GIVE

Give.

"to offer to the action of another".

My One Little Word (thank you, Ali Edwards) for 2015.

My goal for the year ahead is to give more of myself.  More time, more money, more love, more service.  With a kind heart and good intentions.  My bigger goal is to help my family learn to do the same.

There is power in giving.

Yes, you might earn credits for community service (the kids will need that for college applications).  You will probably get that warm fuzzy feeling from helping someone else.

But most importantly?  You will make the world a better place, one giving act at a time. 

I have three children watching my every move.  If I can instill in them the power of a giving heart and its potential effect on those around them?  I will be able to call it a job well done.

Have you ever chosen One Little Word to focus on for the year?

Almost a wrap.

2014 is coming quickly to a close.  Another year, a lot of memories, kids growing up before our very eyes.

Gabe is now a fourth grader.  Learning multiplication and long division and reading Hardy Boys mysteries.

Isabel is fifteen.  The age I told her she could color her hair and date boys.  (What was I thinking?!)

Elijah is sixteen.  Driving.  Working.  A junior in high school, thinking about colleges and careers and moving out of state.

Um, if you go back to the beginning of this blog, (seven years ago), you would see this:

And now, we look like this:

Yes, it's a cliche, but seriously, where does the time go?  Sigh...I love watching them grow up, and I do look forward to seeing what they become, but I am really going to miss these years having them all under my roof and within a hug's reach.  If the past seven years went that fast, I can't imagine what the next seven are going to do.

Thank you, Angie Wells, for inspiring me to blog again.  It's been too long, and I hope you follow through and make a blog of your own.  Joe and I dream of moving to Tennessee someday, but for now, we will be happy to live vicariously through you :)

Summer's over already?!

Seems like just yesterday, it was June and we were here, in Michigan, kicking off the summer with a great family vacation.

And now it's nearly fall (my most favorite season ever).  It was a fabulous summer; not too hot, lots to do with every one of us healthy and happy and able to swim, go to amusement parks, hang out with friends, oh, and work (well, Joe and I worked, the kids played).

I'm getting ready to have a milestone birthday next month...the big 4-0.  And you know what?  It doesn't even phase me.  Maybe it's because I talk to people in their 80's and 90's every day for my job, but 40 still sounds really young.  Maybe it's because life is good right here where I am, and I am trying to soak up every minute (even the sassy teen moments, and the fighting-with-Gabe-to-do-his-homework moments; yes, even those).  But seriously, look at how precious time is and how fast it goes.  When I started blogging, Gabe was just turning three and Isabel and Elijah were little grade-schoolers.  Look at that photo again...those kids are huge!  I'm so glad I blogged my way through those crazy years, and even though I'm not here often, I still love reading other blogs and watching time pass by through their lives, too.

I have good intentions about a "turning 40" post, complete with pictures from our trip we have planned.  Stay tuned!

Moments

It's so funny to me the moments in our kids' lives that we cherish, they view in a completely different light.

Last week, Elijah accepted an award for Student of the Quarter of his freshman class.  What an honor, right?

Well, unless you're a fourteen-year-old boy who dreads the thought of getting up in front of an auditorium full of people to accept an award for being, gasp, a good student!  How horrifying...

Horrifying for him (though secretly I'm pretty sure he was a little bit glad), but awesome for his family.  Hearing praise from his teachers, watching him shake the hands of the school administrators, quickly wiping a tear from my cheek before I completely embarrassed him...it was a pretty amazing evening for this proud momma.

Good thing he wouldn't even dream of reading this blog; he'll never even know I told you guys about this!

Off to a great start

2012...the year I lost the weight I wanted to lose, gained the job I wanted to get, and kept on cherishing the family I was always meant to have...

Still crazy about this guy, even after sixteen years!

Joe (38), Elijah (14), Gabe (8), Isabel (13), Me (39)

I am over-the-moon in love with this season of my life.  The kids are doing great in school and are so much fun to be with.  Joe and I are enjoying each other and the free time we find while the kids are with friends or in school.  I am busy learning a new job, and within the next month, I will be working from home, helping Humana Medicare members manage their health and stay out of the hospital as much as possible.  I miss blogging as much as I used to, but I am glad to keep in touch with so many of my blog friends through Instagram, Facebook and even Goodreads (where would we be without technology these days?!).

Here's to a fabulous and even better 2013, for all of us!!

A different kind of nurse

I started this journey twenty years ago, when at the age of eighteen I walked through the halls of The Christ Hospital School of Nursing and signed up to learn the art of being a nurse.  Two years later, cap and diploma in hand, I graduated and entered the world of critical care nursing.

I have worked in five different ICU's, labor and delivery, floated throughout the hospital and worked on just about every unit there was (except the operating room and the nursery).  For the past three years, I have been the nursing supervisor over the entire hospital, walking those halls night and day, ensuring the safety of the staff and the patients within those many walls.

And now the time has come for a change.  My kids are grown.  I'm tired of working night shifts, and spending weekends and holidays away from my family.  I'm tired of the politics I see each and every day.  I'm tired of being caught in the middle, trying to do what's right but being told not to in the name of the budget.

A new opportunity has come my way.  The chance to work with patients again in a case-management setting, via telephone, from the comfort of my own home.  Yes, I will be working forty hours a week, which I haven't done in ages.  But I will be at home!  Traffic jams, bad weather, wardrobe malfunctions...they won't affect me.

I have five more shifts left at the hospital.  It is bittersweet.  I will miss the friends I have made there over the years, especially the many people I have met as a supervisor.  I will not, however, miss the ever-increasing stress of the job.

The best thing about nursing is the opportunity to do so many different things with your degree.  There is no reason to get burnt out...get out and move on.  That's what I'm doing...and I can't wait!

Sixteen years and counting

October is a great month in so many ways.  The cooler temperatures, the gorgeous colors, the ability to wear boots with every outfit...

We have lots of reasons to love October this year.  Our 16th wedding anniversary, our family cruise vacation coming up, my last-year-in-my-thirties-birthday, a booming photography business with lots of photo shoots scheduled during the month.  I am loving October of 2012 so far, and we're only four days in!

Joe and I kicked off our celebrations with a day trip to Caesar Creek State Park, hiking and taking pictures and being silly together.  I love that we can still have so much fun, probably even more fun than we had while dating.  We are so comfortable with each other; even when we get on each other's nerves, we know that we are in this for the long haul and we learn to just get over it.  As his beard gets grayer, and my hair requires more frequent coloring to hide my own grays, I hope that we have even better days ahead.

Happy anniversary, honey.  I love you like crazy, even when you leave your dirty laundry on the floor :)