Just take a deep breath!

My kitchen is clean. Life is full, and well worth living.

Well, it is Labor Day Weekend. In the last three weeks our family has had some real character growing time.

As I mentioned in my last post, I began a part time job. Which I really like. But I'm a little out of practice, because I haven't had a "5 days a week , away from the home", type job since the month before Jacob was born (December 1992). So it has been a time of figuring out chores and spreading them around, shopping and meal prep! I am tired. I don't know how all you professional women handle it.

A friend from some time back took his life and Maury did the funeral. Talk about heavy.

A dear elderly lady in the church passed away and he did that funeral.

Maury's mom went into the hospital and was there for 11 days she is now home and doing much better. The first 4 or 5 days were very scary as she slowly began to get better. I know many of our friends were praying and we are forever grateful.

Another dear friend, Bernie, has gone to the hospital. Bernie is Christina's "fairy grandmother". She is the one that has encouraged Christy to pursue her horsie dreams. Although Bernie is on a very tight budget she always has a little extra money to buy something for Christy and Shiloh. She is currently battling for her life. She has had numerous medical issues for some time. The biggest being that she has kidney failure and does her own dialysis at home. Well, she developed an infection and became septic and is now in ICU, she is unresponsive and has a breathing tube. In short, she is on life support and has no immediate family to speak of. Without a miracle, she is in dire straights. Again, many people from our church family have been praying and visiting her along with our dear horse friends.

Maury began his adjunct teaching job at Golden Gate Theological Seminary last week. He has two classes that he teaches on Mondays, and he will begin an online class on Tuesdays. He has much on his plate and works hard to keep us fat and happy.

An elderly man from church passed away on Thursday night. His funeral will be next Friday.

Well, this is turning into a real downer of a post. But through it all, our Lord carries us and takes our burdens as His own. We have truly felt the prayers of our friends through all of these trials. I now realize how answered prayer feels. It feels easy. Like everything is normal and life just goes on. Even when the answer is not the one I want, I can still feel safe knowing that God knows what He is doing.

At the end of a long day, he gives me strength to clean the kitchen.

A New Year

This is the beginning of a new year on many fronts.

Maury and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. (Have I mentioned yet that he shaved his head in July? I'll have to post a picture sometime)

Taryn just turned 11 years old!
She celebrated with her buddies, Timarie and Heather. We spent the day at a new, local water park, came home to barbecue hot dogs, eat cake and of course, open presents!

I bought yet another havanese. I wanted to name him Pete (as in, Amor's for the Love of Pete). But it looks like the name that is sticking is Max. So now I have to come up with a different AKC name for him. Perhaps, Amor's Mad Max? He's very curious, cute and lovable. If paper is left on the floor or anywhere that he can get to it, he shreds it! Maybe I could rent him out to a politician that has a lot of shredding to be done.
I have a permanent job now. I got hired by the local school. It's only 5.5 hours a day doing instructional aid stuff, but to this lady, that hasn't worked on a daily basis in nearly 16 years it feels full time! I'm doing all sorts of jobs, working in classrooms with kids, in the lunch room keeping the peace and I have a 7th grade corrective reading class too! The day goes fast and keeps me on my toes. So far, I really like it! But when will I find time to sew? Boy, now I have to plan my errands, get up earlier to exercise or shop and clean house on the weekends. I am sooo spoiled! Correction, WAS sooo spoiled. Although I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy getting a pay check.

Update on Jacob. He's had his permit for a month now. I know on a previous post I bragged that I wasn't nervous. I must have written that BEFORE I got in the car with him. Now I am nervous. Actually, he's not a bad driver, considering the circumstances, it's just that those of us in the car with him could die in a fiery crash! LOL

This Amazing World

A couple of week ago our friend, Philip showed up. I believe he is a green heron, and he comes by our pond several times a year to see if the fishing is any good. We have had an egret come by too, but we try to chase him away. He's much bigger and might eat the koi that we've had in there for at least 7 years.

The wild life that comes with a pond is just so cool! When we first created the pond it was overrun with tiny little frogs. Then the bull frogs moved in and ate most of the little guys. We had so many bull frogs in it that the neighbor would complain about their "singing" that went on all night long. I have to admit they were awfully loud. We tried all sorts of ways to get rid of those bull frogs. (Although we never ate one frog leg.) We wanted the cute little frogs back. We finally just gave up and let nature take charge of the whole chain of life thing. Now we have just five or six bulls frogs out there and it is much more manageable. The little frogs have moved to the back of the house into my little pond, and that's a good place for them. I can still hear them at night when we open the bedroom doors.

We've had numerous friends bring us gold fish that were no longer wanted. We've planted crawdads and a snake or two. Someone even brought us a turtle that tried to move into their swimming pool, it stayed with us several months and then moved on to greener ponds I guess.

It's so amazing to sit by the pond and just watch the life that happens in that little universe. It just goes on without any help from us. The good Lord just takes care of His creature, and I get to sit back and enjoy the show.