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Showing posts from March, 2020

A Second Chance at Families...Looking at the Positives During Quarantine

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During a time when our country is uncertain, there are a few things in which we can remain rooted.  Before all of the social distancing, my family and I were very busy people.  Most will agree they also fall in this category.  As both parents, pastors, and teachers, we always had somewhere to be and something to do.  Our children's lives also reflected this chaotic routine.  As our country has entered quarantine, activities have halted and what is left is a family that really don't know each other well due to lack of time together.  During the first few days, I mentioned there were fights over ownership of food, space, and things.  As time went on and the outside world lost its hold, my semi-adult children began to reach out to each other.   My oldest son would go for runs with my youngest son.  My daughters made videos together and asked their brother to be a part.  I drove up to the photo above tonight.  I haven't seen my children playing games outside together in a l

Quarantined...When Busy Lives Come to a Screeching Halt

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If you live in most of our world, the word "quarantine" has become well-known.   Because I am a mother of four teenagers, my life has been a blur of driving one child to some sport's practice, another to a band/choir practice.  Spring became a slurry of concerts, awards programs, and church events.  As a matter of fact, there have been times where I just wanted some time off from it all.  Boy, did I get this!  Everyone of us has been in the place where we have visualized what we would do if we gained some real "time off."  You would make time for family, really dig into the Word, or concentrate on a hobby you always wanted to do.  My question for you is have you done any of this?  My first day of quarantine, I knew we were in trouble when my almost grown children got into a screaming match over who ate whose hot pocket.  Yes, you heard me right.  My family almost drew blood over a hot pocket.  I stepped in as a faithful therapist, but that only lasted so far.

Why Am I So Tired?

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You are about to experience one of my greatest dumb blonde moments, so enjoy.  I noticed these last few weeks that I have been exhausted.  I would wake up really tired because of that stupid time change, and go to sleep just as tired.  About 9 to 10 months ago, I noticed that I had begun experiencing a lot of perimenopause symptoms like many women my age.  I had the night sweats, hot flashes, and (to my husband and children's terror) mood swings.  I could work out all day and only eat grass, and I still couldn't lose weight.   The real problem was the tiredness.  I just couldn't overcome the exhaustion.  I did research, visited my doctor, and talked to friends.  There were a million remedies, but nothing seemed to work for me.  While online, I found this product on Amazon that seemed to have some really good reviews.  Before you ask, I am not selling this stuff or getting a kickback.  This is just something cheap that worked for me.  I took this homeopathic estrogen bloc

We All Have Scars...

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Remember when you were a kid?  You would proudly display your scars letting everyone know how you got them. The more dangerous and exciting the story the better. You would even make things out of them. I have a scar on my hand shaped like a little alligator. It’s only after we age that we become embarrassed by our scars. We worry about being judged by others for how they look or how we got them. Don’t we do this emotionally? We are hurt, and instead of talking to others or working past the hurt, we hide our scars. I heard a d.j. on the radio mention that everyone has scars. We should not be afraid to show them. I’ve told my children that everyone has experiences and hurts from the past that color how they see the world.   So when my children are bullied or treated poorly to remember that the person doing it is probably speaking and acting from the pain of their scars. What if we were unafraid to let others see the real us? It may look something like this. “ I have trust issues beca

On My Own...Living Out of Laundry Baskets

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Why is it that for every load of laundry you complete, there is two more loads waiting in the bathroom, laundry room, or scattered around various places in the house?   My weekend always involves the catch-up on laundry for my family.  Sometimes I get lucky, and it is only four or five loads.  Sometimes my daughters clean their room, and suddenly, I find where every towel in our house has disappeared.   Of course, they have to use a clean towel every time they take a shower, so this equals to a significant amount of towels.  On these days, laundry becomes a multiple day affair.  On laundry day, the scavenger hunt begins.   I move from room to room looking for socks under the couches and chairs, shirts squished behind the cushions, and pants tossed around the house.  My favorite is when I find dirty clothes on top of clean clothes that never got put away from the last laundry day.   At this point, I have to do the sniff test.  Nothing seems worse than smelling the socks of a teenage b