Snapshot Thursday

What's at the top of my to-do list?
--Make a meal for a family in the parish whose dad has a brain tumor. He's a young father of two boys. It's so sad.
--Gear up for the weekend...Ted will be gone on retreat all weekend.*Lookofpanic*. No really, I'm actually feeling good right now and I'm not too worried about it.
--Catch up on mounds of laundry

What have I accomplished?
--I cleared off my kitchen counter! You don't understand how that is a big feat in and of itself.
--I finally made an appointment for Sam's dental cleaning. We had canceled it and then I had to jump through hoops to get it rescheduled because all the good times were taken! I'm now doing it on his spring break in APRIL!!! They're not open on Saturdays at our location and they only have one late day til 6pm. Argghhh.
--Ted did our income tax returns. It's frustrating that 1/3 of it is going towards bills. But I guess I should be looking at the fact that the glass is 2/3 full.
--Got the ball rolling on moving my 401K account into education oriented funds and an IRA. Still waiting to receive the paperwork in the mail.
--Made a commitment to regular, daily prayer time.
--Signed up Abby for softball.

What's bugging me?
--Mary is climbing on EVERYTHING! She will climb on my counter height chairs, and THEN will climb to the counter and WALK AROUND! Ahhhh!!! She's done this on my table too! Luckily, it's usually when I'm in the room, so I can get her down right away. At my sisters house last night, she climbed on her table, dumped my nephew's spaghetti and spilled a soda drenching herself.
--There are little girl's dress up heels sitting in the corner of the kitchen, and have been for a couple of weeks now because I'm too lazy to make a trip downstairs.
--Leaky diapers. It seems like my kids are leaking easily through the night and sometimes during the day. Ben had a diaper that leaked and hopped on my bed. It drenched my covers and went through to the mattress. YUCK. Are they drinking more? Do I need bigger sizes? Ben is already a 5 and Mary is a 3. Maybe it's time to move Mary up at least.

What have I said I was going to do but I haven't?
Man...there are so many things. I felt like I needed to put this in here because sometimes I can be a lot of hot air. I say I'm going to do something and then I lose steam. I'll pick one thing.
--I don't eat as healthy as I pledged to last fall. Although, I had an orange the other day and it was such a positive experience, I think I'm going to eat more of those! I am cooking more so you naturally get more veggies and a well rounded meal when you cook. I just know I still don't get enough fruits or veggies.

What's my latest obsession?
--Having a regular prayer time. I hope this lasts through my "fad" speed of going through things. I really want this to be a habit....always. So far it's working to stop everything at 10pm, get ready for bed, read "The Purpose Driven Life", pray, and chat with Ted before going to sleep. I really love having time to assess my day at the end of it and connect with God.

What's been making me happy?
--After two rounds of antibiotics, Mary is finally cleared of her ear infection! Yaahhh!
--The kids are getting easier. Now that everyone is feeling better, the mood in the house is SO much better. No more ear infection clinginess. Thank God! This makes all the difference to me. When I have more happy moments, it gives me a chance to be hopeful. When I'm swamped with needs...I don't feel the hope that things are going to get better. I'm just sucked into the moment and don't see a way out.
--I really got some great things out of my retreat. I drew a person to pray for and I have all her needs written down. I've sent her a card and told her how I would be praying for her. Doing stuff like this makes me happy. I have an assignment and it's do-able. It's one person. I'm not overwhelmed by one person to pray for. It's also nice to know there is a person who is only praying for me.
Also, we each received a booklet outlining ways each person prays. Where, when, how...etc. All questions we answered were nicely put in a little booklet and now we each have all of these new ideas of how to pray! It's so cool. We had one-on-one reconciliation with each other, we watched a video "guest speaker" on humility, we each took a turn in the "hot seat" while we prayed for each person's needs...and much more. It was just a great retreat...with great ideas.

The other day my hairdresser friend called and told me how she was moving to a new salon. This girl is Catholic, sends her kids to Catholic school, but doesn't necessarily fit the "mold". She cusses like a sailor, and can definitely make me feel like I would never want her mad at me...but somehow, she still knows that she needs God and isn't afraid to talk about it. She called me and told me all the theatrics that happened when she was "kicked out" of her salon (let's just say the cops came). Anyway, she was "talking to God" on the way to checking out a salon and just said to Him, "God, if this is where you want me to be...just give me a sign". She knew this salon because it was owned by a person she worked with about 10 years ago. Her friend was showing her the itty bitty place she could be working at. She approached the breakroom that was the size of a bathroom and said, "Now, don't think we are Holy Rollers or anything...". She opened the door and before her was a prayer wall filled with intentions from the beauticians and even some customers! My friend looked around in amazement as she read the needs. She felt this was her sign. She was meant to be here. How cool it would be to work with people like this!

When she told me this story, I thought about it a bit. Sometimes I feel like this blog is opening the door to my private "break room". Anyone can see my needs and what I'm working on. I feel like saying, "Don't think I'm a Holy Roller or anything!". I'm not! I'm just like anybody else with flaws. I just try to compensate for them through my faith. I don't push it on anyone. I'm more vocal here because you have a choice to read or not. I just want to be myself...and be honest. I don't want to temper what I say because of fear ofjudgmentt. So...welcome to my breakroom! Your still here...thank you for being here.