Happiness

Declan's First Bike Ride! He was SO excited!! He wanted to be like his big brothers. After my most recent blog post I have continued to struggle with some depressive feelings but just these last few days, with more exercise than normal and adding some Salmon and Spinach to my diet, I’ve felt a little better. Yay! This Fall my boys have had cross country meets every weekend. It’s amazing to watch them race and improve every time. The Desert Twilight invitational in Casa Grande is tonight and we’re driving down and I’m excited to watch them run! Happy Weekend! What are you doing this weekend?

This morning I was trying to kill time between Preschool drop off and my Zumba class. I stopped into At Home- a home decorating store- and was overwhelmed at the amount of stuff in that store. It was amazing! I only had twenty minutes so I went straight to the framed artwork- my favorite.  As I was perusing colorful cows (love them!) and cute sayings ("I may be tiny, but I am fierce!"), I started feeling that same strange/kinda dark/sorta overwhelming feeling that I get in big box stores. The florescent lighting, the large space and often the large amounts of people there, tend to suck up my energy.  In the midst of my doom and gloom feeling, I saw a sign that said "Stay Alive". That's nice! I thought. I need that. I need a sign that reminds me to just stay alive. Keep Breathing. Put one foot in front of the other and keep going. On further inspection the art print actually read "Stay Awhile." Ok.  Not the same. But that's okay. It...

Happy Sweet 16, Elizabeth! I can't believe it!  16 years since you were a tiny, tiny newborn.  16 years of you. 16 years since I became a Mother.  I love you! I hope you have the best day! ps. Things that Elizabeth is into: dancing, French, eating yummy food, laughing with her brothers, chatting with her Mom ;), playing with her younger brother and fancy coloring books

I've had a lot of BIG trials in my life. If you look at this picture, it doesn't seem like I have. But we all have the tiger by the tail, as someone put it on Sunday, don't we? I deal with strong bouts of depression that come and go based on nothing in my life at the time- ok, maybe hormones.  I have dealt with a chronic illness that put me in bed several days out of the week and led to a move out of state. I have had- we have had- 3 miscarriages and one application to do foster care that didn't go through since we found out we were expecting. My daughter is also dealing with depression and anxiety and has bouts of doubts I cannot solve. I could keep going but I won't. Even though I have faced these trials and maybe because of them, I am happy. I am a happy Mother of 5 beautiful children and a handsome husband. I thank God for all that I have in my life and I hope that I can in turn help others as well.  

For those of you who don't know me, I love to go to yard sales. I don't do it often because I don't usually carry cash and I don't like to have a lot of junk in my house. But, every so often I get a hankering to check out some yard sales.  These are 5 things that I've learned from Yard Saling: #1. Go early. Anywhere between 6:30 am and 7:30 am. By the time 8 am rolls around the yard sales will still be there, but most of the good stuff will be taken by yard sale hunters- people who leave early and grab it at a great price. Often people will buy things, fill up a big truck and drive it to Mexico to sell (if you live in CA or AZ). #2. If you see something you are even mildly interested in, pick it up and find out how much it is. That way no one else can grab it and you end up feeling like you missed out. That happened to me this past weekend on a set of great wooden African masks (my son really likes them). #3. Bring a set amount of cash. That way you won...

Ethan and Jonah are running cross country this year as Freshman. They get up at 4:45 am every other day to run before school starts and then stay after school for two hours of running on the other days.  I have been so impressed with them. They have only complained once about going and the other times they get up by themselves and go. Even when they are super tired and just ran for two hours the day before. They had their first meet last Saturday and did really well! Josh ran cross country in High School and he loved the camaraderie with the team and learning skills as self motivation, determination, diligence and hard work. He is so thrilled that they have decided to run this year! They ran on their Jr High team last year and almost every day this summer with Josh. Plus, they have each other as running buddies! How cool is that? One Saturday practice, Ethan came in and we couldn't find Jonah for another twenty minutes. I began to worry that he had landed in the can...

I’ve found myself depressed lately. Not sure what it is. Maybe it's because I haven't been to the gym in a month. I just signed up today! Hopefully that helps and that I go! When I found myself questioning the quality of life, I wrote this list of things that make me happy. I don’t want to live without these things. Really I don’t. Poetry (Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, the Dirt Poet, Maya Angelou) Chocolate (Starbucks Hot Chocolate Packets, Homemade clusters, Sees,       Trader Joe’s Dark chocolate lovers, chocolate Cheesecake Factory        cheesecake, Sheelah’s fudge) Books (non fiction, historical fiction, book club picks, comedy, autobiographies) Bacon (BLT’s, Bacon wrapped dates, asparagus, Pasta Ala Carbonara) Fresh fruit ( pineapple, bananas, avocados) Children (Elizabeth, Ethan, Jonah, Asher, Declan, cousins, friends) Teaching Piano Josh (love of my life, biggest supporter & fan, brilliant law director). My Pare...