for you. That is the best gift ever." 

102/365 cooking

One of my favorite activities is cooking with my daughter.  Growing up I had no interest in cooking.  When I first moved into my first apartment there was lots of pizza and tacos.  As I grew confidant I start cooking more and more.  Now I feel more comfortable and sometimes make up recipes.  Gabrielle loves to help cook.  She doesn't care if it is tacos (like tonight) or sweets.  She is my cooking partner.  She's really good. 

99/365 carnival

I am so proud of my husband.  He umpired 2 games back to back.  Then he came straight to Hoose to help with the school carnival for over 3 hours.  I am so happy.  He is an amazing partner in life.  I got to help in 4 different areas-tickets, food, bozo game, and book walk.  It was a lot of fun.  I was really pleasantly surprised that Gabrielle got to come too.  So it was a great night all around.

98/365 Addy and Gabrielle

Tomorrow will be a month since Pumpkin died.  While I still miss him deeply, I know getting Addy was the best for Gabrielle.  They have become fast friends.  They play and have down time.  Gabrielle needed Addy.  Addy helped Gabrielle move forward.  I'm glad we got Addy.  She's not Pumpkin but she is a good addition to this family.  I still say she can't replace him.  But she helped my daughter heal.  That's the important thing. 

97/365 tickle fights

One of our favorite things in this house is tickle fights.  I tried to catch it.  I'm sorry for the blurriness.  My favorite part is Gabrielle saying, "Bring it on" followed by fits of laughter.  I love the moments like this.

95/365 friendships challenge

I have 3 BFF that I have known since jr high and high school.  It gets so easy to be lazy and stay in touch with texts or e-mails or fb updates.  I have a boy best friend.  We have known each other since 7th grade, but we became best friends in high school.  He recently did this radically thing.  He deleted his facebook account. I know shocking! He said he was realizing that he was being less in touch with his friends.  He would meet them for dinner and have nothing to talk about because they read it all on each other's facebook pages.  So he took a month off.  He realized he didn't miss, so he deleted it! I am still in shock, but with him doing that it made me realize I do the same thing.  Instead of picking up the phone or dare I say it actually meeting up with friends, I would facebook message them or text.  I'm trying to get better.  So in the last week I had an almost 2 hour talk with him.  Then I called a girl best friend and caught up.  My other girl best friend from high school and I set a time and we are going to have a phone chat.  I did this because all three of them live out of town or state.  I made conscious efforts to invite my local good friends out to lunch or a drink.  Some are still stuck in the facebook on-line world and don't want to go to lunch or do anything.  But I am making an effort.  So I dare you to pick up the phone and actually call someone you haven't in a long time.  Get reconnected.  Hear their voice.  See them in person.  It will make your day so much brighter.  And I am speaking from experience on this one!

Gabrielle's friendship bracelet is my picture of the day.  I remember making and giving friendship bracelets.  Now I'm trying to reach out and make calls instead.

92/365 How grocery shopping plays into my marriage

Marriage is about compromises.  Learning each other's strengths and weakness.  It is about helping each with their weaknesses and making them stronger.  My husband can't grocery shop.  He will not be upset by me saying that.  Before we were together he didn't shop at all.  He ate out every meal.  So it was an adjustment for him to go grocery shopping.  We use to do it together.  We have learned this just doesn't work.  He hates grocery shopping.  Don't get me wrong it's not my favorite thing to do.  I would much rather be shopping for gabrielle, clothes, shoes, or purses.  But he really hates it.  We have learned it is better for me to do it on my own.  Being married is all about figuring out what works and what doesn't work.  I hate mowing or taking out the trash.  He hates cleaning the bathroom.  You help each other.  You do what the other hates.  When one is sick you pick up and do more.  It's a balancing act.  You find out what annoys each other (ie grocery shopping, leaving socks everywhere, popping knuckles) and you work on accepting those quirks and improving your own quirks.  Marriage really is a give and take.  It's work.  And it is worth it. For the rest of my life I get to be with my BFF, my true love, my better half.  So if I have to grocery shop on my own it's worth it.