details, details...

The last week of school is always super fun. And it's always super busy! Today is the last day. I am going to lay out my agenda here (mostly so I can get a big picture of how I need to lay out my day)

10a- pack up stuff I need to take to school (supplies for ice cream party, teacher gifts, and lunch for j)

11a-lunch w. j at school

11:40-12-deliver teacher gifts

12-12:30- ice cream party for first grade class that won Reflections Class Contest

1-1:30-clean up/bring 2 yr old home for nap

2-3- blissful rest (hopeful for a nap??)

3- bus stop/big kid home from last day as a second grader!

4-5-Chiropractor

5-6-take kids to grandmommy to play and eat dinner and meet daddy

7-midnight- go to work

When I lay it out, it doesn't seem so bad?... I just tend to get kind of flummoxed by the details...like, how am I going to keep the ice cream frozen all that time before the party....and how am I going to haul all this in while keeping one eye on the 2 year old trailing behind...?

hmm...sounds like a typical day for a typical suburban mom, doesn't it?

On another note.. j's Honors Day this year was a bit more satisfying than the rant I had last year...(sorry you had to witness that.) j had an AMAZING teacher this year who is actually leaving teaching to be an Instructional Technology Specialist at another school next year. We should all be sad when a great teacher leaves the classroom. It is a collective loss.

She really took her time to consider the best aspects of each child to honor and created a wonderful little presentation of certificates as well as a fabulous/sweet slide show.

If I can figure out how to show it here, I might post it.

So, here we are. Ready for summer. Next on my list....planning j's 8th birthday party. NEXT WEEK! (yikes.)

To be continued.....

LOST

For the past, hmmm....9 years(?), hubby and I have had a long-standing date night once a week that consisted of settling on the couch and tuning into a J.J. Abrams drama. With, first, Alias, then LOST, we were able to formulate predictions and wrestle with conclusions to these highly intelligent and interesting shows that elevated prime-time television and got us to think about crazy conspiracies and unimaginable plot-lines. We would count down the hours until the next episode, especially the season openers. J even had an email blast that he would put together to "debrief" Alias plots.

But. Now. They're done.

Now what? Nothing, nothing, is as good.

I am more than a little sad.

( And yes, this is pathetic. :0)

too weird

Just bizarre, but then again, maybe not really....

It turns out that the fabulous nurses that took care of my sister-in-law in the hospital for those four days ended up printing the lyrics to that song (I posted and asked you to listen to) for her to focus on while enduring this experience.

She sent a message out last night with this very same link! How crazy.

just had to share...and record...and remember how NOT alone we are.

life is not a snapshot

Is this just human nature? When something happens in life that knocks you out of the routine complacency... you always feel like you are going to remember it and to be grateful for the good things, happy for the moment, happy for the blessings and try not to get complacent again, right? Or is this something only I do? I forget this feeling of gratitude. I get frustrated. I lose focus. I forget to remember that this is all fleeting....

J's brother and sister-in-law lost their unborn baby (whom they named "James") this weekend and have had to undergo an incredibly difficult and what I can only imagine as a horribly painful experience. I stand back and feel so saddened by this time that they are going through and remember a time when I also lost a baby too early. It was an incredibly difficult time, but one that many people have experienced: a first trimester miscarriage. I have a few friends who have experienced the torture of losing babies late in pregnancy and can only imagine that kind of loss. I can only imagine if you have had this experience, it changes you. You probably don't forget to feel gratitude for the health of your children.

I have experienced loss. Big and small. I really should have my act together....being grateful for each day I am given. I'm gonna be working on that and will let you know.

This reminds me of a great book I just read called The Happiness Project. The author is a writer who took a year out of her life to pursue this "project". The theory being that she (and all of us) could take steps each day, each month, to become a little "happier". That we each have a happiness barometer, some of us look at things a bit more positively or negatively than others naturally (the glass half-full/empty idea) but that we could all use to reach the top end of our natural happiness predisposition. Her ideas were pretty simple; from clearing out the clutter to improve energy, to loving more. But, the point being that we each have our own personal issues and to be proactive in setting resolutions that might help us attain a more peaceful and, dare I say, happy attitude. Talking about this book is a few blog posts in itself. I'll get to that more later. She also has a blog: http://www.happiness-project.com/

I heard this song on the radio today. I have heard it before and probably you have too. It's not typically my style, but it sinks in every time I hear it. Possibly...let it sit with you today too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qG1ThtgguE

rearranging stuff

I haven't been a very good blogger it seems lately. One post in April?! (wow.) I have had a lot to blog about and am keeping lists, don't you worry! You will hear what's been on my mind....one of these days.

Last Friday, I took on a re-arranging project. It's been on my mind for awhile and I figured I had better get around to it. Because in my mind, that day we finally decide to put that sign out front in the yard - you know... I need to be prepared. Preparation means making the house look a little less cluttered. And a little bit of organization and clearing away clutter does a LOT for mental clarity. A lot! (Which makes me think of another post I am going to do soon-but you'll just have to wait for that one. Even if it DOES take me another month.)

But, I digress, again.

My re-arranging project.... I took on j's room. As you can see from the picture above and below... I had a "helper". He was a big helper removing books from the shelves. Can you tell?

The good news is he also likes to stack. Well, I don't know if it's good news, but at least he had fun "helping".

After we stacked, and restacked a few times...we finished up the room. It's fun to think that one day they might share a room.

(if we still live here...:)