Reflections on the week...

Saturdays are such great days to slow down, relax, reflect on the past week, plan for the coming one plus get a few errands and projects done too. I'm enjoying this beautiful, cool and fall-like weather we're having in Missouri and the hummingbirds are going crazy. They have been at my feeder more in the past week than all summer. Hmmmm...wonder if that means they are getting ready to move on. I hope not...I'm not ready for them to go.

This past week I had two workshops at work. Part of my job is to organize the events we hold and there are many events this year. The two this past week are our biggest of the semester. They both went well overall with only a couple of minor hiccups at each one. Now on to post-workshop details and getting ready for the upcoming events and projects. Academic Year 2009-2010 has officially started for us now.

Kobe got to meet his 3rd grade teacher this week. Initially, he wasn't excited at all when he found out who his teacher was. He was really hoping to have the teacher who taught the scrap booking segment during summer school and she is great. However, when we got up to the classroom and actually met his new teacher and he saw that a few of his friends were in his class, he was much more excited. I'm pleased that she is a teaching veteran with 22 years of experience all in our school district. We also went to visit his teacher from last year and she didn't even recognize him he had grown so much. He loved her and we're both going to miss her but this year holds a lot of promise to be GREAT!

Now, on to the Baseball saga. Kobe was so excited to sign up for Fall Baseball because he loved Spring Baseball. Well, as it turns out he ended up on a team with kids all from another school and he doesn't know anyone and the coach is hardcore (as far as 8 year olds are concerned). He makes them do drills, run laps when they make mistakes and he takes it all very seriously. So seriously that he had practice last night, this morning, Sunday afternoon and Monday evening in addition to the other practices they've already had. The first game is Wednesday evening. All the practices and drills seem a little excessive but we're trying to roll with it. Kobe, however, is not enjoying it and just seems to be tolerating it. He has said he wants to quit. He hasn't even played the first game yet so he can't really judge this season fairly until that happens. I hope this experience doesn't ruin it for him...he is only 8 years old. What to do? What to do? Sometimes this parenting stuff is hard!

The rest of the weekend is mostly going to consist of hanging out, doing laundry, going to baseball practices and reading my new book, Bad Girls of the Bible by Liz Curtis Higgs. Sounds pretty good to me!

Hope your weekend is a good one.

Extraordinary Women Conference 2009

Just wanted to share with you that I found out today that I won tickets to the Extraordinary Women Conference in Kansas City that is at the end of the month! There is a great lineup of speakers including Stormie Omartian, Candace Cameron Bure (remember D.J. from Full House?), Michelle McKinney Hammond and Angela Thomas. I've wanted to go to this conference for a couple of years and never have made it there.

I follow the conference on Twitter and saw they were having a giveaway...I knew Twitter was good for something!

Have a great day!

The Sunlight Always Comes...

That morning I walked into my kitchen and saw a stream of light coming through one of the windows. “Could it be?”, I thought. You see, we’d had 7 days of rain. Misty Days. Foggy Days. Dreary Days. Not our typical early summer weather. I grabbed my coffee and walked to the back door. I pulled the curtain aside and had to shield my eyes from the intense sunlight. I smiled. I quietly opened the door so as not the wake the others in the house and silently padded outside.

As I looked around, I felt like I had been away from the garden for weeks instead of days. It seemed as if everything had blossomed and grown in the span of those dark days. As I wandered down my stone path, I gazed at the hydrangeas, daylilies and my new rose begonias. Their blooms seemed to be smiling at me with their intense colors of blue, burgundy, orange and yellow.

Around the bend of the path I came upon the hummingbird feeder surrounded by zinnias and cosmos of many colors. I see one little hummer friend perched on the feeder for an early morning treat. This is a bright spot in the garden for sure.

I stop and sit on the stone bench shaded by an old dogwood tree. Blooms already gone for this season and replaced by shiny green leaves. I sit surrounded by beauty. Quiet. Content. I notice the sunlight dancing on a leftover raindrop and I think about how my garden is really a symbol of my life. I started out small like a seed. No real idea of where my life was going. I grew some. Had some setbacks and then recovered. Grew some more and then bloomed right where I needed to be.

Sometimes we have dreary days, weeks and even years in our lives. Then, when we’re not expecting it, the sun peeks in and says, “I’m here, you can come out and play now.”





photos courtesy of flickr.com

I am weak, but He is strong...

I made a decision months ago that my blog was going to be a place to record joys, milestones and positive thoughts. I envisioned it like a happy little scrapbook with all the cute stickers and colorful markers.

That's not real.

My garden isn't beautiful right now and sometimes my soul feels that way too. I know my faith is strong and my joy comes from God, but sometimes my relationship with Him feels like it's dried up and crackly like some of the leaves on my plants.

I know He is listening, but He is silent.

My devotional time is uninspiring.

My journal writing is not flowing.

I search for inspiration in my Walk but am finding none.

This is a season and it will pass. It happens. It moves on.

While I'm waiting...I keep talking to Him, keep scratching out thoughts and prayers in my journal, hug my kids and be thankful for all that is mine...and His.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-7

A Time for Everything

¹ There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

Until next time...

The cool, crisp days of Fall..

I'm so glad I live where we have 4 seasons because my favorite one is about to arrive...

FALL!

The Fall magazines are arriving (smile). I'll have to tell you about my magazine addiction sometime.

Have a great day!

The beginning of my day...

My day usually begins at 5:00 am. This is when I spend time in devotion and prayer, journaling, planning my day, working on projects for my job (I work at home 10 hours per week and spend 30 in the office) and maybe throw in a load of laundry.

This is my time.

My favorite time of the day.

In my life, this morning time sets the stage for my day. Here is a peek at my essential morning time gear...laptop, DIY planner, bible, devotional and COFFEE!

Managing my time creatively...

One of the areas in my life that I have always worked at but haven't been completely successful is the management of my time. I have so many varied interests and responsibilities that its sometimes hard to fit it all in...impossible really. A planner is the only thing that keeps me somewhat sane. I think all the new techie gadgets are really cool but I'm really just a pen and paper girl. Especially if it's a felt tip pen and cute paper!

I've tried many different planners like Franklin Covey, Daytimer, Dayrunner, and just plain old notebooks and I have never found just the right thing. Recently I was searching for a planner (again) and I stumbled upon the idea of DIY planners. I found out that there is a whole huge group of people out there who are just as nerdy as I am...they LOVE their planners. Also like me, they could never could find the right one and so they started designing their own. Cool! I jumped right in with both feet...how fun would this be? I have spent a LOT of time in the last few weeks looking at planners on flickr.com (just type in DIY planner), printing out pages from diyplanner.com, buying covers from CrownBindery on Etsy and just generally searching the internet for what other people are doing. It has been fun in a geeky and obsessive compulsive sort of way.

So, what I needed was a planner that has a 2-page monthly calendar, a daily calendar (2 pages per day preferably), pockets, sections for my family budget, lists (I like lists) and addresses. I also wanted a planner that could serve as sort of a living scrapbook of what's going on in my life. I wanted to be able to have space to journal what I'm thinking about that day, place a picture, a cut-out recipe, etc. I wanted something that fits my lifestyle.

Then...I went on a sticker buying trip. I love stickers. Since I don't scrapbook much (well, never, really) I don't feel like I have any reason to buy them. I do now! Each morning when I'm planning my day I pull out the stickers (they live in one of the pockets) and I find one (or five) to express what I'm feeling that day! It's a fun way to motivate me to use the planner and when I look back through it I can see at a glance what was happening in my life at that time. Elementary, I know. But definitely fun for me.

So far, my DIY planner has been a success. I'm using it. Things are getting done. I feel organized and that means less stress. Less stress is always Good!

Photos of my planner and my inspirations are coming next.

Until Next Time...

Hello, August?

Wow, it's already August and I've been so busy with my projects that I have hardly had time to breathe. The deep cleaning project is practically complete! I still have a couple of closets to purge and then it's done. I've been busy the last week finishing up some things and spending time with some people who I haven't seen for a long time...YEARS. It was great seeing them all.

So let's talk about what has come from this deep cleaning project I have undertaken. I have hauled so many bags and boxes out of our house that I'm sure our neighbors think that we are preparing to sell the house. Speaking of the neighbors...Pat, my husband and resident pack rat, has had some issues with some of the things I've been throwing out of the house. For once, he isn't trying to keep any of it, BUT, he has decided that this stuff is "just too good to take to GoodWill" and has taken it upon himself to give away (to the neighbors) the following:

• 2 lamps
• Wooden toilet paper holder
• Free standing wire shelf -which my neighbor is using as a trellis for his gourds...dang...why didn't I think of that?
• Other misc. things that I can't think of right now...

They have taken everything he's offered so I don't know if they really wanted the items or if they just feel sorry for him for having to haul out so many bags of trash to the curb the last few weeks. Whatever...the junk is out of my house! Enjoy!

So, what has come from all this cleaning and de-cluttering?

• I feel less stressed!

• My house actually feels clean!

• We know what we have!

• Everything in the house is either useful or decorative (with the exception of a few, well organized, boxes of momentos)

• Here is the best part! My brain is also less cluttered and I can now focus on some other areas in my life.

Remember I mentioned the life cleanup project? Here are some other areas where my life needs some cleaning up:

1. Management of my time!
2. My weight and why I struggle with this!
3. My creativity (or lack thereof since my kids were born)!
4. Putting more effort into my marriage and giving it the time it needs. (kids..work...you name it)
5. Doing things I enjoy - putting myself first sometimes (very cluttered here...you know...having kids and all that)!
6. Being joyful and really enjoying everyday life (this has a lot to do with time management)!
7. Money Issues - knocking out debt, learning to save more and teaching our kids good money management tools.
   

I'm sure there are other areas too but these are the main things I am focusing on.
First up is Time Management. Next time, I'll show what I've done in this area and how it's working for me. It's really cute, effective and addresses my creativity needs too.

Until Next Time...

**photo courtesy of flickr.com