Mother's Day

It's my 10th Mother's Day today. The first being 6 months pregnant with my oldest son, Adam. But I counted it because afterall, I could very much feel his little life within me! What a feeling :) I loved being pregnant (minus the vomiting and pains) - part of the reason I have five!
I'm so glad I have my own mother alive and well today :) And I'm so thankful, too, that I have my five beautiful children with me as some friends do not have that themselves.
Be sure to thank your mother for your life today if nothing else. But if you have a relationship with your mother please make a big to-do about this day! Make her feel *Special*! It's a day to honor and love and show love for our mothers! Buy or pick some flowers - almost no woman doesn't love flowers or at least appreciate them. Buy (or tastefully make) a card that's thoughtful and says something you would say or mean. Give her something sweet to eat :) Be it a whole dinner, cookout, or dessert together. And make sure you rib your brothers and sisters to remember her on this day, too. And parents - teach your children how to do this for their mother and later father! If we don't they won't know how fully to bless someone!
My own children were so sweet to be planning and making me their little cards from notebook paper. Some colored, some in pen, some in pencil. The little misspellings and crooked letters, stick people, and flowers they picked from the yard are just so precious to me. Completely designed on their own and they worked so hard on them. So sweet :) I'll keep them forever! My husband also bought me a TiVo which I was quite surprised about. I would never have thought of that as a gift but I'm sure I'll enjoy it. Not a very personal or feminine or motherly gift exactly, but I'm glad he at least thought of me ahead of time to purchase something like that. And I know that it's something that the whole family will enjoy. I'll be very happy to cut out the commercials that I always have to tell the kids to turn away from! And to have ready movies for our weekly Friday night movie & pizza tradition... documentaries to watch later... late night shows & movies I can catch at a good time.

Have a great Mother's Day and make someone's day special! :)

Smokey Breakfast and Paris

It's raining here this morning. Quite peaceful sounding, actually. And the fresh scent from most of the windows wide open does help flush out the horrid smoke-filled kitchen odor. What happened, you ask?

Well, a certain seven-year-old son of mine (ahem, possibly Brandon?) went in to get his portion of our traditional Saturday morning pastries breakfast .. you know, doughnuts, fruit-filled danishes, stuff like that .. and instead opted to heat up some leftover pizza from Friday night (another tradition around here - we like food). Instead he's given us an extra charcoal briquette for our grill. And a whooolllleee lotta smoke! I panicked smelling the smoke of course.. checking the stove and oven before realizing the source.. *sigh* children. It could have been worse, I suppose.

And then again, at least we *have* a microwave and kitchen unlike an unfortunate upcoming jail birdess, right? Yikes... I do feel sorry for Paris. BUT I'm glad she's realizing she's not completely untouchable and above the law.. that's if the sentence actually sticks from appeals. And hey, maybe she'll get a good reality check that life isn't always perfect and self-controlled and lavish! Now, of course I'm sure she won't be given the dirty cell with Bubba, lol, and I'm sure she won't buck up and make the most of her time with new friends like another certain wealthy,notable perfectionist homemaker did more than a year ago. I'm thinking Paris will stay to herself away from the "little people" in jail, be harrassed by some of the mouthier girls, and maybe take life a little more seriously when she gets out. OR.. she'll get out, give them some sign, and get out of the country on some refreshing long-needed get away to one of their many homes abroad. .. hmmmm... must be nice to be a hotel heiress.

School Finals (Grade School Style)

Well, it's finally time for the finale of the school Finals :) Kindergarten, 1st grade, and 2nd grade Finals that is! Yep, my three oldest kiddos are in the throws of their End-of-Year exams. They each have 3-4 days of testing! In MY Kindergarten I only remember coloring and napping and watching the boy across from me with his nose running onto the big table that we all shared as a desk. Good times! Oh, and going to the Principal's office, but that's a story for another day. (Only time I was ever sent to the Principal's office I might add!) But on to the children...

We actually homeschool them, but decided to have them take this test at their former school along with their former classmates to see how they 'measure up'. I'm curious and a little nervous. After all, this will not only reflect on them as students but on me as a teacher! Eeeks! I'm not too terribly concerned about others thinking I'm great at it because I can tell you I'm not! But it IS what we chose for our family to do this year for school and through the roller coaster of months I think we've come out looking pretty good :)

So the three kids joined in on a class in their grade and did their pledges and prayer routine alongside their old buddies and then sat down with their No. 2 pencils to fill in the 'bubble' circles under the correct answers! Ah, the memories.

They seemed to take it mostly in stride and were definately more excited about just getting to be alongside their old friends! Well, at least maybe they won't stress out over the correct answer and sweat it out like their Mom used to most tests. I'm glad it's them and not me, lol :)

Life is too Short to Live less than it should be lived!

Wow, another funeral for another friend today. I wish I could go through one year of life without having a funeral to attend of a friend, a family member, a neighbor, a friend's child. Those are the worst.. children's funerals. Unimaginably painful.
Life is so hard sometimes. It's hard to know that when you give a piece of your heart away to another person you love, whether parents, brothers, grandparents, neighbors, friends and many others that you've invested that time .. to know that someday you'll grieve when they're gone. Or maybe they'll grieve your death first.
Life is just so quick and short. It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, but oh, the pain that comes with that love. The worry about their bad decisions, the concern that you'll get a call about a bad doctor's report, the joy of a marriage, news of a new baby, hearing sirens rushing to their side.. wow, life is amazingly a huge roller coaster of ups and downs. But without those loved ones, what is life? Life IS about people. Everything else shall pass away. Those relationships.. that's what keeps us going and gives us good memories to mull over. Hug someone you love. Everyone wants to know they're loved, even if they don't show it. Otherwise there would be no suicides. You have to know you're loved and needed and mean something to someone else.
And we all need to know we have a purpose and a reason for living. That we're not just the outcome of some physical action. And yet, we're not. We have a Creator. Despite the circumstances of our birth, there is a God and He says He knew us before we were even in our mother's womb. Did you know that? It's true. And He says He knows the plans He has for us and that they are Good. Now, of course, we don't always heed and do what should do, nor do our parents, and that's why things go wrong or kids are abused. We DO have free will to what we want to, whether it's right or wrong. God didn't make us to be perfectly smiling and responding Stepford Wife carbon copies. He has a purpose and a reason for each of us. And it's to have a relationship with Him, our God.
Anyone want someone to talk to? You're always welcome to respond to my posts and we'll chat. :)

Sad News of "Donnie"

Sadly, amongst our vast array of friends, a dear friend of my parents was killed almost instantly in a car accident this past week. He ran off the road and down a hill into some trees. His family didn't find out he had died until they were immediately ushered into a family room when they arrived at the hospital. "Sandy", his wife, became hysterial, of course, when they were told he was already dead and then she wanted to see him. He wasn't hurt badly from the outside view. Just a little blood around the nose, really. Another friend said she threw herself up over him begging for him to come back to life and not die. She was crying and saying "But you promised we'd go out on our date tomorrow!! You promised! Please, wake up! Please, don't leave me! I love you! Please, Donnie, PLEASE!!!!" It was just heart-wrenching. Such raw trauma to go through : (
The family and friends have come from far and near to help get them all through these first days and weeks and some are even moving in with Sandy as she works through this. It's all so terrible.
Donnie was a Vietnam veteran who never really got away from all the terror of it. He was one of the ones that came away with quite severe post traumatic stress syndrome. :( He never would talk about it because it was much too painful.
Donnie was a good, hard-working man who loved his family. We had many cookouts and fun with their family. He was one of near a dozen kids that he was decently close to even all these years later. And from what I've been told he's probably in Heaven now.
Donnie leaves behind a wife of over 30 years, 3 step-children, and several grandchildren. Also many friends who will always remember him and his quiet, thoughtful nature.

Just so ya know ..

I'm not using real names for privacy and protection from psychopaths looking for their next prey. So, I am "Stephanie", dh is "Michael", and our five children (yes, we really do have five children) are in made-up ABC order - I thought it was neat idea, anyway - "Adam & Brandon" our two strapping sons, and our three lovely maiden daughters "Carrie, Danielle, & Emily". See... A, B, C, D, & E :) Got it? At least this way it'll be easier to remember who's older than who anyway. As for other people, you'll just have to know they're all made up names. And I have tons of family and friends I'm sure I'll mention and get to ramble on and on and on about as I have in this post.

Hmm... well, let's see how this works ..

My first blog post! Yay!! Many a friend has one of these and now I've joined them. You'll get to know me as time goes by. I live an interesting and active life that I try to slow down as much as possible. You won't get any foul language here, so sorry for those thrill-type seekers. But you might shed some tears, share a laugh, or pause to wonder about my state of mind. :) Just to put it out there, I am a woman! Yay women! AND I am a married one.. to a man. Yep, I'm into heterosexuality (that's not homo-sexuality to those thinking so because you've forgotten what the big word meant!). So, I'll leave this first post with that. God bless ~ Steph