Superpaige's Pad

The Trials of a Busy Mom

Category: Uncategorized (Page 22 of 118)

My crazy, mixed up morning

April 26, 2011 / / 4 Comments

I woke up wondering how I got out of China and what day it was. Seriously. As soon as I emerged, bleary eyed, from my bedroom, daughter #2 accosts me with, “Mom, you need to drive me again this morning so I can be to band by 7:00.”
“No.”
“But MOM, it’s concert week!”
“What? Where’s the note? When is the concert?” I’m really out of the loop, apparently.
So, I throw some shoes and a jacket on over my pajamas, write out a bunch of lunch money checks, make sure John has some honey-nut cheerios, and get in the car. It’s pouring rain. No, it’s snowing. Wait, isn’t it the end of April? As I drive her through the snow turning to hail, I see the Hawaiian ice shed is now up. Am I in some kind of alternate reality? Nothing makes sense this morning!

Daughter number three had better dress VERY warmly, as her class is going to Camp Floyd for a fieldtrip today, and Daughter number 3 is supposed to have a walking fieldtrip to the junior high to see Fiddler on the Roof. “if I were a rich man….didle, deedle, deedle, digger doodle deedle deedle do…”

And daughter number 1 proudly shows me her learners permit. It’s crazy, I tell you!

And I promise I don’t drink or do drugs. It just feels that way.
That must have been one strong episode of Castle last night.

New life for an old piece of furniture

April 21, 2011 / / 10 Comments

I have had this dresser for about forever. Seriously. I remember it from when I was a kid. And, when we had a couple kids and needed more and more dressers, I inherited this one back from my parents. I do not know how old it it, but it’s got a couple of coats of paint on it.

I do know that unlike a lot of our furniture, it’s made of wood. Not just particle board with a little bit of wood on the front. There’s a tag on the back, but I can’t read a date or anything, but let’s just say it’s old.

A few days ago, a received a REALLY COOL sample in the mail. I had signed up with Valspar Paint for a sample, and this is what they sent me. A little jar of my chosen color, also a mini roller, and a $5 coupon for valspar paint. I had chosen a light blue, “beach sparkle,” I think it was called. I didn’t want to paint a wall, though, I had ordered it with this dresser in mind.

I started with a Mr. Clean Magic eraser and scrubbed the heck out of the piece. Yes, I know–real painters use sandpaper. But I am not a professional or anything, so I just cleaned it, not sanded it. I started with only the top, because I didn’t know if I would have enough of the sample paint to do the whole dresser. There was also some tape and labels that had to be peeled off. You can tell I was really careful with this dresser in the past, since I had put labels that said “shirts”, “underwear and socks” and “pants and skirts” on the drawers. Peeling those off took off some paint, but hey, I don’t care so much.

I went to town.

There I was, in my pajamas, (what? You don’t paint in your pajamas? For some reason I do my best painting in my pajamas. Once the kids are gone and I’m figuring out what to do with my day, that’s when I get the inspiration to paint. And I don’t want to paint after I’ve had a shower, so I end up just painting in my pajamas. Ok, so I’m weird that way), blasting some Foo Fighters and Glee, and painting. I found a screw driver and took off the handles (different color underneath, but I’m not sure if it was from fading, corrosion from the handles, or if the last painter just went around the handles), and painted the drawers. I had JUST enough paint to do a whole second coat!

I love that spring blue color, don’t you?

I wasn’t sure what to do with the handles. It would be fun to put on fun new handles, but that would mean a trip to Home Depot or Lowes or something, and then what if I didn’t get the right size? So, I thought I would just paint the handles and put them back on. And, lookie there, I have some black spray paint. So, it’s a done deal.

I spray painted the handles black, then gave them a coat of gloss, put a coat of polyurethane on the dresser, and BAM!

Now, if I were to do another dresser this way, I would make sure to take it to the garage or basement to paint it, not leave it there smelling the kids’ rooms up with the smell of polyurethane. When I came home from rehearsal, I could smell the smell as soon as I walked in the house, and I couldn’t believe the kids were sleeping in the same room as the smelly dresser. So we moved the whole thing into the laundry room and shut the door, so it could continue drying for the rest of the night, and stop stinking up the bedroom. But by morning, the smell was mostly gone, and it was ready to be assembled.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how it turned out! I love it so much, in fact, that I’d like to steal it for somewhere else in the house, not waste it on a kid who doesn’t even put his clothes away. I think it would look really cute in the entryway or in the kitchen with tablecloths in it.

But for now I’m just happy with how it turned out. It’s not perfect, and there are some poly globs on the top. If I were a professional (and remember, I am NOT), I would sand that top layer and then put another layer of poly on the whole thing just to make it more smooth, shiny, and durable. The best part? Free. The paint was free, the dresser was free, the handles were free. I didn’t even have to go to the store ONCE for this project! And it gives me hope and inspiration. I could paint EVERYBODY’S old garage sale/hand me down dressers and make them ALL pretty and cute! I said I could. Could. Not that I have to.

Spring Break Fun–or what we’ve been up to this week

April 15, 2011 / / 2 Comments

It’s our Spring Break around here, but we haven’t been totally slacking. Yes, there has been some sleeping in and some lounging around reading books, but we can’t do THAT all week, could we? Well, some of us could. Others are wanting to be more entertained.

Cole, actually, is the lucky one this week. Ryan’s brother called Sunday night to see if Cole would like to go to Disneyland with them the next day. Their son had invited a friend, who had to have emergency surgery and couldn’t go. So, Cole got to go. which is nice, since he didn’t go with us when WE went to Disneyland in January. So, he’s having a totally different spring break than we are!

Monday night we went to Provo to see the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU museum of art. If you haven’t taken the chance to see this FREE exhibit, you really should. We wandered through a few other exhibits, too. Strangely enough, the kids really liked the war posters.
We had to explain things about ‘saving fat’ and war bonds and things, but it was an interesting display.

We also liked this huge stack of books. Yes, it’s art. And very cool.

A $5 bucket of chalk is definitely a spring break necessity. The kids and friends spent several hours (on the one nice weather day) drawing with chalk. Yes, they’ll probably go through the whole box in one week, but that’s ok.

Colorful creations are always welcome on my driveway and sidewalk, even if they are just going to get rained and snowed on.

My girls wanted to go and do baptisms at the temple, so on Tuesday I took them there. The smaller kids and I did some errands and killed some time waiting for them. They said it was SO CROWDED and they had to wait a long time. That just makes me happy that so many kids were doing temple service during their spring break!

Wednesday we planned to go ice skating. I had checked the Peaks Arena website, and Wed was the only day this week that they were open early, so we got ourselves ready and over there by noon. Jenna, in particular, has really been bugging us to go ice skating. We tried a few weeks ago when we got an invitation from our mortgage company for a free night of skating, but when we went, it was SO CROWDED that we seriously couldn’t find anywhere to park. We just left. So, when we got there this time, there were hardly any cars in the parking lot! Which was encouraging, until we saw the sign on the door that said, “Due to mechanical difficulties, we will not be open until 2:00”. Ugh. That won’t work, as John had a baseball practice later in the afternoon. I had planned to skate from 12-2. There must be a curse on us that we can’t actually GO ice skating. Maybe roller skating would be better. Well, I was scrambling for something fun (and cheap) to do, so I picked up food and we went to a fun park in Pleasant Grove.

We had a fun time playing there for the afternoon, and got home in time to take John to baseball practice and the girls and I planted three tiny apricot trees in the yard. We still have three cherry trees to get to, but our days of sunshine and temps above 39 degrees have been limited.

Thursday we decided to go to Thanksgiving point, to one of our favorite places, the dinosaur museum. The kids can spend hours there, building, digging, and exploring. After 3 hours, we still had to drag John out of there. I decided on the way home that it would be a perfect date night for Ryan and I, so I stopped and picked up a couple of movies from redbox, and got tacos and pizza for them. Perfect! Then Ryan and I went to see Limitless. Not the best movie I’ve ever seen, but an enjoyable date night, nevertheless.

Today is Friday, and I’ve promised to take a certain daughter of mine to buy shoes. And she’s nagging me almost to death. She’s got talent for persistence, that one. We’ve also got to make dinner and take it to someone in my neighborhood, and Megan gets to babysit tonight. Natalie gets to take care of the neighbor’s dog while they are out of town. So, as you can see, there’s still lots of ‘excitement’ around here. I’m hoping I can find friends for the kids to play with so they won’t just be hanging around the house all day.

So, even though we haven’t done much, didn’t go anywhere, we’ve been enjoying our spring break week. Now, if we can just get a little bit more “spring” in the weather, that would help.

And you thought your meeting was boring

April 7, 2011 / / 1 Comment

Ryan is in Korea right now. Just a short trip, with about half of that travel time. Not my idea of fun. Actually, probably not anyone’s idea of fun. The highlight of the trip for him was going to be that on the way home, he has a layover in Japan and he’s excited to buy some Japanese candy from the candy store in the airport. Yay. Anyway, he sent me an email explaining that he was falling asleep in his meeting. And then suggested I try this to have the same experience myself.

If you’d like to have the full meeting experience I’m having here, I
suggest the following:

* Set the room temperature to 72
* Run all the showers on hot until you get 70% humidity
* Queue up some foreign language films with no subtitles
* Start watching the foreign language films at about 4pm, and watch them
for the next 8 hours.
* Take notes about the film on a nice, warm computer.

Fun Fun Fun!

Right. And he didn’t mention the whole “be on a plane for many many many hours” part. Funny Ryan. Well, hopefully he can stay awake through those meetings and do what he came to do.

Sisterchicks Book

April 2, 2011 / / 0 Comments

I just read Sisterchicks in Wooden Shoes by Robin Jones Gunn.

I actually took it on the plane with me, since I always need some kind of distraction while flying (I do not enjoy flying), but it wasn’t as attention grabbing as I would have liked. I only read for about 30 minutes into the flight, then I put it away and watched the in-flight tv.

The story is about Summer, who gets a call one day from the dr’s office and informs her that her mamogram was “abnormal”. Instead of scheduling a biopsy appointment, she books a flight to Holland to go and see her pen pal of over 40 years, Noelle.

During their week together, the two friends meet for the first time, catch up on recent happenings with their families, and explore the Netherlands together. Since the setting is spring, when the tulips are out, I can say I definitely wanted to be there with them. The closest I came to Holland was Germany, where they have a lot of tulips themselves, but nothing like the vast tulip empire in Holland. I enjoyed hearing about the sites they visited and the adventures they had.

Unfortunately, I found the book a bit preachy, and a bit boring. There were no plot twists, not much action, and no suspense to keep me engaged. It took me a while to finish the book, and if I hadn’t been writing a review, I don’t know if I would have finished it at all.

Sorry I can’t give it a higher recommendation.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review. I was not compensated for my opinion.

Let’s talk art

March 29, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Let’s talk Art. At the MOMA, Museum of Modern Art in New York, one of the first pieces we came to was a collage of food packages that the artist had eaten in one year. It reminded me of our ‘garbage collage’ we had in college. But this guy sure ate a lot of frozen strawberries.

I may not be the best at modern art appreciation. So much of it looks like something a five year old could do if given a large canvas and some paint. But much of it was thought provoking, even beautiful.

I was very pleased to finally come to some famous artists.

There was VanGogh’s “starry Night”, and works by Picasso and Dali and Warhol! So close I could touch them (but I wouldn’t even try, since there was security EVERYWHERE, and they would tell you to step back from the painting if you got to close).
That was amazing. But we could only take so much Modern Art, especially when we had already walked a bunch and been on our feet for hours.

While Ryan looked up directions for the next leg of our adventure, I actually laid back and closed my eyes on a padded bench thingy for just a couple of minutes. It felt like heaven.

I appreciated the art at the Met art museum more. I tend to gravitate toward the beautiful colors, the landscapes, and the flowers.

And there were so many works of art from all over, and from so very long ago.

We could have spent days there. Or weeks, even. It was truly amazing. And I’m glad it was the first museum we went to–before we were “museumed out”. There were tons of school groups there, and I felt a little envious of the New Yorkers who could come and see this amazing museum anytime they wanted. Not that they all do. We tend to not always appreciate the gems in our own backyard. Which reminds me, have you gone to see the Carl Bloch exhibit at the BYU art museum? We are going next week. I’ve heard it’s amazing. And it’s right here local, and it’s free. So we don’t have to travel all the way across the country to experience breathtaking works of art.

Here’s to the Big Apple

March 18, 2011 / / 4 Comments

Back in November, I was lucky enough to win a contest. A big contest, actually. A ‘shopping trip’ to NYC! It was during a promotion of four weeks of fly-aways from a local country station (101.5 the Eagle, to be specific). There were four different trips to concerts, etc, and honestly, I won the best one! Because it wasn’t associated with an event, I was able to push the trip back to a time when I could actually go, hence the after roadshow scheduling. When I was talking with Stacey, from Stoney Creek Records, she was great about the scheduling. The prize was supposed to be two nights hotel and the flights, plus $500 spending cash. But when I was scheduling, she told me she could just pay for two more nights of the hotel instead of giving me a giftcard, if I wanted. YES! Especially since the hotel is $300 per night! So, it should be a pretty fun trip.

I bought City Passes for us, so for one price we can now go to:
The Empire State Building
American Museum of Natural History
The Museum of Modern Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
and then we can choose either ther Top of the Rock tour or the Guggenheim, and chose The Statue Cruise or the Circle line Cruise

And if that weren’t enough to do, I’ve got us tickets to see the Late Show with David Letterman for Tuesday (so you could tune in Tuesday night and maybe catch a glimpse of us in the crowd!) I was a little worried when I got the call from the Late Show, and they told me I had to call a guy named Jack and answer a trivia question before they would let me have tickets. UGH! What kind of trivia question? Do I have to watch teh show every night? Do I have to know who the guest was the day before? So I googled something like “trivia questions for Late Show tickets”, and read up about other people’s experiences. I also took a quiz to prepare me. (Questions like ‘where did Dave go to school (can’t remember), what is the name of the production company (worldwide pants), who is Biff Henderson, what is the name of the Deli nearby (Hello Deli), and who runs it (Rupert G) and stuff like that. I read a few different web pages about Dave and the history of the show, and then I gathered my courage to call Jack. He put me on hold for a minute, then asked me the big question, “Alan Kalter has been a part of the show for many years. What is his job?” I knew that one right away! He’s the announcer! And it’s a good thing they didn’t ask me, “who is the announcer”, because while I would have said Alan right away, I don’t think I could have come up with his last name. So, tickets we have!

I also requested tickets for the Nate Berkus Show on Wednesday (not sure when that will be televised, but I’ll let you know). Isn’t he the cutest?

He’s the guy with the good hair, not the other guy who works at Lowe’s, by the way. Ryan may think I’m challenging his manhood a little by making him go to a ‘design show’, but he’ll just have to deal with it, and my tiny little crush on Nate, since I won the trip and I’m taking him as my guest.

I tried to get tickets to see Rachel Ray, but haven’t heard back from then. There’s always stand-by, I guess, if we decide we want to try to do that.

Just today I got a call from ‘the View’, since I had also requested tickets to that show. But they aren’t taping on Thursday, and we couldn’t do the time they offered us on Tuesday because it would conflict with Letterman’s show. No problem. Ryan is relieved, and said he “dodged a bullet with that one.” What? I was requesting tickets so I could have options, people.

We have actually been to the Late Show once before when we went to NY in 2006, but this should hopefully be a little bit slicker process, since we already have the tickets. When we went before, we had NO plan for our three day adventure, and literally just started walking around and ended up at Spamalot. This time, I’m trying to figure out how to use our time wisely, not just wander around aimlessly. And I don’t have the burning desire to spend hundreds of bucks on theater tickets. I’ve seen Wicked twice, otherwise that would be at the top of my list.

I’m also not too concerned about all the great FOOD in New York. We won’t have a lot of time to eat at fancy places, so we’ll probably just stop and eat when we are hungry. Except for one night, when we have a dinner invitation to eat with a Control4 dealer that Ryan works with. When Ryan told him he was coming to NY, he invited him to come and see his business and that he would take us out to dinner. Well, I’m all for free dinner, so I’m on board.

Ryan’s not much of a shopper, either, so we won’t be spending hours touring the garment district and looking for clothes. But, if we should happen upon cute purses or shoes, or see a store that’s especially inviting, I might just have to pull him inside. Hopefully there will be a chair or a bench where he can sit. But I’m such a cheapskate, I can’t see me forking out big bucks for some designer clothes, unless it’s a knock-off. We’ll have to see.

I have a lot to do before we go, so I don’t really know why I’m sitting here blogging, but I am. Since I will be having people come here and help with the kids, I’ve got to get the house in decent condition, make sure there are enough groceries, make a few meals for the freezer, return all the library books, catch up on all my primary stuff, clean the bathrooms, make the schedule, make sure the kids are caught up on homework, clean our bedroom, and pack. And I can’t just pack any old schleppy clothes, I want to look nice. Especially when the email from the Nate show specifically said, “Colors photograph best and we ask that you please refrain
from wearing anything all white or all black We all know that Nate has
great style and we expect the same from you! /Think Chic! /Absolutely NO
athletic attire or sweat suits, sneakers, oversized jeans, hats,
sunglasses, shorts, t-shirts with logos, busy patterns or casual tank
tops will be permitted in the studio. Men should wear nice pants with a
button-down shirt, sweater, or blazer.” So no jeans and t-shirts for that show, I guess. Then I don’t know if it will be warm, cold, rainy or sunny, so I’ve got to watch the weather for next week and pack for all possibilities.

So excited!

So stay tuned for pictures, because I’m sure we will be taking LOTS of them!!

Weekend of fun

March 14, 2011 / / 2 Comments

What a fun weekend we had around here!

Thursday night I took 3 of the kids to Disney on Ice, and we successfully managed to not buy any of the overpriced snacks and blinky cups/swords/crap. Although I did have to have a serious talk with John about not ASKING for the stuff. Megan and I decided to count how many vendors came by advertising their stuff, and we counted 51 times that someone came by our row before the show started. In an effort to show how some non frugal people can be at events like this, we mentally counted up how much money the people sitting next to us spent. Two popcorns, three snowcones, a blinky sword, etc. We estimated they had spend around $85 on snacks while there. Duh! We were sorely in the minority. But that’s how we do things, folks. Free tickets, park for free when you eat at Crown burger, bring our own treats in our pockets. Our evening cost $21. Boo-Yeah!

Friday Ryan and I attended a funeral, which wasn’t so fun, but at least we were spending time together, right? That night I went out to dinner with my best girlfriends, and it was fun to chat and eat and catch up with them! When I came home, our houseguests had arrived and the kids were all playing, playing, playing. We love it when Robin and her kids come to visit us! The kids have played board games, group games, video games, and just had a great time together.

Saturday, Robin and I were filled with hope as we went to search for garage sales. Wonders never cease, we found several! I bought a really cute chicken platter (yep, more chickens!) that I’m excited about. I also picked up an inflatable raft and paddles that I think might be fun to use this summer if we go to a lake. After the yard sale adventure, we got our girls and went up to Kingsbury Hall for Odyssey Dance Theater’s Dancescapes. It was a GREAT show, but then everything that Odyssey Dance Theater does is great. Since it was the matinee, it wasn’t very crowded, and we were able to avoid sitting in our last row, back of the balcony tickets (yes, they were free) and had good balcony seats. There were several “mini-intermissions”, and I tried to get Robin and our girls to move forward at each one. By the last set, we were smack dab in the center of the second row. Wow! Those dancers are amazing. We had a nice time, and it was fun to take our daughters.

Sunday we went to church, and afterward had a wonderful dinner. First steak grilling of the year! Yum. And then we got to watch our favorite show, the Amazing Race.

Monday we lucked out in that the kids are out of school. It’s a ‘snow make-up day’. Here in Utah, they schedule one or two days a year for a make up day, just in case school has to be closed because of snow. I’ve decided that we should ALWAYS have the Monday after the daylight savings time switch off of school. It gives us one more day to ease into the earlier time. But for my kids, it gives them one more day to play with their Arizona friends without the burden of school, homework, and our regular weekly schedule getting in the way. Not that I feel too sorry for them, for they will surely find PLENTY of time to play with their friends for the rest of the week, but it’s nice to not have to ship them off to school when they have guests staying here. We plan to go see Tangled, and end the long weekend with a family game night party at Ryan’s sister’s house.

How’s that for fun?

Book Review–the Pirate Queen

February 25, 2011 / / 3 Comments

I just finished reading the Pirate Queen by Patricia Hickman.

Saphora makes plans to leave her plastic surgeon cheating husband. Her children are grown and she just wants to be alone. But even as she was packing her bags to escape to the family’s little used home in the Outer Banks, her husband comes home unexpectedly and informs her he has cancer.

Against her desires, Saphora agrees to take care of Bender as he fights his illness. They relocate, at his insistance, to their coastal home in Oriental—the same house she had chosen for her private getaway. When her idyllic retreat is overrun by her grown children, grandchildren, townspeople, relatives, and a precocious neighbor child, Saphora’s escape to paradise is anything but the life she had imagined.

I really enjoyed this book! The characters were well developed and I could relate with them. Saphora was such a compassionate woman who took in everyone that needed love, and helped even those who didn’t deserve her help.

And clean. It’s so nice to find a book that doesn’t have a bunch of sex, swearing or other smut to clutter up the plot. This is a book I could recommend to a friend without any disclaimers or warnings. I could loan it to my mother or even my daughter, if she wanted to read it. The main characters go through a lot of personal discovery in addition to many trials, and while there is talk of faith and God, this book was not at all preachy.

At the beginning of each chapter were beautiful and inspirational quotes from different books, Even when I finished the book, I wanted to go back and reread those quotes. My favorite one of these quotes is,
“There is no such thing as a simple act of compassion or an inconsequential act of service. Everything we do for another person has infinite consequences.” –Caroline Myss

This is a beautiful, heartwarming book. I want to immediately find Patricia Hickman’s other books, Painted Dresses and Katrina’s Wings. And if you would like to read a GREAT book that will warm your heart, I would be happy to lend you this one.

**I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review**

overwhelmed

February 23, 2011 / / 6 Comments

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed.

(Gasp!)

There, I’ve said it.

Right now is one of those times.

I’ve got this roadshow going on, and it’s kind of a big deal. Most of the kids are GREAT, and have really stepped out of their comfort zones, or taken on leadership roles in choreographing and teaching. I think it’s been a fantastic experience for them. There are other kids who would rather die than be in a road show. I understand. I don’t relate, but I do understand. We’ve tried to give them other opportunities to help in with our tech crew, or editing, or even making a power point presentation. Or, if they hate it so badly and they are NOT going to be in it no matter how hard we try to make it sound fun, they are allowed to not be in it. Fine. don’t be in the show. But if you have NO job and No reason to be there, then don’t come. Don’t come to YM/YW on those night. Stay home. Because I would rather have you home playing your video games or doing your homework or arguing with your mom than coming and trying to make the rest of us miserable. And to you two girls who give me attitude? I mean you, too. Not to mention any names, but there are these two lovely girls who think that they are too good for this dumb roadshow, and they can’t stoop to our level to, oh, I don’t know, learn the stupid dances. So they come to some of the rehearsals, and they talk and giggle and generally ignore all directions. I tell them something directly to their faces, and they give me ‘that look’. You know, that look that says, ‘who do you think you are to tell me what to do?’ And then they walk off and do whatever the hell they wanted to do anyway. (Look at me. Just writing about it gets me so upset I’m spewing forth swear words!) I want to just tell them that they can’t be in our roadshow. I want to tell them to go home and not bother coming, since they aren’t even trying. But can I do that? No. This is a church activity and everyone needs to feel included and all that. So, instead, I take it personally. Every time they flip their hair and walk off ignoring my directions, I come home practically in tears.
It really hurts my feelings.
I know it shouldn’t.
I know I shouldn’t care if teenagers disrespect me.
But I just don’t have thick enough skin.

Then there’s all the organization required to run this roadshow. Phone calls, emails, meetings, rehearsals, more emails, texts, buy food to bribe the kids to come, edit that song, is it long enough? Is it too long? We’re down to our final 3 rehearsals, and there’s a little bit of stress.

In my heart, I know it will be great. The kids have worked hard, and it’s a roadshow, after all. This isn’t broadway. But I do care, and I don’t want to be embarrassed by our finished product.

There’s other stuff weighing on my mind, too. Did you know that a 10 minute ultrasound to make sure I don’t have a blood clot costs over $400? Yep.

And don’t you love it when the high school mails you a letter letting you know that your kid has one or more F’s? Love that.

Oh, and my daughters hate each other. That gets to me day after day.

There’s this big set of curtains that is sitting in my office. I’ve had this fabric for months, supposed to make curtains for a friend, but I just can’t seem to find four to six hours to get it done. Oh, the guilt. I’ve set a deadline for myself, though. Her birthday’s in April.

Then there’s the strange fact that I can’t stick to a healthy eating plan for one. single. day. Not one day. Every day I start out great, and I usually blow it by 1 or 2 o’clock. And I hate exercise.

But then when I get this way and I am feeling overwhelmed, I remember all the blessings I have. Working with these roadshow kids is an opportunity, not a punishment. Working with the children in primary is also a blessing. My calling with the Tab Choir is a wonderful opportunity and a blessing. Being able to stay home and take care of my family is a blessing. I am blessed every day.

I take a deep breath in, take a deep breath out, and try to put things into perspective. It’s ok if my house is extra messy because I didn’t have time to clean it. It’s ok to get frustrated with stubborn kids, as long as I remember that they are just kids, and they are trying.

Oh, and I realize that everyone feels overwhelmed at times. One of my friends just broke her arm. One of my blogger friends had to admit her husband into the hospital with chest pains on her birthday! And my sister had ‘one of THOSE mornings’ just yesterday.

So, it’s time to quit feeling sorry for myself because I happen to be busy right now, and to do my very best with whatever the day holds for me.

*****

Later–I feel a little silly that I complained so very much. After a day NOT working on anything roadshow related, I feel much better about things. Thank you for your sweet comments!

« Older posts Newer posts »

Recent Comments

Categories

Archives

© 2025 Superpaige's Pad

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑