My own joy.

1 way I am bringing about my own joy is to have my children help more in keeping up with the house. I want them to learn to be hard workers and I don't think I have been teaching them this. Sometimes it is just easier to do things myself. 2 problems....lazy kids and a resentful mom. Here is one of our cleaning adventures. (trying to make it fun)

A 2nd way is that I am trying to be joyful.....when I am overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff I need to do, I try to remember that something is better than nothing, then get started.

The Joy Diet

I have started once again on the Joy Diet. It has nothing to do with food and exercise. As author, Martha Beck, of the book states, (and I paraphrase, but am close enough I will use parentheses so as not to plagiarize) “it isn’t about your physical body, it is for your inner self”. I have found myself needing to “get happy” with living in a new place, especially when Ken is sometimes gone several days at a time. I bought the book, The Joy Diet, many years ago and have come back to it several times. The book is still in a storage unit somewhere in the greater Des Moines area with most of the rest of my stuff. Since I have read the book already, I can get started without the book.

The book gives a 10 step process toward happiness. One step I remember vividly is that every day you should do at least one thing that might otherwise make you uncomfortable. I started doing this yesterday at Carolyn’s soccer practice and again today at Joel’s T-ball practice. Both times I made sure to introduce myself to the parents at the practice and made friendly conversation. It is not atypical for me to make friendly conversation, but it is hard to take that first step and start the ball rolling.

Another thing I did to make myself happy was to do as much work as possible getting the apartment ready for the move. Celebrate with me…..Here is a picture of the girl’s closet, which is stuffed with totes and boxes that are ready for the big day. I have gone also gone through the girl’s clothes, getting items ready for Good Will or to pass down. A lot of the sorting was related to toys (that always are getting mixed up) and paper-work (which comes out of the wood-work when you buy and sell a house and prepare taxes and work from home).

I feel very joyful. Not unrelated to the fact that Ken arrived home tonight! Yeah!

A little comic relief….here is a picture of Anna, who in addition to dumping out boxes of pick-up toys, enjoyed covering her face with Triple Paste diaper ointment while I cleaned. Luckily it is really good stuff and it smoothes right into the skin. Her face was as soft as a baby’s bottom :) Another note….today Anna said, “I potty” and when placed in the right place, got right to business. The idea of easy potty training (which we haven’t started) certainly makes me joyful.

Commiserate with me

Today I decided to pack up the family computer (not my work computer). I went to our storage closet, which is just outside of our apartment, across the deck. Unfortunately when I opened it up I smelled gas. Of course I did, there were our gas tanks for our lawn mower, that the movers wouldn't ship. I would like to blame my husband - why aren't they in our apartment garage? However, I knew the gas tanks were in there, so can't blame him - I still put 2 bags of clothes in the closet 3 1/2 months ago. (things Carolyn had outgrown or been given by a cousin to grow into since we left Newburgh in December) Also in there was Anna's birthday quilt from her auntie and 2 dry clean only coats.

I hate laundry and now I have 3 more loads. I am hoping to just air our the coats! The only thing that gave me any comfort was sharing my pain.....so here I am blogging it. (Joel doesn't have school today and Anna is sick, so we are staying in, so there was no one else to tell. Plus I probably wouldn't whine to the preschool crowd anyway.)

More Indiana Thanksgiving

I am so thankful that through my children's friendships we have met many wonderful people.

The reverse is also true. My children have had the blessings of getting to know many children of my friends

Happy Easter

Anna had Easter Egg hunting completely figured out this year. She picked up the egg, dropped it in her basket and moved on. It helped that she wasn't aware that there was candy in the eggs until it was all over!

We were able to go visit Grandma and Grandpa McCleary for Easter this year with ease. It takes a little over two hours, compared to our 8 hour drive previously! Yes Anna stayed in her P.J.s all day. She acted a little funny yesterday and today had a full blown fever. Motrin did the trick and she felt fine 30 minutes later. Of course it is wearing off now....gotta go.

I give thanks for....

The M. family was a fantastic addition to the Newburgh community. Miss T. was the only person who ever babysat my kids so I could work. I always felt comfortable when the kids were there, knowing she cared for them a great deal. Her daughters often pitched in as needed and the kids loved them too. Her hubby always had a smile and was a great help getting our apartment's necessities on the UHaul, so we could join Ken for the past 4 months.

K. always had a word of support and an appropriate CD to listen to! It was wonderful to share KinderKountry, Mother to Mother and even girls softball events with her and her family.

Miss D.B. was my Daisy scout buddy and my fellow-new mom. Her little guy and Anna were keeping us up at nights in 2007, so there was alot to share. Her hubby P. was friendly from day one - nice guy!

H. is a role model for living Green and living in God's love.

I want to be a blind leper.

Ok – I wanted to have a funny title to jump out and grab you, but stay with me. There are many references in the Bible to people who DO or DO NOT thank God for all they have been given. I want to be like the leper that went back to praise Jesus after being cleansed or the blind man who gave praise for his sight.

Upon leaving Newburgh, it seems like a good time to think of all the blessings we received during our time there. There won’t be a particular order, but today’s entries would be right on top if I was doing a TOP 10!

One good thing about leaving a town is that you never have to worry about “growing apart”, if you don’t keep in touch – you can just blame the move! I hope to never forget the joys we had in Newburgh, especially all the great friendships we developed.

Maria was a great support when I was in Newburgh – her three children matched up in age to my three youngest, so we had a lot to talk about and sometimes commiserate over. Maria has helped me survive the transition to Iowa by keeping me posted about the new babies and happenings re: our shared friends. She writes a hysterical blog that makes me laugh, even when Ken is away for the night and her correspondence is the only adult contact I have had all day! We have a lot of similarities, except she is much neater – not sure that will rub off 750 miles away, because it didn’t seem to rub off when we were across town (unless you count when my home was “show ready”).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Usual Suspects – It was wonderful to have a set of friends who regularly gathered at each others homes to share laughs, meals, Euchre and of course Bud Light. (ok , I didn’t drink any Bud light, since I don’t drink beer, buy I had to support the local distributor (who is one of the usual suspects below)!) Anyway I think this was the first time Ken and I had a group of friends, who were couples that we got together with often, where we knew both people in the relationship. Rather than “my friends” or “his friends”, they were “OUR friends”. It was great to have people who cared enough about you to get to know your husband and kids as well as introduce you to theirs! It was nice to get a call that said, “What are you doing Saturday?”

M.F. asked us over to dinner the Thursday we were packing up our house. It was a welcomed invite that was made even more wonderful when the rest of the Usual Suspects showed up to join us (except for the local distributor, who was working that night). It was a school night/work night so we were really touched that everyone made it out to see us.