A reminder

I needed this today!

With heartful intention, I'm going to try to live by it.

 

My lil Florence Nightingale

Let me be an "Honest Abe."

I don't do very well with sick people.

It's not that I'm not sympathetic.

I am. Really.

Okay, maybe not so much.

I come from the camp of "get up and get going."

A shower might help.

Take a walk.

Eat a little something.

Or...

For the love of Pete, get out of bed and make yourself feel better.

That does not sound sympathetic, does it?

I'm happy to report, my Mia didn't get my

"not very sympathetic, kinda a jerk when you're sick" genes.

The flu/cold bug hit our house last week and lingered through the weekend.

It had both Trey and I coughing and hacking

and then gave the Big Guy a case of Strep.

I was not happy.

Mortified.

A three day weekend ruined.

If you ask me, it's the worst kind of fate.

A weekend that can't be enjoyed.

Big Guy, aka Frankie, Dad, My Darling Hubs

was in bed for most of the weekend.

As I was doing the eighth load of laundry

a spritely Mia came downstairs,

grabbed a cold drink and said, "this is for Dad."

He has a fever."

She went up the stairs with a smile.

Soon after, I follwwed her ~

I had the lovely chore of putting away

yet another load of the fresh laundry.

There it was that I found our Florence Nightingale

hanging out with her sick daddy.

She brought in her own chair, a blankie and

patience enough to watch all of Daddy's fave movies.

Gotta love that sometimes genes really do skip a generation.

Update: Happy to report the big guy is productively at work today.

Although Trey and I are still hacking, we're feeling just fine.

And Mia, she's just fine with not having another patient to care for!!

Blank pages

 

I hope my smiling face makes it easier to accept my recent MIA status.

Missing in Action, that is.

The last 50 days or so have been nothing short of insane.

I suppose it's been the good type of insane.

The word crazy doesn't begin to describe our family's 

last couple of months.

I'm talking big life-changing stuff, ya know.

When I started our Year in Pictures blog, I did it with great intention.

I remember thinking it would so much fun.  

Its purpose was to chronicle our family's year.

Imagine the end product.

365 pictures telling the story of 2012.

And really, how hard would it be to take a simple shot each day,

write a cute caption and then publish?

I had no idea.... 

Between my family responsibities, my job and of course the other things life threw us,

it became a struggle to keep up.

A MAJOR STRUGGLE.

I thought about just deleting the blog but then realized that would be like

deleting our year.

And then I had a thought.

Perhaps the days skipped were chronicled

much more effectively than those with the pic and prose.

Those "skipped" days were full.

Full of busy

Full of crazy

Full of life

So, I'll start over.

 September is always a great month for

 fresh starts, do-overs, resets.

Wouldn't you agree?

Stay tuned friends.

I imagine the next several months will bring lots of awesome stuff.

I'll do my best to keep up.

I'll also try to remember that blank pages sometime define life

better than the ones that have the lines of words and pretty colored pictures.

Onward...

What do you allow?

The smile of a champ!

Little Mia had a goal.

She set out to win a spot in the city championships.

And she did it!

So proud of her.

All The Preppies Holla!

I don't have a trendy bone in my body.

Sometimes I wish I could pull off the latest fashions

like flowy dresses

or neon backless tank tops

and then I remember

I'm me.

There's a picture of me at a recent book signing

I tried wearing this rayon brightly colored shirt.

It was horrendous.

I squint at the colors.

What was I thinking?

Some call me classic

or refined.

Heck, I have one friend who calls me "banana girl"

after Banana Republic, of course.

The word I hear most is "preppy"

and I suppose I'm okay with that.

So it does me very good to know that

in just a few weeks the guys and gals

who will represent this fine country will be completely

100%

without a doubt

totally preppified!

There's really nothing like a crisp pair of white chinos

and a navy blue popped collar polo shirt

Is there?

In the midst...

I don't know what I was thinking.

I decided I wanted to "get out a little bit."

Enjoy a dear friend.

A girl lunch.

So we walked.

Kinda far.

In very, very hot weather.

110 degree weather.

Uggh.

I was hot.

Blazing hot.

I was complaining.

And then in the midst of the heat

and the sound of my complaining

I saw this.

It was green.

And beautiful.

It reminded me that even in the midst of what some call hell

there's alittle slice of heaven.