How I've Forgotten!

I'm writing this quick post before I forget about it. Loved Fr. McDade's homily today. The Gospel today was from Luke and as he was reading it, I was thinking, wow God, you're really not being fair to these people. So and so wanted to bury his father before he could go on with Jesus and another wanted to take care of business before he went on. Fr. Mcdade is so eloquent with his words and he really breaks it down for people like me who need it broken down. When Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead, he was saying, let's go, move on stop making excuses. Ahh, yes. Okay, I get that! Love it! So I'm thinking as he's reading the verse in Luke, wow, I'm not so sure I could do all of that. I loved that Fr. expressed his concern that he wasn't so sure he could do all that either. Just drop all of it and go! But that was the vocation and calling for the disciples. Fr. continued to talk about vocations and he mentioned marriage. Ahh, yes, it is a vocation and I quickly remembered the TEC talks, and the marriage talk was one of them. I was reminded today, since choosing this vocation of marriage and family that everything I do for my husband and my family & myself is pleasing to God. So often I get wrapped up in the blah blah blah of every day life. It's a lot raising children and going to work, and paying bills and not losing yourself in the midst. I truly loved hearing this today!

Donut Day!

Today is national donut day! Oh my goodness I love me some donuts. I really do love them. I love them enough to take time out of my morning and blog about them. Some of my favorite childhood memories include donuts. Growing up in Peoria Heights, IL we didn't have Dunkin Donuts down the road.Nope,we had Lester's Tasty Donuts! There were many Saturdays that my dad would leave the house early and head down Prospect to Lesters and come home with a box filled with 12 yummy donuts. You had to be up early to get the one with sprinkles because he'd usually pick out a chocoloate with sprinkles, a white frosting with sprinkles, a couple of jelly, (not my favorite) and a couple of floats with maple,white,& chocolate frosting and then the rest were just plain ole' glazed. Lester boxes were popular at Saturday morning St. Thomas soccer games too. They were fancied at birthday parties and slumber parties! I'd dunk my sprinkle donut in mom's coffee. I'm sure there were never any donuts left over in our house. We laugh now when we're all together on our beach trip when mom and dad come back to the house with a box of donuts from Winn Dixie. I mean, we're on vacation so its perfectly fine to indulge! When I pick up donuts for my kids, Jack always says, "mom don't get the ghetto donuts, get the good ones." He means Krispy Kreme because thats what we have here. The bagged donuts from the store just don't cut it. So today, enjoy a donut! What's your favorite? Sprinkles, cake, frosted, glazed, jelly, cream filled, all of the above! What a treat!

Imagine

I saw this today and thought wow! As I've gotten older, I've definitely been more accepting of me. Don't get me wrong, I believe there is always room for improvement inside and out. This doesn't mean I can eat 7 pieces of cake every single day and whatever happens happens. I just mean, I don't beat myself up over my legs being bigger than I would have chosen! One time I told my friend and trainer, Tatum, "ugh, I wish I could just get rid of this part of my leg." She said, oh no, that is your muscle... So I realized that I just have bigger leg muscles. I can work on toning my muscles and being the best I can be but I don't get upset anymore over my legs. It's okay. I always appreciate a long lean leg, because that's what I would have picked for me but God didn't so it's okay.

Being a mom, I can understand where God is coming from when He get's sad that we're not happy with ourselves. When I hear my kids say, I don't like this or that, I think oh no, you're beautiful. I made you and you are perfect!



Preparation!

A week from today I will be at the beach with the whole family minus one brother in law. Very sad he won't be able to make it this year. :( But, with that being said, this week begins the preparation for the big beach trip. I've made my list to take to the grocery for the four casseroles I'm making. I was thinking that it'll be good to have these frozen and we can just pull them out and reheat. I'm not one to slave in the kitchen but I think it'll be worth it. Along with all of that, I need get my booty to the gym and keep up the work outs. I'm not in the office this week so hopefully I can make the morning classes that I usually have to miss b/c of work. Cleaning Kate's room will probably keep me most busy. We have tons of clothes to go through. Ugh! Always so many clothes. But it'll be worth it in the end and soon, we'll have our toes in the sand!

The Art Bar! Studio 11:11

I'm so excited to be a part of Studio 11:11! Karen has worked so hard on her studio and she's shifted gears from photography to teaching art. She is truly so talented. I have always loved painting although, I remember being the kid in school that was scared to death of Sister Clarris and her art class. I would literally ask the person sitting next to me to do my project because I didn't think mine would be good enough. Why would an 8 year old think like that? I have no idea and I'm sad that I did. I finally started dabbling around with painting when Kate was a baby. I'd try it and then stop and try again. I always wanted to take art lessons but never signed up. I met Karen a couple of years ago through Kate. She is so talented with her photography and she is so talented with painting, and drawing. So, this winter, I was chatting with her about getting the girls together to paint one evening and we got to talking about how she offers a membership to the studio. All paints, canvases ,brushes, and her expertise are included. I said, yep, sign me up. I've met such fun artistic people these past few months. I've learned that it's important to do the discipline in order to have a good painting. I've learned that I will probably never paint super realistic as I'm always drawn to more bubbly, abstract pieces. Not that I don't love realistic, I just think for me to paint them would be too much. But you never know. Maybe someday I will paint them.

Last night was the grand opening and what fun it was to see all of our pieces displayed! What an asset Studio 11:11 is to the Hoover area. It was very fancy and fun and I am excited to get back in there and paint more cakes!!!

Hoover Trading, Resale 205....

So, on facebook, there are these groups that have posts of things people are selling. There are some really fun things are there, there are some really ridiculous things on there. I peek at them through out the day. So far, I've bought pallets, a sofa and a chair. I'm planning on making a bar for the basement with the pallets. The chair is perfect for Rick's office and the sofa is in the basement. Everything is in good condition, it's a little hodge podge but I think eventually, I can have everything recovered and they'll be perfect. But I really need to stop peeking at the posts b/c I I do not need to buy anything else! Sheesh!!!