25: My Life in Thirty Lines

I have:

1. hiked in the Grand Canyon
2. been caught in a flash flood in the "Grand Canyon of Texas" (Palo Duro)
3. watched as our cabbie made a drug drop in Jamaica. awesome.
4. climbed a waterfall
5. experienced the miracle of birth twice
6. been humiliated at a rodeo
7. been the only 4.0 graduate in my class
8. had a black eye
9. never been stung by anything
10. cried over my students
11. been saved by Jesus
12. married the man who smeared ice cream on my face during our first date
13. been lifted out of a pit. more than once.
14. been pulled over twice
15. never gotten a ticket.
16. gotten fertility advice from a mayor
17. worn out the DVD of "Emma" and had to buy a new one
18. watched dolphins swim in a bay
19. worked as a secretary
20. driven to Roswell, NM and back in a day just to say I've been there
21. put my fingers inside a pig heart and pretended not to be mortified
22. attended an inner-city church and loved it
23. toured the Blue Bell ice cream factory
24. hidden in closets during tornado-producing storms more times than I can count
25. met Mickey Mouse
26. run in the rain
27. learned to two-step
28. read every Jane Austen novel
29. been to Luckenbach, Texas
30. been skeet shooting

How about YOU? What things have you done in this life??

(I totally stole this idea from Mandy!)

24: Lesson Learned

I feel like I'm mostly an optimistic person but I have to admit I really don't care for Mondays.

Mondays are Hubby's busy/early days at work so I take both the night feedings with the little one. This way Hubby can maybe function with at least most of his brain cells on Mondays.

(He is so sweet and helpful, usually taking at least one of the late feedings most other nights while I snooze. In fact, one night he woke up to our dog getting sick all over her crate, cleaned all that up, fed the baby and rocked her back to sleep. All while I was completely oblivious in dreamland. He's a good man, that man of mine. But I digress . . .)

Anyway. So Mondays usually find me more sleep-deprived (read: grumpy) than usual. And it's always kind of a let down after a fun weekend to go back to "normal".

I was throwing myself a grand pity party this morning with the Lord explaining how tired I was, how I wasn't looking forward to this day, etc. Oh, it was a big shindig. Party hats and all.

Then the Lord chose to use my three-year old to speak to me. I think He greatly enjoys using my little girl to teach her mommy lessons about throwing tantrums. How ironic.

Little girl has been watching the Veggie Tale version of David and Goliath quite a bit lately. Aside from having to explain that, no, Goliath was not really a big pickle and, no, he didn't fight David with boxing gloves it's a pretty accurate retelling.

When I went to say, "Good Morning" to her my daughter informed me she wanted to tell me the story of "Dave and Goliath."

Okie dokie. I sat and listened as the pint-sized preacher proceeded.

When she got to the end of the story (after doing a really great job might I add!) our conversation went like this:

"So who won - David or Goliath?"

"David!"

(Me feigning shock) "What?! Even though he was so little?"

"Yeah!"

"And even though Goliath was so big??"

"Yeah!"

"How did David do that? Who helped him?"

"God!!!"

"Oh, so we can do anything with God on our side???"

{Insert God hitting me over the head with a heavenly-sized mallet at this point and saying a very gracious DUH}

It's now five hours after I originally started this post and, honestly, the day has not gotten any easier. In fact, it's thrown me a few more curve balls and I've, in turn, thrown at least one more fabulous pity party.

But as I came back to finish this post I'm once again reminded that I can indeed "do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13)

I can get through this day, take care of my children, handle disappointments, just function through Christ who strengthens me.

Good stuff.

Wonder what my daughter will preach on tomorrow?

23: To Be Honest . . .

I'm sssooooo tired tonight. It's been a long few days as the little one has a cold or something (oh, please let it be too early for teeth!) and needs constant attention. Add that to the constant attention the older little one requires and, well, that's a whole lotta "constant" around here.

So this is a total cop-out post. Sorry. It really shouldn't even count towards my 100 posts in 100 days.

But it's my blog.

And it does.

:-)

Hopefully I'll be back to some "real" writing soon (whatever that is) as I do miss it. And hopefully the constant 24/7 running around here will dwindle back to, I don't know, say 23/7. That would be more like normal.

(I'd be remiss not to mention that although I feel bone tired that the Lord has provided around every corner. Even something like my older daughter being in a great mood today made a HUGE difference and I definitely don't want to be ungrateful. It could always be worse. I am oh so aware of that . . . Thank you Lord for perspective even as I write this!)

22: Smells Like . . .

Isn't it amazing how different scents invoke specific memories?

To me:

Hot asphalt in the summer=spending countless days at Six Flags over many summers and Spring Breaks

Cherry Blossom from Bath and Body Works=the days right after my first daughter was born

Making enchiladas at home=my Grandma's kitchen in San Antonio

April Fresh Downy=home, as in my parent's house

School gymnasiums=many, many years of basketball camps, practices, games, off-season . . .

*indescribable*=Hulen/Clement Hall at Texas Tech. Can't explain the smell but it smelled the same when I lived there as it did when my sister lived there 8 years earlier. And I bet it smells the same today. Not a bad smell. Just unique.

How about you? What scents bring back memories for you?

21: Faith

When you come to the edge of all the light you have known, and are about to step out into darkness, Faith is knowing one of two things will happen; There will be something to stand on, or you will be taught to fly.

True? What do you think?

(By the way, I tried to search for the original author of this quote and found several versions and authors . . . who knows.)

20: When in Doubt . . .

. . . post a cartoon.
(In my defense I actually started a different post SEVEN hours ago and am just now getting back to the computer. So as not to completely ignore my poor husband all night I'm making this a quick post. And I'm officially 1/5 through my 100 post challenge!)

19: My Blog's Identity Crisis

This blog has a problem.

It doesn't know what it wants to be when it grows up.

I originally started this blog after I saw the need to password protect my family blog. I wanted to keep the pictures of my kiddos and family protected (too many creepos out there!) but yet I still wanted a public blog that anyone could access.

So my only rule for this particular blog is that I don't post pictures or use names of friends and family. Beyond that, I'm not sure what I'm doing here.

I have no trouble finding things to post on my family blog - there's no shortage of cute kid pics or funny things they've been up to.

I struggle a lot with what to put on here though. I feel like I need a mission statement of sorts for this blog - what's my purpose? Am I trying to encourage people? To entertain? To communicate?

Honestly, I don't have a clue. :-) So please excuse the scatteredness of the posts to come as I try to flesh out the purpose of this little bloggy.

(Um, and if anyone has a mission statement I can borrow - I'll take it.)