The 11 year plan

I am officially finished with being a MOPS leader.  I have been involved in MOPS as a leader for 11 years in various positions, and now I have completed the journey that I started when I first became a MOP.  At that time, I had no idea the places that MOPS  would take me.  I have learned so much about myself, about being a leader, about being a mom, about being a friend.  Many of my girlfriends are relationships that I made through my MOPS group. I have gotten parenting ideas, had opportunities way beyond my abilities, and met people that I might otherwise not have through MOPS.   It is such an amazing ministry that meets such basic needs in a mom's life.  There is a satisfaction in my heart knowing that God has brought me to the finish line 11 years later, for His reasons.  I'm a little unsure about what's next, but I've felt the Lord urging me to be more careful with my time, my life and how I spend both of those.  For me, being more careful really means slowing down long enough to pay more attention to my home, my kids, my husband, my family, myself.  So for the time being my "unsure-ness" is leading me to wait.  Wait for what is next, all the while realizing that what is next might just be more of what I already have right now.  

Parties

I can't believe that this week has passed me by.  It has been a full one, with Meredith's birthday being the highlight.  We had a party on Wednesday night with me and the kids and Grandma Oman, and then we celebrated with some friends at the pool on Saturday.  She sure enjoyed those 2 parties.  Every once in a while she will ask me, "Mama, am I still 5?" A few of my girlfriends threw an early birthday party for me on Tuesday.  It was so much fun to be together and eat yummy food and drink chocolate martinis.  We laughed and had such a wonderful evening.  Another friend of mine came to my house and we celebrated the beginning of summer together with Starbucks.   I also had a couple of pity parties this week.  I've been sick and depressed about being sick and bummed out about being depressed about being sick.  Those parties lasted a lot longer than the birthday celebrations, sad to say it.  Patrick was gone all week and because I was sick I was CRAZY tired and because I was CRAZY tired I was SUPER impatient. I needed his patience to balance out what I was lacking.  I was praising the Lord for the couple of hours that we were able to get out of the house and go swimming.  That helped, although the sun didn't shine for too long.  This morning, we made the discovery that our dog Molly has fleas.  So, I have spent most of today washing bedding and vacuuming carpets and furniture where she sleeps.  Patrick's guess is that these little critters are leftovers from our other backyard critters, Tilly and her gang.  I hate to wonder if our fox adventure  can get any worse.  I SO hope not.  So, tomorrow starts a new week, and it is my birthday week so I have high hopes for feeling better and for the sun to start shining. For now, I'm off to read book #3 of the series that I'm into.  They are turning out to be so good.  A very refreshing, summery read - they are the "Lumby" books... written by Gail Fraser.  If you just want to sit down and take a nice "vacation", read these books.  You'll like them.      

He says the cutest things

 Michael is 3 years old and he delights me daily with all of the cute things that he says.  Some days I remember to record them in some way, but unfortunately some of them I don't remember past that very day. That saddens me, but I am hopeful that somewhere in my mind, hidden underneath all of the frantic busyness of the present day,  the memory of Michael's 3 year old vocabulary will be close enough to recall in days down the road.  A couple of his latest goodies are: 

• when we were camping last week, the park rangers were in their cars/trucks patrolling the park that we were camping in.  They had lights on the tops of their vehicles, which drew Michael's attention, and he asked what they were.  We said rangers, but he interpreted it "stranger" and so that is what he called them... "Strangers".  Whenever he saw them coming, he would announce that "the strangers are coming".
• "Can I have a yoyo, mommy?"  (He meant an Oreo)