bonjour, le slacker!

ever get to the point where you have so much rattling around your head that you can't even post anything because it'll be a flat-out mess?
no?
well then i guess i'm all alone on this wacked-out island.
it's friday. day two of gorgeous sunshine.
can i get a whoo hoo?
i'm doing my best not to be a complainer about the winter. i'm celebrating each snow fall and disruption to my schedule. i'm excited about the smell of damp earth each time i go outside to let my reluctant weiner dogs do their thang. damp and dank and gray and chilly will give way to sunshine and warmer temperatures. i have the daffodils, peeking their tender shoots up from the tired mulch, to remind me of this promise.

it's the little things, people!
i'm about to go and make some runs to our stores. picking up posters, delivering W2s, installing posters, loading files on computers, listening to talk radio or christmas cds {too lazy to switch them out… why is Joy to the World only appropriate at christmas time, anyway??} while i'm out and about, i'm going to celebrate each time my car starts without a hitch. i take it for granted that i have a finely tuned automobile. it's really a blessing each time it starts. really, it is.
i'm going to celebrate wearing sunglasses. because i have contacts and can wear sunglasses. and see. what a cool thing!
i'm going to marvel at the fact that people enjoy eating at our restaurants and their patronage allows my children to go to college. thank you, loyal customers!
i'm celebrating the spiritual revival going on in bamagirl's heart. she already knew Jesus… but she's learning how to lean into him even more. she's open to what he's teaching her. {can i get another whoo hoo??}
i'm celebrating the random postings i see on facebook that make me about pee my pants in laughter. so incredibly thankful for the gift of laughter. i'm going to pass on the gift today… maybe just by smiling at everyone i meet. granting an extra measure of grace {to the hubs… i've been lacking in that area lately}.
grumble less. celebrate more.
how cool is it that a plant can be dormant all year and then bloom in the dead of winter? is God cool, or what??

He takes my mourning… turns it into laughter! thank you Jesus!

giving thanks

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i'm reading one thousand gifts by ann voskamp.
i almost can't find the words to express what my heart is feeling.
the beauty in the pages of her book brings tears to my eyes. the act of giving thanks is been elevated to an intimate act of worship… of communion with the king of kings.

I will give thanks to the LORD because of his righteousness;
   I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High.
psalm 7:17 {niv}

oh, how the Lord has blessed me… in relationship with Him, in relationship with others and with the gift of my wonderful husband and children. {just scratching the surface of the many, many blessings i have received} i am undeserving of such extravagant loving… but i accept it with an overflowing heart of thanksgiving. 

may i never tire of the act of gratitude.

praise God from whom all blessings flow.

praise Him all creatures here below; 

praise Him above ye heavenly hosts;

praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. 

oh… how He loves me…

oh… how He loves me…

oh… how He loves… 

join me, won't you? you don't' want to miss this. pick up one thousand gifts. join the discussion here. your  heart will be blessed beyond your wildest dreams.

she ain't no angelina jolie

life has thrown another curve ball at bama girl. just when she's busy spinning plates and doesn't really have the resources to catch a curve ball.
hence the phone call at 8 am.

bawling…

mom! my lips are huge!

uh… what?

my lips!! they're H.U.G.E.!!!

oh no. now what!?

my face is all swollen too… but my lips are ginormous. {more crying}

i think if one has to have big-ish lips these might not be too bad… sadly this was not the case.

after getting a list of symptoms i encouraged her to take some benadryl and use cool compresses. i thought it was stress related {and i'm still convinced this only exacerbated the situation}. the photo she sent had the most pathetic face a mother could ever see. a tragic comedy if there ever was one. sigh. {it was so bad i wouldn't even send it to boy wonder who asked repeatedly}

she called a friend who's a nurse and she determined that bamagirl's new acne meds aren't compatible with her system and she was having an allergic reaction. she suggested benadryl every 4-6 hours and no driving.

not a problem.
there was not a chance that bamagirl would emerge from her apartment "looking like a freak."

all was quiet on the home front. benadryl pretty much knocked her out most of the day. she needed the sleep big-time.

at 1 a.m. i got another call. kinda panicky. now she had a rash. everywhere. her chest was tight… acidy tight.

well… i guess you better go to the e.r.

so not one or two… but all three of her roommates took her to the e.r. in the middle of the night. that's friendship! about an hour later, a rather bored e.r. doc administered a shot and patted her on the head and sent her home with a steroid prescription in case the shot didn't work.

it wasn't the most dramatic e.r. story… but i still couldn't sleep. so at 4 am i decided to go back to bed. i read another two chapters from one thousand gifts. oh… ann voskamp. i heart you!!

checked in on bamagirl this morning. she was on her way to class.
her voice had a bit more of a lilt.
and then i heard the angels singing…

thankfulness, joy and dancing in the rain

i'm in a good place… {well, about as good a place as one can be in the midst of a cold, gray, blustery winter.} i'm seriously vitamin d deprived and busy with work and in the middle of an email semi-disaster… but files are being recovered and the computer is being optimized by someone far more intelligent than i in the matter… so all is well {for the most part} with me {and my mac}.
i'm in a good place of finding rest and peace and am really alright with not having control over details in my life and job… i'm in a place of calm, rest and thankfulness in the midst of a storm raging down the street.
and that's a good thing. i think God's got me right where he wants me and right where he can use me.

the girl is going through a very rough time.

very. rough.
recent break up of an over year-long relationship.
the beginning of an incredibly stressful semester chock-full of massive amounts of reading. the girl is rain man when it comes to math and sciences. however…reading is not her love language… and it's going to be a struggle for her to master her lit and history classes.
her sorority is gearing up for rush… just in time for the rush chairman to step down. yay on great timing!
and this morning she woke up with her face {especially her lips} about twice the size of her usual self. it seems her new acne ointments are not compatible with her system.

lovely.

in the 18 months bama girl has been away at school… i have never received one of those panicky bawling phone calls… haven't had to deal with the i can't do this, or i'm not supposed to be here, or i don't know if nursing is my calling phone calls…
until now. more of those phone calls than i can count in just the last week.
for my type-A, over-achieving, organized/control-freakish daughter… this is the perfect storm of stress. she's leaning into God so deeply. i'm so thankful for her Rock. i'm so thankful that she's His… and it's Him she is running to.
but still…
she's hurting big-time and there's little i can do for her but listen, advise and pray.
and super thankful for a few things i'm reading right now that happen to be speaking to me in a way that i'm able to love and guide her well.
thank you, sarah young, for jesus calling {all four of us are journeying through this devo together and are loving where God is ministering to all of us} and thank you to angie smith et al for their

 

bloom book selection for the winter… ann voskamp's one thousand gifts.

learning to be thankful, joyful in all circumstances… it's hard sometimes, but He is so faithful.
in this season of doubt, darkness and unrest, may she feel the calming peace that only He can give.
hope you join me in reading ann's book. i'm about four chapters into it and can't put it down.
what gifts are you thankful for today?
i'm thankful for my struggling daughter who is reminding me that my relationship with Jesus is paramount to me loving and guiding well.

PINT… how i've missed you!

 thank you to that one mom who is our faithful hostess with the mostess. head on over to check out her PINT and show her a little comment love. hope you're having a great week.

who doesn't love a giveaway?

i just love me some giveaways. jaclyn1423's first giveaway is beginning {the first of a monthly giveaway for an entire year} and you should really head over to see how you too can enter!

it's a yummo pendant of sterling silver, swarovski beads and pearls. mmmmm. whimsical, yet classy.
jaclyn is super talented and pretty clever to enlist the help of twelve different bloggers to host a giveaway at some point during the year. maximum exposure while also exposing twelve bloggers. i love the idea.

but i really love the necklace… so why not head over to does this baby make me look fat and enter today.

and i'm super excited about hosting one of jaclyn's giveaway's later on this year.

motherhood

today, 21 years ago, my firstborn entered this world and forever made me into something new.
how i love being a mother.
i loved my mom… she was everything a mother should be… loving, warm, funny, encouraging, corrective, fully present.
i love that being a mother isn't temporary…it's forever.
thanks for making me a mom, boy wonder. it's been a joy-filled journey.

frozen memories

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 soft flakes are falling…

again.

it's so beautiful. i don't think i could ever get tired of watching snow falling. i suppose if i had to experience 5 or 6 months of winter the whole snow thing would get old… but here in the south… it's still so novel every time it snows.

it brings back memories of my childhood, growing up in the fox valley in wisconsin. brrrrrrr.

we used to get snow that would drift up in a swirl beside our back door and we'd have to go out our front door so we could dig out the back door.

just around the block was the ice skating rink at the bottom of the hill of the elementary school next door. we would bundle up, walk over to the rink and skate across the bumpily ice. no zambonis for the neighborhood rink. but we didn't care. we'd sit on the snowbanks around the rink and adjust our skates. i always wanted the big pom poms for my laces… but never seemed to have a pair. we'd play crack the whip and a million other games. few moms or dads were there to watch over us. this was the early 70s when kids actually went out to play… without a parental entourage. 

the thought to leave was always way after we were frozen. the walk home in our ice skates was like walking on ice picks… so we'd take our skates off and walk home in our layers of wool socks.

our basement door was directly across from our back door. easy for mom to open both doors and herd our snow-crusted bodies downstairs where we would divest ourselves of our gear, pick off the chunks of snow stuck to our wool socks and mittens and throw everything in the dryer.

as we listened to the click click click of the zippers bouncing around in the dryer, we'd rub our numb feet and sometimes cry as the feeling would return. pins and needles on steroids.

when the feeling would return to our fingers, we'd raid the upright freezer and eat frozen christmas cookies. or the stash of whatever cookies mom had stored away.

weeks later we'd hear a "dammit… who's been eating all the cookies down here?" as if she didn't know.

all quiet on the home front

 nothing like a beautiful blanket of snow to cover the crustiness of winter brown. it's beautiful. 

the first day.

we are on day three of winter shut-down, and school is already cancelled for tomorrow. not that i have to worry about that since my kiddles are no longer at home.

sniff.

all is quiet.

abruptly so. 

bamagirl left a day early because of projected nasty weather coming through. huntsville got a foot of snow. tuscaloosa just got rain… the freezing kind. about 1/2 of ice. niiiiice. so thankful she left early. she missed it by a day. whew!

boywonder went back on sunday and made it back in plenty of time to receive 8 inches of snow. school was cancelled on monday, and they won't be heading back on wednesday either.

brrrr. this is so unusual for us… i think this is the 5th or 6th significant snow we've had since the beginning of december… unheard of in these parts. we're "lucky" if we get one!

the three low-riders are not fans. we had to shovel a place in the grass so they could pee. 

we let them out the front so they could frolic on our way to the mailbox… they frolicked. briefly. 

then they were shivering so we had to go in. should have cut some holes in a few legwarmers and made little body socks for the dogs.

it's quiet here. blanketed by a beautiful snow. alone in our empty nestedness. i like my empty nest. i do. but every january… it takes me a day or two to get used to it again.

we just came in from dinner. the ground is sparkling with the crystals of ice and new snow is flurrying. i don't think it will amount to much… other than another day off for the kids tomorrow. 

here's where working from home is not an advantage! no excuses!

yes to the dress

sooooooo…
i actually went on vacation.
but it was only for about a day and a half.
we gotta get what we can get when we get it!!

the hubs and boy wonder went out to colorado to do a bit of skiing. the bamagirl and i elected to stay put. we don't speak snow. or skiing, thankyouverymuch.

instead, we headed to atlanta for a bit of shopping. which is good. neither boywonder or the hubs speaks shopping. so all is well…

we needed to score a dress for the big debutante affair in mid-april. the word on the street is all dresses here in town are on back order and getting them in time would be a stretch.
what's a girl to do??

why go to atlanta of course!!

atlanta?

i don't do atlanta.
i barely do shopping!

okay.

i can do atlanta.

{gulp}

i can do this. i can do this.

i can do this.

right?

at this point, i thought my holiday lamaze breathing was over. no worries. i can continue the heeeee heeee whoooooooooooooo

hey. let's stop at this bridal shop in chattanooga. you know… just to check.

she found five she liked. tried on the first one. mmmmmmmm. i liked it. she liked it. her friend liked it…

she tried on two. three. four and five.
we kept coming back to number one.

it's discontinued.

sigh.

can we still get it in her size?

yes. but the price. it's different.

{gulp}

can you say 1/4 the original price!!??

i can say 1/4 of the original price!!

she said yes to the dress…

oh.my.word. i said YES TO THE DRESS!!

the train will be removed… but this is it.
in all it's grainy cell phone photoness…

we had so much fun in atlanta. we didn't have to worry about shopping for the dress so all we had to do was play, play, play! i still broke out in hives, but it's okay. the girls had a blast…and i did too.
i discovered my new favorite store on the planet is anthropologie. art museum + cute clothes + creative home furnishing/bling = wish.we.had.one.here!
super thankful for intentional time together.

manna

it's a new year. uhhhh duh. have you heard enough of that yet? making resolutions? and then breaking them? it's all over the place. 'tis the things of early january.
i'm not much of a resolution maker. i find they're hard to stick to, and frankly, should we not be about personal betterment on a regular basis throughout the year? i'd like to think that i'm in an ongoing process of improvement {although people around me might wonder on occasion}.
in my blogstalking activities of 1.1.11, i came across an old OL friend whom i hadn't heard from in awhile… ie gina's blog has been rather silent/changed names/transformed, etc. she too was writing about the idea of resolutions and how she hasn't made a resolution in years, but does select a word for the year and commits that word to her life. last year's word was

grow

it's a well-written post and i love the idea of choosing a word to sort of hang your heart on for the year. i highly recommend a visit yourself so you can enter in…

i loved the idea, but didn't want to flippantly choose a word. so i prayed about it. really. i set aside some time and really asked.
i was thinking my word for the year should be humility. it's something i've struggled with so much lately and i find my pride is at the source of much of my angst/issues with others. i thought it was a worthy word. a call to action and betterment. who could argue with that?
but here is what the Lord gave me…

hunger

I want you to hunger after Me. to find that nothing satisfies but Me.
I want you to hunger for time with Me. hunger for my Word. feast on Me.
and I want you to feed the hungry. as you've filled up with Me, i want you to fill others. intentional time with others intentionally focused on Me.

gather my manna daily.
every. day.
I want you to tend to the physical and spiritual needs of those i put in your path.
feed my sheep.
oh, and just so you know, dear one, I would really like you to focus on what you are eating. be a steward of the body I've given you. take care.

it's almost so obvious that i discounted it… but then i realized that i don't hunger after Him. not nearly to the degree that i am malnourished. i satiate myself on things that don't matter. i'm full of junkfood and need to be filling myself with the organic nutrients of His Word and intentional time with Him.
hunger.
it's my word.

if you had to choose a word for you this year…
…what would it be?

new beginnings

it's a new day…  a new year… a day of promise and new beginnings.
is that not just a little bit exciting?
i know that for many… 2010 was a year of hardship and struggle.
i'm kinda tired of the endless commentary of how bad everything is. sometimes i think we let the media dictate how we approach life. after awhile, we can't help but believe that life is hard and awful and blahdy blah blah.
tired of it.
{i'm not discounting that life has, indeed, but tough for some folks!}
i'm blowing away those clouds of dismay and gloom.
away with you, gray!!!
it's a new day.
it's a day filled with promise. with hope. a day brimming with excitement!
is it pouring rain and about as nasty and sloppy out there today as it can get?? yes! {flash flood warnings today!}
but am i going to let that dictate my mood?? nosireee!!
sloppy days like today will help me appreciate the sunshine and warmer temperatures.
i'm excited about what 2011 holds. it may be more hardship but i'm super thankful that wherever i am, so also is God. He's going to be with me every step of the way… working in and through my situations.

my goal this year is to consider it pure JOY… to really challenge myself to be a positive, glass-half-full-kind of person. this is an area in which i've struggled… but i'm committed to be thankful in all circumstances and give praise for His goodness. because God is good. all the time. period.

looking forward, with great expectation, to what God has in store for us this year. i'm excited to be journeying through 2011 with all of y'all. happy, joyful 2011 to you!