Secrets, KT and Japan

Okay, I've got something I've been sitting on for a while, a secret of sorts.  My husband has been in Japan for veritably almost the whole month of February.  I didn't share this online here, and he was even forbidden from posting on Facebook...posts and pictures from Japan.  Let's face it, sometimes the online world isn't safe, and posting that I'm home alone for a month with my cute 16 year old daughter would just be downright stupid.  But, I am happy to say,  KT has returned, or he will later today. 

I have had a taste of single parenthood and truth be told...I DON'T LIKE IT.  No thank you!  A week here or there for a business trip...fine but the 20 days?  Heck no!  AND, he was able to come home a day early which in and of itself feels like a tremendous blessing.  But let's look at the month of February in review, shall we, and see what he has missed:

Valentine's Day
Shopping for Groomsmen clothes
Sampling the banquet menu for the after wedding luncheon
New Beginnings for Ladybug at Church
The funeral of a friend's son
Ladybug's first HS Dance (she looked lovely, by the way)

I'll be sure to blog on a few of these, for KT, yeah buddy, you missed some stuff, and we missed you! 

What do you think of business trips and travel and long separations? 

Sucky?

Life Lesson and a Nap

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Sunday I slept.  I mean really slept.  Curled up in blankets for a nice long nap.  For someone who is an anti napite, this is nothing to take lightly.  Sunday morning, I had a church meeting at 7:30 am for leadership.  I'm in leadership.  That is a weird thing to say, because I really just want to be that girl who sits back and gets asked to do things here and there.  I don't think I'm a leader, I don't feel like a leader, and quite frankly, sometimes I don't want to be a leader.  It really is an uncomfortable thing that is causing me to stretch and grow in ways I'm not accustomed to.  But, He has called me, and I'll do the best I can.

KT say the reason I slept  was because of stress.  I am kind of overwhelmed lately.  This leadership thing, working full time, wedding plans, and I'm maybe sort of am single parenting it (but I'll explain more on that later). 

Sometimes life just gets hard, and I've learned a valuable lesson:

TAKE A NAP

When a light goes out and Suicide

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On Friday, I went to a funeral for the most amazing young man.  He was 21 and he cut his life far too short.  A bright candle went out that day...Watching my friend, I see her husband holding her elbow, guiding her, quite literally holding her up.  I wonder how she is still standing.  I can't imagine the pain and anguish they are going through.  My heart grieves with them.  She was dignified and gracious and I know she was being held up by our Father in this tough moment of her life.

I find comfort in the words of one of my Church leaders.

I feel that judgment for sin is not always as cut-and-dried as some of us seem to think. The Lord said, “Thou shalt not kill.” Does that mean that every person who kills will be condemned, no matter the circumstances? Civil law recognizes that there are gradations in this matter—from accidental manslaughter to self-defense to first-degree murder. I feel that the Lord also recognizes differences in intent and circumstances: Was the person who took his life mentally ill? Was he or she so deeply depressed as to be unbalanced or otherwise emotionally disturbed? Was the suicide a tragic, pitiful call for help that went unheeded too long or progressed faster than the victim intended? Did he or she somehow not understand the seriousness of the act? Was he or she suffering from a chemical imbalance that led to despair and a loss of self-control. 

Obviously, we do not know the full circumstances surrounding every suicide. Only the Lord knows all the details, and he it is who will judge our actions here on earth.

When he does judge us, I feel he will take all things into consideration:   our genetic and chemical makeup, our mental state, our intellectual capacity, the teachings we have received, the traditions of our fathers, our health, and so forth. ~M. Russell Ballard

It is so comforting to know that He knows everything we are going through and judgement is left to Him and Him alone.

It's important to reach out to others, to treat them with kindness and love.  You never know what someone is going through.  Your simple attention and kindness might just be the thing they needed.   One light has gone out, but lets share the light with another.

For the Love of Books and Bookbub

 

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Hi, I'm Lisa, and I'm addicted to all things books and reading.  I could seriously disappear into my quiet, introverted reading life if I were allowed to.  Flipping through the pages of a book make me so giddy...Seriously, I was sniffing my daughters yearbook just last night.  But, lately, most of my book reading has been done on a reading app.  Because how could I resist carrying around a veritable library right in my purse.  I mean that is just a freaking dream come true.   But if I'm not careful, I can enter a digital download hell.  It's so easy to just click for a book regardless of the price...

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So here is the coolest thing I found, and maybe you've already heard of it, but it's called Book Bub.  You go online to their website and set up your profile with your favorite genre's, and they will send you a daily email with free and really cheap books for you to download from Amazon or Barnes and Noble and Apple.  Sometimes some really good authors test one of their books for free.  If they get you hooked, then you'll come back and buy more.

I love a good historical fiction/Romance so I have marked that category, but I've also marked Christian books because sometimes those romances can get a little too hot for me.  I've been known to delete one I can't handle.  But by selecting Christian, then I'll get information about clean Christian romances, too.  See how it works?  And if it's free and you don't like it?  Just delete. 

I'm not being paid by Book Bub or anything.  They didn't ask me to review their service.  I just love it so much that I thought others might too. 

What type of books do you enjoy reading?

Do you have an tips or secrets for us story lovers?

From my neck of the woods

Happy Valentine's Day from my neck of the woods...

to yours...

May this day just be a sampling of a loving life all year long.

Writer's Block and Oneword Exercises

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While looking for the website to celebrate my One Word this year, I typed the URL in wrong but I came across this little gem.  It's a writing website that I am head over heals for.  It is called oneword.com and their purpose, they say, is to help writers overcome writers block.  It is such fun!  No, seriously it is...

From their website:

"Simple. You’ll see one word at the top of the following screen.
You have sixty seconds to write about it.
Click go and the page will load with the cursor in place.
Don’t think. Just write."

Today's word was:  Aura
Here is what I wrote in sixty seconds:

"She was drawn to his aura. Not that she was a mystic or anything, but there was just something about him; his charisma, his personality. Something made her want to be around him all the time. She dared say she was falling in love, but, strangely, she’d actually never even spoken a word to him."

I think you can tell I read a lot of romance books. 

Need some inspiration or just a creative writing exercise?

 

School Mom

 

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Cataloging my past jobs was actually kind of fun!

• Pizza Maker
• Insurance Company Receptionist
• Music Store Clerk
• Real Estate Company Secretary
• Travel Agency Receptionist
• Teacher Assistant
• Secondary School Administrative Assistant

It has brought up some great memories, like the time I worked in the record store and got to meet Ratt and they gave me free tickets to their concert…(You’d have to be from the 80’s to know)…

 

Or the time I got a free trip to Maui from the travel agency…

 

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And then there was the time I helped kidnap the Inflatable Pink panther from the Insurance company with a ransom note and everything…good times. 

 

But, by far, the most favorite job I have ever held was that of a mom.  I miss those days of fully devoting myself to homemaking and caring for my family.  I aspire one day to do that again…you know, work from home fully devoting myself to a clean home and yummy meals, exercising, being more spiritual and doing yoga, of course...A girl can dream...

However, I have been given the most flattering job title lately by some of the students, and you know, it runs a close second to ‘mom’.  Some of the students have been calling me ‘School Mom’.  I work on state reports, handle accounts payable/receivable, schedule students in their classes, manage transcripts, answer phones…but what the students call me is School Mom, and I LOVE IT.  Seriously, could there be a more flattering title? 

School Mom because I show concern, offer kindness, I compliment, I smile, I help them if they need something, I get them medicine when they’re sick. 

School Mom…because if you can’t be with your own mom, at least you have a school mom…

What job title do you own?