THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS....

I don't know why I've been singing this song in my head lately, but now that I think about it, I do have a few favorite things!

My Superman, super generous, super thoughtful husband, bringing me birthday tea and juice in bed

my beautiful-kind-enjoyable grownup kids, facetiming me because they know how much I love talking with them

my grandbaby girls (raising giddy feelings of love), two of them competing to see me on the computer

Then there are my favorite girlfriends who've walked alongside me in my deep pits, experimental dips, and encouraging lifts - and sweet sisters ...and kind in-laws.

Aside from wonderful people~~~

the sunrises behind the barn, streaming into our courtyard

the nightly sunsets behind the sisters mountains

the indescribable dark night skies, stars scattered everywhere, provoking awe 

the baby deer waiting cautiously to cross the road at dusk 

dogs turning inside out at the mention of a river walk

the gift of getting to serve and help women at our amazing church

birthday surprises....cards and gifts and calls from family and friends

daily love and encouragement from my Savior, walking alongside me and living in me

These ARE a few of my favorite things! I'm feeling so grateful again....                   

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

It's amazing to me how a day can sometimes go by. With a list never made. To-do's never formulated. A list ignored for what was more appealing or seemed important in a day. Honestly, not much is urgent to me these days. Unless someone is tugging at my pantlegs saying "up". Or one of my kids calls or facetimes. Or my husband wants to do something fun together. Or the dogs are turning inside out to go for a walk. That's important! That's fulfilling. That is joyful and worth dropping life for. But what if someone lets their life go by. Making lists, formulating to-do's, living the urgent, and accomplishing what seems like a lot. Yet all the days missing out on the gifts and blessings God has for them. Been there - done that, the saying goes.

I reread a few posts from my blog written during the first 15 months my unexpected companion moved in. Some of the words resonated as if I wrote them today. Because not a lot has positively changed, physically.

But a lot has changed. When in a fairly good season where I have more function, more energy, and less pain, I am not impatient with too much of anything. I think I've developed greater perspective and sense of priorities. I'm tempted to move into the hurry-scurry attitude of days gone by, because it's my innate default mode of operation (and I do like to accomplish things). But mostly I refrain. Most things that come to mind can wait for another day or don't need to be done at all. It's good that I have this disease. I don't like it, but it's useful. I'm changing. I can't "do" like I used to. But I can "be" more of who God has designed me to be.

My companion helps to clarify what I am to be about. People. Serving. Loving. Encouraging. My mission in life as a coach is to encourage, enlighten, and energize God's life in myself and others. James says I am to show my faith by my works. And in doing so, I will receive a blessing in all I do. I want and need those blessings in every little thing I do! So my desire is to do the works the Father has designed for me and shows me to do. Little or big, seemingly insignificant or more so. Whether it makes sense to me or not. And to love God increasingly - others through serving them however I'm able. That's how I want the tick-tock in my life to sound! Whatever it takes, may it be so Lord!

The Definition of B-U-S-Y

B is for babies
    busy busy babies
    babbling babies
    bunch of two babies
    bold baby
    beautiful babies
    barb's precious babies
    big girl too
    big girl with bountiful vocabulary
    big girl voicing amazement at the mountains and stars - "sooooo beautiful!"
    big girl asking why. more than once...

U is for up and down & up and down & up and down the slides
    upside down life for the dogs
    "up peezzzz, peezzzz, peezzzz...." until it got the job done
    under covers on her little mattress in my closet slept the cutest little sleeping beauty
   
S is for super duper mommies  
    special beyond words moments
    sucking thumb and pacifiers
    sore hands and wrists but ones that were so-gratefully enough
    super-smoothie-making Opi
    swimming in the jacuzzi
    so so so cute times three, and almost four
    sleepy grownups and sometimes-snoozing little ones
    scratch on a little nose by a very bad and forever baby-banned dog
    school for the preschooler. special mommy-homeschool, that is!
    sobbing, as kiddos do sometimes. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't!
    sitting in my lap alot, reading books alot, books I read my kids long ago
    so very thankful, beyond words, to have these seven precious people in our lives
   
Y is for yahoo at the bouncy gym
    yippee driving the Bay's battery operated cars and riding ponies at the pumpkin patch
    yapping Asher aiming to herd little ones walking, strollers pushing & baby-cars driving
    young moms and dads and God's wisdom that mommies and daddies are not usually 50+
    yelling "OMA!" with little legs running as fast as they could toward me at the airport
    "yes" to most every request, as Oma's and Opi's do, with overwhelming joy and gratitude