A Religious Experience

This may be a little out there, and it's definitely personal, so sounds like the perfect thing to blog about right? ;-) We have recently switched churches. We were members of a methodist church downtown mostly because that's where my dad was a member. We made friends, felt at home, and liked it alot. However, many of our neighbors attend our neighborhood methodist church and we decided to give it a try. We've been hooked ever since. I've attended church all my life. Growing up in a small town, it was also a real community of people, not just somewhere you went on Sundays. My happiest memories are of sunday school, sitting in service with my grandmother while my parents sang in the choir, fried chicken and the cowboys game at my grandmother's, and then youth group in the evening. Our new neighborhood church feels exactly like that. The kids have friends from school there, and we have friends from everywhere there. My husband, who I used to have to convince to go to church, I now overhear inviting people to come with us. Our sunday school class is made up of friends and we talk about everything. It feels like a community and I honestly want to tell people about it. I'm happy to raise our children with our church community as their foundation. I know that same little voice that I heard as a teen will speak to them too and I hope they will make better decisions by following it. We all have lots of questions about religion, I know I do too. But I feel good there, I feel the presence of God there, and it makes our family happy. While I miss seeing my dad on Sunday, and I miss watching the kids go back and forth in the pews to sit with him for awhile, I know this was the right thing to do. God is working and speaking and we are listening.

Glory Days

I had the chance to meet some college friends for a drink this week. Yes, I'm a sorority girl. Shocker, I know. I miss those gals!! So fun to meet up with all of them again and see where their lives are now. So many have done so many interesting things. I love that it makes feel twenty years old again. We laughed and giggled about all of the fun times at the Adpi house, all the times at the KA house, all of the times at El Arroyo, Grin's, Peppers, and (gulp) Herbert's Taco Hut. We laughed like a bunch of teenagers. A friend once told me that the friends you make in college are the ones that stay in your life forever because they are the ones that YOU picked for no other reason than you had something unique in common. That's so true. It's hard to find the time for meeting up with old friends but it is so important. It keeps me young. When we get together it's as if not one single day has gone by. We just drink in more expensive places!

Suggestion box is open!

Life is hectic. No doubt. But, when is it too hectic? When does trying to create so many experiences for our kids begin to detract from the experience for which it was intended? I want to do it all. Not a surprise for those who know me. I want to be a successful lawyer to teach my kids you can be successful in your career AND successful at home. In fact, maybe more successful at home because of your outside career. But man it gets hard. As the kids get older I feel like there is so much I need to teach them! I want to introduce and help foster (but not control) their relationshp with God. I want them to learn to be charitable. I want them to be compassionate. I want to teach them how to make good choices when they're faced with tough decisions. I want to teach them that sometimes you just have to CHOOSE to be happy. The older they get I realize just how quickly those tough decisions are going to be thrust upon them. It is overwhelming isn't it? I'm taking suggestions! How do YOU juggle?

Patience

Patience. I pray for patience. I pray for patience just about every day. And I want it now! Oops! My need for patience is most important with my relationship with my children. We always seem to be off to our next "thing." School, church, soccer, dinner, etc. How many times a day do I say "Come on!" When I hurry those little time suckers, they miss out on alot. They miss out on watching the ladybug make it to the top of the branch. They miss out on wondering which way the rain drop is going to roll when it slides down the windshield. They miss out on figuring out if they can wiggle their pinky toe without wiggling the other ones. And I miss out on them seeing discover all of those things. Today, I say a prayer for patience. If for no other reason than to let my children see me smile more often than they see me frown. Have you ever seen yourself frown in the mirror? It's not pretty. My grandmother always said, "sometimes you just have to choose to be happy." Most of the time when you "choose happy" before you know it, you actually are happy. Today, I "choose happy!"

Macabre Moments

Someone close to me is experiencing health problems. Someone my age. Someone very like me. Real health problems. Sobering. Seems sadness has been around our family for the last few years. Starting with losing David's brother to cancer, one of my favorite uncle's cancer diagnosis, the death my dear grandmother, and now....this. I just feel so damned...vulnerable. If you think too long about life and death, you'll go crazy. What I think about? Watching my sister-in-law brave being a widow and single parent knowing that I can do nothing to help, watching my father bury his beloved mother, worried about having to do that myself in the future, worried about the pain my children will feel when they have to do that. It's too much! Then, I say a prayer. A prayer for silence and quiet moments. A prayer for perspective. A prayer for gratitude that all of these improtant people are in my life to worry over. A prayer. Then I get a grip. It's hell getting older isn't it?