Blessing in Disguise

I often heard the saying be careful what you wish for, because you just might get that. As a busy mom of three, and no that's not including my husband, I've often times wished for a quiet home and some alone time every once in a blue moon. In fact when my husband mentioned taking my youngest to Orlando, Florida as part of her graduation gift, I thought, "Sure! Why not!"

The only thing I was dreaming of was a spotlessly clean house for the next nine days and making meals for myself. Hours and hours of uninterrupted and guilt-free time to immerse myself in a load of books to pass the time, perhaps some light gardening. You know peaceful existence right? I know a lot of you are thinking, Oh what I wouldn't give to have that time, how truly priceless.

It was for the first day or so. I did what all "Martha's" do and clean and organize my house from top to bottom. Drawers, closets, rooms you name it. I thought if I busted it all out in one day after dropping them off at the airport, I could relax in my own day spa of sorts for the next 9 days.

Snap out of it, it didn't work out that way. While I was getting downloads of fun photos from my husband and daughter hanging out by the pool, ordering lunch poolside, enjoying road trips, I was sitting at home completely bored.

Breakfasts consisted of toast and coffee for one, lunches were sandwiches and dinner was usually pasta or something easy to fix for one. All the chores that my family used to help me out with, now fell on my shoulders alone. This is a big house, and between the heat wave we had for most of the time, that involved being out watering all the new plants we just put in, keeping the new grass watered as well, and picking the never ending supply of dandelions before they turned into Buzz Lightyear's trip across infinity and beyond.

Thank heavens grocery shopping never had to be done except for the occasional run to Target to pick up a few things that I ran out of like shampoo and cat food. I think the days were the best part because the nights were almost too surreal. Did you notice how many noises your house makes at night, when you're all alone. I didn't even have a dog. Just three cats who would find it fun to run around at the oddest times playing tag. Advil PM soon became my best friend along with a lot of prayer to get me through the night into the morning.

Now that it's almost officially over as I picked up my family in a couple of hours, I look back and would do a lot of things differently. I would still clean for a day and stock my kitchen with things I love to eat. But I would take the time to do more things for me. Like visiting with my friends more if they had the time, get my hair done, perhaps even take my own road trip kinda close. I need to stop cleaning so much and just sit back and enjoy the gift of time more and stop worrying about finding things to fill the time.

It was interesting to say the very least and look forward to more time in the future perhaps not at long this time. What about you? Would you love to spend 9 days all alone? What would you do?

Living a Life That Matters

Time.

We have all been give a specific allotment of time. There are no guarantees in life that you will get any more than you were already promised and nothing you can do will get you back the time you have already spent. Time, therefore, should be the most precious thing we have. Once it's gone, it's gone. There is no getting it back. It's like giving someone a dollar. They can spend it on anything they like, but once it's spent they can get it back, exchange it or get more. That's all we are gifted with. So why do we waste time?

It's been something that has been on my mind lately. Why? I have no clue. Maybe I am nearing the end of mine or maybe during the end of the year like most of us, I found myself reflecting on the 48 years I have had so far. Tomorrow is never guaranteed and all I know is that each second I can draw a breath, I am still alive and I still have purpose. I believe once I fulfill what God has destined me for, my time here will end.

Sorry, didn't mean to make you depressed just reading my thoughts but I've been reading a lot of books lately dealing with how people chose to spend their time. There are those people simply wishing they had more time in the day or when reflecting on the end of their life, take an account and simply wish they had time to change things, to go back and make a difference. So again the question perplexes my deepest thoughts, why do we waste it?

I personally think is because we think we will wake up tomorrow and we can always begin again then. The procrastinator rises his ugly head. Yet when people are given a known deadline, why do their days change? Why do they do things differently than we do? Is it because they know when life may end and we don't? Should that make a difference in how we view what we will do?

Most people spend their time, pursuing a better life for themselves and their family. In doing so, they may work farther from home, spend more hours at the office, and even sacrifice time away from their family and friends just to have more. Is there a finish line in sight? When is enough truly enough? When people are debt free? The bills are easier to manage? You have the dream house? Dream car? Able to afford a dream vacation?

But in the end, isn't there a cost being calculated you don't see. The precious cost of time. We spend so much time in a job we literally hate, making no difference in the job to make things better for the people we work with or that benefits our communities. It's almost a dismal way of looking at things. Yet how many of us have goals to accomplish and I'm not taking a "To Do List" of items that need to be done and checked off, but simply things that if you were to die in the next 24 hours you would stop doing or start doing?

Why are we waiting to do them?

I posed the question to my family and asked what they wanted to accomplish at the end of 2013, not that we know if any of us will make it that far, but I think goals are important. They provide direction and help us achieve what we want to set out to do. I know my husband and I talked about serving others more than ourselves this year and we need to put plans in place that follow that mindset. We talked about making more time for family and less about stuff and work. Do you have any goals for 2013 you want to see accomplished?

Do you have time in your schedule for fun anymore or are you simply too busy?

See I think we are missing the bigger picture, what we do with our time will be the one question, God will ask all of us. What did you do with the time I gave you? Did you make the world a better place because you were in it, or were you simply too busy trying to get ahead? Fun stuff to consider right?

I ask you to take a few moments and really think about what time means to you. How much do you value it? What will you do with the time you have left? Considering how valuable it truly is, you might question how you spend it or who you spend it with. For me, I truly thank those who give their time to me. It's like money spent, once its given, it can't be taken back and I need to value that more than I ever did before. Tomorrow isn't guaranteed and God will be waiting for all of us wanting to know what we did with the time He gave all of us. Don't let it be a life looked back on when you are dying with regret, let it instead be something you reflect on with a smile and many, many fond memories and the legacy that you will leave long after you have breathed your last in the lives of the people you touched. Let it be a better place because YOU were in it!

We Complain When Our Lives are Really Easy

We all complain. It's just part of human nature I guess. We complain about how cold it is, that it's snowing, no rain, too sunny, not enough money in the bank when someone else just got a raise; others are finding pink slips this Christmas season instead of a regular check while large corporation heads pick up yet another bonus check; we complain because we have to cook, while others are struggling just to find enough to eat for the day.

If you really look at what we complain about, it all boils down to nothing really. Someone, somewhere has it way worse than we have it now. So where did today's topic come from you ask, I mean, you must think about, where does she get these ideas for posts anyway right?

Well today's post is courtesy of my lunch conversation today with a dear friend of mine that I have known for over 7 years now. She is involved in my life so much, she is part of our family. She has been like a second mother to my daughters at times and we've seen it other at some of our lowest moments. That in my opinion makes a true friend. Plus, like she put it as we were saying 'Goodbye' today, that no matter how long in between our conversations or visits, Facebook posts or just finding some way to communicate, there is never any guilt associated with, "You know it's been (insert length of time here) since we last talked, how come you don't talk to me anymore?" Between us two, we pick right back up where we left off, no guilt needed. That's priceless in my book!

So while we were having lunch today, a variety of topics came up with one of them being the number one thing we hate to do when it comes to housework, her's is a tie between folding laundry and cleaning the bathroom, while mine was cleaning the shower and tub. As we get older, it's harder to get down and really give the showers and tubs the cleaning they desperately need before the old hammer and chisel is needed. I'm sure you get my point.

When she began telling me just how much she hated folding clothes, I laughed and said, "WOW! think about us sitting here complaining about laundry. I mean what is really involved between getting it to our machines, sorting it, adding the detergents and fabric softeners and pushing a combination of buttons, then switching said wash load into dryer and pushing more buttons. Hard to believe, we are sitting here complaining about this!" We both laughed, yet if you really think about it, how hard is it really? Compared to people who don't have the luxury of a washing machine or dryer, who have to do it by hand?

When you really consider it all, there isn't anything to complain about. All the modern conveniences we take for granted, from our computers, to social networking sites, we complain when it takes too long or it's too slow, when in reality, it's pretty darn fast compared to the old way of doing things.

It just made us both stop and really think about the things we complain about when people all around us are barely making ends meet and are hanging on my a thread. Makes you really reconsider all the complaining we do and start to think about ways we can help others if we can. Perhaps its a simple phone call or a card to let someone we haven't talked to in awhile, know we are thinking about them. Perhaps it's finding the time to take a great friend to lunch and really letting them know how much they mean to you. Time is too priceless to waste time and I hope this post touched you in some small way. I'd love to hear your comments!

By the way, I am running a Christmas Card Exchange if anyone is interested. Simply click on the Christmas card picture at the top of my side bar for details. I didn't realize it wasn't working before. Simply email me and let me know you want to participate and I'll include you.

Also an update to yesterday's blog post about my pictures of my painted villages, I forgot to include them so they are below for those of you that asked. In addition, today's photo is my submission to the day 6 photo challenge, "Candy Cane or 5!" This is made of jingle bells and is part of our home decor we've had for quite some time. I love putting it up every year! This are individually hand-painted by our family!