Hats Off

I love staying at home with our daughter. I work 1 day a week, no sweat. It works well. Some days are better then others and others are just bad where I'm practically handing our daughter to daddy the moment he is in the door. I got to see the opposite side of not staying home which I had forgotten...

I filled in for some other co-workers at work and worked a stretch of days in a row (read at the end how long the stretch was). In the middle of this work stretch one night, I was laying around telling my honey how I didn't want to go to work and I couldn't do it! Drive to work and do the productivity game. The thought occured to me that my husband does this EVERY DAY!! Gets up, goes to work, comes home, sleeps, gets up and goes to work. One long road stretching out until the end of time......practically

Not saying that staying home with our child is a piece of cake. But there is something about having control over your whole day. Go to the store? or Go to the park? or take a nap on the couch? (not that often ;). I have a lot more appreciation for those that work full time (outside the home).

So hats off to those that do the daily grind! By the way, my pathetic work stretch was 3 days in a row..Pretty sad. Makes me appreciate my husband in a new way.

Off Again

My sister leaves tomorrow. She visited for 2 weeks from med school (which wasn't even close to long enough) and now she is a MD, she has requested that we call her Dr. Carlson and being her sister, I look at her and roll my eyes. We had some good talks. One of the things about short visits is that you have to go deep in your conversations quick! Skim past the small talk and go right in. I have to admit, I've had trouble maintaining as deep as a relationship with her since she has been living overseas for the past 6 years. The frustration over short emails and people's expectations came to a head with her this last trip. We worked through it and I hope no angry emails will be exchanged this next semester.....we'll see.

She's off to the south island of New Zealand for 2 weeks of exploring :) I'm really excited for her cause that's her dream to travel over the world and she's doing it! WooHoo My one request was that she takes lots of pictures...Happy travels Danielle :)

Locally: Andy braved the crowds on black Friday this morning and was at Wal-Mart at 4:45 am. It was worth the early rise. We Americans are waaaaaay to happy shopping

Grandpa's New Girlfriend

I met my grandpa's girlfriend today that he has had for 2 years. Long story short, my grandma died, 3 months later my grandpa was dating this nice lady from Ohio (my grandpa lives in New York). They are cute together. Both of their spouses have passed away and when they talk about their kids or their old memories w/ their deceased spouse they still use the word we or us and you just know they are referring to their spouse. They do seem to enjoy each other's company but I can't even think of the fact that they are sleeping in the same room!! I guess that doesn't go away even if your 84 ;)

I guess people back then just lived to have kids cause Alice (the girlfriend) has 9 children!!! 3 boys and 6 girls!!! ooh my.. and 26 grandkids and 36 great grand kids!!! My grandpa isn't to far away 8 kids, 15 grandkids, and 1 great grand child (Go Morgan! :).

Thinking of those numbers made me really think about leaving behind a legacy and what kinda've legacy will our family leave behind. What can we pass down to our children, grandkids, and great grand kids.

Old Habits

Don't you remember the way you use to act during your teenage years or very early adolescents? I can. I remember being annoyed easily and being annoying to others I'm sure. So remembering it makes it seem that it was a very long time ago.. BUT I'm horrified to learn that around certain people (mainly siblings) I resort to those same stupid senseless ways of acting. It just oozes out of me and I come away feeling like that all those lessons I've learned that have helped me change and be the person I am today (hopefully more like Christ but some days are up for debate) are non-existent.

That's frustrating to no end. I'm beginning to understand why, holidays although wonderful at times, can be stressful mainly due to more extended family being around. No wonder people eat so much, it helps relieve their churning stomachs! This idea was mentioned to several of my co-workers and I've seen smiles out of people who I thought were statues and didn't know how to smile...So I guess I'm not alone :)

Pictures

I couldn't think of anything to blog about so I thought of pictures instead. This is my cousin's farm in upstate New York. Their family is in the dairy business and this is 1 of 2 farms they have. We watched them do the evening milking while we were there...Cows really are dumb

Dysbelief System

I've been thinking lately about the impact of having a belief about yourself that is not accurate (doesn't line up to what God says about you). I've learned about this before when I was taking some classes through Elijah house (if you want to know what this is, ask me in person, it requires a longer explanation) Any whoo...they call it unGodly beliefs but I like the word dysbelief system cause I'm using dys to mean impaired or bad, the dictionary confirms this...see below

1. Abnormal: dysplasia.
2. Impaired: dysesthesia.
3. Difficult: dysphonia.
4. Bad: dyspepsia.

I appreciate people who tell me that what I'm saying/thinking about myself isn't true and I have a dysbelief system. It seems that almost all of my negative thoughts can be traced back to this dysbelief. I give myself a headache though trying to reverse the thoughts. I know quoting Scripture and going back to the truth is the solution, it's just putting it into practice and in the middle of a crazy day where you are just keeping up, it seems overwhelming.