Babies, Brownies and Blessings

This is how I'm feeling these days. Can you relate? If I were to take the time to look back over my blogs I would guess there are more than a couple on this same topic. It's a frequent plight of mine...of yours...right? Instead of papers piling up, or rather along with papers piling up, add mountains of laundry, dirty dishes, messy floors, toys askew, closets stuffed, store-rooms jammed, vehicles full of this and that. Not to mention that little one (or 3 or 4) pulling on you, interrupting you just when you got into the groove. Need I go on? You get my drift, you have a list of your own. The issue isn't always time. The fact remains that we all have the same amount of time. We get to make choices each day, each hour. My biggest struggles? Lack of motivation and difficulty with time management. Time to get back to writing a to-do list because there's nothing better than checking them off, one by one! I also need to get my butt in gear and start worki...

This holiday weekend we are staying in town. No big plans, a few get-togethers and a 12 hour shift at work stuck in there. Today is a day full of nothing and I'm finding it...challenging. Wouldn't you agree it's easier to keep busy sometimes? The day started all too soon, before the 6am hour and I have already perused the internet and picked the brains of my friends to see if they have any ideas of what we should go do. I've contemplated a hotel away, the science museum, indoor playground (did I mention it's been raining all morning?). As I was looking into plans my husband wisely commented that we need a day like this. A day full of nothing. Let the kids get bored and see what they decide to do. Turns out, he was right as usual...a day of games and legos, wrestling and biking. (now if only I can find a way to fit in a nap, the perfect culmination to a nothing kind of day)

Wow, thank you to all who read, commented and shared Facebook Inferior. I love to hear your thoughts and methods, why you post what you do and how you feel about social media in general. As one commenter said, it turns out we are not alone AND more importantly we are all more similar than any of us realize. Both in marriage and other relationships I'm finding out that if I'm feeling something, chances are the other person is, too. My kids are naughty, my husband isn't perfect (but pretty darn close, right, Honey??), my job stresses me out, JUST LIKE YOUR'S! Isn't that comforting? It means that we really are in this together. We are not in competition, we are meant to complement one another. When we keep things like FB in their correct place in our lives they can be so enjoyable. I love seeing my friends' kids grow up, hear what's happening in their lives and know when they need extra prayers. I'm trying to learn to celebrate the differences and...

Never before has it been easier to compare our inadequacies with the accomplishments of others. With the click of a mouse suddenly we are inundated with glowing snipets of achievements, family vacations, daily outings, darling sayings or pictures of a "friend's" child. So and so is a model, whomever just got the job offer of a lifetime, that person just had their seventh child and somehow their other six children are perfect angels. Over and over in the last few weeks I've heard from friends and family how hard it is to feel content when they constantly feel they aren't measuring up...at least compared with the "lives" of their friends on Facebook (FB). Before I go further, I am NOT saying FB is bad, wrong, or any other thing. It simply allows us to be privy to information we used to only get at class reunions or at an annual outing, or never! Many of us are friends with people on FB who are more aquaintances than anything (or sometimes perfect st...

Nurses Week has me thinking about those whom I work with and why I became a nurse in the first place. Ever since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to be a nurse. I've always been compassionate and empathetic and nursing was a good fit. However, it was my Grandma Bobs that inspired me to make my dream a reality. Grandma Bobs worked at our small local hospital growing up doing mostly the evening shift. I remember her talking about the perks of that shift, not the least of which was popcorn. For whatever reason working the off-shifts in a hospital make you yearn for popcorn. And here I am, 400 miles away from my hometown and that rural hospital, finding myself munching on popcorn in my scrubs in the middle of a night shift (made on our theater-sized popcorn maker at work). Whenever a newborn baby made his or her appearance at church on Sunday, Grandma Bobs would beeline it for the baby. Sometimes she would even beat me there. :) Over and over again in my growing up ...

Writing is a way for me to gather my thoughts. I'm actually incredibly inarticulate when in conversation with others...even simple words escape me and leave people guessing what I mean. I blame most of this on that fact that for over 6 years I haven't been able to complete a thought or sentence due to some little person or persons interrupting me. I also accuse pregnancy of killing off vital brain cells (previous pregnancies as I am NOT, repeat NOT, pregnant). And occassionally I claim lack of sleep for my lack of intelligence. When I started blogging a couple years ago (I can't believe it's been that long!) I found it an effective way for me to work through things. I may not always have something worth reading but that's when you get to enjoy the beauty of the internet, click on the x to close out the window and stop me mid-sentence. :) The last few months I have been working through yet more feelings of inadequacy and have been reminded in my spirit th...

I mentioned yesterday that my grandma died when I was 12. Grandma Olga Melby would have been 88 this year but was taken much too soon in her late 60s. She got sick with what we now know was autoimmune hepatitis...a treatable disease in this day, but not as much 20 years ago. Yellowing of her skin and her eyes were the first signs. After much testing, poking and prodding they reached a diagnosis, but not a cure. In my 12 year old brain I didn't realize how sick she was. Instead I was focused, along with my siblings, on sneaking our dog in to show her and other things that tweens do. The phone call I received from my family while at Bible camp saying she was gone left me truly shocked. Not Grandma! For the first 7 years of my life we lived just a field away from her and Grandpa. I remember May Days running through the field with my sisters to their house, knocking on the door, leaving a basket on the handle, certain Grandma wouldn't know who it was from. N...