Party of Five

Today is a certain princess' birthday. Thankfully, we've already been through the whole "princess" party theme, but as I am the queen of my home, she is still and will always be known as the princess. We're keeping it pretty low-key this year with her party. Just the party-o-five, and her grandparents will be celebrating. Oh yeah, and a few hundred butterflies. Somehow she's gotten into a butterfly mode. I don't know how since it's fall, it's chilly, and butterflies won't be seen for months around here. Whatever the reason, we've got butterflies this year on presents, packaging, cake, and even the treats I made for her to take into her class to share today. Teachers frown on the cupcake thing - they're too messy. We did brownies last year for kindergarten, so being the non-crafty, uninspired mom that I am, we went with rice krispie treats. Then I got this completely remarkable idea to use a butterfly cookie cutter to cut them out...

Safe to say, we're all surviving! Day 1 (Friday) meant we were fasting sweets & desserts. In the mind of a 4, 5, and 10 year old this is a very big deal. Bagels for breakfast instead of Fruit Loops, and fruit was packed in the lunches for school instead of cookies or pudding. Amazingly enough, my kids - AGAIN - accepted, if not enjoyed, this new habit without complaint. I was handling my day without sweets fairly well...mostly due to major sinus issues that were kicking my butt for the 4th day in a row. I didn't want anything sweet, I only wanted soup, tylenol, and my bed. I hadn't been able to breathe for 4 days, my eyes felt like they were exploding out of my head, and my head seemed to be on the verge of exploding itself. On the eve of day #1 I found myself at home with the kids fast asleep in their beds, and I was ready to mentally break down over the horrible way I was still feeling, and had been feeling most of the week. That night I watched via live stream...

I was going to journal about this in my actual journal, but when I opened it and realized that I hadn't journaled in almost a year and a half, I decided to stay all modern and tech-savvy, and blog my experience instead. These 40 days, although very personal, I believe are meant to be shared so others can see what God is doing and how He's moving. Let me go back a few weeks... A woman I know...a woman who has been in my home in her wheelchair...this woman got up out of her wheelchair and walked for the first time in 23 years. (You can watch this miracle here .) We are rejoicing with her and her Alabama church family. Since then, another church family has also been experiencing God in incredible ways with people being healed right before their eyes. It's time. Last week, we got word that our church was going to begin a time of prayer and fasting for 40 days. I had many thoughts initially - the first being more of an inward groan. Make no mistake, I enjoy what I eat a...

Over the last 8 days, my favorite mailman (my hubby) has been on vacation. It's been absolutely exhausting for me. First of all you have to understand that I classify myself as a hermit by nature. I like to stay in my little house as much as possible away from all of the freaky people this world has to offer. He is a little bit more of a social butterfly. Secondly, we very rarely have ever gone on "real" vacations. Sure, we've taken the weekends away for quick trips here or there. But we're not your typical vacationing family who packs for a week and takes off to some fun-filled spot or exotic land far away. It just doesn't happen. This year, we were the stay-cationers. We stayed home, and each day I swear that man woke up with the thought of "Ooh! We should go HERE today!" or "I'd love to take the kids and do THIS today!" I would wake up (still tired from the previous days adventures) and wonder why in the world I still haven't dev...

This morning I took my place among other families in the auditorium. We sat waiting anxiously, watching the clock, turning to see when they would come in...The music started and the graduates started their procession down the aisle and up onto the stage. We listened to a handful of special music presentations before these deserving young gentlemen and young ladies were awarded their diplomas (Which I found out later were just blank rolls of paper with a purple ribbon tied around them). I sat through this same program 5 years ago when it was my son's turn. This morning, however, belonged to the princess, and once again I was filled with so much pride while I watched her take her turn and move ahead past this single milestone. To my precious daughter on this, the day of her graduation from Kindergarten...I'm so proud of you for what you have achieved this year, and I love you so much!

If I keep repeating it to myself over and over, does it make it true? In the last few weeks, I have gone from simply looking forward to attending my High School reunion, to being on the planning committee. I'm still not quite sure how that happened. But it's all good. If I'm going to drive 6 hours, I want as many classmates as possible to be there, and I'm going to do my darndest to get 'em there. I made it to my 5 year reunion. That wasn't difficult. Easy in fact. I was still living in Ohio, married and we were all still close and in touch with one another. The 10 year reunion jumped out at me without warning. I had moved to New York and I was getting ready to give birth to my first child when I received the letter informing me that the date of my reunion was going to be 1 week after his birth. No, I didn't make it that year. My 15 year reunion didn't really surprise me, I knew it was coming. But I had actually gotten the opportunity to go on a REAL vac...

I have been looking forward to this coming weekend for some time. Ever since I received an email from my best friend telling me, "It's your turn!" Almost 2 years ago, my dear sweet hubby went into downtown Buffalo and stood in line at 4:00 am just so we could get first shot at some excellent seats for the musical, Wicked. (And he suceeded by the way) The two of us took our oldest son who had grown to love the music for this show as well, and our friends came up from Ohio to spend the weekend with us - they were after all, the ones who first turned me on to this Broadway phenom! Fast forward 1 year later - I received an email simply stating "It's your turn", and we soon found out that Wicked was going to be touring into Ohio in 2010...and it was our turn to head back and spend the weekend with our friends for our next showing of the musical. We waited and watched for tickets to go on sale. We ordered our tickets, and I giggled when they arrived in the m...