Soaking up the Sweetness...

Sitting here with my latest yummy night time snack... peppermint icecream (Edy's brand is the best!)... working out schedules, packing the diaper bag for Barrett's day with Sharay tomorrow, organizing, preparing, and intermittently running up the stairs to put Barrett's pacifier back in his mouth since he keeps popping it out! Life is sweet tonight... and I am gonna soak it up...

I had a sweet lady, that normally cleans Sharay's house, come to help clean and organize my house yesterday! It was amazing to finally see the finished product last night. There is still much to do, but we definitely got a jump start. I was telling Ray last week that I just felt like I could never get ahead. The feeling of always trying to catch up has become overwhelming lately. Balancing baby, hubby, work, house, bills, family, friends, dinner, laundry... yikes!! So, Ray called the "cleaning lady" and I am feeling much better about life! :) I finally feel like I can actually sit and address my Christmas cards, play on the floor with Barrett, or just sit and talk to Ray after dinner without the dirty house calling my name!

I can not believe that Christmas is just 2 weeks away! All the anticipation seems to have just flown by this year in all the busyness! I have had so many moments just sitting and thinking about where I was this time last year. Sometimes I wonder if I have even grown at all... and then I remember... I remember where I was this time last year and my heart is full of gratitude to the Lord.

I was filling out my new 2011 calendar... which happens to be one of my all time favorite things to do!! Filling out the next years calendar brings a feeling of a fresh start. I was putting the important dates to remember in the calendar when I came up to May 29... wow... that will be my son's first birthday. How quickly time has passed... I thought I would be pregnant forever, and now Barrett is 6 1/2 months old! Again... Gratefulness!

So... here's to another week... full of new trials, fresh laughs, and of coarse more memories awaiting us!!!

"Just as an artist who paints pictures and portraits exercises great care in his work, so each of you, mothers and fathers, must be attentive to these wonderful images [your children]. Each day, a painter adds what is necessary to the picture. Sculptors do the same, removing excess stone and adding what is lacking. You should do the same: as makers of images, devote all your time to the task of fashioning wonderful images for God. Remove the excess; add what is lacking. Each day, examine the images closely. Cultivate the natural excellence that each one has, removing what is by nature inferior....teach them to be sober, vigilant, watchful in prayer, and to place everything that is said and done under the sign of the cross."

--John Chrysostom (c. 347–407), On Vainglory and the Education of Children, 22: