There is No Place like Home!

We have been at the Happiest Place on Earth for the last week, Disneyland, but oh it is so good to be home!

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind with our Cioppino Dinner, Easter and then planning and preparing for our trip. I can't believe that I haven't posted even once in April. Hopefully I will make up for that with all the pictures and stories that I have.

And the Wordless Wednesday picture was taken by the DH on the flight to my father's cabin. It was on the way home but my husband doesn't know exactly where it was! I just thought it was so cool the first time that I saw it!

Another Year Older

I am having an interesting day. I will turn 44 years old today, at 10:10am. This birthday, more so than the others, has me looking at my life; where I have been, where I am right now, and where I want to be in the future. Maybe it is the state of the country, or the state that my personal life is in, or a combination of both that just has me sitting uneasy.

One thing I am sure of is that I need to have more prayer time in my life. I need to be on my knees more, praying for my country, my state, my neighbors and my family. I am going to make it a point, everyday to pray specifically for our country and the direction that it is going in. While I all ready pray everyday, it is not the same as scheduling time specifically to pray.

I think what I see changing is that our focus as a country is no longer on God and the individual. It probably hasn't been for along time, I just haven't seen the facts so clearly before. When our great nation was founded, it was based on a belief in God and that it was God who gives us our inalienable rights. It is through God that we are given the right to life, liberty and happiness. God is the source of everything and it is through him that our country and individuals can achieve great things.

This is the fundamental change that I see happening in the country right now. People now believe that it is the government that has the power to grant them life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The government is going to be the solution for all things. Government is the only one that can solve the problems that we have now. This is very scary to me, even more so because who is in charge at the moment. The current administration is very power centered. They believe that our Government and systems need to be changed, and the biggest change, is to give the Government more power to control things. Scary, Scary, Scary!

I have been depressed about the economy and our country because I do not believe that I have the power to change anything. What can I do as a single person to effect change on such a big problem? There really isn't much that I can do, if I am only relying on myself. But that all changes if I put God in the mix. I do have the power to pray, to ask God to lead me, to show me and direct me in the way that I should go. Through him all things can be done, whether it is to help us put the country back on the right track or only to give me peace for myself and my family. Either one of these or anything in between, will be a better place for me personally.

This was not intended to be a political post! I am just feeling old and insignificant. I always thought at 44 I would know most of the answers or at least what the questions are. Maybe it was my daughter asking me a few days ago "What do you want to be when you grow up Mommy?" that made me realize that I am grown up and I still don't know what I am doing.

So, my present to myself is going to be time for myself so that I can reflect, contemplate, pray and give thanks to God for all that he has given me, all that he will give me and for direction in the way that he wants me to go.

What happened to February?

Where did February go? I can't believe that it has been three weeks since I have last posted. What have I been up to?

Well on Super Bowl Sunday I was pulled over for Drunk Driving! Luckily since I had my daughter in the truck with me, and we were returning from MASS, the Officer decided that he had been mistaken in believing that I was swerving on the road and he let me go. This did not stop my daughter from telling her preschool teacher that her mommy got pulled over for drunk driving! I had some explaining to do, both to her and my daughter.

And then somewhere during the past month, someone convinced me that I needed to read Twilight. This is normally not my type of book, but when I was at my son's book fair at school, it was there so I bought it. BIG MISTAKE! I am an addictive reader. Once I start a book, I get hooked, and nothing else matters. Before children, this was not a problem, now it is a big problem. Needless to say I have read the whole series now and I think my life will return to normal again soon, hopefully.

My husband and I have also opened our big mouths and have volunteered to do a big fund raising dinner for my son's school. Since this is a new fund raiser, no hours are available for other parents to work off. Needless to say it has been fun trying to get people to help and also to donate. I hope we are able to pull this off and make some money so our tuition will not go up next year!

And of course there is the concern about our country and where we are headed. I am trying not to get to worried about things, putting my faith in the Lord, but I can't help it. I read this post from Et Tu, who linked to East of Eden and it makes me even more worried. I keep asking myself, what can my husband and I do to ensure that we can take care of ourselves and our children if things get really bad. Number one is prayer, but we are trying to come up with a contingency plan just in case. I think that is what God would want us to do anyway.

I have also been reading my favorite blogs, in between Twilight, and keeping up with a group of babies that I have been praying for, Michaelman, Abby, Harper, Brayden, Cora and many families who have lost their babies. I can not imagine how difficult of a cross that would be to carry. I pray for all these families as they struggle to go on after such a loss. I have also been able to shed happy tears for those babies who have pulled through!

So here we are preparing for the beginning of March. I will be getting a year older in a few days and it is not what I am looking forward to. My daughter asked me this morning what I wanted to be when I grew up. It was sad to tell her that I was grown up and that I still didn't know! The main thing that I have accomplished is finding a good husband and having two beautiful children. Now I just need to figure everything else out! Maybe by the time I am twice my age!

Politics

I have to admit that I am a political junkie. I have always enjoyed watching and following politics especialy at election time. I blame this on one of my elementary school teachers. Her husband was running for District Attorney so during civics class it was always about elections. We had to cut out newspaper articles and write stories on the propositions and about candidates. We would also have mock elections in the class. I also have very found memories of my Mom taking us with her to vote. I was involved in school politics and always had some office in student government. I wish that I would be enrolled in a Civics class or a Political Science each year during election time. This year is just a little different.

Politics has gotten so mean and ugly. I can't believe that it is okay that the husband of a candidate can be mocked in a SNL skit for having incest with his children. Or when did it become okay to say that if a candidate goes to a certain state that she will be gang raped? How come the media will investigate whether one candidate is telling the truth about his torture story by going to that country and finding his torturer to see if he tells the same story. (Guess what, he said that he did not torture him, surprise, surprise) Yet there are allegations of connections to corrupt people and real estate dealings that aren't looked into for the other candidate. Am I just sensitive to my side or are things getting really nasty out there? It seems that each year things get worse and worse.

I do not see why anyone these days would want to run for public office. Governor Palin was probably perfectly happy running the State of Alaska. She was living her life and then suddenly she is given an opportunity to serve the country; and she decides to say yes. I wonder if she would have said yes if she could have seen what would happen in the next few weeks. I would never ever want to be in that position. Why would anyone?

One other thing, how come it is women who are the first to go for blood on another woman? It has been other women who have said some of the nastiest things about Sarah Palin. I wonder if it makes them feel better or if they are just jealous. It is sad that we can't just disagree with someone who has a different opinion and view without trying to degrade and tear them down. We need to pray for this country, for all politicians and the media that we can get back on the track of honesty and respect.

My crazy life!

Where has this last week gone? I am surprised to see that it has been almost a week since I last posted. What could have possibly kept me from blogging, you ask? This Crazy Little Life of Mine!

On Friday we had to pick up my husband's truck from the shop. It had been in the shop since Tuesday. It only needed a new transmission! With the cost of everything going up, the slow down in work and now an unbelievable shop bill, how much do you think I could get for the kids? I am kidding of course, but wholly smolly, what is next! It doesn't help that his truck is a diesel and diesel is over $5.00 a gallon here!

My dear husband has also decided that we need to take up The Grasshopper's lead and start exercising. He has made me get up early every single day since Saturday to go walking. This has been tough. I usually have to get up early every morning to get work done before I go to the office. This varies from 3:00am to 5:30am depending on what I need to do. So now that he wants me to walk too, it has been rough. I do have to admit that I feel less stressed at work now that I have been walking in the morning. I have to do it in the morning because if I wait to do it in the evening, it will not happen! It has helped because he is walking too. He walks the neighborhood, I walk the treadmill. If I had to get presentable to go outside, it would take even longer.

And what is up with my children? I could never get my son out of bed in the morning to go to school. He has always been my late sleeper, even as a baby. But ever since Friday morning, he has been awake before 7:00am! If I would not have pulled him out of bed on a school day, he would have probably slept until at least 9:00am! Is this normal and will it end soon? I like my mornings with no children, at least until after I have my coffee.

My son has gone back to his old babysitter this week, now that school is out. He will start summer school next week. It will have a lot of field trips and fun activities, so he is excited to go. Well, my daughter, who is usually an angel for the babysitter, has been rotten this week. She has had to have time outs and has had a terrible attitude. The babysitter thinks it's because she is jealous of her brother being there. I think it is because they have gotten out of their strict bedtime routine and they are both waking up way to early. I can't wait for school to start, summer school at least!

I will stop my ramblings so I can get some work done. Maybe by the end of the week I will have something interesting to post about. I still need to post the rest of the Family Reunion pictures and also some great pictures from the cabin trip. Hopefully the rest of the week will mellow out! I can always hope!

Baby Sparrows

Yesterday we brought our fifth wheel trailer home to clean it up in preparation for our annual family reunion camping trip on Mothers Day Weekend. After the trailer had been at our house for awhile, my husband spotted a bird nest in a vent on the side of the trailer. When I looked at it I could see two sets of tail feathers! This made me very upset.

My husband had all ready put his camper shell back on our truck and restocked it with his tools. We also needed to start cleaning it up, so it was not an option to take it back to the storage facility. I talked to my Dad, but he was out of town so he had me call my sister's friend Cheri who is the animal queen. She has lots of animals and knows how to care for them. She said that if we got the nest out, we could feed them with a dropper overnight, and then she would take them when she got into town the next day.

My sister came over to help me. We devised a plan, made a food mixture up, got a box and were set to go. I tried to get the nest out, but was afraid to hurt the birds. My sister took over and was able to start pulling it out. As she pulled out this nest, there were four baby sparrows in it! They were not tiny babies, but had a full body of feathers. As the nest came out, the sparrows were probably scared, and away they flew. Three of them flew into the big tree in our front yard. The fourth flew through a window of the trailer. It was sitting on the pillow of our bed when I went in to find it. I was able to catch it. But when I was trying to feed it, it too flew into the tree!

I put their nest into the tree and left out some food and water for them. I am hopeful that they will be okay on their own. Since they flew so well, I hope that they were ready to leave their nest. It makes me sad that they don't have their mother around to help them out. I hope that they will survive and live in our big tree in our front yard.

I wish things like this didn't bother me so much. I have worried about those four little birds all day and night. This morning as I type this I have tears coming down my face. I keep thinking about Mathew 10:29 "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them shall fall on the ground without your Father." I will have to put them in his hands and trust that he will take care of them according to his will. I did what I could, and I now have to trust.

A Non-Partisan Joke

While walking down the street one day a US Senator is tragically hit by a truck and dies. His soul arrives in Heaven, met by St. Peter at the gate.
“Welcome,” says St. Peter. “Before settling in, there’s a problem. We seldom see a high official around here and we’re not sure what to do. “No problem, just let me in,” says the Senator. “Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from higher up. You’ll have to spend one day in hell and one in heaven, and choose where to spend eternity.”
“I’ve made up my mind. I’ll take heaven,” says the Senator. “I’m sorry, we have our rules.” St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open… he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. Standing in front of the clubhouse are all his friends and politicians who had worked with him. Everyone is very happy and smiling. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people. They play a friendly game of golf, and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne. Also present is the devil, a very friendly guy having a good time dancing and telling jokes. They’re having such a good time that before he realizes it, it’s time to go. His friends give him a hearty farewell and wave while the elevator rises … up, up, up and the door reopens on Heaven where St. Peter is waiting.
“It’s time to visit heaven.” … 24 hours pass with some contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing harps and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours passed and St. Peter returns. “Well, you’ve spent a day in hell and one in heaven. Now choose your eternity.”
The Senator thinks a minute, and says: “I would never have said it before … Heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be happier in hell.”
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator … he goes down, down, down to hell. The elevator door open and he’s in a barren land covered with waste and garbage. His friends, dressed in rags, are picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.
The devil comes over and puts his arm around his shoulder. “I don’t understand,” stammers the Senator. “Yesterday there was a golf course and clubhouse here … we ate lobster, caviar; drank champagne, danced and had a great time. Now there’s just a wasteland of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?”


The devil smiles and says, “Yesterday we were campaigning … Today you voted.”

Flowers in the Yard.

Just some pretty little flowers that are growing out in the yard. They caught my attention so I thought I would try to take real flower portraits of them. This is as good as it gets.
This one isn't bad, a little blurry. This one I thought turned out pretty good. It actually looks prettier in the picture then in the yard.

This is a dainty little flower that always looks so pretty.

Oh no, where did that come from! I guess I better stop blogging and start working out in the yard. The weeds are starting to look like flowers to me!

It did photograph well though, don't you think?

Talk about it Thursday

This Christmas Cactus was given to me by my father in November of 2005. He brought me this little Christmas Cactus as a gift on Thanksgiving Day. It was only a little 6 inch plant when I got it. I have replanted it twice. It is probably the only plant that I have ever been able to keep alive. It will bloom about twice a year and it is just beautiful when it does. I give its location in my window box as the secret to its survival. I also find that it likes it when we keep the temperature a little lower in the house. It is beautiful and it makes me happy!




I did move the cactus so I could take a better picture of it with no flash. The second picture is where it usually sits in my dining room window box.

Friday

Today is Friday. The last day of the week. The day I am suppose to be off work and enjoying the day to day things that I never have time for because I have my own business. Well, it just never seems to work that way.

Take today for example. I got up at 5:30am so that I could "clean" the house before the housekeeper came! It has been three weeks since she has been here. With all the new toys that the kids got at Christmas, we had a major disaster. My DH and I had warned the kids since Monday, that any toys on the floor Thursday night would be taken away and they would not see them for a week. We should have saved our breath. I picked up two large black trash bags full of toys!

I also had to do at least five loads of laundry last night (so the housekeeper wouldn't see it overflowing both laundry baskets) and I had to get it all put away. This is not my favorite job. Doing the laundry; washing, drying and folding doesn't bother me that much. It's the putting away! I hate it.

And of course I had to go to the office just for a few minutes to get a few things done. I forgot to take in consideration that I had a 3 year old to help me! Two hours later, I have post it notes all over the front desk with highlighter on them and half of them have a staple in the middle. All the paperclips are out of the holder and the stapler is out of staples. I don't know what happened to the pen holder and the business card holder that I just filled is now empty. If I had been by myself it would have only taken me about 20 minutes. It will take me at least that long to straighten things out when I go back!

Then it was off to get the 5 year old at school, go grocery shopping, put everything away and then do dinner! I love Fridays because I don't have to work!!!!!!

Starting Out

I don't have enough craziness in my life so I guess I will add a blog to the mix. The Grasshopper has turned me on to Blogs and has convinced me that it is easy. I will give it a go so that I can document and preserve for my family our life. I hope it will be here to share for years to come.
I hope that we will all enjoy the craziness of it all!