Alone with my thoughts...

Why is it that I like to be alone so much? Maybe I am crazy. With my family history, it is pretty likely. :) I got up this morning at 5:00 am with the sole intention of listening to the silence. To hear the refrigerator hum, and the icemaker chatter. To hear the click of the cat's toenails on the stairs as he made his way upstairs to Lily's bed to snuggle. To hear the tappity-tap of my fingers on the keyboard. And, most importantly, to listen to the thoughts in my head that are too overshadowed by the busy-ness of everyday life to be heard. It isn't that what my head has to say is all that important, really. Nothing earth-shattering goes one up there. It's just that moment after moment, day after day, the clarity of it all gets lost because all I can hear myself thinking about is what chore or work-related thing I have to do next... or where I have to pick up or drop off a child next... or what I need to buy from the grocery store... or if Brad is out of deodorant... or if I remembered to fill up the dog's water bowl. I just want to have a moment to listen to that gal who used to have so much to say and who used to say it with such "umph!". So, does that make me a hermit? Who cares really? So, I probably acted a little irrationally this morning when Brad woke up during my "alone" time. I may have stomped around and acted a bit like a two-year old. But it seems that the only time anybody else can get up early is when I try to get up early. So forgive me, Jesus, for my tantrum. I only wanted to hear my old friend, Heather.

Back to School with a Bang...

Well, we went back to school last week. Thank goodness that we only had two days before the weekend came rolling in to relieve us! The one thing about having the summers off is that when I go back to work, everything else starts back at the same time. So, I go from doing next to nothing to doing everything. We were completely out of food so I had to go to Walmart Saturday. Two hundred fity dollars later, we are back to cooking dinner and packing lunches every night. Lily is sick so we are having to remember her medicine every morning. Sam has his orthodontic appliance that I have to remember to turn it every other night. Homework has returned. Lily is starting gymnastics next week. Church activities start back in two weeks. Teresa Tallent and I are leading the new Awana program at church. Lesson planning and school meetings. Sam says he wants to play basketball this winter. Lily wants to "try out for piano lessons". Laundry. Laundry. Laundry! Busy, busy, busy. Ugh. I love the activities themselves, but I hate the busy-ness of it all. So stressful. And I just don't deal with stress very well.

I'm going to go to bed and hide under the covers with my Kindle for a bit before I fall asleep. Take a deep breath and start it all again in the morning.

Whew....

My momma and I always have secretly laughed at how my daddy comes into the room and no matter where he has been or what he has been doing, he enters the room with a loud "Whew....!", as if he has just been doing some really hard physical labor. Well, tonight when I walked in the door, I must admit that I closed the door behind me and said "Whew....", just like my daddy. Y'all, I am just plum tired. I have been so busy since going back to work and it is just wearing me out. I need to go to bed early tonight, for sure. And I could use a good foot rub, too.

Bologna sandwiches...

Tonight I made fried bologna and scrambled egg sandwiches for supper. They were so good. It brought back the memories of when I was pregnant with Sam and I had a very serious addiction to honey buns and fried bologna. Weird, the things you remember. And how funny that I don't remember eating anything out of the ordinary with Lily. And apparently, if you're pregnant now, you can't eat bologna? What's up with that? Good thing I was pregnant then and not now.

Beach blahs...

Well, we just got back from this summer's beach trip and I can assure you that the ocean is still there. It is still hot. There are still 40 bazillion people at Myrtle Beach, and I am pretty sure that about 37 bazillion of them stay at Ocean Lakes. There's nowhere to park your golf cart when you go to the pool. Everything is outrageously expensive. I'm not complaining, nor am I surprised, just stating some facts. The kids got bored after about 3 days and since we couldn't afford to spend $200 to check out the newest Dolly Parton Dinner Show, we decided to pack it up and come home early. It is, quite possibly, the BEST decision we have ever made. Everything worked out quite nicely. I think next year, I will only plan for a 3-4 day beach trip. That is plenty. Or maybe I will randomly pick a different state and plan a vacation there. Who knows? All I know is that I feel great right now. All the vacation laundry is finished, pictures are uploaded, camper is clean and stored away, I am home with my cats and my dogs and my fish, and all is right with the world! Home sweet home.

I must be doing something right...

Sam is cutting the grass. No one asked him to do it. He just started cutting the grass. We pay him $5 each week for doing this. It usually takes him around 3 hours. In all honesty, we should probably pay him more, especially with this heat. Don't tell him I said that.

Lily asked if she could do something to make a little money for our beach trip. I told her she could clean the playroom really good and sweep out the garage and I would pay her $5. She just finished vacuuming and is now dusting the furniture. From the sound of it, everything is being moved off the shelves and replaced after the shelf is dusted. Probably getting my money's worth there.

I'm sitting with my feet up playing around on my computer. I must be doing something right.

Got a New Computer...

OK, just so you know.... I did not fall off the edge of the planet. I guess blogging has just not been much of a prioity for me this past year. I am not going to say that I am going to start again, because obviously that doesn't work. It's just that everytime I look at my blog and take a minute to read my posts, I realize that I really like it. Writing, that is. I spend so much of my spare time reading and scrapbooking (and let's be honest, facebooking), that I don't put enough effort into writing. Although I like it. A lot. Gonna bookmark my blog, just incase I get the urge to write as I am spending time on my new computer