Just a Few Words In No Time

I decided to sit down for just a minute to breath and just get JUST A FEW thoughts down. I’m in a moment of “how in the world will I get all that needs to get done, done in the short amount of time I have?” Truth be told, I will do my very best, yet it will not be good enough because quite frankly I am completely and totally over my head in responsibilities. I have a statistics exam on Wednesday!!! I have been doing great on my homework and quizzes for theses past several chapters but now that I am sitting down to study for the major exam, I am having a SERIOUS mental block and seem to have forgotten it all. This past week as flown by and I haven’t even begun to read the 4 chapters in my pharmacology class that I also have 4 discussion questions to complete by TODAY!

The housecleaning, kids’ science fair projects, cooking dinner, paying bills, helping kids with homework and anything else I am forgetting will all be on hold till after Wednesday….it’s the only way my mind can cope….this is NOT easy by any means. And one of the most difficult things is that I would MUCH rather be playing with my kids and hanging out with them as well as cleaning my house than wrapped up with statistical calculations which have absolutely NO meaning for me and never will.

This is all for now. Since my time is incredibly limited and I can’t possibly catch up right, I shall put on my running shoes and AT LEAST get a good run in. It’s ONE thing I can do to make me feel like I’m running away from it all and doing something for ME. Giggling inside.

Oh.. and Halloween? Eh, I got nothin’ on that right now. I love playing dress up with the kids but we can do that any day of the year.

Mentionable: Kid’s got off too school .. L with her homemade “crazy socks,” B with her funny “crazy hair,” and C with the homemade Knight costume I made him. They are every bit worth my time. I hope they have a great day.

I’m 0utta here!

If You Give A Kid A Seed…

For weeks my kids have been asking me if they could please have a garden. With all that I have going on with school, household and my *use Nacho Libre accent- “churchy duties,” I kept putting them off. As much as I appreciate plants and the process of growing things from the seed, I just could not see squeezing it in. So then, one day I had to stop at the discount store to pick up a few things in a hurry.. next thing you know…I’m perusing the gardening department. With kids voices in my head, I’m suddenly captured by the variety of seeds to choose from.. next I’m getting some dirt.. next some temporary seedling planters…next… Well.. you get the picture. Ah, why not. How much trouble could letting them plant a few seeds be, right?!

Oh! I know, I will ask my mom over to help the kids.. Great idea! Delegation!.. I’m all about time efficiency! The kids will be so happy and excited to plant seeds and my mom will get to spend some much needed time with them and I can keep on with everything else J …sounds good right? Well, it was, except I STILL had to help LOL…I often wonder how anything would get done with out mommy’s around. And if you are a mommy, you know EXACTLY what I mean!

Cute little seedlings began to sprout…cute little seedlings needed to be watered everyday…and THEN!!! Cute little seedlings grew really, really fast and before I knew it….Cute little seedlings needed to be replanted to survive!

You see what I get myself into…although it’s the labor of love never seems to cease, I still have this very funny comedian in my head that somehow still finds humor in it all.

Another, trip to the store…OH! And we can’t forget we need to protect the garden from the dogs…another trip to the store…Hmmmm.. I’m still not sure I have everything…a phone call to a wonderful gardening friend, Barbara ( I love you!)…a trip to her house to pick up much needed supplies…a sweet and irresistible persuading voice to hubby for his help…and well.. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/fbx/?set=a.2039706435241.2121115.1321685292&l=009cfebdba

Puppy Power

So, I got the girls good today. It was “quiet time,” that’s our name for Sunday afternoon nap when we should all be in our rooms being quiet. So, I went to check on the girls and they were chatting about life…one in their shared bathroom brushing her hair, one in her room reading a book on her bed. I didn’t plan this at all but it was the perfect timing for a good PRANK! I ran in her room grabbed this stuffed puppy and placed it in on the floor just outside the bathroom. She opened the door and says in her perplexed tone, “..how did that get THERE?.. look, that puppy was on my bed and now it’s right here by the bathroom door.. how did it get there??!!! Isn’t that weird???” She picks it up and puts it back on her bed then goes back into the bathroom. I quickly tippy toe in there and return the pup to the floor near the door. Snickering to myself, I can hardly stand to hold in my laughter…then I run back into the next room and listen again. I don’t know how the timing just happened to work out to let me get away with this but it sure was funny. She opens the door again and says, “.. Wha..what?! How did it get there AGAIN??” “THAT is freaky right?” So, I couldn’t take it any more.. I had to run away to the opposite side of the house to bust out laughing to myself. Ok, I confess, it’s times like this when I can’t deny my dorkiness.

So after “quiet time” I got to enjoy the fantastic story from the girls about how this toy puppy kept appearing at the door of their bathroom. You should have seen the looks on their faces as I tried to blow them off saying, “na.. that’s not true.. you are just kidding.” They had the most serious and concerned looks on their face that I could no longer hold back the laughter. “MOMMY!!! Was that you??? Did you prank us???” We laughed and laughed so hard together! PUPPY POWER!!! Hahaha.. So then one of them put 2 and 2 together and recalled when she found her tiger webkin in the pantry with cracker crumbs on it’s face…. “Oh Mommy! It was you who put my Webkin in the pantry that one time, right!??”

I can hardly wait to see what the next prank will be….

Freeze Day

I like the chance to FREEZE! So, I’m lounging here at home and the kids are playing “Guess Who” together. Their school has been canceled today and tomorrow due to this freezing weather. It’s kind of a nice break. As in, a day that gives me permission or rather forces me to chill out…and it sure feels nice. I guess that means I can FINALLY blog a minute or two.

School

I’m well into the spring semester now at TX A&M Corpus Christi. I started out thinking I would tackle Pharmacology, Health Alterations, Anatomy & Physiology and A&P lab. Turns out, I had to dig deep for the courage to drop Pharmacology. It’s an ongoing checks and balances for me to maintain peace in my life with all the responsibilities I have as a wife, mommy, student and worship leader. And I often ask myself, “what makes you think you can do so many things at a given time?” The answer is because it’s who I am, I suppose. I don’t really know. I do know that I have to wrestle with myself at times until I do what I believe God wants me to do and not what I want to do. Turns out God is always right…and at this season of my life I’m finding it much easier to submit to His ways. His ways are what’s best for me every time.

Ok. Back to the school topic. After this semester, I have a couple more prerequisite classes till nursing program. I don’t plan on going to summer session since the kids will be off school and we wanna be beach bums having fun in the sun. Then I can go to the Fall session and hopefully be in nursing school by spring 2012. It seems so far away. Yet, I know the rewards of pacing myself; PEACE and FUN. Life will go by anyway, so it’s gotta be fun. Time for God…time for dates…time for playing with my kids, time for music and time with friends. I never know when I’m gonna croak over and die so I gotta have fun.. I just gotta ;)

I love me some good buttery popcorn.

Destination Pointe Church

I’m growing to love the people at Destination Pointe more and more each week. It’s rare to find such genuine people who really love God and want to serve Him. Bonus-> I’m not totally alone with the music lately. I have a great friend who has been adding her talent of keyboard. And hopefully, in this next week we will have a bass player. Drums are next! Thank God He lets me enjoy music still even though I’m in over my head with school.

Hmmmm.. Monsters Verses Aliens.. I haven’t seen this one before.

And along my journey I am making new friends. I love how God keeps giving me opportunities to love people and learn more and more about the dynamics of friendships as well as my own human frailties.

I hope I can come blog about a few of these soon.

That’s all for now. My lounging must come to an end so I can go back to living J

P.S. Please post comments and questions here so we can begin a dialogue ;)

Life Has Gone On

Since beginning the Fall semester at TX A&M CC, I have had next to no time to blog. In fact, at this moment I should probably be either writing my micro lab report or practicing music for tomorrow morning's service. I'm just gonna take the liberty to update VERY quickly.

About 2 months ago, God opened up an unexpected door to for me to lead worship music for a new church plant in Calallen. When I was first asked to consider it I almost dismissed it immediately because of my current journey of pre-nursing classes and all that entails. But then one Sunday God led me and the family to go and meet this group of people who had been meeting since June in someone's home. And to my surprise, when we left, I knew God was definitely calling me to serve there. God works in mysterious ways, I had just starting singing with the praise team at The Summit at the time. Yet, I knew I needed to veer to this "Destination Pointe." It's been almost 8 weeks now...a fun and challenging opportunity to see God move in a new and fresh way.

School? Well, don't really feel like elaborating on that too much. I'm simply pushing myself hard and diligently through; basically a full time job in itself. I am really enjoying it even though it's not easy...I am a glutton for challenges I suppose. Anatomy and Physiology isn't as difficult as I had thought it would be but Microbiology is beyond what I expected as far as a time hog. It's not even so much that it's hard as much as it is taking up a WHOLE LOT of time; lab reports and lab preparations are so tedious and feel like busy work. I guess it's all part of the journey.

I have to mention that the best part of my new school journey is the new friendships I have made. There is such diversity on campus that you can't help but be around so many different types of people with different backgrounds and life experiences. I am especially thankful for the few "study buddies" God has specifically placed in my life for "such a time as this!" God is so good and I am forever grateful!

Until next time... which might not be till Christmas break. Ha!

Change Gon' Come

Wow...so much on my mind to blog about but haven't a moment in the world to do it really! School is GREAT! Love it! learning about microbes and the inner cell life.. what could be better?!
And then.. God brought me a nice surprise that I accepted and have yet to unwrap. More to come!

I Listened

Today is one of those days I just don’t have much motivation to “do” anything.. I think it comes from knowing that tomorrow school starts for me and I know I won’t have any down time till probably after Christmas. (OH! Did I mention that my books alone cost almost $600 dollars!!!! Ahhh! That’s insane. I’m certain it did not cost that much to produce and ship those books!) Nonetheless, gonna get out and see friends, come home do some chores and then spend time with the kids with homework while I cook a scrumptious dinner.
Phil went out on a deep sea adventure today.. sure hope he has a happy one and makes his dream catch. He has been dreaming for a long time of catching that BIG ONE. He tries hard too. So, I hope it happens for him today.
Last week I managed to aligned things just right and got to go off for a good 24 hour silent retreat .. ah. Of course it wasn’t long enough but, hey, I take what I can get. Lebh Shomea House of Prayer.. just what I needed. Funny how each time I have gone I have not gotten exactly what I have wanted but I trust I have gotten what I needed. This time around I stayed in the “Big House.” It is also referred to as the Kenedy Mansion and construction of the house began in 1918.
I much prefer the simple little one person cabins but this was last minute and I was grateful just the same. Lil talks about how much she just LOVES staying in the “Big House.” So, I was looking forward to the new experience.
Time solitude with God has a way of rejuvenating me like nothing else. And in such a beautiful environment of His beautiful creation and silence practiced by all who happen to be there at the given time. I am able to hear Him so much better… imagine that… still my world of thoughts keep me quite entertained and amused at some of the silliest things…the crunch of veggies during a meal...an accidental outburst of singing and then remembering to be quiet. When it comes to not being able to sing out loud or pray out loud, that’s the hard part. Thus, I end up spending some of my time at the chapel of the Sacred Heart where I a can sing and pray out loud with no one else around… very cool. And being in this little chapel itself is amazing…just knowing how much history has taken place there with the generations of Kenedy’s and the workers who did life with them.. weddings, funeral, and countless celebrations in this quaint chapel that to this day still has much of it’s original furnishings and things.
So, what did I hear anyway? The readings on Friday morning focused on the story of Ezekiel and God restoring to life the “dead bones” of Israel and breathing His spirit of new life into the bones and fully resurrecting them. As well as, “loving the Lord God with all your heart, with all your soul and all your strength.” The latter can only happen when we have God’s spirit flowing in us. Getting to the basics of what really matters, what really counts, and what our souls really need… to be content on Christ alone and to live a life worthy of the call to serve others.
It’s so easy to get so wrapped up in “doing,” in all the other relationships around us, and in the day to day happenings that we begin to lose sight of the truth. I was asking myself where that strong longing to love others well and have mercy and compassion on the poor and needy had gone. It hadn’t left; it just needed some fresh air to get the fire raging again.
I am really at peace today knowing that I can cast every care I have on the Lord because He cares and has my best interest in mind. And I will laugh with joy when things don’t go my way because I know His way is best. AND NO, this is NOT a Pollyanna attitude.. it’s just trusting God. And no it’s not always easy but I know it is doable.
Oh ya.. and the “Big House?” Well, I think I will stick to the small cabin as I said. I don’t know.. somethin’ about staying in a huge old old mansion all alone…ya.. not so much. Thanks! :)