good day

it's been a good day. 
slept in (after being awake many hours of the morning). 
worked.
relaxed.
made dinner.
made cookies. 
prayed and talked with my husband. 
checked something off my never-ending to do list. 
now off to bed to read.
sweet dreams...

goodnight.
here's to another good day tomorrow!

good morning!

Inevitably, Monday mornings always come too quickly. Six a.m. feels like the middle of the night. And the week ahead looks eery and long.

BUT, not this morning! (Granted, I am sitting by the fire and I suppose I would enjoy a nice snooze...who wouldn't?).

It was a wonderful weekend, full of food. Family. Friends. Much needed time with my husband just relaxing, chatting and enjoying our moments together. It was long. It felt long! And it was good.

The week ahead looks good. Not too busy. Plans to clean and do some organizing. Finish up a few crafty projects. Maybe check off the last few Christmas shopping items. And end the week with John moving one year closer to 30!

On another note...I 'requested an invite' to pinterest. And then I got an email saying that I would receive an invite soon. Well, I figured it would be a couple of minutes, but who knew it would be over 24 hours?! Now that actually decided to sign up (I've strangely been holding off), I'm all antsy and excited and I have to wait :) I can't wait to start browsing, pinning and organizing all sorts of things I don't know exist!

Pray you all have a God-filled week. This is a bridge in a new favorite song that keeps running through my head...

Heal my heart and make it clean,
Open up my eyes the the things unseen,
Show me how to loved like you have loved me.
Break my heart for what breaks yours,
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause,
As I walk from here into eternity.

The Mona saga...

So, I started out a bit depressing in that last post. Sorry. I suppose I should elaborate. Mona has created quite the drama the past couple of weeks and has enveloped all our efforts, mentally, emotionally and physically. She was sick for a week, and then proceeded to poop a baby sock. Yay, problem solved, right? Wrong. Still sick and then threw up an adult ankle sock. Oh good, now we don't need to worry, right? Nope. Then she stopped eating and drinking. We had been communicating with the vet the whole week and finally decided it was time to get an x-ray. The x-ray didn't show anything, but she was not getting any better. After waiting another 24 hours and no good news to report, we decided to let the vet do surgery. So Mona was spayed and a third sock was removed from her small intestine. Oh man, it was stressful. Thankfully, not as expensive as it could have been. And now she is pretty much fully recovered without any complications. If only she knew that it was the sock that made her so sick. on top of all that life has just been super stressful and full for John with work and school. And we ended up canceling our thanksgiving travel plans which was disappointing. But all is well now. John will be done with school in two weeks or less and Christmas is on it's way! I keep saying that I am looking forward to when things slow down a bit, but I think I need to start telling myself that this is life, and it doesn't slow down...I just need to learn to run faster so I can keep up and enjoy the pace without losing my breath so easily!

A renewed spirit...

I find it interesting that it is so easy for me to turn around and be so happy, so content, so 'thankful' just because we have declared a day of food and thanks - When just a few days before I was having a hard time finding anything to rejoice in. Bad emotion, stress and frustration can so easily take over and stick around without even trying and it's presence is starting to get old. I received a sweet little note from a friend that ever so kindly kicked me in the butt (without that intention from the author I'm sure) that reminded me to rejoice. I honestly think that I had completely abandoned that thought, convinced myself that I didn't have much to be praising God for, when in fact - the opposite is true. And so today (and with much effort, many days to come) I am rejoicing. And let me tell you, it feels good! The Lord has blessed me and my family with so many things. I am never in need, and haven't been in need of things to survive...much is always provided. He gives good. good. And I can see it everywhere. I am joyfully giving thanks and pray that I don't just sit around and passively wait for the stress to disappear and the melancholy to settle, but that I aggressively move, make changes and open my eyes to the good. Happy thanksgiving everyone! Here's to rejoicing and praising God for His grace and presence in our lives.

Ouch

John discovered a three inch cut on the top of his head yesterday morning. When did that happen? what is it from? Well - your guess is as good as mine! He can't remember and has no idea what happened. What is happening to us in our old age?! :)

where have we been?

we have been buried.  john's school has taken over the evenings.  he is almost done with the semester and we are quite looking forward to the holiday break.  yes! that's right...WE.  i have struggled with giving him the time he needs to finish his work each week and i am continually trying to adjust to keeping mona and myself busy while he studies.  this has proven to be hard after waiting all day for him to get home :)  thankfully, he is patient with me.

we also have been buried with mona.  who knew that adopting a pet would be just like stepping on a roller coaster.  she has had me worried and upset all too often.  if she would just quit eating stuff!  two weeks ago it was a sock that messed her up pretty bad, then last week it was worms (she had worms...she didn't eat them), and this week she caught some kind of bug and has not been herself.  is it sad that i long for the days when she is older, calm and lazy? :)

i went away last weekend with my mom and the porchicas.  it was a wonderfully long weekend full of craftiness and laziness.  can i tell you hard it has been to get back in the swing of things!  it was so worth it though.

christmas is coming...i'm going to be ahead this year.  i've already started!

i will post more often, at least that's what i keep telling myself...how else will i remember what these years were like?  i've quit scrapbooking - but i'm starting to filter through some ideas to keep pictures more organized and printed.  ready to finger through at any time.  i haven't quite figured out what i want to do but a couple options are the year by year books that you can print, or a digital scrapbook, etc...if you have any ideas, i would love to hear!