The Key

I don't know about everyone else, but for me, it is so easy to get off track. I can be humming along life quite nicely, when all of sudden, I realize that I'm off kilter, something is askew emotionally or spiritually, I've lost track of my goals, my schedule, I forget to contact that friend who might need an ear that day. I often ignore that little tugging within, and continue at my busy pace, doing life my own way...when all of a sudden I realize that my calm has been replaced with chaos, my peace has been ursurped with worries and fears, and when I stop for even a moment...I realize that I am the one responsible.

See...I know what it takes for me to live each day abundantly. It's "the Key". And for me, that means starting off my day earlier and taking time to be still, to read, to worship, to fellowship, to both talk AND listen to the Father. I'm not legalistic about rituals or scheduling at all...what works for me isn't necessarily what works for others. As long as we are spending time with God, He doesn't give a hoot what time of day it is. He simply says "Come...sit with me, let's spend time together." But for me, my days and my life overall seem to go much better when I start off with the Lord. I feel refreshed, lifted up, calmed, eager for the day, blessed, and my eyes and heart just seem to be more open to the people around me, and what they are going through or dealing with on that day.

I cease to be self-centered and become Christ-centered. And for me....THAT is the key.

Extreme Balance

It's early Saturday morning, and all is quiet. Coffee is brewed and I am about to sit and jot down my "to do" list for the weekend. I feel a little overwhelmed at many things that need to be done, and trying to fit in things that I "want" to do. I'm looking for that balance this weekend...the balance of accomplishing the menial tasks and also accomplishing a little "me" time.

A current trend in pop culture these days is "extreme"...."Extreme Makeovers", "Extreme Makeover Home Edition", "Extreme Sports", "Extreme Championship Fighting", "Extreme Videos", "Extreme Couponing" (yes..there IS a show on TLC), Animal Planet has "The Most Extreme", and I recently saw "The Most Extreme Hotels" on the Travel Channel. As if "Hoarders" weren't bad enough, we now have "Extreme Hoarders". We are a culture preoccupied with the word "extreme".

Webster's defines extreme as: 1) exisiting in a very high degree 2) going to great or exaggerated lengths 3) exceeding the ordinary, usual or expected.

For some reason, balance seems hard for me. And now I feel like I need "Extreme Balance". What's a gal to do?

For some reason, my personality is one that tends to go to extremes. I will either work myself to death on a weekend, only to find myself bone tired on Sunday night; or I will relax and "play" all weekend...enjoying books, movies, my girls, friends...but on Sunday will find myself running around to accomplish at least ONE thing that was on my to do list.

So this morning, I am looking for "Extreme Balance". I want to go to great lengths and exceed the usual in my time off. I want to mark off some tasks and mark off several chapters in one of the books I'm dying to read. I want to mark off the grocery shopping and also mark off a movie.

I'll let you know how it goes...if I'm successful, maybe I can have a show.

Here's To a New and Wonderful Year

The last couple of weeks for me have been so busy that I haven't taken the time to slow down to read any blogs or to write on mine. All of sudden, I realized that I missed it.

Christmas was different for us this year...but it was good. We are learning to embrace the changes (because they happen whether you embrace them or not) and look for the good.

Our Christmas Day was full of laughter and joy, and was quite lazy. The girls stayed in pjs as long as they could. Andy, their father, ended up bringing his presents to them, so he was with them here for awhile. On Christmas Eve, the girls surprised me in such a delightful way. Since they have been itty bitty, they have been able to unwrap one gift under the tree, and they are new pjs for Christmas. Even as old as they are now, they still look forward to that. When I gave them their packages to unwrap, they handed one to me! They had brought me a pair of new pjs...and to make it even more personal, the silky pjs look like a scrabble board with words on it. Scrabble is one of my all time favorite games. I can't even begin to tell you how touched I was that they had done that for me on Christmas Eve.

We packed the car and headed towards Texas the next day. We normally don't travel that far, but we all decided to head towards Mom and Dads for our get-together instead of my sister's house. I had a wonderful few days of family time with my parents, grandmother, my brother and sister, brother in law and sis in law, and my wonderful nieces and nephews. I wrote on Facebook one day that my "love bank was full" and that was so true. That's the best part about spending time with family.

As 2010 began to wind down, I realized how far God's healing has allowed me to journey this past year. I was totally broken just not too long ago...and wondering if I'd ever get over the intense and gut wrenching pain. Indeed, God's faithfulness did not let me down. While I still have those moments (or sometimes days) of pain....they are getting fewer and farther between. I look back over the last year and see tremendous growth and healing in my own life....and I see blessing after blessing after blessing. I have been telling folks for several days that I have seen God's handprints all over my life. I even have another blessing write about, but I'll save that one for a different day. It deserves its own space.

With the beginning of 2011, I want to make sure that I never forget the journey of 2010. I want to anticipate the newness of each day, to look for the opportunities that God puts in my pathway, to stay in the moment, and not worry to far ahead. I want to continue to grow and to continue to heal. I want to keep my love bank full and to make deposits into the love banks of others. I don't want to have taken this journey for nothing...I want to make it count.

Celebrating Lindsey

December has been a month of celebration for us. We had Casie's birthday first, college graduation, and yesterday was Lindsey's 14th birthday. Hard to believe my "baby girl" is in junior high and is fourteen years old. She graciously decided to hold off on a larger birthday party this year until sometime in January. We'll have a group of friends over to our house then or maybe to another location. But with graduation added into the mix this year, December became overwhelming pretty quickly in the scheduling department.

She went with her dad to lunch and spent the afternoon with him, and they had a great time together. After I left the office, I picked up Linds and a friend, Alexandra, and we headed to Memphis for dinner and a movie. Listening to Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber on the way, I had alot of fun with those two girls in the car. Just listening to teenagers is a riot at times. We had a burger and fries at Steak 'n Shake, and then arrived at the movies too full to even get a popcorn.

As her dad and I were talking about Lindsey yesterday, we both traveled back to the day she was born. When she was born, she had Group B Strep and also pneumonia. My baby girl went straight from my arms to the NICU at the hospital. We could see her every 4 hours for 10 minutes. Linds came into the world not only very sick, but with alot of spunk. She fought hard those first few days, but she won. She's been spunky ever since. She's such a whirlwind, that sometimes I have trouble keeping up with her. She is a very social person, and likes to be around friends or family most of the time. There are times I have to make her slow down, and just have some time to herself. She looks at me with that look that only teenagers can give, but she goes along. She is a curious young lady, and has been since birth. She wants to see new things, go new places, have new experiences often. Life with Lindsey has been adventurous to say the least. She has a quick wit, and keeps me laughing alot. One of the things I'm the most proud of in her is that she is a person of compassion and caring for those around her. In her earlier school years, she felt bad that her best friend and our next door neighbor didn't receive an award at the end of school that year. Most of the kids seemed to have one at least ONE reward or certificate, but not Tate. We drove home, and she couldn't stop worrying about him. So, she marched into our computer room, and began to get on a program to design him a certificate. I went in there to help. We printed out an award for "Best Friend Ever" and she signed it, making it all official, and then marched straight next door to knock on his door and give it to him. I think it was one of the sweetest (and shortest) award ceremonies I've ever attended. But what a precious moment! His toothless grin stretched from one end of his face to the other, and he treasured that award. They promptly waved me off and then went off to play outside. She's always been that way, and we've come up with many things like that to do for her friends and encourage them when they are down. That makes her a pretty special young lady in my unbiased (ha) opinion.

So here's to you Linds...may your life continue to be an adventure...and may your inward beauty continue to shine. I love you!

Look Out World

What a celebratory weekend in our family! My oldest daughter, Casie, graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a Bachelor of Health Sciences. She had papers, presentations and finals right up until the very end....by the time the Big Event arrived on Saturday, I'm sure she was simply running on adrenaline. But she was glowing as she walked across that stage to receive her diploma.

She had quite a crew cheering her on....her father and I, her sister, both sets of grandparents, 2 aunts, 2 uncles, and 5 cousins. Not to mention all the cards and phone calls she received this week from so many others family and friends.

In the words of Dr. Seuss:

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."

Casie, it's going to be exciting as you begin a new journey in life and to find out what God has in store for you!