Hold On Tight

Just when you, and I, thought life was settling down around here,
it happens.


The road suddenly bends;
jerking our heads as if riding an old wooden roller coaster.


We sit up,
we hold on,
we debate shooting our hands straight up to the sky,
we get ready to scream our lungs out.


More to come.

...

I am deliriously walking through at least one of my days each week.
I awake thinking of napping each day, wondering why I didn't as my heads hits the pillow.
The other six days I seem to hang in there pretty good,
alert,
awake,
and striving each day
to spend some time in the Word,
to drink less coffee than the day before,
to give thanks for the here and the now.

To live each day to it's fullest.

I tire of tiring over tomorrow
draining my energy on things not worthy of my energy.
I tire of not loving others,
of bad mouthing others in my head and too often out loud.

As Lent approaches (we are on the Orthodox calendar so Easter for us will be a week behind "traditional" Easter), I wonder what needs to go in order for me to focus more readily on the cross.
What steps can we take, can I take, to focus my mind, my heart, my life on this season of sacrifice to come.
Of this working out of my salvation?
I really enjoy reading A Holy Experience and Lord willing, if printer ink will allow, we will have a Jesus Tree as a family, aiding us in this Trail to the Tree.

Well, enough said on this lazy, overcast cool Saturday.
We will not be watching the Daytona 500, instead a cup of coffee and some Downton Abbey.

Lord, may I not tire of following you this week.

Loads of Pictures

 OK so I wanted to upload some cruise pictures before it got to be time to go on the next one.

Katie and my yummy dessert

Steve and I at the Captain's Dinner, I had no make-up- hey it's vacation

Rock climbing, no pic of me on the wall, just video of that- so much fun! My first time

Outside the Nassau library which is inside the old jail

Look ma, no hands. On the Queen's Staircase

No caption needed

Love that Swatch is making a comeback, I still have mine from the 80's

Wake up to the morning light

We hiked to the far end of the island

Then napped here

I thought the rocks looked like melting snow drifts in the spring

We were some of the last people off the island

Room service baby, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

So that's our cruise in short, in pictures.

We slept a lot but I'd love to go again, perhaps for a few more days.

Happy weekend to you all.

I No Longer Have To...

I wrote about it here.

2 Hours and 40 Minutes

Today I decided to sit in bed most of the day.
My morning was taken up with a WIC appointment,
then I ate lunch,
took a shower,
and then I grabbed the baby and crawled back into bed.


She was fussy yesterday evening,
and again before lunch today.
Sarah put her down for her nap and then when she woke up I decided this precious, little, stuffy nosed 3 month old needed some serious one-on-one for a while.


No crafting,
no painting,
no getting frustrated with finding stencils for this project,
no dishes, no laundry.


Nope. Instead I have sat here on Steve's side of the bed for the past 2 hour and 40 minutes
and
I may just sit right here again for the next 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Love that he can help on days like today

Steve had the time today (self-employment beni) to do all the school pick-ups,  so glad I home schooled for this school pick up issue alone- 3 kids in 3 schools lends to a fun time for the better part of an hour and a half.
Steve was also able to drop the kids at visitation.


It is Wednesday, their visitation day.


I gotta be honest I am a little drained internally.
With questions and concerns about more visitation for the kids with their parents and what that looks like for me I feel tired without lifting a finger.


Speaking of lifting a finger, I need to lift a leg, and arm or something.
I need to exercise, drop some pounds and get into shape.
I just can't get motivated.
Any tips on what works for you to get you motivated to exercise?


Go ahead hit me up cause I'll be sitting here with my laptop, a sleeping baby watching Dog the Bounty Hunter for the next 2 hours and 40 minutes ;)

I Think Today is Monday, but I Could be Wrong

I so wish I could write more about my day to day, 
all it's ins and outs, 
ups AND downs;


the conversations,
the funny sayings,
the frustrations.


But...
I happen to be living this day to day, these ins and outs.
I ride the ups AND downs, screaming, laughing, praying all the ride long.
I listen to conversations, with 9 of us in the house there can be a whole lot of conversation.
My 4-year-old nephew says the funniest things sometimes most of the time, that kid is gifted with words Lord may he use them for YOU.
and 
I get frustrated 
frustrated that I have horrible hair some days,
frustrated that no matter how many dishes I do there are always more to do,
frustrated that my thighs are revolting against my shorts,
frustrated that I am having to 
live with, 
deal with 
and "parent" the aftermath of others stupid decisions.
Frustrated that there is not enough $ in the budget or time in the day to surf Pinterest and do ALL the fun projects I see and bake ALL the yummy stuff I see.


However, never fear...
I did get a chance to sit down tonight to type this, and add some fun fonts I might add,
all this even though...
I'd much rather be working on this Pinterest project I did seem to find the time to start.


But as for those days I want to journal...


I am thrilled that my mornings always start hopefully on a really good day start with this:

And I am super blessed to have this precious little lady sprinkled throughout my whole day:

So until I blog again, most likely in a few days, you can find me taxing around in my '99 Deville, trying to soften these dry, wrinkled hands and feed the family convince Sarah to feed the family healthy all along the way. 

Peace to you all

and 

do the hard thing: love someone you'd rather tell off,