Ooooh, Disco! Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas from our family (and Kristina!) to yours! Oh, and check out my real life dance moves. Yeah, I got the rad moves. :)

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

My poor children....

I have been so incredibly BUSY the last few months. Busier than I should be. Too busy to get the laundry done. Too busy to get the dishes done. (Well, at least before they start to smell not so nice...)

I've hardly had time to spend on the important relationships in my life. I keep apologizing to my friends for not calling, and not being able to spend time with them. My dear, dear husband has told me as we drift off to sleep that he missed me that day. More than once. And my kids.....my poor children. I feel so bad that I've been so non-present and distracted. Basically I've been so busy that I literally can't think straight. My thoughts are all sporadic and jumbled.

Have you ever felt like your life is speeding by you at the speed of light and you are missing it? Like the routines and tasks and jobs fill up your days so much that you miss the moments? I have been feeling this way for a while. It's frustrating, and I keep fighting the feeling that I am failing everyone around me.

It's difficult to know what I should be doing sometimes. I feel that if I stop working to go hang out with my family for a bit, that I'm falling farther behind on my business deadlines. If I focus on work, I'm neglecting my children and my husband. Add in trying to maintain friendships, extended family relationships, and ministries at church and I feel like my time is spread sooo thin that no matter what I choose, I am failing somewhere else.

Sadly, I often err on the side of neglecting my family. I think this is because I know they love me the most and will forgive me. But I don't want things to be this way. It's a very crushing way to feel. I want to BE with them. I want to BE there FOR them.

Here's an example....

Yet another day that I was busy working, not just scrambling to "catch up" but desperately trying not to fall even further behind. It was a lovely fall day outside and Owen came into the office and asked me if I would play with him. So I suggested that we go outside and he could ride his scooter while I watched. (He loves that.) But first I just had to finish the thing I was working on. So we'd go in a few minutes....

Fast forward a few minutes. He comes in again..
"Mommy, are you ready? Can we go outside now?"
"Just one more minute. Let me finish this real quick and then we'll go..."
"Okay, I'll go get my helmet on.."

Fast forward a few more minutes....

"Mommy are you ready now?"
"Just...one...more...minute....and then we'll go...."

When I FINALLY finished what I was working on, I went to look for Owen and found him asleep. In my bed. With his helmet on.

He was waiting for me to play with him like I had promised. And I never came. :(


I am soooo looking forward to Christmas vacation. The only thing I have scheduled during that time is Christmas caroling. And I want my boys to come with me for that. :) I'm looking forward to playing with them, and talking to them, and listening to them. I'm looking forward to spending time with Clayton without being distracted about all the things I still need to get done.

I'm looking forward to life slowing down a bit.


Sorry about the epic pity party post. I'm not REALLY having a pity party. I've just been thinking about this for a while and pressing forward through it. And I'm glad I'm almost done!

A cool link for you.....

I came across this post on a blog that I follow that I thought was really cool and wanted to share... http://www.jasminestarblog.com/index.cfm?postID=450 . The blog author was holding a competition for her viewers to write a story in six words. Make sure you read the comments. There are some REALLY good entries. Thought provoking.

Mine is not among the thought provoking ones, haha. "Dang. I'm not going to win."

You'll be thinking in six word sentences for the next few days, at least. :)

My favorite two weeks of the year.....

I LOVE THE FALL.

Fall colors make me giddy. They cause me to interrupt myself mid-sentence in the car to squeal out, "Oooh, pretty colors!" I deeply appreciate the colors God created in His great nature-painting palette. Sooo beautiful.

We are in the middle of my two favorite weeks of the year and this year its a doozy! Oh yeah, baby.

Anyway, this morning was a double whammy, because not only do I have my beautiful autumn-colored trees everywhere, but there was fog added in on top of it. Nature beauty smorgasborg. (I'm sure I butchered the spelling of that, but I don't really care. 'Cause the trees are still pretty.)

So I went out with my camera this morning. My subject was suddenly overcome with PCSS (Painfully Camera Shy Syndrome), but you still get an idea of just how beautiful Bakersfield is at the moment. (Wow, I never thought I would call Bakersfield beautiful. I can't believe I just said that!)

I hope all this color sticks around a while, because I sure am enjoying the heck out of it. :)

*Singing* I feel happy! Oh, so happy!

Somebody stop me! There are sooo many other things I need to be working on right now. But I can't help myself! I'm just so excited that I finally had a chance to go out and do nice pictures of my own boys! And they were in a cooperative mood! And the air was clear. And the sky was blue! And there were cool clouds! And I finally found the angel wings I've been wanting to use for two years now!

I had so much fun with them. Really, I can even say.

**Click to see bigger and clearer! :)

Okay, back to REAL work now. :)

Heavenly....

Not much time to post, but sooo much to update you all on, (with LOTS of different images to share).





I just wanted to share one really sweet photo I managed to capture of my boys this afternoon. This is the first one I happend to grab and edit. LOTS more to come!





So without further ado.....here are my little angels.


**Click on the image to see it bigger and clearer.