Babies, Brownies and Blessings

...will himself be refreshed. An excerpt from Proverbs that has been bouncing around in my head since I read it. It's so contrary to the common approach to life which sounds more like he who is refreshed will then refresh others. Are we missing the point? With a self-focus and what-about-me attitude we have it all wrong. It explains why so many of us feel empty. Our quest for the ever illusive "more time" we end up pulling away from everything. More time equals less refreshement, loneliness and discontent because we are searching for our answer in the wrong place. We are doing the opposite of what we should be when we isolate and protect our time for me. Instead it suggests there is refreshment in offering yourself, encouragement in encouraging others. The context of this passage is important lest we think it's telling us to drain ourselves completely and have no boundaries. One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly but com...

I stumbled across the following post on DesignMom and can't get it out of my head. She is talking about Work/Life/Family Balance and addresses several really great ideals many of us have. I was stunned at #4. Multi-tasking has been my mantra for... ever. It's something I have a little pride about as I think I'm pretty darn good at doing 3-4 things at once. Reading this got me second-guessing the value I have placed on getting several things done simultaneously and exposed the possibility that I may not be doing things as well as I could. Oh the changes this could bring. Below is an excerpt of her post. I did not write any of it, it is a direct quote. Follow the link above to read the complete posting. 1) Doing it all is a myth. Doing what you love is the goal. #WorkLifeBalance No one is doing it all. If it looks like they are, it’s a mirage. On days where my blog is really good, that means I spent a lot of time on it and had to let something else go. Usually it’...

...this is your brain on drugs. Any questions? Remember that ad? It was a huge thing when I was in school, probaby won't ever forget it. Lately I've been wondering if this is my brain. Wouldn't be from drugs, as I never dabbled in that stuff. But I'm thinking it's from babies. Seriously! A bra size isn't the only thing I lost with each baby. Some days I can't even put a complete sentence together. Or remember where I need to be and when. I missed both enrollement night and meet the teacher night for Caleb's preschool this month. BOTH.OF.THEM. And I just realized that might mean he's not enrolled (I did register him in the spring...). Oops. I was lying down desperately trying to catch a nap before my night shift tonight when I got to thinking a phone call to the school might be in order. I left a slightly hysterical voicemail stating my oversight and the fact that we would still like Caleb in the Blue class this year. What is up wi...

Our little old neighbor has a bunch of company this weekend. We've enjoyed meeting some new faces and our children have played together the last few days. In a conversation with one of the mothers we started talking about work. She works full-time out of the home and by the way she was talking, I gather her wish was to be at home full-time. Their vacation to Wisconsin had been lovely and she commented on how wonderful it was to take a nap on the blanket with her baby and have time to play trucks with her 3 year old son. Things she doesn't get to do because she works full-time. I sympathized with her and told her I understood she must wish to be home, etc. etc. We discussed my job, the benefits of working part-time and the luckiness of it all. Fast forward a few hours and I'm here mulling over our conversation. I had actually noticed her laying on her blanket with her baby (as our back window looks into the neighbor's backyard where they were visiting) and I t...

Who chooses the "hold" music for companies? I'm guessing there have been studies done on what people find calming and relaxing music. Did they really conclude that jazz is best? Is a crazy sax truly what will soothe most people's nerves when they are frustrated and waiting on hold for an hour? Or keyed up classic music appears to be another popular choice. Apparently the running up and down of keys on the piano is also good chill music. Don't get me wrong, I love the piano, I play the piano and I know the skill that goes into playing some of those pieces (as I'm not good enough to do most of them myself). Maybe I'm just unusual in my musical likes and dislikes but I have yet to hear hold music that I can tolerate enjoy. I propose a change in hold music to something like country, show tunes, oldies, heck I'd maybe even prefer rap! Ok, that is going a bit too far, skip the rap...

**For those of you who get anxious when reading this type of thing, you have my permission to read the end before the beginning** :) I found a lump. It's not a big one and it's not terribly unusual to have one, but it is there nonetheless. At my annual physical I told my doc and she agreed it should be looked at. A week later I'm holding a contortionist's stance to maximize the viewing area of my shrinking assets . Films were taken, looked at, and required more information. On to ultrasound where we looked the density of the suspicious lump. The tech couldn't tell and went to get the radiologist. The radiologist wasn't sure either so a biopsy was ordered. I'm aware that the progression of tests indicates something abnormal but am also resting in the knowledge that God is good, my age is working to my advantage and I have a less than 20% chance of cancer. Knowledge aside, it's hard to stop my brain. As we moved through each test I was aware ...

The past few weeks we've been on the crazy train and it's been a blast! I was up in Roseau for a week with the kids while Bri stayed home and sanded our floors during the "non-working" hours of the day.  I came home to shiny new floors and a painted living room- it all looks fabulous! It's hard to say which of us worked harder, me with 3 kids or he with all the extra honey-dos on his list. Needless to say, we were happy to see him at the end of the week but enjoyed our time with G'ma and G'pa, Aunts and Uncles, cousins and friends. The week held a special ending as my dearest childhood friend said I do to the man of her dreams. Their story has been a testimony of God's overarching love for us as He managed to hook up perfect strangers, half a world apart in a fantastic love story. It's quite the saga, I'll have to share it sometime. It's seemed easier to tell the story of the week in pictures so here are a few highlights. I did notice th...