Merry Christmas!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! I hope that everyone has a joyous and happy Christmas. I will be soaking up the love of my children, enjoying the company of the rest of my family and friends, and remembering my mom.

Miss Me?

Yes, it has been a while since my last post. I know, being busy is no excuse. We are all busy this time of year. Not only with Christmas preparations and parties, but also with year end deadlines and extra work.
It can all become overwhelming if we let it. As I always say, it's a matter of perspective. If I choose to let everything feel like a hassle and a burden to me, then I will get stressed out and inevitably cause myself to have another anxiety attack. But, should I choose to enjoy this once a year frivolity, count my blessings, love my family, and just be happy, then all is well.

On another note, Eric and I have been dreaming of a house that came up for sale in our neighborhood, and were told that they had an accepted offer. Then this morning, the realtor called to tell us that the deal was likely to fall through and the house would soon be back on the market. Now we are in a dilema. We just refinanced our house, and are basically at our limit with monthly payments. We would love to buy this other house, as it has lots of potential, but we would have to sell our house first. That may be difficult as we have not listed it for sale, and many houses these days stay on the market for years. If we tried to buy the house with the hope of selling ours, we may have a big problem if it takes any time at all to get ours sold. What to do, what to do... Any suggestions?

Winter...Brrrrrrr

It's that time of year again. It comes every year just like clockwork. WINTER. It's cold, it's dark, it's dreary, and usually it's wet.
YUK!

The Writing Game

Well, I haven't made much progress on my NaNoWriMo project. It seems, as usual, that the extra time to work on it escapes me. Every time I think I will have a chance to do some writing, something comes up. Not surprising with everything that is going on in my life, but the effect is still the same. No more words to add to my word count. I am now devastaingly behind with no opportunities in sight to recover. Oh well. Even if I don't finish it in a month, which is a daunting task in itself, I will have a decent start on it. Which is considerably more that I had before.

It's all a matter of perspective, as I always say. And today, my perspective is that I have a decent start to my novel, and I know when I do get a chance to write, the words seem to flow out of my mind freely. The story seems to unfold and write itself. That is encouraging.

Lots to do!

So, since it is now November, there will be more stuff to do than time in the day. Efficiency is the word of the day. Between birthdays and Thanksgiving, then Christmas, the days will be filled with stuff to do, places to go, and things to remember. I just hope I don't stop one day and think, "Am I supposed to be somewhere right now?", because I'm afraid I will forget something!

Chase is in preschool this year (September birthday) and they are having a pajama party tomorrow. He is so excited that he has actually packed a bag to take with him as if he were staying the night there! He has told everyone that he comes in contact with about the party, so look out if you call our house! He races me to the phone these days!!

Halloween is coming quickly!

Well, it is that time of year again! The kids are picking out who they want to be for Halloween. Parents are trying to find the costumes, buying candy, decorating the house and yard. Ah, the good ole days!
I remember getting so excited about Halloween when I was young. Now, I have to say, it is my least favorite holiday. I really don't like gross, icky, nasty stuff, and that seems to be what Halloween is for lots of adults. I don't like those movies, or anything related to yukky-ness.
So, needless to say, I will be relieved when this holiday is over. On to the next one, Thanksgiving. And honestly, who wouldn't enjoy a holiday that you just get together with people you care about, spend time, eat good food.
Then there is the famous Black Friday shopping the next morning to burn off all those extra calories you took in. I personally have never been able to go and partake in the frenzy, but I hear it can be very fun (if you don't take it too seriously). I have also heard stories of people getting in fist fights over toys (ridiculous! but possibly interesting to observe the behavior).
It's amazing how fast the year has passed by! I can hardly believe that Thursday will be November !! It seems the longer we're here, the faster time goes!

Finally, New photos of the kids!

Yes, it is long overdue! I finally got new professional pictures taken of the boys. They are very cute!! And I am not being at all prejudiced! We got a few indoor and a few outdoor photos taken. The photographer sent us home with a CD of the pictures to decide what we want to order. So anyone who is family or friends, and would like to see the pictures, send me an email and I'll get them to you.

November is National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo, for short. There is a website to sign up, FREE of course, and people try to write a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November! It sounds like fun. I've never tried it before, but I am considering it this year. We'll see. If anyone else is interested in the writing frenzy, you can check it out at www.nanowrimo.org . If you decide to give it a try, I wish you the best of luck!

Reconnecting with God

These past 4 years, I have been fighting a battle in my head and my heart. Life has changed so drastically from what I imagined it would be like at this point. Mainly due to the loss of Mom. She was the center of our family, and the binding that kept us together and connected as a whole. Not to mention that I loved her dearly, and miss her everyday. Every time the kids are doing something adorable, loving or just plain cute, I think of how much she missed since her life was ended too soon to experience them. Now I'm just rambling, so I'll move on.

I've had many a conversation with God about Mom. Never questioning "why", just expressing my trouble in dealing with her absence. While I never got a divine message in a vision, or heard the voice of God speaking to me, I know He was always listening and comforting my heart.

In the past few months, I really felt a need to go back to church, which is obviously His plan. So, after some reluctance, I did go one Sunday. Took the kids. As the preacher was talking, I knew that God meant for me to hear those words. It was exactly what I needed, and it seemed as though the sermon was being told just for me. Who knows, maybe the sermon that everyone else there heard was not the same one that fell on my ears. What I know is this, God spoke to me that day, and the weight I had been carrying for the past several years got a little lighter.

Then, of course, life got in the way and I missed a few Sundays. The pull on my heart came again, and I knew not to ignore it. So, back to church I went. And again, God spoke to me, but not in the sermon this time. He chose to give me His message through a prayer for someone else. Yes, we were praying for someone else, but the message behind it was going straight to my heart. As I am sure it was meant to.

As the pain in my heart is slowly eased by Him, He is replacing it with the desire to learn, live and understand His Word. I have been drawn to read the Bible more, talk more to people about God, and to learn about what the Bible tells us. I also want to try harder to live a life according to His instruction.

The bottom line is, I have to accept that only He can give me the peace I am looking for. I cannot make it for myself. And I will find that peace only through Him and living the Word of God.

Gonna work on it.

Patience is a virtue

As we work to build our new Stretch-n -Grow business, we find that the old addage is true. Patience is indeed a virtue. We began regular weekly classes last month at our first school, and today we were informed that they will be discontinuing their participation temporarily. As their enrollment has dropped off since the start of school, their revenue has also dropped. They maintain that they love the program, and so do the kids; and they will resume as soon as they build their cashflow back up. It's sad for two reasons: 1. The kids there were just starting to get into the program and follow along well, and 2. That cuts out income for our business.

On the bright side, we will begin classes at a new school next week. This will be a parent paid program, so the money will be a little different. Potentially much better, but the risk of low enrollment is there, too. Which means low income since we will be paid by the parents for each child.

It takes time and money to start a new business. It also takes a bit of determination. I just hope we can keep ourselves optimistic during the slow times.

Party!

Yes, that's right! We had a birthday party for Chase over the weekend. We rented an inflatable moonwalk that looked like a castle. All his cousins were there along with his neighborhood friends. We cooked out hamburgers and hot dogs. It was a very nice day with everyone.

Diana and Bill have officially moved back up here. They made it in yesterday with the big moving truck, and unloaded some of their possessions. I'm sure they are both very relieved, yet exhausted. Moving is not only a physically trying time, but also emotionally demanding. The boys will both be happy to have them here full time.

Here We Go!

I'm off to another fun-filled day with Stretch-n-Grow stars! Today I may be teaching the class by myself. This would be fine with any other class, but today's class is a very young class. Not to mention there is one little fellow who loves to climb up the bookshelves and run out of the room during class. He's a slight challenge.

Well, as Arnold Schwartzenegger learned in Kindergarten Cop, kids smell fear and they will eat you alive. So, it's time to put on my authoritative, yet fun, face and get to it!

Stretch-n-Grow!!

As many of you know, my sister, Bobbi, and I now own & operate a business called Stretch-n-Grow. It is a fitness and wellness program for kids, geared mainly toward 3-5 year olds. We have both been working diligently to get it going, and if all goes well our efforts will have paid off soon.

As of last week, one of the daycare centers we are working with may be signing up for 32 classes a month!! Yes, you read that right...32!! That, in addition to the other classes on the books, is a very good thing. It will be physically demanding on the two of us for a while, but well worth it. One of the positive side effects of the job is that we will probably lose all that left over baby fat!! (Always look for the good in things!)

We Have Moved!

Welcome to my new and improved blog. I hope everyone found it easily. The web address is just a little different, but still easy to remember. I did change the title, as you probably noticed. I felt since I am the only person in my family that actually uses this blog, that this is a more accurate name for it.

Keep visiting! I am making an effort to post regularly!