School is 2 1/2 weeks away

My daughter announced at lunch today to myself and a friend that she is READY to go back to school.

SIGH!!! PAUSE!!! UGH!!!!! More sighing, more pausing.

I know I should be thrilled because it means that it'll be easy to get her to go in a couple of weeks. I know I should be thankful that she really enjoys learning. I remember being a kid and missing school by the end of the summer so I completely understand with my head. It's just my heart that kinda hurts. Why does letting go have to be so painful? Thank God it happens a little at a time.

Pictures from our Lives

Some of you have requested pictures and I've been slow to do it. So here's a few gems. The one with the flags is at the July 4th Parade here in town. The others are from our trip. The sign is a McDonald's sign that has parking for buggies too. (Definitely taken in Amish country.)

My Kids Creation

It may be hard to see what is in this picture but I promise you, it is about 300 wedding invitations from mine and my hubby's wedding 11 years ago. My kids found the box of them and had to make a village out of them. I had no idea 11 years ago that this was the fate of these extra invitations. I would have laughed had I known.

There's a story behind those invitations. We had a dear friend write out our wedding invitations for us. She has the most beautiful script, and the invitations were sure to be gorgeous. We got her copy to the printers and were told they couldn't use it. So, we just had them print them up with plain old computer script. Somehow during all the back and forth, the name of the church got left off the invitations. And like the spoiled young bride I was, I become completely unreasonable and just HAD to have them reprinted. It was suggested that I place an extra card in there with the church's name on it but that simply would not do. Hence the extra 300 invitations.

I have changed, thank you Jesus. And today I would have taken out a Sharpie (no, maybe a crayon) and added an addendum with an apology and the church's name. I might have even draw a cute smiley face too (without the nose.) :)

Here's the best part. See the big pile of paper in the center? That's a church. My kids built a church; not a house, not a store, not a school, but a church. I pray that God will always be the center of their lives. I pray that all day long. Something that once caused me so much frustration has turned into something beautiful. May my whole life be like those invitations.

Time for a Change

Guess what I did yesterday? I rearranged my living room furniture. Now to those who know me, you may be surprised that I would just change my furniture around. You KNOW I hate change. It seriously took me a couple of weeks to work up the nerve to change it, but there was a bigger factor than my fear. I am so totally cheap.

Our sofa that we've had for 11 years has begun to sag terribly in the middle. Shouldn't sofas last longer than 11 years? Please don't get me started. Anyways, when my hubby and I would watch TV, we would squish up on one end of the sofa because it was the only "high" place left. And even that spot had begun to squeak. So we began talking about new furniture, which is great but that's something I want to shop for slowly, not because I have to have something. So, we switched the love seat and the sofa's place. This is turn required us to move ALL the furniture in the room. We now have more room on the love seat than we did on the sofa. Who knew?

My son watched all this in wonder and had to ask, "Mommy, why are you doing this?" I replied, "It's what we girls do. It's what we do." My daughter got right into the fray and was barking out orders to me and her dad. And all of her suggestions were better than mine so I guess I should say that my daughter rearranged our living room furniture yesterday. It looks really good.

The Real Country

We just got back from vacation and it proved to me that we do NOT live in the REAL country. We went to Ohio to visit all my cousins, aunts, uncles, and all my extended family. It was wonderful. My parents and my younger sister went with us so we were guaranteed to have a great time.

All the animals had just had babies so we got to see baby rabbits, horse, cows, donkeys, buffalo, cats, dogs. You name it, we probably saw it. My kids had so much petting all the animals.

I know to my family, we seemed extremely busy but for me, it was such a wonderful time of slowing down and focusing on people. So much of my life sometimes feels isolated and lonely, and it was refreshing to feel welcomed and invited. Seeing old friends was like coming home. It was refreshing to remember that I do have roots of my own somewhere. I came home feeling refreshed and like I could do anything I wanted. In the every day living, I get so bogged down with the petty things that don't matter. I wish I could slip away to Ohio every couple of weeks or so and remember that life is more than just existing from one task to the next. It really was a good trip.