Coffee Break

thank you google images for this picture

It's been awhile since you and I had coffee and I thought it about time to share a cup. Won't you join me? I'm going to have a carmel mocha and hope the heat helps this nasty cold a bit!

Lets start our conversation light, shall we. I love how fun the fall Starbucks cups are. I just love how they change the cups with the seasons.

Let's get a bit deeper, I have been meeting with my pastor. Apparently, I haven't been actually dealing with my mom's death so we are working on that. Rhonda used a great analogy the other day about my current feelings. It's like when you are getting ready to take out the trash but you get sidetracked after tying the bag. It is sitting in your house. May not bother you unless someone bumps it, but when that happens all the smell and ick gets out. That's like the grief in my life. Most of the time it's safely sitting in my heart, away from my daily life. But, anytime I have a "mommy moment" my heart ache is so acute that most of the time I am unable to get through it without tears and frustration. My goal from these sessions is to be able to remember my mom without it being a mental breakdown every time. I need to "take the trash out" and take care of the guilt and anger that is going along with the grief.

Anyway, enough about the deep stuff, time to talk about my adorable doggie. He is really starting to click with our family. He's quickly mastered "sit" and "lay down quickly and we are working on stay. He also knows how to come when he's called. The girls are LOVING him and he loves them too. Every morning he prances around them when they come out of their room. I have to actually close their door to keep him from waking them up. If I leave it open, he runs right in, jumps on the beds he can reach and licks every body part he can reach. Pretty darn adorable.

Shall we talk about my children? I love talking about them! Yesterday was picture day and their step mom did their hair adorably. I would love to be able to do that, but my patience is greatly lacking. They are all doing pretty well in school. Natalie is still struggling with her reading, but they all did spelling tests last week and all three did a great job. That is encouraging to me because I know that if they are getting spelling down, eventually the reading will come. We have been very closely working all their teachers to make sure they know our family situation. Because we split time between my house and their dad's we have been having to do a lot of coordinating. It's taking time and a bit of juggling, but I think we are getting things down.

If you and I were having coffee, I would ask about you. How are your kids, your family, your life. So tell me a bit in the comments won't you?

1000 Gifts: 3 gifts flourishing

• it is a gift to see that my girls have flourishing imaginations. I love watching them pretend. 
• it is a gift to see the fall colors flourishing. I always worry when we have these late summers that the trees aren't going to be as pretty but there is never a problem. 
• it is a gift to see my girls flourishing in school. Maybe not in all the ways I want them to, but they enjoy it still and that's a gift. If nothing more, at least they have flourishing social lives.