Work sucks

Being a working mom sucks. I'll divulge later...

Hopes & Dreams

With Mother’s Day just passed, I think about the people who made me a mother – my two darling little boys.

Neither have started school yet, and one is still in diapers, but I still like to think about where they will be in 20 years. Where will they be? What will they do? How will life treat them?

When it comes down to it, I have two major goals for them.

The first is that they will be happy. I want them to enjoy life. I want them to find wives that will compliment them in every way. I want them to do something that they love to do.

The second is more important. I pray that they will always be in the centre of God’s will. It’s no use doing what you like if you are not doing what God wants you to do. You cannot be happy and disobedient at the same time.

Contentment

"When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you." -Lao-Tzu

This is such an interesting quote as it sums up one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned and reflect on now that I’ve celebrated my thirtieth birthday.

I’ve always been extremely competitive. I wanted to be the tallest, fastest, smartest kid in school. Settling for second best to me was the equivalent of settling for first loser.

Those desires still gnaw at me today. I want to compare myself to others, compare my work, my abilities, my talents.

It can even extend to my children – I sometimes secretly wish my children to not only be successful, but to do everything faster, earlier and better than all the other children.

Needless to say, such motivation can leave you blind-sided by the threat of others being equally or more qualified than you. Sometimes, the collision is really only a dent to your ego, but the initial shock of the incident can completely throw off your day.

As I grow older and wiser, I am learning that I need to mellow out, and when I do, the stress of life tends to have less impact on my being.

“But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” 1 Corinthians 6:16.

Summer is here

Summer is officially here.

How do I know? Especially as neither June 22nd or May 24th (the ‘official’ start of summer in Bermuda) hasn’t arrived?

Well, I woke up to ants all over my kitchen.

For anyone living in civilized countries, i.e. the US or Canada, the thought of bugs of any kind living along side of you is, well, enough to give you nightmares. In fact, for most of you, just seeing one little bug in your house will probably give you reason to call an exterminator. But on an island, bugs are a part of life.

In fact, I don’t often disturb some of the spiders we find tucked up in the ceiling corners as they’re supposed to get rid of some of the bad bugs, but I always try to get those nasty cockroaches when they appear – and of course they’ll appear more and more now that summer is here and they seem get through the screen door on my sliding glass door, no matter what you do.

I even find churchworms and caterpillars – my son and I rescued three caterpillars, and as a sort-of science project, put them in a jar. One died, but two managed to cocoon themselves and emerge as… moths, of course… We made a mini event of letting them go, too.

But, back to the ants… They are (I would say the single, but, in reality they number in the millions) the most irritating pest in Bermuda, even more so than mosquitoes that leave me itching for weeks on end.

You see, Bermuda is really a giant ant hill. They probably outnumber the people by a trillion to one, if not more (we have a population of about 65,000), and they certainly act like they own this little piece of rock in the middle of the Atlantic.

Fine, they can have Bermuda – as long as they leave my jar of peanut butter alone.

The big 3-0

So, here it is. The big 3-0.

In spite of the normal daily morning routine, I awoke with a small sense of excitement and wonder. It’s hard to believe that I’m actually 30; it’s even harder to believe that I’m actually starting my 4th decade…

My day has been relatively quiet, although DH went out and bought a ton of balloons, party hats, party masks, blowers and a birthday banner and decorated the living room. DS#1 thought it was just brilliant.

I made cupcakes to take to work today as well – chocolate cake with cream cheese icing and yellow cake with chocolate icing. I did make sure to keep a few at home for tonight, though.

I opened my cards from DH and the boys this morning. DH hasn’t bought my present yet – he’s still avidly shopping for it, trying to decide whether it’s better to buy the digital SLR camera here or bring it in from away.

When I got to work, I had a delivery of flowers from my parents.

Tonight, we’re planning on getting take-away and DH is taking me out for dinner tomorrow night. He’s even already arranged baby sitting! Now, if I could find something to wear.

I went shopping during my lunch hour, but didn’t have much luck in finding something I liked AND something that fit AND something that wasn’t too revealing. Will try a couple more stores tomorrow, so I can hopefully find something. Otherwise, I did find a top I liked, which I could get away with, but it really was a little too tight.

What a coincidence...

My birthday coincides with National Scrapbooking Day. Where's the surprise in that?

Well, they're not on the exact day - they're just a day apart. And I plan on celebrating both with an online crop at my favourite scrapbooking website - A Cherry On Top.

Wanna check it all out? Click on the link on the right side bar - the NSD button!

They're offering over $2000 in prizes this weekend, plus tons of fun. You're sure to get a lot of scrapping done.