I Got This

It's amazing to me how you can be having a day, a moment, a minute, where you're world is happily right side up, where you recognize the very substance and purpose of why you are where you are. You won't forget this. They won't forget this. Near perfect. Precious things.

Then something happens--you can fill in the blanks from your own stuff right here--and you're jarred, right where you stand, grasping for something to hold on to. You can't look, but you know it's there--life continuing, right beside you. The sun, still shining, the sky, never more blue, everyone lightly walking, laughing, the music doesn't skip a beat...you know this. You can't understand how this can be when you can't even move, you are so stunned, blind-sided, brokenhearted, dulled and numbed. How dare you let your guard down.

I've been through this many times and it just never gets easier. I am counting on the place where I exhale, where experience comes in to play. We are resilient creatures.  We lift our heavy bodies, and push forward ever-searching for the other side. We calculate, make lists, flip pages, pray and ready ourselves for a battle of truth and clarity and balance and peace.

It will come.

What I'm Writing About Today

Today I am blog challenged to write about my 10 Pet Hates, which I assume is the same thing as Pet Peeves, cuz who could name 10 pets they hate?  You gots the bad juju if you can, and you should work on that. I don't really want to focus on 10 things I hate, cuz it's Sunday, it's raining, it smells like breakfast and it feels like harmony in my house, so I'm gonna focus on 10 things I like...a lot. (p.s. this is an incredibly small list.)

Let's start here.  We use every single bit of our home.  This little cozy nook is sharing space in my laundry room.  I don't think this old bread table has ever been so happy.

My back yard. Totally, one of the best spots of my life.

I love when my kids are kids.

A dear friend of mine GAVE this dollhouse to me.  It's been a dream of mine since I was probably eight-years-old.  Thank you, Mrs. Joanne Weaver for that one. She had the most beautiful dollhouse I've ever seen. It was huge and took up half a ping pong table.  I would spend hours looking at and taking in the tiny rugs in their tiny wallpapered rooms, tiny chandeliers and lights throughout, that actually worked, tiny plates, goblets and silverware, tiny baby cradles...oh, it was so special.   I'm 40 and it still gives me the warm fuzzies remembering. I am in no hurry to finish up this one. It's something I can go to, to "get-a-way", make my own, share with my kids, and eventually pass down.  I hope it gives my children the warm fuzzies when they are 40.

Our dogs. Seriously two of my best friends.

Our kids. 4 plus 2. I don't think I've been more proud of anything in my life as I am of these ones.

May they always crave childhood.

I love my job.  You have no idea how fortunate I KNOW I am to say this.  This is what we did on Friday with all of my grandmas and grandpas.  CycleCars.  Really.  This is what I GET to do.

This guy.  Life is so full of surprises.

I could live in FALL forever.

For my Instagram Challenge I'm supposed to post something funny.  I think I've Instagramed the ever-livin' out of you today, so I will draw from my Pinterest files for this one.

How much does Google save your life?  I question whether my entire education was a trick, because every time the kids bring homework home and ask for help, I seriously feel like crying, cuz I.Know.Nothing. I'm a flipping idiot, apparently.  I paid thousands of dollars for what exactly?  Do you even knoooow how much I Google?  Yes, you do...cuz I'm pretty confident, you're right there with me.  Tell the truth.

Yesterday, one of the daughters asked me if you can get HIV from mosquitoes.  Alarming question, #1, as I had the little freak out as to WHY she was asking me such things.  And after further investigation into that one, and a conclusion that kids are curious and very random, I answered a confident, "no," and then, of course, immediately questioning myself.  I mean, I know that somewhere, buried in my brain, I have stored that answer, and then logic made an appearance, but I still felt like I had to back it up with, "Go ask your dad," and then a Google search. Before you go Google the answer yourself, let me assure you (insert laughter) everything is okay, everybody.  You cannot catch HIV from a mosquito.

And now this: