Baby on Board

thCACMDBNZThere is nothing like having a baby in the house. It is the weirdest thing ever. To have gone your entire life with the sounds and antics of a newborn. Then one day its thrust open and there is nothing you can do except accept it and move on. The cries, poop, the midnight feedings it is just so much…it really can be overwhelming.

The first time, really the first six months if I am being honest, I was alone with my baby in my house after delivering was by far the greatest and scariest moment in my life. He cried and cried. In addition, me without a clue as to what to do. How I wished he would just tell me what he wanted then we all could go to sleep happy and peacefully. More importantly, the crying and screaming would have ceased. Oh well. Babies are not born with that ability.

What if they could speak? Would if as soon as a child burst through its mother birth canal it spoke?   I think there are many parents that would be greatly relief by that; I know I would have been.

Like with most things it gets better with age. As the baby grew, we did as well. We learn to differentiate between each cry; we were able to put him on a bath schedule. Which was the best thing ever. It is, as he knew as soon as he was finished in his little tub that it was bedtime. In addition, the feeding time was eventually panned all the way out. It was wonderful. Almost easy.

Too bad it took almost seven months for us to get to that point. Up until then it, my house was a mad house. One hundred percent chaos. I was not sleeping, the baby was not sleeping, nothing was done, and for the first time in my life, my house was dirty. A real mess. Bless my husband heart he was so patient through the entire thing. When he did not have to work, he was at home helping me. When he was at work, he would periodically call and check on us. Oh and he would talk to the baby over the phone. For whatever reason our son loved his voice.

It did not matter if he had been hollering for an hour as soon as he heard my husband voice he immediately became hushed. I was so exhausted most of the time that I did not even think to be jealous our wonder what exactly what it was he prefer about my husband then me. Whatever worked, that what I was about.

Then about a year and a half later without even trying here comes the next one. This time it is a girl. My beautiful baby girl. She was so precious. With her long curly hair, dimple on her right cheek, and beautiful grayish brown eyes. Until she was hungry, or sleepy or just whatever. Then she was a loud screaming unlosable bundle. It seem she was a little more work than her older brother was.   The only thing I can say is that did not last as long as it did with her brother.

After the first few weeks, it was smooth sailing.

As I said there is nothing like having a baby in the house. I still am amazed at how such a small thing can demand so much from the people around it.

The Great Storm

thIB2H04KIWind, rain, hail, and sleet oh my! This week was the week from hell. The storms we experience was something to go down in the history books. By far one of the worst storms I have ever experience that is for sure.

It started the howling and hurling winds. It was crazy and scary. Especially during this time of year when we are so use to having to worry about snow, not summer like storms. Some parts of the Midwest even experienced tornadoes along with hail, rain, and sleet. I guess you can say my area was lucky, no tornadoes, YAY!

However, with winds exceeding fifty miles per hour winds, some people felt as though a tornado actually touched down. In fact, my neighbor and I were talking and he swears that he saw a funnel. I don’t think he did, but who am I to argue? I am no meteorologist.

Then there was the all the things falling from the sky. Golf ball size hail, freezing rains, and slushy sleet. Just disgusting weather. All I could think about is my car windshield shattering into a million pieces due to the hail or something flying across the yard, like a branch or something. For two days, we experience the rain, hail, and sleet. Off and on for two whole days.

My cousin that lives in the next town over did have some damage done to her house. The wind snapped one of the frozen branches from the tree in her front yard and blew it into her front picture window. She woke up to shattering of glass and howling winds. She was terrified to say the least.

To make matters worse the almost the entire county was without power. The high winds knocked out power lines and transformer boxes all over the county. It is so crucial that the business that normally services our area had to bring in utility workers from all over the country. In a desperate effort to quickly and efficiently restore everyone power.

To top it all off during all of this I lost my lucky nickel and my lucky sweater. Yes, this was not the best week in my life.

After the winds died out and all the crazy weather pass on through, I made my way over to my cousin’s house to look in on her. She and a few of her helpful neighbors were able to remove the branches from her living room. Now she was waiting on the tree service Huntsville team to come and take the tree’s trunk out of the living room. As well, as remove the rest of the tree that was still stuck into the ground.

While she is waiting, her home insurance is relocating her to a nice hotel where she will stay until the tree is removed and her house is repaired. She ask me to stay with her (-she has issues with being alone in strange places). Never one to turn down access to a Jacuzzi tub and indoor swimming pool I agree to stay with her.

That was my week, even as I am typing this I am sitting in the hotel’s restaurant. Having lunch and sipping on a delicious iced mint tea. What can I say all well that ends well? I suppose it could always be worst, right. Now I am patiently waiting on my cousin to be able to return to her house and the tree service business to take care of a few limbs that fell around my home.

What a storm I do not think I will ever forget this. It was one to go down in the history books. I know my cousin will remember this for the rest of her life.

Take it easy

th8ZJBS9PJAfter the rough week I had last week I cannot wait for a little break this weekend. Every moment I had last week was occupied with stuff that I had to do, no free time or easy breezy time. I remember when all I have is time, now it seems that I am scraping the bottom of the barrel and still coming up short. I do not think I slept more three hours at any given time. What can I say; I could not afford to sleep, not with everything going on. Nevertheless, the weekend is just a few days away. That means going out of town, so what if it is just Ohio, it is still a break from my everyday life. Whatever. I will take it and relish in it

The only downfall is that when I come back I will be right where I left. Back to square one, until God knows when I will have another break. I do not know how long I can continue living my life like this. Its time for a change. It is time to better management for my time. There has to be a way to optimize each day, each hour, each minute and if I can each millisecond.

If you are like me and time management is your dragon here are a few tools that I found useful in slaying that dragon.

What I have learned after this exhausting that I feel has benefited my life immensely, that I feel will benefit yours as well? Well here it is, enjoy it. You read right, enjoy it. Relax and go with the flow, there are so many people in the world that are unable to a portion of your day. Feel lucky that you can and you do it so well. I know I do.

So many people are living a harder life, with little to no advantage to speak of, and I want to complain because people need me? People want to see me. I am learning and growing, with ease. What I do takes time but it is not hard. I do not have callous on my hands or am I constantly worried that someone will harm me. All in all my life is easy.

I take it a day at a time, count my blessings, and pray the next day will be better, that I will do better. I have realize that I am more often than not. What more can a person ask for than that.   If there is anything else than I do not know about it, I am not sure I need to know about it either. I am content and I am happy, that is enough for me. When I’m learning new skills like learning how to setup your own blog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEfzxIYrvEk

I know you were probably some mumble jumble on how to micro manage your life, in my experience all that causes is more stress. What do you do if life throws you a curveball and completely overturn your schedule? Have a breakdown, at least that I used to do, become frustrated and shut down. Now I subscribe to the do not sweat the small stuff doctrine. I have to say that it has improved and completely transform my life. I enjoy my breaks but I also enjoy the time I spend engaged and challenged. The balanced of the two is what keeps me afloat.

Don’t fight it. Accept the bumps along the road of life. If you never experience hardship can you truly appreciate the ease? I don’t think so.