It's summer--why can't I get it in gear???

Of course, I have all these plans for the summer. I made out rules and chores for the kids, made a little plan for myself for the house and also for scrap booking, made another list of stuff for Doug to get done and here we are a week into the summer vacation and I accomplished one thing off of all my lists and I did that before school even got out. I have gotten off of work at noon each day, came home to eat lunch and promptly laid down to take a nap. That's not going to work real well. I better make another plan for my plans. Ha.

Zach and I ran some errands today. Katy gets home tomorrow so it was nice to do something with just he and I--because of course, I had another plan of stuff to do with him while she was gone and we did one thing. Oh wait, two. Out of 5. Anyway, we went to McD's (he picked) and then we ran to Hobby Lobby to pick out paper to make invites for a graduation--I needed ribbon also, but of course they didn't have any to match, so then we had to run to Jo Ann Fabrics--neither place is very boy friendly, but he was wonderful and carried my basket for me. After Joann's we went to Target to get a pair of my favorite flip flops--the same flip flops I have gotten every year for the last 2 or 3 years and guess what? No flip flops. So I had to pick another pair (or two) out. He shook his head to me because I apparently was taking too long to make a decision. He ran off to look at basketball cards and I wandered around the store looking at whatever. We met back up and the 2 of us tried to wrestle 40 pounds of dog food onto the bottom of our cart. Ha. It was a sight.

Today was a good day for him. He (nor I) barely yelled at all. Maybe being conscious of it is helping me. Well, at least I am working on one of the fruits of the spirit.

Our Memorial Weekend in Review

I am all for long weekends. This weekend was both relaxing and busy--a nice combination.

Saturday: Was able to do some errands and work a little on the house. Road trip to Greenville, about an hour and a half away, for my cousin's husband's graduation. His Aunt had a wonderful home full of antiques and Longaberger baskets--2 of my most favorite things. And a real cool brick patio/garden to have the party in.

Sunday: Up for Sunday school and Church. Ate lunch out with the inlaws--few more errands and then home to work a little more on the kitchen and picked up my scrap area. Tons of laundry done. And then off to our nephew's highschool graduation--I can't believe he is 18 already, a little warm in the gym, but the weather was beautiful for the party.

Today: I was up early while everyone else was sleeping in so I did a little more laundry, wrote Kate a note for her to find while she is in DC, finished helping her pack, made my son, Zach, pick up his room--oh the agony, took Kate to catch the bus and headed to Lowe's for some kitchen stuff, to Red Lobster (Zach and I's favorite "real" eating place--his definition of not fast food) for supper and then to Walmart to shop for some groceries. We are now home and Doug is again working in the kitchen--it's the little things that kill ya. I just got done putting away the groceries--I am heading down to do some more laundry--can you tell I was behind--and then pick up some more upstairs and be done in time to watch the first episode of this season's Jon & Kate plus 8--oh the controversy. I'm addicted to that show. Appraiser is coming back tomorrow at 4 so we can get our home loan finished up. The end is drawing closer.

Hope your Memorial Weekend good for you too.

He works in mysterious ways

I have been praying a lot for myself lately...to find a little patience and self control when it comes to my son. It seems like lately all I have been doing is yelling at him. He goes at one speed at all times and that is S-L-O-W--like a turtle. And he gets distracted easily. So if you tell him to go upstairs and get me this one thing and put this thing away, he inevitably forgets to do one of the things--which leads me to remind him of the other. More than once. A little louder this time. And then it's full blown yelling. It also doesn't help when he tries to defend himself and that usually involves blaming of someone else. Instead of just saying "okay, Mom--sorry I forgot" it is always "well, if so and so hadn't of done this, I wouldn't have forgotten that" and so on and so on. Aggravating in the least...but I am the adult and I should get a handle on my anger.

So today at Sunday school our teacher had a class member read out loud Galatians 5: 22-23. It is the passages about fruits of the spirit. Now, I didn't grow up in a church so I had never heard of fruits of the spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering (which I take to mean patience) gentleness, goodness, faith. Meekness, temperance (here is where I think it means self control), against such there is no law." So...we discussed what we are good at and what we need to work on. I thought about and and came to the conclusion that I am not good at any of the above. I love, but it isn't unconditional, which is the best kind (Thank you Grandma Bright and Grandma Hambrecht); it is hard for me to be happy or find joy--I tend to be the glass is half empty gal; Peace--what is that?; Patience--see above--I have none; Gentleness--nothing again; Faith--there is where I am probably working the most--I have started doing daily devotionals; meekness--again--what is that--I am right--yes, I am; self control--again if I had some of that I wouldn't find myself flying off the handle, with my eyes bugging out--like I am a psycho mom from Hell. So my goal this summer is to work on all of these things and continue working on them until I can at least say I am good at one of them. I think I will be happier and I know my family will be too.

I hate when I do that!

Last night I wigged out when my daughter's whole bottle of bodywash leaked out onto my bathroom floor. I wigged out because I just don't understand how the whole thing could happen and that no one noticed it before it was completely empty. We have a claw foot tub with the shower curtain around the top of it and so we have a wire shelf type thing that sits just outside the tub but behind the shower curtain with all the required soaps, shampoos and body washes. Some how...again...I'm not sure how it even happened...I went in there to find her trying to mop up body wash with paper towel. Now we all know what happens when liquid soap is spilled--I'm thinking of dish soap--and not the whole bottle of that--it is quite hard to get up. All I can think of is that every time I will mop the bathroom floor I will have suds anywhere. So I ranted and raved and went on and on and I'm sure she wanted to say "Shut the eff up", but she wouldn't because she is a nice 13 year old girl. I felt bad the whole night after that and couldn't sleep because all I could think of was that I went overboard. She cleaned it up herself with a little help from her dad so I should have went easier on her. Things happen, but unexpected things especially when they are messes really freak me out. I was a good mother though and went up this morning to apologize to her and tell her that I was sorry I over-reacted and that I had trouble sleeping last night because I knew it was wrong of me to get out of control like that. I know the whole spill thing won't happen again, because she will make every effort to do things differently because she is a good girl like that. But, I'm sure I will wig out again--lately that is what I do best.

I can't believe I did it!

I don't know how long I have been thinking about doing this, but man, I just accomplished a goal I had for this year. Not that I don't ever accomplish goals but; this is a big one. My bff, Dawn, will be so proud of me. And maybe a little envious too. Maybe this will spur her on to start hers too. I just hope I can figure this whole blog thing out.