I went to orientation with my daughter this week.  All year I have been as solid as a rock.  Not really cracking during the entire senior year.  Too happy to be sad at graduation even but before we left for orientation, the dam broke!  And it all started with going through pictures for her senior scrapbook.  I started looking at pics and could not believe it was time to watch her soar when I swear her egg just hatched!  The tears hit me at work one day so much so that I had to go home and sob for 30 minutes before I could head to the softball game.  Part of me didn't want to go to the game but I knew I couldn't/wouldn't miss.  After the good cry fest and a phone call to my bestie that keeps me grounded, I pulled myself together and went to the game.

Orientation went well.  She has an AWESOME room assignment that includes a private bath so she was happy about that...though I don't think she realizes she will actually have to clean the bathroom because unlike now it will not magically be clean when she gets home.  She even has a nice class schedule that will allow her to sleep in most days since she is NOT a morning person.  I was fine because I saw her continue to make wise choices so that helped me relax.  I even had a few people mistake me for an incoming college freshman so evidently I still look very young!  YEAH RIGHT!  Perhaps I don't look my age but I certainly look older than 18!

I returned home to face the dreaded senior scrapbook.  Whose idea was this thing anyway?  LOL!  It is a great idea but going through the pages, looking at the past, makes one very, very, VERY sad!  I felt like Lot's wife because I turned into a pillar of salty tears all because I looked back.  I've decided my focus needs to be more on where I am going and where she is headed than from where we have come.  Yes I will ALWAYS cherish those memories but I will not dwell on them when I know even greater times lie ahead.

Thought of the day:
Appreciate your past for what it made you become, enjoy today for the gift that it is and keep your eye on the future for the excitement, joy and peace it will bring!

Striving forward,
~E

This week I have had a very hard time focusing at work.  So much so that I seriously considered being tested for Adult ADD.  Today it FINALLY hit me what the problem is...it is FAR TOO QUIET in my office!  My floor is like a ghost town.  It is sparsely populated and those that are here are very quiet.  I am a person that must have a lot of noise going on in the background in order for me to focus.  I write at my best when I am listening to music in one ear, listening to my kids with the other, watching TV while conversing with the kids!  I have always been like that.  Someone that needs a lot of noise in order to focus.  So now as I am faced with eight weeks of silence.  Any suggestions on how I can bring on da noise?

Thought of the day:
It is better to...what should I have for dinner tonight since the kids are with their dad... I wonder if they got him anything for Father's Day...what did I get for Mother's Day...is that buzzing I hear just in my head...when do I have time to get a manicure....I need to start packing for my trip...God Bless you to the person that just sneezed...did someone just open a bag of licorice...I need to stop at the store and grab some for the game tonight...oh yeah dinner will be at the ball field so I guess pizza or nachos it is...what was I doing again?  Oh yeah thought of the day...too many random thoughts to narrow them down to a few words of wisdom.  :-)  BRING BACK THE NOISE!

Striving forward,
~E

As you all know my daughter is a softball player.  This year her high school team got a new uniform that is MOSTLY WHITE!  Just enough maroon on the uniform so one cannot bleach them to clean them.  I was not thrilled when I heard the new uniforms were going to be white but I must admit they look AWESOME!  That is until you play two games on a rain soaked softball field.  Especially when your daughter is an outfielder who has to dive & slide for balls. 
Friday evening as we headed home with mud caked pants all I could think is these pants will NEVER be clean!  Seriously her knees looked black there was so much mud on them.  How on earth could I get these pants white again?  Too tired to address the problem that night, I just let the uniform sit. 
Saturday came and went and I neglected to even look at the uniform.  Sunday I return home from church with cleaning on my mind.  When I entered my daughter's room I see the uniform OH NO!  How had I forgotten about the mud stained uniform?  How had I let it sit for two days?  Now the stains REALLY won't come out!  Sighing deeply, I put the uniform in the tub to soak. 
A friend had given me a bar of laundry soap called Fels Naptha.  She said it would work to take out the stains.  At that time I thought it might work for normal stains but mud soaked pants that sat for two days?  I wasn't hopeful as I took out the bar of soap thinking  at least I could try. 
I scrubbed and I scrubbed.  I rinsed and I rinsed.  And I decided the muddy knees would just be stained knees.  I put the uniform in the washer on a short cold cycle so I could get an idea of how much of the stain was removed.  I took the pants out and it looked better but still stained. 
Hmm, that soap did better than I thought it would so  again soaked the pants in the tub to get them wet and then scrubbed and scrubbed.  Much to my amazement my scrubbing was working!!  The stains started to fade and then disappeared.  I put the pants back in the washer for a rinse and spin cycle.  Again, to see how much of the stain remained.  I pulled the pants out and all the stains were nearly gone.  I could have stopped there but I thought oh no I can get these things spotless. 
One more soaking, one more round of scrubbing and one more rinse/spin cycle.  I take the pants out and TA-DA--SPOTLESS!  I was so relieved.  Somehow I had gotten them cleaned.  I sent my daughter a text (she was with her dad) and said we need to stock up on Fels Naptha.  She asked if the pants were clean and I said practically spotless.  Nice :-) was her reply.  I said I believe you meant to say WOW or I love you!  So she said WOW! Nice, I love you...ha, ha, they all work!  By this time it was late, I was exhausted and ready for bed feeling likeI had accomplished much. 
Then it hit me, Fels Naptha is much like what Jesus does.  We come to him caked in mud, in shame, in guilt, in sin thinking there is NO WAY we could ever be clean again.  But The Lord applies a little Jesus to us, scrubs us with the word, rinses away the worldly and lo and behold before we even know it we are spotless again!  There's no sin, no guilt, no stain, no mud The Lord cannot remove when we fully give ourselves to Him and let Him scrub/rinse us clean! 
So if you find yourself with a pair of very muddy pants that need cleaning try Fels Naptha.  And when you find yourself with a muddy mess of a life, TRY JESUS!  His power is far greater than any laundry soap!  I HIGHLY recommend both!

Thought of the day:
There's no pain too great nor obstacle too big for my Jesus!

Striving forward,
~E

I try to be honest at all times.  Not rude, I can be polite about my honesty but you know if E tells you something she is speaking the truth.  Recently I had an encounter with someone who is more of an acquaintance then a friend but someone I like.  This person was making rude comments about my ex that were uncalled for and simply not true.  Perhaps I should have ignored it, after all he is my ex, but he is also not one to defend himself so I REALLY wanted to confront this person.  Cooler heads prevailed and my ex told me to let it go.  However rumors travel like wildfire so it got to the point where something had to be said.

This person asked to speak to my ex to clear the air and he asked me to come with him for moral support.  SILENT moral support.  So I went, they talked, it was a good talk though there were things that I would have said that he didn't.  The next day this person thanks me for coming by and even made a point to say how much they appreciated my honesty.  Well, I took that as an opening to really be honest about what I thought.  Again, I was very polite, I was not rude in anyway but I just told them like it was.

I felt SO MUCH BETTER and the person told me how much they REALLY appreciated and respected my honesty.  So that made me feel better too.  But what really made my day was seeing the outward change in this person.  Perhaps no one had ever told this person about how their mannerisms distanced them from the group because it was like night and day.  Instead of being closed off and borderline snobbish, this person smiled and greeted people.  This person went out of their way to be one of the group instead of an outsider. 

So today I talked to another member of the group that commented on how much better the attitude was.  This new person was impressed and thrilled that things had gotten better without even knowing that I had said something.

So because I was honest, one person no longer feels like an outsider and the rest of the group gladly welcomes the smiles, jokes and camaraderie.

Thought of the day:
Honesty may sting for a second but truly it is better to suffer a moment of uncomfortableness than a lifetime of misery.

Striving forward,
~E