throwing stones

This morning started as many mornings do.  I woke up and rolled over and looked at the clock.  To my delight it said 6:00.  So I closed my eyes and laid there for a few minutes and realized that I wasn't tired.  How great!  Then I thought, I can jump in the shower quickly before getting the girls up for church (and boy did I NEED a shower).  I get up, brush my teeth and grab my towel and robe and head downstairs to shower (long story for another day).  I hear one of the girls and I am griping that they are up so early, but no worries, they wont get up until I get them..so downstairs I head.  First stop...coffee pot.  How wonderful it will be to get done with a shower and have a nice hot cup of coffee waiting for me.  So I get everything all ready to go and I look at the clock on the oven....7:15.  I check the microwave...7:15.  Then I realize that my clock radio must think it is so smart and changed to standard time.  AGGGHHH!!!!  No time for shower, but at least I will have coffee.
So after heading upstairs and getting the girls started, I need to get dressed.  After getting a dressed into a skirt that fits, but isn't comfortable yet (grrr...baby weight), I look into the mirror.  I look awful.  I sure could have used that shower.  Then I think, I am heading to the one place where there shouldn't be judgement...right??  Wrong!!!  Now before you start thinking, those horrible Catholics I want you to keep reading.
So we get to church and I drop off the big kids at CCD and Juliet and I head in.  Normally we try to sit in actual church, but usually don't make it through mass before we HAVE to head to the "crying" room. Today, thinking I am unarmed with Cheerios we head straight to the crying room.  I typically don't like being in there because Juliet seems to know she can get down and I want to "train" her to be good in church.  The other reason is there are other kids that are noisy (ummm that's why it's there) and it is hard to hear.  This area is actually the common area and they have coffee and a table ready for donuts after mass.
So in walks this family.  It looks like grandparents, the parents and one little girls.  The walk in and sit down in the hard chairs provided.  Then the grandma says to the daughter...there is coffee.  She says ooohh coffee.  They both the proceed to get a cup each.  Then the decided instead of the hard chairs they were going to sit in the comfy couch that was also in the room.  Now if you are familiar with Catholic rules, you are supposed to fast one hour prior to receiving communion.  Nothing to eat or drink.  Now there have been times that I have been cutting it pretty close to that hour mark...maybe scarfing down a bar on the drive in, but never been so blatantly breaking the rules.  So there I sat...glaring at this family.  Hoping to myself, they weren't the Catholics in the family and they just didn't know.  But no, the daughter is..and she in my opinion was the most obnoxious about her coffee.  Then I sat there hoping that she wouldn't take communion.
It doesn't dawn on me until we are home, while I am in the shower getting my stink off and feeling much better,  that I was so worried about being judged because of my disheveled look but it was I who was the one casting judgement.  Yes, they were breaking the "rule" about fasting, but wasn't I breaking a bigger one?  What is that saying...don't throw stones when you live in a glass house?  Well mine would have been shattered today.

HALLOWEEN!!!

The girls had fun walking down the street.  We tried waiting for our neighbors, but the girls couldn't wait. Most of our street was closed down, so we didn't have to worry about the kids running into the street.  I brought along the wagon that carried Juliet but also carried the girls coats.  After letting Juliet Trick-or-Treat at the neighbors and then getting a piece of candy from another neighbor, she quickly caught on what was up!
Some people were sweet and wanted to make sure she was included in the festivities, so they gave her a candy to hold and she immediately tried to open it.  Then she kept trying to get out of the bumbo, which I thought was pretty impossible, but not for a candy driven one year old.  So after some quick thinking, I realized I had a lollipop from one of the houses and let her have it.  I did get one question about weather or not she was old enough to have it, but it was either that or cracked skull.
As we finished the first side of our street, Juliet was done with riding and she walked up with the big girls as they got their candy and was just happy being with them.

Next year is going to be so much fun, but hopefully I will have some help this time.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

the answer to my question...

So I had said that my next installment was going to be about the name of the blog.  I realized that I never really answered the question, that most of you know by now (because the blog is up and running) but you don't know HOW I came to the conclusion.
Many of you know that last year we station in Montgomery, AL where Josh went to and Air Force Command and Staff College.  There he was brainwashed... umm hmm ....taught about all the cyber, voodoo  stuff.  He HATES Facebook and he hates even more that I am on it.  With the new latest fears about third parties seeing your information no matter what your security settings are, I am fearful, my days are numbered.
So I was left with the question, how do I keep in contact with all my friends, literally all over the world?  How can my husband also benefit while deployed or on a DET or where ever the Marine Corps might send him....because he for sure WONT be on Facebook.  So I came to the question, to blog or not to blog? After being intimidated about starting...all that noise started in.  Fear of rejection, fear that what I had to say was unintelligent or worse ignorant, or just criticism (mostly from my writer husband).  Once I put the noise aside (and a lot of fear) I decided...lets see how hard it is just to make a page.  I don't HAVE to publish it.
I found it incredible easy.  For those out there wanting to start one, don't be intimidated by all the stuff.  It is a lot of cut and paste.  I would love to take total credit for my page but there was a lot of...well let's say...guidance.
Then I found my creative side, that often gets pushed aside with the daily chores and life, was stimulated and enjoyed creating something and sharing it.  I stayed up way to late last night, that is why I never finished the HOW of my question.  I was so excited that I couldn't fall asleep, which is not a good thing to do before a crazy busy day.  A day when, not all meals were perfect, and some meals didn't really occur at all.  Josh doesn't understand how I can forget to eat...I just do.  Only in the morning.  I will think I have then as I look back on my morning I realize that I never sat down and ate (which I normally eat standing up anyway).  So breakfast at one, dinner at 5 and now.....ice cream???

To Blog, or not to blog...

In reading some of my other friends blogs I am impressed and intimidated.  They have wonderful stories to share that are written with such eloquence, that I feel inspired to start my own.  But who would read these posts?  Who would be interested in what I have to say?  Those that know me, know that I have the gift of the gab, but do I really have anything to say?
I have decided that it doesn't matter to me who reads or doesn't read.  I am going to make this for my family...more importantly for my husband, who is deployed.  So he can see what we do on a daily (or maybe weekly) basis and feel like he is here not missing a thing.
This page is a work in progress..under construction.  The page is like my life.  Always changing, improving, sometimes becoming more complicated and sometimes getting it completely wrong.  There are days when I get down on myself for not being a better wife, better mother, better housekeeper.  I find myself yelling at the kids when I PROMISED myself I would stay calm today and treat them with the kindness they deserve.  Yes, they deserve kindness...they were born sinners.  When those days occur, and I assure you they do, I hear the negative noise in my head on how I should do things better.  It is comforting for me to know that many of us, like my page, are a work in progress.  Nobody is perfect, no one gets it right all the time, and we are ALL born sinners.  So let me impart my few words of wisdom that I have learned (but have a hard time putting into action) give your husband a break, your kids a break and most importantly, yourself a break.

Next installment....what's in a name? What to name your blog.