Just a glimpse

Sleep Glorious Sleep

justaglimpse — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:47:52 +0000

Sleep doesn’t happen much with my 2 year old. Last night was no exception. He was up from 1 until 4:30 am. Jealous, aren’t you? Thankfully he crawled up in my bed and watched movies the whole night. I drifted in and out. I’m not feeling too bad this morning and a couple cups of coffee should keep me going.

My oldest is performing in a Show Choir competition today. I haven’t decided if I will be going or not. We have these pretty much every weekend for the next two months. I found out last year that Show Choir competitions and a toddler are not compatible. Since N has been performing since he was 8 in one thing or another, it doesn’t phase him if I’m there or not. He likes it, but it doesn’t bother him at all. Right now it is all about his “friends.”

So my goals for today are:

bake two birthday cakes for tomorrow
laundry, laundry, and more laundry
make a valentine table runner

What are your goals?

Still Struggling and Thunderstorms

justaglimpse — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:12:11 +0000

Our household is still struggling with the death of our dog, Lilo. We all feel guilty for one reason or another. I feel guilty for not taking her to the vet sooner in the day. The house is so quiet without her. For a dog that rarely barked, she definitely made her presence known. She was incredibly sweet, but very strong-willed. We have a bell hooked up by the door that she would ring to let us know that she needed to go outside. Last night it rang. It was our cat playing with the bell. The cat misses her too. We made some paw prints from her paws the other night with the technicians at the vets. The Vet and the technicians were wonderful.

Not getting a lot of sleep the last few nights due to increased thunderstorms. We had golf ball size hail too. Sounds like we have a break in the storms during the day today, but more tonight. No sleep again. Only one kid woke up last night though, and he went back to sleep.

Lots to do today as I will be helping my brother move, and trying to complete yesterday’s goals. Right now I need to find out why the baby is so quiet…

Today

justaglimpse — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 15:25:21 +0000

No secret the last three years have been difficult at best. The last two weeks have really been particularly bad. So I am focusing on today. Today I am thankful for my wonderful three boys, the home I live in, and time to work on projects. So my goals for today are to get the kitchen cleaned (especially the refrigerator), find an end to the laundry, get all of the registrations entered for summer camps, and to begin my prayer journal.

I haven’t been very good at getting things accomplished lately, and so I’m hoping that with some goal setting I can find myself in this mess. You know that it is bad when others look at your garage and “Hoarders” the TV show comes to mind. (Only slightly exaggerating here.)

Summer is a time of renewal for me. I need to regenerate and maybe more reinvigorate myself. I feel like the character in Eat, Pray, Love.

End of the day Reflection: Got the freezer cleaned out, kitchen started, bought the journal, and gathered all of the summer camp registrations. More importantly I hugged, loved, and talked with my kids today. We grieved for our 9-year-old English Cocker, Lilo, and cried a few tears. We had to put her to sleep yesterday. Rest in peace sweet dog.

Withdrawal

justaglimpse — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 14:43:03 +0000

I spent almost three years as the volunteer President of our Board of Directors at the childrens’ theatre in my town. I was the Vice-President and our President resigned. This year I gave up my post. I’m still on the Board of Directors, but no longer President. I had good reasons, and I needed to do it. That being said, I miss it.

It was fun being in charge (OK, not always.) I was (and think still am) respected by many people in our larger community’s theatre circle. I felt like people on our board really respected my opinion.

Sometimes now I feel like they respected the title’s opinion more than mine. Sometimes I feel like they don’t really need me any more. Sometimes I now feel out-of-place and kind of lonely. I try to back off and let the new president, whom I like and respect, stretch her wings. Yet I’m still there to help mentor and guide.

I miss being the go to girl.

Now the funny part is I am the one that came up with our term limits, and I did so for very good reasons. We didn’t want people getting burned out or too much control. Now I just have to learn to accept this role again. It’s hard, because it changed me. I changed it. A very small handful of us took a struggling program and really made it take off. It’s an amazing non-profit small business now with a whole range of programs for the community. I’m really proud of what we accomplished. It definitely was a “we” project, but I loved leading my team. Probably explains my withdrawal. I’m just learning to keep myself in balance.

OK, yes, God I am Listening

justaglimpse — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 13:55:47 +0000

The last few days I have been discontented. There are many reasons. The new year always brings on thoughts of change and self-reflection when I combine that with short, cloudy, cold days, I’m tired and grouchy.

That being said there was an incident that happened where I felt like a blatant injustice occurred. I don’t know when I have been this angry. Partially because I feel my child was slighted, because of this injustice. My mama bear instincts came out and I think my East-side girl kicked in. I wanted to go whoop someone.

I am lucky though that I also am in a position to change this from happening to any child in the future. You think that would make me feel better. So far not so much. I’m on day 3 of seething.

So this morning on my way to work, I switched my radio station. On comes the DJ, “Are you holding on to an anger that is taking up too much of your energy? You need to look at what you are holding on to. Is it worth it?”

I already know I have the ability to change the situation for future. My child is actually handling it with grace, honor, and a maturity his mother ought to imitate.

So OK God, I am listening. I will try very hard today to let go. Why, oh, why is it so hard?

A Year of Change

justaglimpse — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:32:18 +0000

This has been an incredible year. Good and bad.

A year ago I never dreamed I would be a mama to a toddler by summer. Yet God just dropped him on our doorstep. It an amazing series of events we sailed through all of the adoption work and he is now ours. Talk about whimsy! Whimsy with him is vacuuming the couch with his toy vacuum. Today he stole the vacuum from the church nursery and was vacuuming the sanctuary before service. He makes me laugh. He makes me tired.

My other two are now in junior high. How did that happen???? Then the oldest springs a girlfriend on me. I’m not ready for this! My three sons wear me out, keep me busy, but bring me intense joy.

Ice Cream, the Tongue Slide, and the Vortex Cocoon

justaglimpse — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:04:07 +0000

After spending my non-whimsical day pricing garage sale clothes, I took my children to a new ice cream shop. We tried about 10 flavors. Cookie monster was awesome! Almond joy was to die for! But in the end I got caramel popcorn. My 13 month old ate most of it, but we sat there with ice cream dripping down our chins. N had blue ice cream everywhere. It’s hard to believe he’s the oldest.

Afterwards the boys argued with me about which park to go to, but I won. They were so glad. Our town has redesigned a lot of the city parks. This one just got finished. It is really cool, but different from anything I’ve ever seen. The slide seems like it is dangerous. It looks exactly like a tongue. You straddle it as you go down. I can’t get past that it looks like a tongue.

I’s (my 13 yr old), favorite thing he nicknamed, the vortex cocoon. You stand inside of a spiral and have someone spin you. He begged me to spin him over and over. Now he’s laying on the couch green. Poor guy!

Whimsy wins over garage sale.

Got Whimsy?

justaglimpse — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:16:48 +0000

I’m in need of whimsy. I’m in need of joy, laughter, and happiness. Lately I feel like I’m in charge of the world (and not doing a very good job of that, by the way.) It’s time to find happiness. So I’m taking my blog a new direction for a while. I will be posting short posts. What is stopping my whimsy and how I celebrate it.

I guess it is kind of like an affirmation kind of thing. If I focus on the good, there will be more good. So that is what I’m going to try.

I will be back to post before bed.

The Pool

justaglimpse — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:42:42 +0000

Today we are going to the pool. My friend Suzanne has one directly in her back yard, so they swim a lot. I have a child with sensory processing issues that for years couldn’t do water, I got out of the habit of taking my kids to the pool. Thankfully, E can handle the pool and even knows how to basic swim. That is due to a lovely friend of mine that gave him private lessons. She was beyond patient with him.

Today we are taking the baby, the boys, and 4 cousins. One of the cousins is the baby’s big sister. I am hopeful that this will give them some good bonding time. It’s hard to be 14 and trying to bond during weekly visits. I am really hoping that this gives them time to play and bond in a more authentic environment. Really not just for them, but for all of us. We are not the usual family, but we are family.

I am a little afraid that maybe I have put too many hopes into one trip to the pool. Well that will be alright, we have all summer. We can go again.

Forced to Do Nothing

justaglimpse — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 22:10:43 +0000

I am a person that doesn’t sit well. Yet here I am sitting for the last hour. I struggle between knowing that I need to clean the kitchen, but knowing that this small child that is asleep on my chest will not be small for very long. All it takes is glancing at his brothers and I know how much truth is in that statement. I’m trying to enjoy this. Breathing in his smell and covering his sleeping head with kisses, sounds hard eh? If only I could get someone to come and clean out my kitchen. Hmmm…