The Fragility of Life

This week has been so difficult for me. So many reminders of how fragile life is. Reminders that my life is rarely touched by tragedy or disaster. I forget how blessed and protected I am from how life works for so many people. Even with Miguel working the job that he does, dealing with what some call the dregs of society in our county's jail, I forget that the world is not as sunshiny and cheerful as it is on my little acre here in South Florida.

In the last few weeks, I have had friends whose five year old daughter with down syndrome has been diagnosed with leukemia. A well respected family in our homeschool world whose grandchild was born at 22 weeks and went home to be with the Lord after a 10 day fight for life. A lovely missionary who've I've come to know through online chats and forums whose surprise, but most welcome, pregnancy was lost while traveling on furlough to raise money for their life's work in Mexico. And a respected college professor who I'd love to teach at the college my children would attend(whenever that happens) whose family member has been diagnosed with what will most likely be end stage cancer. Life is not all sunshine and roses, no matter how much we'd like it to be. Sometimes, I forget that.

As a Christian, it's so easy to throw out a pat answer of "God is in control", "We can't know His purposes" or "He'll get you through this." I'm not sure how I'd feel if I were the one hearing these things. All I can say is, "I'm so sorry. I'll be right here if you need me."

Tiaras and Tommy Guns

So, the other day, my youngest was terribly funny. The latest craze for my girls is to create a mess, er, a masterpiece with the art supplies. My youngest discovered that if she cut out shapes from the cereal boxes and wrapped them with aluminum foil, she could make tiaras. It was such a wonderful girly way to play and she was having such fun, I just left her to it. Admittedly, I was dreading the clean up fight.

About an hour later, she started bugging me about something as I was on my computer playing, er, doing massively important research and I tried to ignore her. Apparently, she was not fond of my ignoring her, but left. About 5 or 10 minutes later she was back. "MOM, look!" she demanded. So I turned my head to look and as I did so, she said, "you need to listen to me now or I'll shoot." Sigh...she had "built" a huge double barrel, um, GUN? out of two milk jugs taped together and decorated. Not so girly, huh?

I'm spending way too much time on that marvel called Facebook, lol...

But here's a funny to share with you. From what I understand they mine some photos for the ads that show at the side of the pages, I'm okay with that somewhat, I guess. But sometimes they just crack me up. Do they really not pay attention? Here's my latest fave:





LOL, Seriously? is that what Americans with over $10K in credit card debt look like? I sure hope not, that's just scary...

Merry Christmas!

Sorry to have fallen of the face of the Blog-world. Here's a picture to cheer you:

Merry Christmas!

I'm craving a Molten Lava cake, sigh...

I'd never had one before last Friday night, but, oh man, it was yummy. I had it at my Pampered Chef Party and I'm planning on buyting the dish to mae it in so we can have it any time we want at homme. Of course, that might EVERY day, lol. I'll have to keep the supplies on hand.

So anyway, if you need something go here and order it. Please!?! :)

Have some chocolate cake for me.

And she's back...

So last I left you, I was planning a road trip to take my children up to see my grandmother who wasn't doing well. Unfortunately, plans changed. My grandmother took a turn for the worse and things went downhill. On the day that I was to finish loading up to head out, I got a call that said to hightail it out there, Grandma was in the hospital and my step-mom, Margo, did not think she was going to make it much longer. My dad was in Colorado and was heading home as well, through a snowstorm. So the decision was made to leave my kids at home, pick up my aunt and cousin who live here in Palm Beach County and drive to Tennessee to pick up my cousin who lives there and head out to Arksansas. We drove straight through, about 22 hours, I think. We arrived at the hospital a couple of hours after my dad and about an hour before my grandmother breathed her last breath. We were so grateful to be able to be sitting with her as she left us. We spoke peace to her and prayed over her and loved her. We will miss her.

Last month, the week of her 81st birthday, we interred her with my Papa. So many family and friends came to celebrate her life with us. My grandmother loved everyone. She accepted you for who you are, even if she disagreed with your opinions (and believe me, she wasn't shy about speaking up for hers. Ask me how I know?) I will miss her. Today, she and Papa would've celebrated 61 years of marriage. I hope that they are celebrating with Jesus right now.

After my grandmother passed away, I fell deeper into a depression which I believe I had been slowly spiraling into. We've really struggled with finances, I've had some health issues, the girls have had some and Miguel is dealing with the possibility that he may have Celiac Disease. I tend to be an internalizer of emotions, this is not so good. I started taking Paxil about a month ago and life is beginning to look a bit brighter, thank goodness. I hope you all will forgive me for abandoning you for so long (I know that I don't have many followers, but I do have a faithful few and I appreciate you.) I hope to get back to my sunshiney self now.

Road Trip!!!!

My grandma has been in and out of the hospital and a rehab facility since Thanksgiving. It's been frustrating for my Dad (they are in Arkansas, and obviously, I'm not, lol) as he tries to deal with all the medical staff and decisions and etc and work full-time all the while he and my step-mom try to get a Bed and Breakfast up and running. So, I'm packing up the kids and their school books and myself and heading out to help in whatever way I can.

I'll be headed up to Jacksonville and then on to Nashville and then Bentonville (in NW Arkansas) at the end of March. I'll be there for a while, as long as necessary, anyways. I kept trying to figure out a good time to head out financially and timewise (appts and etc.) but I got a call from my cousin offering to keep the girls in Nashville while I go out there. I guess I figured that I wasn't really NEEDED, and there was always something going on down here, you know. But when she called me today, she really seemed concerned for my dad and my grandma. She has a preemie newborn and two older children in public school, so she just can't pick up and go. So, Miguel and I talked about it and the planning begins. Other than seeing my family, I hope that I get to meet up with a few of my online friends along the way, so give me a shout to let me know if you are up to lunch or coffee or whatever if you're in those areas. And pray for my sanity, k? I'm normally a "fly-by-the-seat of my pants" kinda girl, but I plan on doing school thru this one, since we don't know how long we'll be out there, so I've got some serious planning to do. Oh, and if we have to stay past the 15th of April, I'll be putting my oldest on a plane back home for testing. I don't normally test my children, but since he'll have to take standardized testing to get into college, I figured I might as well get on with it. Of course, now I'm smacking myself for not waiting one more year, but oh well! :p