Traffic Jam

I always ask myself, 'why do I always have to make things so difficult?', as though life could be a lot simpler. You know? Do you ever find yourself so close to almost literally pulling your hair out? I DO!
I decided to pack up and drive to the Twin Cities (MN) and run to a couple of stores, only, I got a little bit of a later start... like noon. Yeah, I'll never do that again. I kept telling myself in my head that if I was going to do that, that I need to leave a lot earlier... say like, 9 or 10am. But, I went anyway. My son was a little trooper though, I must say, with me dragging him to each destination and trying his patience through what I thought I might possibly bypass - - traffic. And lots of it. This............... is what why I wanted to pull my hair out. This, was when I was telling myself once again, that if I'd left earlier or chosen a different day and left way earlier I could have missed entirely. But alas, as I look at my son in the rear view mirror, he's making funny faces and smiling at me while I'm just wanting to go faster than 5 mph.

Here's the thing though, I should have been taking cues from my little boy in the backseat. Because here I was struggling with the idea of laaaaying on my horn to no end and letting a few unmentionables fly outta my mouth (although, I would never do that - it's totally out of character for me.  :?  ) and then here's this little boy just watching all these crazy people in their cars slowly drift by and he's lovin' life. He's got his little snacks and sippy cup, his life's a parade! Why can't I have that outlook.......... even when I'm stuck in traffic?  Hmmm.... I needed a change in perspective.

Why do we get so silly frusterated when things don't go our way or as quick as we would like them to? Are we really that stubborn and self-absorbed??  I think as a society, we have a lot of growing up to do. Jesus says to 'Cast our cares upon him..... lay our head upon his shoulders for his yoke is easy...' why don't we do that more often? I think we forget that no matter how frusterated, irritated, upset, distraught, sad, angry we get that yes, he DOES care. He is ok with our 'messes' and still loves us. But we need to tell him about it and allow him to help us though it. It's what he does best.... love and compassion.

So, I look at my son and he looks at me. I stick my tongue out at him and he laughs. That was worth all the hairpulling in the world if you ask me!

Are YOU the one?

My husband and I attended a youth service tonight at our church... it's amazing how much energy these kids have! Wow!! But it's awesome because so many of them truly do have a heart for God and it's evident in the way they worship and how they relate with one another.
The message of the night was something that was pretty gripping, something like, 'THIS could be the year', 'YOU could be the one'. In other words, this could be the year that an entire state could be impacted for Christ. You could be the one to change the world.... could you imagine? For example, think about the fact that if you invited one or two friends (or family members) to church. Then, one or both of those friends invites a couple of their friends... it's like a domino effect. Consider the fact that it could be an amazing epidemic! If God led you to do your part and set your world ablaze with your love for God and for people -- could you imagine how much of an impact you could have on your schools, your jobs, your families, the rest of your friends or anyone you encounter for that matter? 
It's the same for anyone who's not a student. For an adult...if we walked around with a constant smile on our face with a great attitude just because you know that God has blessed you with an amazing life to live and you're going to make sure the whole world knows about it.... yeah, you may get a few unusual looks, but for the most part people are going to take notice that you're a really happy person and they want to know why. They want what you're having. Don't you think?? I don't know about  you but I'm drawn to cheerful, positive people who just have the most joyous outlook on life. I know of a few people in particular that are very dear to me that I love to be around so much just to soak in their joy. That makes people's heads turn! And it's the love of Jesus that makes those heads turn. Do YOU want to make head's turn?? Do you want to make an impact in people's lives?? Let's do it! Let's show the world what a blessing and amazing journey it is to live out loud!! Are ya with me?!

It's a Journey but the Destination is worth the Journey

Ohhhh..... if I must! This is what has been going through my mind lately as various things come up. School is a very large and daunting topic on my plate at this point in time. I possibly bit off more than I could chew - but it was necessary to graduate at the end of the year. Yikes! But I look at it this way, it will have all been worth it to walk down that aisle with a degree in my  hand and maybe even with honors.  It means I have accomplished something rather large in my life that for a short period I wasn't sure I could do. My husband (my boyfriend at the time) convinced me that if I wasn't happy in my job... life is too short to go through your life in a job you don't enjoy. 'Wouldn't you rather go to work everyday never actually working a day in your life?' was what he asked. He was right. He hit the nail right on the head. I was wasting my time at a job that may make good money, but I was tired, worn out, and so not happy with what I was doing.

I made a switch. In my life and with my attitude. And soon, I'm going to be reaping the reward of that decision. At one point, I questioned God if it was the right thing to do. But I simply felt God was saying - "It's now or never, dear!" So.... I made the leap. I was 27 years old and I went back to school. Left the job I hated and went in search of a job in an entirely different location. I was happy. I was excited. I was exhilerated. But I also had a tad bit of fear, too. What if things didn't work out? What if things all came undone and I was left sitting in a puddle of failure?  You know what?  I had to take that risk. I had to trust God and know that He had me in the palm of his hand - which he did - and go out and change my path for the better and for my future.

Since that day....... it's been rocky at times, but it's grand.  Think about your life and the way you live it. Are you happy? Do you feel you're meeting your fullest potential? Or are you still sitting in a puddle of 'whatever' and just feel like this is probably the best you can do? I have news for you..... you can do better. There is better, God has better and you can be better. Just dust yourself off and ask God to show you which direction to go and .....  GO. Don't look back, either! And when you're in the journey, even when you get to your destination - - smile and remember where you came from, then know your life is worth the journey!

I think I can, I think I can...

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can! Nooooo....... I KNOW I can. 'Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world', 'Nothing is impossible with God'.  Sound familiar? Yes, I am a normal human being. I doubt myself sometimes. I doubt myself as a person, a student, as a wife, as a mother at times. It's not like I ever claimed to be a super human with incredible super powers. Just sayin!
So I have some things coming up in my near future that I'm really thinking, 'Ummm.... how in the helk am I going to pull all of this off without losing whatever sanity I have?!? Strangely, I still have no clue. Not one. I usually have some sort of a plan - but not this time. I'm at a loss at this point, ladies! For real! And it's possible that you're all thinking, 'girl... you can do it.' I can honestly say that it's going to be a 'one day at a time' ordeal with not a moment to spare. Am I freaked out? Uhh.. yeah.

But it's this little whisper I get in my heart everytime I think about my situations(s)... 'it'll all work out, just trust me'. And no, it's not what I keep telling myself. I've been praying a whole lot about how and... well, how? And that's just the same answer I get everytime I give myself a moment to whine to God a little. Do you ever have those moments when you just want to say to God with your big fat bottom lip hangin' out, 'Oh do I have to???'.  Yeah, that's me. Truthfully though, it's like this: I have to trust God every morning for him to pull off a miracle and help me to get through the day, the week, the month, and well... each day of life. We should be doing that every day that we are blessed enough to have life. Trust him. Not just with our daily activities but with out lives. He gave it to us... why shouldn't we trust him with it? You know? We can trust him with every fiber of our being. It's not a catch 22 like so many other things in life. It's a plain and simple concept.

He loves YOU. He created you with his image in mind. Run with it and make his day and the day of those around you. Never mind all of the challenges you face (yes, I'm preachin' to the choir , I know) and be who you know he created you to be.

It's What You Make of It...

It's occured to me several times in the last few days or so that life just doesn't always turn out the way we want it. Even though I may have it all planned out in my head... (yes, I am a planner by nature, so it kills me when things go 'the opposite direction' of those plans) those plans often just kind of 'unravel' in every which direction. And do I have any control over it? Well, NO. Because if I DID... it wouldn't have happened so different in the first place, right? Yeah. My life. Welcome to it.

So, my little family takes off for the weekend to go to a family baby shower on my hubby's side. That was fun. Then, we check into our hotel (only because we thought it silly to pack up and go home and then travel another 80 some miles back in the same direction the very next morning...). The hotel chain we generally like to stay in is quite nice. The staff is wonderfully friendly and helpful. The rooms are extremely nice and comfortable. And the breakfast in the morning has always been very good. We've always felt like we were at home no matter what location we choose to stay at. This was waaaaaay different. The location we stayed at this time was dirty, dingy and to top things off... the room we reserved was quite different than what we were expecting.  To make a long story short, we were very disappointed with our stay there. In my head, I'm grumbling - a lot. What made it even harder was the fact that our 13 month old son didn't want to go to sleep and when he did go to sleep, he didn't want to STAY asleep. Yep. Not fun.

Needless to say, we wound up giving ourselves a 'pep talk'. Yes, you heard me. A pep talk. 'Cause if we didn't, we were going to walk around being frusterated and taking it out on our sleepless child - which that definately doesn't do any good. Life is not about us. The world doesn't revolve around us. And we certainly are not God's gift to earth. But here's what we ARE: children of God, vessels in His creation, His hands, His feet, and the list goes on and on. We are not here to hope that everything WE planned goes according to our little master plan because rightfully so.... His masterplan is the only one we should be worried about. Because His plan is far more perfect and complete than ours ever will be.  Just when you think you've got it all figured out..... just watch, Jesus will change it up on you. And the best part is - it will be even better than anything you would have conjured up.
So yes, our hotel stay was less than we imagined this time around. But, we went to our baseball game and had a great time. Our son did a pretty good job for being up three hours straight without an afternoon nap! Our ride home was relaxing and decided that it was so so good to be home back in our own beds and comfortable again.... yes, it is the simple pleasures in our home.  :)

"This is the Life"

My husband and I caught the last twenty minutes of Oprah the other day (I'm usually way too busy to watch TV during the day... but that day was an exception) and she had the former first lady, Laura Bush and her two daughters on the show. They were discussing Laura's book that is out now. The book talks about Laura's life in her words. Her childhood, life before George's presidency, during presidency and their lives now. It talks about the day of 911 and the aftermath in the White House. She even mentions things that most would have never known - for example, did you know that everyone at the White House has to PAY for their food - even the first family?? So that means that the Obama's get a bill every week for the food that that they eat! That also means that if the President has guests come to dinner with them, he has to pay for his family as well as his guests to eat dinner in the White House. They may live there... but they have to pay to eat. Crazy.
So.... in watching Laura and her daughters talk about what they've learned about life up to this point, Oprah states that there was a paragraph in particular that she read in Laura's book that she felt completely describes who Laura is in the utmost sense. I can't remember the whole paragraph, but, the very end of what Laura said was what grasped me - "It was the moments when the baby girls were put to bed for the night and I would be out weeding the flower garden as I glimpse the sunset and George would be sitting on the steps of the front porch reading the newspaper, it was at that moment I would just think, 'This is the life'.

So simple isn't it? But I love that. It's the small, simple things. It's when we try to complicate life and try to go for bigger and better that we lose sight of the great and wonderful things that really matter and mean the most. Bigger is most certainly not always better.  It's just like how I attended my cousin's wedding this evening..... I wrote in their wedding card something that my husband and I have learned from our relationship - allow yourself to take in even the smallest of things in life together because those are the things that make memories and mean the most above all of those big things (good or bad) that happen in the journey.  Jesus gave each one of us a life to live with abundance and joy.... it is far too short to bypass those simple joys that only come if we stop long enough to enjoy and savor them.

I have a feeling if I ever had the chance to sit down and have a conversation with Laura Bush, we would have a great time just chatting about life.... I completely and thoroughly loved what she said about 'this is the life' because I think that so often, myself - even though those times are such simple times. They're my favorite.  :)

These are the moments that take our breath away...

We just returned from a family vacation with my husbands entire immediate family on Saturday. Whew! Were we wiped! It was a great time, but it was also very stressful and interesting. I think we all figured out what we have to do differently next time - more time with just our little families and LESS time as a whole family... yes, needless to say, we all got very tired of each other very quickly. It's so funny though, we all love each other very much and enjoy each other's company greatly, but there were just way too many people with their ideas of what they want to do and their opinions that it got to be waaaay to much.

My main stress, however, emerged from trying to manage our little 13 month old son. We found out very quickly that he does not do well with caos. He would not sleep well, did not each much at all when we were with the entire family, and was just plain hard to deal with. Every single day we were on vacation, I was up at 5am because my son was up making noise and I did not want him to wake anyone. Yes, it was hard. My husband and I made the resolution that when we take this same vacation in two years (whether or not we have a second child in tow or not) we are getting our own room so that we can deal with our craziness without the stress of bothering anyone else!

Now, we did have fun times. My mother-in-law wanted the whole family to take an 'old time' picture.... so all 13 of us got dressed up in old time clothes and took one - Super FUN. The other highlight was watching our son eat a corndog all by himself for the very first time... priceless. He did a very good job - he didn't take way too big bites. He was very cautious about it but he polished the whole thing off all by himself. SO cute to watch... we were mesmerized watching him.  :)

Now, my point in all of this is THIS: don't ever think that any situation is ruined because a few hardships. If you do not take the time(even if it's just for a moment) to see the 'gems' in the situation, you'll miss the things worth collecting as priceless gems in your life. If I would have focused entirely on all of the stress and frustration of our vacation and not remembered the small events that made me stop and enjoy the ride... I would have counted the vacation as a total disaster. But the truth is, those small moments are what made me stop and smile the most. They are my most prized memories. This is exactly what God desires of us. To take every moment in with a grain of salt and be thankful. Thankful for the moments that take our breath away.  'This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!'