It Is Expected

It has been a busy week in my small world. When I haven't been mothering, I've been working and thinking. But mostly, I've been mothering.

Since my last, hurried blog, our nation has a new president-elect, the Tahoe has four new tires, my baby girl has contracted the 'yuck' and my home has accumulated astonishing amount of dirt. 

I've spent the past few days thinking about expectations.

As a woman, I have expectations to fulfill.

As a wife, I have expectations to live up to.

As a mother, I have expectations depending on me.

As a daughter, I have expectations to keep.

But who has placed the expectations in my heart and mind? 

Society? Others? The Lord? Myself?

I have aimed to sort through so many of the 'things' I feel that I am expected to do or expected to be or expected to juggle. Many of the expectations in my mind are placed there each morning by yours-truly. 

I love maintaining a spotless home, having home cooked meals on the table each evening, staying caught up on laundry and spending much time primping myself each morning. But I cannot do it all, everyday, and still maintain my soul. I cannot feed my soul, grow up in spiritual maturity and still meet all of my expectations. When I do meet all of my expectations, something is always overlooked. It is usually the thing that matters most, my soul. 

I have to let something go. Recently, grabbing dinner on occasion, as opposed to cooking, allows me to spend my day focusing on what matters most, not on what will be eaten that evening.  The care of my soul, and the soul's of my spouse and children are what matter most. For me, I also have areas of commitment that I need to step away from. Overcommitting myself, with good intentions, has caused me to push my spirit aside. 

If I were to let you know a bit about me, I would tell you that cleaning toilets does not refuel my spirt. It does for some women. I am not one of them. Do I like clean toilets? Yes. But that is not where I get the extra surge of energy that I need in my day? I am learning what does refuel my soul though. And it does not include a mop or a broom.

I am working on examining my expectations, seeing who, or what has placed each particular expectation on my life, and determining whether it is an important expectations, determined by the Lord, or if it is merely an expectation I can let go of to grow up my soul. I cannot run ahead of myself in efforts to reach a certain level of expectation, and throw away the growth that has come at too high of a price.

Some of my expectations seem ludicrous, yet I strive to meet them. Most of the 'things' I expect from myself, I would scoff at the person who actually accomplished them. I would never expect from another what I expect from myself. Am I making any sense? What do you expect from yourself that no one else expects? What can you forgo to focus on your soul? What refuels your spirit? 

A Marvelous Monday

The time change has thrown my overly-scheduled daughter for a loop. She was in dreamland by 7:15 yesterday evening, and awoke at 7:30 this morning. Ashamedly, I admit that I have not been up by 7:30 am in quite some time. I had intentions of getting up early this morning to go to the gym, but when my alarm went off, I somehow managed to ignore it completely. I'll make it up though. 

Kayt and I had two hours together before Noah woke up. I enjoy her sweet spirit so much! We played with baby dolls, purses and mirrors; she is such a girly-girl.  I accomplished so much in my extra few hours this morning. I had dinner in the crock pot by 8:30. What I am getting at is that I think I need to quit pretending I am a junior high student and start getting up earlier than I have been.
This morning, I was redoing my dry-erase calendar. I cannot believe it is already November. Does this mean that I can go ahead and put up the Christmas decor? I am so anxious to decorate for the holiday season, I don't know if I can wait until after Thanksgiving. It is beautiful November weather, the kids and I have still enjoyed walks and the park most every day recently. Noah just requested to go to the park. Surprise, surprise. He said "I will dist wide my scooter dere. I am a scooter man. Oh I 'most sugot, I have to go to football prwactice today. Don't take me mom. I will dwive myself."

My brother snapped a few pictures of the kids when he was over several weeks ago for fun, he is taking a few photography classes. He caught us in all our splendor. 

Have a happy Monday y'all!

All the more reason to love

And this, people, is why we love our Red Raiders so much. 

I am still trying to get my heart back in rhythm and my husband off the ceiling. Whew! I could kiss Graham or Michael.

I love my Red Raiders!

Go Tech Go!

-gasp-

I want to talk about something.

But I don't know if I should.

It might not be blog-appropriate.

And I really don't know if my husband would

 be okay with me talking about it.

Oh gosh.

What to do, what to do.

I mean, well, I am married.

I do have two kids.

It's obvious that it is a part of my life and most likely, yours.

Ahhhhhh.

I just don't know.

Okay, okay. 

It's sex.

There.

I said it.

Brad is going to make me delete this as soon as he reads it, I know it.

Have you read this book? I went to a discussion group tonight with a bunch of gals from church. It was so fun. We brought sensual desserts, had feminine drinks and chatted. About sex. Why is it so taboo to say that word? Sex is good. It makes for happy marriages. 

Actually there is nothing I wish to disclose here on the world wide web, but I did think that the manor in which our discussion group was handled was honorable to the Lord. One woman, encouraging a group of women in ways to love their mate. This would be a great book for a women's group or group of  friends to discuss. 

 I will leave you with this: you should go buy this book yesterday tomorrow. It will serve you well. Promise.

Vegas Las Viva!

Ahhh, Vacation! We are home from our lil' trip; we had such a wonderful time. The best part of a getaway like this is having my husband ALL to myself. I didn't have to share him with anyone or anything. Not the kids, not work, not friends, not television (except for the Cowboys game), not even his cell phone! He left his phone in the hotel room every single day. This is big! (I'm not sure if he even realizes that I noticed. I did. Thanks Babe!) 

 He was ALL mine! 

We did a wholelotta whatever-the-heck-we-wanted. Sounds great doesn't it? We  had no agenda and we loved it that way. We shopped, walked, ate, slept, relaxed, lost a little mula, and a lot more. I will spare you the majority of the photos and only give you a peek into how we spent a lil' bit of our time.

One of my favorite things was the romantic gondola ride through the Venetian.

With a real, live Italian host. Oh wait, I mean...she had a beautiful voice.

By this point, we had walked about a million miles on this hot Las Vegas day. Thus, the fresh-from-the-shower look.

Awaiting the Belagio water show on our way to a Cirq du Sole show. 

Not posed. Promise. :)

And Brad's not-posed picture. He DESPISES having his picture made. Which is all the more reason for loving to have him 'make like a tourist' and smile.

And we relaxed by the pool. (This is the only pale, white bathing suite shot YOU will see.)

I had to show Brad how I could tie a cherry stem in a knot with my tongue ;-)

The Monte Carlo treated us right!

Viva Las Vegas!!!

Do you see the hand coming out of my arm pit? Kind of weird, hugh?

We were SO anxious to see our kids.  Kayt, Noah and the nice shiner on his eye greeted us at the front door.  We spent the evening kissing their faces off. Gosh, I missed those sweet kisses. 

To remind me of our lovely time, all I have to do at this point is turn my head and inhale deeply to smell my hair. I am still reminded of the cigarette smoke that spells Vegas. My body is still on Vegas time, making me think the night is young, but my mind knows that I am back in the real world. With that, I think I will shower and head to bed. 

Thank you to my sweet spouse for treating me to such a wonderful birthday getaway. You're good to me! I love you!

tExAs tEcH

Noah is going to dress up as a Texas Tech football player for halloween. We have the jersey, pants and pads, but we CANNOT find a helmet.

Does anyone own a child's Texas Tech helmet or know someone who does? Where did you get it? We would even settle for a solid red, white or black, but cannot find any of them. I am running out of time. He just needs a kids play helmet, not a real one. He is only two and I need him to be able to hold his head up for the night!

If you have any suggestions, please help me out.

Speaking of our beloved Texas Tech, Fight Raiders Fight! The game against Kansas will be on ESPN at 11 today. We will catch some of it before we board the plane. Have a great weekend!

They Picked ME Up

I have been a little annoyed with Me this week. It has just been one of those weeks where  I have made mistake after mistake. Everything I touch, I seem to mess up or knock off the shelf. I have hit my head, oh, say fifty times. I backed into the column on our front porch with my car. I've had very little patience. All week I have just felt frazzled. When I need to be in a hurry, I can't get it together. Do you ever have weeks like that?

It hasn't been a bad week, nothing traumatic or terrible has happened. It had just been an off week. And I am the one that is off. 

I am not complaining. Really, I'm not. I hope you don't hear it as that. I have no reason to complain. I just have not been able to get my act together this week and frankly, I am bothering myself. 

My annoyances would not even be worth mentioning if it were not for these:

A note from a new friend

And a gift in the mail from a bloggy friend.

These two, seemingly small acts of kindness were so special to me on this particular week. The Lord knew I would be off-kilter, and he used two thoughtful people to encourage me. 

I have been reminded how much a simple gesture can mean to a person. And how the Lord desires to use us, his peeps, to encourage other believers, even when we don't realize what they need. 

This morning, I was able to spend some time at a friends house catching up. For lunch, my sister-in-law and I had a date. It was so much fun to have time alone with Tara. We rarely have the opportunity to have girl-time; she is one of my favorite people to be around. And to top off my afternoon, I curled up in a chair at Barns and Noble with hot tea and a new book for over an hour before I picked the kids up from MDO. I told you I have no reason to complain. It was such a refreshing day. 

And then I smashed my hand in the door. 

Okay, I wandering now.

So, go. Put a note in the mail to a friend, just because. Buy him or her the coffee mug or the pair of stripped socks or whatever it is that makes you think of them next time you are at the store. You never know who needs a pick-me-up at that very moment. Because we all have off weeks sometimes.

Oh, and I am going to Vegas in just over 24 hours. That's helped too!!!

Small Group with BIG Personality

We have such a wonderful small group from our church. Over the past year, we met every Tuesday night, rotating from one home to another. On the week that group was at your home, you provided dinner for everyone; I loved eating together! After dinner, we pressed hard into the Lord and had so many life changing evenings. We grew to cherish each person in the group. Isn't it amazing how a group of strangers with many different personalities and interests can grow to be so close and have so much in common? Recently, our group  decided to multiply and start several new groups. Since that time, we have not been meeting together, and until tonight, I didn't realize how much I missed having weekly time with our great friends. 

Tiffney's birthday is tomorrow and her husband, Bradey, gathered everyone for a surprise dinner for her. As soon as we entered the restaurant, I realized how much I miss seeing everyone. 

I'm not sure if Tiffney was eating the taco or if the taco was eating her, but either way she is a cute birthday girl!

See, don't they just look like fun people?

Don't tell the others, but this was the 'cool' end of the table. Shhhh...

And the best part of the night was when the boys all went back to the Murphree's house to play poker and the girls went to Starbucks. It was so fun to sip our warm drinks outside laughing, catching up, talking about t.v. show gossip, reminiscing over NKOTB crushes and discussing our latest, greatest bra findings. 

Thank you Jesus for wonderful friends!

Pink, Blue, blah blah blah

I was uploading pictures from my camera and I found these two pictures taken on the same day. Notice anything wrong with the two pictures? 

Noah must have put the bib on himself. He always wants to do everything just like his "little one".  I'm not sure that small bib will give you much protection against your big, bad yogurt, Bubba!