grateful...

Be Grateful for good music,

for dark chocolate,

for a place to call home,

for warm hugs,

for quiet time,

freedom to dream,

for family time,

for understanding souls,

for kindred spirits,

for true forgiveness,

for sweet memories,

for pink bubblegum,

for silliness,

for red shoes,

for blue skies,

for every breath,

for sunshine on your face,

for a child's laughter,

for God's grace

--Bonnie Jensen

When I read this it touched me...

so absolutly true!

Enjoy

a new attitude...

A new attitude, to go along with a new day. Do you ever think about how self defeating our own attitudes are? Mine was well pretty self defeating as of late. But today I woke up with a can-do attitude rather than the opposite, and well I think it worked. I feel much better today. I got a lot done today, and accomplishing things always gives me piece of mind! Thank you mom for watching Meritt today so I could work without interruption! Thank you Lila, Gail, and Sarah for being such loyal troopers! Thank you Lori for your sweet note, and prayer... (I told you it works!) Everyday is a new one full of endless possibilities... and really it's up to our own attitudes as to what will happen with the day, and it's possibilities!

do you ever feel...

...good at nothing?
Unable to balance it all? I love this time of year for it's weather, and loveliness. I hate this time of year for it's absolute chaos it brings to my life. School starts, summer ends, the shop is absolute madness; there are always more to do's than time. I hate that feeling.

For the most part I've done pretty well keeping my head above water, but today... I feel good at nothing. I feel like the worst mother on the planet, and well, is there anything worse than that? Both girls were pretty much unglued from get go today. To make things worse... it couldn't be one of those days that I went at their pace. It was one of those days they had to go at my pace. My pace you ask??? What's that? That would be the pace of a chicken with her head cut off. Clucking around trying to find it. We've got a huge event at the store this weekend, and still TONS of inventory that we are trying to muck through. I had an appointment with a sales rep, and a schedule to make. In the midst, guess what I forgot? My eldest daughter at school. My heart sinks. I was there 15 minutes late, she was the last kid standing, and there were tears in her eyes. I bought her a brownie... it was the least I could do. Then more work, and Open House Night at school. Didn't have time to feed them dinner first, so we went unfed. BIG MISTAKE. Never take unfed, tired, cranky kids anywhere... EVER. After we went to dinner; also a BIG MISTAKE because by this point no amount of food would have solved our problems.

I lectured them the whole way home on how bad they acted, how disappointed I was, and how I may never take them out into public again. I think I should have listened to my own lecture, or had gotten one of my own....
It should have gone something like this: YOU ACTED LIKE A BAD MOTHER, I AM SO DISAPPOINTED IN YOU THAT YOU DIDN'T HAVE THE SENSE GOD GAVE YOU TO KNOW YOUR CHILDREN COULDN'T HANDLE ANYMORE TODAY. YOU MAY NEVER BE ALLOWED TO MAKE DECISIONS ON WHEN YOUR KIDS CAN GO OUT INTO PUBLIC PLACES AGAIN... GET A GRIP LADY.

When will I ever learn?
When will I ever learn my own limits?
When will I ever learn my kids limits?
When will this week be over?
When oh when can life get back on a routine?

I need prayer.
Seriously.
Don't laugh...
I am serious.
It works you know...

It should probably start something like this: God please give me the strength and grace to get me through this week........... I am in your hands... Please forgive me for being such a rotten mama, please help me be a better mama tomorrow..............

Thank goodness tomorrow's a new day!
With blank pages, and endless possibility!

my big first grader...

I'm a little late with this... like a week and some change late, but better late than never right??!! Here she is, my BIG first grader, Miss Bella! So far she's loving school. She has a great bunch of friends, and has handled the transition pretty well! (other than being very hungry & tired by the end of the day) As for me, maybe it's a good thing I've been so busy, because I haven't had time for it to soak in that she is now a big kid... I couldn't be prouder of her. She is smart, witty, funny, loving, sweet, sassy, and she tries with all of her might, and I appreciate that about her! It's pretty weird for her to be gone from us all day, but she's so happy, it's hard to not be happy for her!

what's been happening...

Last week, I made a big mistake... I posted that I thought all the craziness was on the decline. Boy was I wrong! While we were getting Bella ready to go to her very first day of first grade the phone rang. It was my best friends husband. It was only 7:45 in the morning, my first thought... why is he calling me so early? My next thought, oh my gosh........... "IS SHE IN LABOR!" Yes, they were in the hospital, and I was to get moving in that direction. The adrenaline definitely started to bubble! We got Bella off to school, made arrangements for Meritt, and off I went up to Salem to the hospital, to be there for Kelli as she had her first baby.

It was no run of the mill labor and delivery. That's for sure. She ended up being rushed in for an emergency c-section. Shortly after the baby (Anibelle Jean - 7lbs 1oz - 17 3/4") was taken to the NICU, and Kelli to the Cardiology unit after complications with her heart. It was scary, it was horrible, there is nothing worse than the helpless feelings that you feel when someone you love is in danger in this way. Luckily they both recovered well, and are now at home working on getting to know each other and learn to nurse. I am so happy for them. She is a doll!!!

Hopefully soon, I will post some pictures of baby Anibelle, Bella's first day of the first grade, and some of the other things we've been up to! It will just be a little later than I thought! Life is just crazy sometimes isn't it?!

better together...

Everything is better when we're together.... even after all these years! You're still my favorite. I love you more and more every year. Happy nine years honey! Love You. XOXOXOXOXOXO

just keep swimming...

So it's kind of a running joke around our house that I call my mom and Matt "Dori Fish"... (if you've watched Nemo you'll get this, if not skip this post:)!) Anyway I'm not going to go into great detail on why they have acquired this nickname, but let's just say, they're well.... a bit forgetful. So, when things get a bit stressful at the shop Mom and I always sing to each other "Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming..." For some reason it just makes us feel better.

The last few weeks has been hectic. Especially at the shop. I exaggerate not when I say we have gotten hundreds of boxes just in the past couple of weeks. We usually close the shop this time of year and completely re-do the shop for fall, but we are going at things from a new angle these days, and are changing the way we've done things in an attempt to make things run as smooth as possible. (if that is even a possibility) Finally today I think we're finally on top of things; at home and at the shop! YEAH... it feels so good. Maybe the coming week won't be quite as hairy??!!! The garage sale that we are having this coming weekend is 89% organized. The attic is completely cleaned out and organized. The girls closets are cleaned out, re-organized and switched from summer to fall. The house is clean-ish. The shop is set for fall; two new front windows, brand new racks of steamed, beautiful fall fashions, all the displays are changed, and cleaned, all the sale stuff has been inventoried and put away (hallelujah, and the angels sing), the back rooms are clean and organized-ish (and we'll be even better after Tuesday when Sarah comes), and the other shop to-do's on my list are DONE! WooHoo. School shopping was done online this year... and school supplies bought months ahead. I almost made that too easy... almost. It should be smooth sailing from here! (I hope!)
Just Keep Swimming, Swimming, Swimming!
I just keep singing that song!
For today, I feel I may just be on top of things... Just maybe.

"By all these lovely tokens

September days are here,

With summer’s best of weather

And autumn’s best of cheer."

- Helen Hunt Jackson, September, 1830-1885

Can hardly believe that September is here... do you know what that means? In one week I will have a first grader. Oh, my. Be still my heart. When did she grow so big? When did summer fade? How does this time of year always go so fast? There's few more days of summer, and then we're back at the routine of school. It's going to be very weird for a while without Miss B. here all day. I wonder if Meritt and I will be lost for a while, or fall right into our own routine?

It's been a while since I've "blogged". Life seems to get so busy this time of year. Maybe Meritt and my new fall routine will let me blog a little more often. For now, there is 3 more days of swimming lessons, a shop to fill with pretty fall things, a three day weekend to enjoy, a garage sale to prepare for, a house to clean, a garden to tend to, and a kiddo to get ready for her first day in the 1st grade. Oh, my. Oh, my. That's all I can say!