Five Little Words

My sweet friend, Suzann from The Olive Cottage, did a post this week based on five words. I liked it so much, I asked her to "assign" me five words. My words were faith, growth, ability, love and dream.

FAITH. Many people shy away from speaking about their faith, whether they're unsure of where they stand or are just afraid of offending others, I don't know.

I did not grow up in a church. I knew very few Bible stories, and only went to Vacation Bible School in summers with friends. When I met Joe, one of the things I loved about him was his faith. He DID grow up going to church, and knew a lot about Jesus. Once we were married and had our first baby, I knew that I wanted to be saved. I went up to the altar (with shaking knees but a determined heart) and confessed my faith in Jesus Christ our Savior. A couple of years later, after learning more and growing spiritually, I was baptized.

We have since changed churches, and now attend a United Methodist church, full of people from all walks of life, who are trying hard to be good Christians, reaching out to others in need and trying to find their way in this life filled with hardships and trials.

The one thing I try most to do with my faith is act in a way that allows others to see Christ shine through me. I don't always succeed. Some days I'm crabby (I'm human, for sure). But I do try, each and every day.


GROWTH. Physical, spiritual, emotional, intellectual. I could go on and on, but I won't. The most evident kind is physical, and none more obvious than with the growth of my babies. When they're little, people tell you how fast this time will go. I remember being mired in the pit of having two babies in diapers, sleepless nights and ear infections and doctor visits galore, thinking "this time is NOT going fast enough! They have no idea what they're talking about!".

Okay, now that my baby is five years old, going to preschool and riding a two-wheeler for heaven's sake!, now I believe them.

I blinked, and they went from baby to preschooler to sixth grader.

I now have toothpicks in my eyeballs, so I can't blink anymore. I want this time right now to last longer than a minute. Elijah is 11, Isabel is 9, Gabe is 5, I am 35 and life is so good.

From this:

to this, in the blink of an eye:

ABILITY. My kids have taught me so much about ability. When they're babies, you have to do everything for them. And you get into that habit so much that you don't realize when it's time to start letting them do for themselves. I love being a mom. I love doing for my kids. At some point, though, you have to let go, and teach them to start doing for themselves. And it's amazing how much they can actually do. And how proud they are to be able to do it. Now I always check myself to make sure I'm not doing too much for them, so they can feel that satisfaction that comes from a job well done.

Elijah is the perfect example of this. He has wanted to play tackle football for years. He tried back in the fourth grade, but he wasn't ready (and neither were we). When he begged and begged and saved up his own money, I relented and let him try again this year. And he is so proud of himself. He is not loving it (they have yet to win a game), but he is determined to stick it out (paying out of your own pocket will do that, I guess). And for that, I am so proud. He works his heart out at every practice, and goes to his games in the hope that he will actually get the chance to touch the football that time. I admire his spirit!

LOVE. You already know how much I love Jesus, and my babies. Now I'll tell you a little about how much I love my husband. Some days he makes me crazy (and I'm willing to bet he'd say the same about me). But every day I know I am blessed and living this dream life of mine because of him. He led me to Christ. He gave me my babies. And he has stood by me every single day for the past thirteen-plus years. We are still able to laugh together and enjoy each other's company, and that speaks volumes. Joe, you will always be the man for me.

DREAM. Like I said, I truly feel like I am living my childhood dream. I have a great job that I love (most days). I am a wife, and a mom. I have friends dear to my heart. Every holiday and many days in between, I am surrounded by a fun and loving family. My dream now is that each of my kids will find their way in this world, and be able to say the same thing when they are 35.

Suzann, did you have any idea this would be such a long post? Yeesh!

Anybody else want five words? Let me know, and I'll give 'em to you.

Crabby Pants

I woke up on the crabby side of the bed this morning.

It is wet and oh-so-muggy outside, but not hot enough to justify turning on the a/c.

Aunt Flo came to visit a week early, and I was unprepared.

Not enough sleep, not enough hours in the day, too much week at the end of the money.

*sigh*

In an attempt to get out of this crabby mood, I decided to list ten things that make me happy RIGHT NOW.

1. Cinnamon roll and a steaming cup of coffee for breakfast.

2. Joe, for getting the pack of said rolls from Cinnabun when he was out running errands.

3. My freshly mown lawn (thanks again to Joe).

4. I don't have a headache (Aunt Flo usually brings one with her when she visits).

5. My computer was fixed, for free (um, thanks to Joe once more).

6. I'm surrounded by my scrapbooking things right now, as my laptop is currently in my craft room.

7. I like my hair (not at the moment, but it's been fixing rather well this past two weeks).

8. After working this evening, I'm off until Sunday night.

9. Isabel and I are excited to run in our first mom-daughter race this Saturday, to kick off our town's Applefest celebration. Race, first. Apple fritters, second. Yum.

10. My cupboards and freezer are filled with good food that I can use to feed my family (the meal plan is working quite well).

I'm almost better now.

Methinks one more cup of coffee then an hour spent with Gabe, scrapbooking and reading and just giggling, will make Mr. Crabby vacate the premises. Too bad he can't take Aunt Flo with him...

What do you do when you're feeling crabby? What are a few things you're happy about today?

Joy of preschool

Gabe is learning all sorts of new things at school.

How to write his name.

The letters of the alphabet.

Counting to twenty.

And funny new phrases.

Like, "That's just lame."

And, "You're such a lardo."

My personal favorite, one that had me on the ground holding my stomach in laughter...

"What in tarnation is on my penis?!"

(For the curious, it was a wrinkle. He thought it was poison ivy. Whatever.)

Man, I love preschool!

Under attack

My laptop is under attack.

Somehow a virus snuck through the Firewall and has hijacked my computer.

Joe tried to find the little bugger and exterminate it, but when I rebooted this morning, I had a bunch of new shortcuts on my home screen. Shortcuts to porn sites, with naked pictures on the button.

Great. In a house with three little kids, that's exactly what I want on my computer screen.

I'm not sure if that virus was one of the Facebook ones that people were talking about. Just in case, I am on hiatus from FB. And I am praying that Joe can restore the innocence of my laptop. And that all of my photos saved on my Memory Book harddrive are safe.

Has anyone else faced this problem lately?

Not Again, Please!

I was recently tagged by a new blog friend, Julia, aka Brainella the Librarian. I haven't done one of these in a while, and liked the simplicity of this one. However, I did have to actually sit down and think about it before I posted it.

The title is "Ten Things I've Done Once in My Life which I Wouldn't Want to Repeat, Ever".

Here goes...

1. Get a cavity filled, without being numbed ("It'll only take a minute," my dentist said, "it's such a small one").

2. Make the decision to withdraw medical treatment on a loved one (my dad). Hardest decision ever.


3. Eat shark (paid for that one for hours, sitting on the throne).

4. Visit Belize (filthy dirty, scary times, yucky food, not impressed).

5. Experience the loss of my home from a tornado (I was 16 years old).


6. Fight with my husband about money (um, probably won't be the last time...just sayin').

7. Drive through a blizzard to get to work, only to have to stay for two straight days to take care of patients.

8. Lose my child at Disney World (only for a few minutes, but that was enough to last a lifetime!).

9. Wrestle an insanely strong man with DT's (alcohol withdrawal) in the ICU, all night long.

10. Clean up gallons of liquid stool from a morbidly obese patient (I love my job, truly I do!)

So, there you have it...my list of never-to-be-repeated (hopefully) life experiences.

Wanna play along? Either leave your best ones in my comments, or do a post of your own (make sure you let me know, so I can come by and read it).

The Difference a Year Makes.

Amazing, isn't it, the difference a year can make?

For example, this time last year, Gabe was entering preschool for his premiere school experience.

He loved preschool, so much that he cried everytime we came to pick him up.

Every other day or so, I would get a progress report from Mrs. Edwards, updating us on Gabe's status.

"Sometimes Gabe likes to tackle friends."

"Sometimes Gabe doesn't like to follow directions."

"Sometimes Gabe decides that he'd rather play than learn his ABC's."

Could you read between the lines there, as in "Your boy is a stinker and preschool is quite the struggle for him"?

Despite a rough start, we perservered and ended up having a great year.

Fast forward to this September...

I'm excited to send Gabe to Young 5's, a preschool class especially for kids who are too young (in many ways) to start kindergarten. I'm especially excited to have all three of my kiddos in school for at least part of the day (imagine all the scrapbooking I'm gonna get done!).

Gabe was excited, despite the looks of it:


By the time I dropped him off, he wouldn't even pose for a picture...

There are seven other kids in his class, including two friends by the name of Calvin and Jack. Mrs. Tunison and Miss Shannon are his teachers. (Calvin adores Gabe, can you tell? He's small for his age, Gabe is tall for his...they make the cutest pair!)

At the end of the first week, I asked Mrs. Tunison how Gabe was doing. Specifically, I asked, "Is Gabe being a good boy?".

She looked at me in disbelief, wondering what on earth would make me ask that question.

"He's great!", she said.

No reading between the lines, no apologies necessary for the behavior of my exuberant boy.

He's doing just great.

Something nice to say...

You know the old saying, 'If you don't have something nice to say, then don't say anything at all'?

Yesterday at Sunday School, my women's group went around the circle introducing ourselves with directions to "say something nice about your husband".

Talk about being put on the spot!

My "something nice" about Joe was that he always takes good care of the lawn.

Since then, I have thought of other things. (It's good to focus on the positive!)

One thing that I love about Joe is his dedication to his job. After working in management for many years, about six years ago, Joe decided to make a change. He became a substitue teacher while earning his education degree and eventually became a high school math teacher.

He works for our county's alternative school, teaching troubled youth who are at their "last resort" school before getting kicked out altogether. You can imagine how challenging this must be. Despite the challenges, I never hear Joe complain (other than about waking up so early). He goes in five days a week, nine months a year, carrying his positive outlook to school with him, trying to make a difference in these kids' lives.

I'm so proud of him! He has chosen a career which allows him to spend lots of time with his family (afternoons, holidays, summer vacations), even though it doesn't pay a lot of money. And although more money would be nice, I'd rather have it this way anyday of the week.

Next time I'm put on the spot to say something nice, I'll be prepared...I'll just refer them to this blog post :)

Now it's your turn: go on, it feels great to be nice!