Life Is Beautiful

Today my husband got up at 4:30am and went to the gym. He was actually home around 7 when my alarm went off - rather when my 2yr old rolled over for the 47 th time since I brought him to bed with me at 6am, and smacked me in the face thereby waking me up at 6:58...2 minutes before my alarm went off. 5am appointments at the local Y are such a hot commodity that we take turns. Me on Tuesday and he on Wednesday. With his days off in the middle of the week, it works. Which brings me to the next random point - Shift bid = success. Go shout it on the mountain, for the first time in 3 years, my husband will have Saturday and Sunday off every week! The hours are pretty awesome to - 8:45 to 5:45. So cool as we go in to warmer weather - no more trips to the Y or pushing play in the basement. We will once again be taking turns for the coveted 6am trail run! WOOT !! I love pajamas. Really, it's like a sickness with me. Did you know that Shopko has THE best clearance prices on PJ...

The other day when my husband was home during the day with us - he looked at me and said the words I've longed to hear. Yes, in the midst of a screaming baby, a naked sprinting toddler, two fighting big kids and the blaring TV - my beloved says "This is madness! I don't see how you do it!" With my spirit bolstered and my pride stroked a bit, I just shrugged and agreed that it is indeed madness, smiled and said "And I make it look GOOD." Hey, you have to laugh or you'll cry sometimes! I was happy to be acknowledged. At a conventional job, you may get a regular performance review. What follows would be suggestions, commendations, and if your lucky, additional compensation. I don't care about the compensation as such. I am paid in hugs. I also hold the title of "Only One Who Can Comfort" at times. That is worth a Million Bucks, roughly, in US Currency. But what I sometimes crave is an overall assessment of my performance. There are t...

I used to envy stay at home moms. I guess I figured that the only way they could stay home was if thier husband had some fabulous paying job that allowed them to live as if they had two incomes. I would see Mom's at Wal-Mart over my lunch break and think "gee, must be nice". Never seeing them check out with a fistfull of coupons and load it up in to their barely-still-running minivan. All I could think of was myself and my desires. Somehow I couldn't see all of thier sacrifice. When I returned home from taking the kids to school yesterday, one of the neighbors was outside smoking a grit and waved from his front porch. I automatically decided that he was probably judging me and mentaly started to defend myself. Then the walls came down. I finally realized the error I had been making all this time. While I'm sure that some single income families are quite comfortable on one income, there are likely more like us. It's definitely a sacrifice financially - ...

I went home after work yesterday and simply attacked my son's room. He has a room in our finished attic. He actually has two beds up there and more space that any kid needs. Consequently, it gets cluttered. Little boys bring home all sorts of sticks, rocks and broken items that sit as revered treasure for a time and then fall off the dresser and litter the floor. More than that is the issue of one terribly ignored parakeet whose cage has been in desperate need of cleaning – causing feathers and seeds to be strewn about. Those little feathers just stick to everything! I take full responsibility for this. I have not shown him how to clean the cage, each time it has been done because it had gone to long and I have just done it myself. I started with the clothes on the floor. Liam did a good job of getting rid of things that he didn't love of play with anymore. I am a FlyLady lover and use her approach to my cleaning. Although, if I had used her system all along with his ...

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 Just wanted you to remember that. I'm feeling alot of turmoil due to my job situation. I feel loyal to them but I am just absolutely fed up with all of it. Nothing changes, the rules apply to certain people and not to others, blah blah blah. I quit!

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog entitled "I Can Do Whatever I Want". I have been disenchanted with my current working situation for some time, but just lack the cahones to do anything about it. I started a home based business and am having marginal success. I believe in the company, it's founder and CEO and it's products. I have a tremendous support team and all the free training I can handle. But I'm tired. It will take approximately another year to build my business to the point where I can do it alone and discontinue working outside the home. That's not very long! But it is when you have a full time job and three kids to boot. Maybe I'm just going through a funk. I get tired and things get out of focus. I had a wonderful weekend last weekend, but it was majorly depleting in a physical sense. I'm weary and I miss my husband so bad! If I could only find a way to work from home soon so he could work a normal shift. I hate not seeing e...

Okay, I'm convinced. I am under attack. I hate to complain...however. Today I have the kind of migraine that makes you think you are going insane. I am light and sound sesitive and nearly went into a siezure from the stupid ad banner flashing at the top of this page. I had my "review" today. For those of you in professional positions or positions with real bosses you might think of different things when you think of your review. For me - it's a little sit down session where my boss thanks me for putting up with him for another year, tells me I am excellent accept for my attendance and gives me a nice little pay increase. Only this year there was no increase. I understand. I am okay with that. They have to give the the guys in the field the money so that they don't quit. They have worked with me on my scheduling and let me work 7-3 instead of 8-5 so that we can save on daycare. So that's like a raise in itself. I only wish that it hadn't been prec...

Tonight will be different when I get home. Used to be that David was off on Fridays and I looked forward to getting off work and going home to him. ***Sigh*** Tonight it will be just like every other weekday. Me: Hi. When did Susan go down? Him: Hi honey, oh about 20 minutes ago. Me: Great, how was your day? Him: Pretty good, tired though. Me: Oh man, I know babe - me to. (Big hugs, nice smoochy smoochy) Him: Have a good night. Me: You too, honey - I love you! Sad looks all the way around and waves bye-bye. And that's it for the whole day. Wash, rinse, repeat. Until tomorrow when I get to TALK to my husband! And I'm so excited too! We are driving back to his families' neck of the woods for a visit. And I would gladly give up Friday night for Sunday all day! Woo hoo! It will be so nice to get out of town and have some drive time and talk time. Tonight I'm trying to get creative...methinks it's time for the girls and I to break out the hot rollers a...

I’m not really very good at my job. I don’t like what I do, so that has a lot of do with my half-ass-ism. I don’t like crunching numbers, data entry, or filing. I’m not really a detail oriented person, so the fact that I am responsible for data entry of payroll and payables makes me snicker a bit. I guess my desire to avoid a butt chewing outstrips my distaste for all things number-y. Good thing! Not that all that really matters. I mean, you have to have a job and it has to be for someone else, right. If you want any stability, retirement plan or health insurance you’re pretty much relegated to working for someone else who will take care of that for you while you punch the clock, do your time and go home to a house that is in chaos and a family you barely know because you spend more time awake with your boss. So if I don’t like what I do, I could go back to school, right? I always wanted to be a grade school teacher and a few years ago I made it half way to my degree. Had to s...

Yesterday I packed up my breastpump, all the assecories and Baby Susan's bottles, nipples, drop in's, drying rack, etc. I took it all downstairs and put it away in a safe place. My husband wondered if I wanted it put in a garbage bag or some other bag to protect it from dust etc. He remembers how important that thing was to me. This time around I was going to succeed with the whole breast feeding thing. I vowed to ask for help, purchase the appropriate supplies, and do what it took to nurse my third baby beyond that first two weeks. And because God is good and I am the most stubborn woman on the planet, I did. I took 12 weeks maternity leave. It was largely unpaid (I had a small insurance policy that covered my health insurance and taxes while I was gone) but worth every dollar we put on our credit card because of it. Baby was 4 weeks early, milk was slow to come in, I had a uterine infection and mastitis 4 times so I ended up needing that extra time. When I returned to wo...