The Momma in the Middle

Christmas has come to the Aller kids! I shared a months ago that we had a minimalist Christmas this past year, due to health and financial reasons, plus gearing up to move. Instead of tons of presents I didn't have the cash to buy, I bought a few very special things to give on December 25th (although Santa gave them more), and for Orthodox Christmas on January 7th, I gave the kids voucher books for items promised later. Later was today! The kiddos each got a new bike (their old bikes were stolen last fall), a new helmet, and new roller skates (the only skates they've had before were those Fisher Price things that go over shoes and are meant for little kids). Boy are they excited! I took them to the store, gave them their budget, and off they went! And guess what they'll be doing the rest of today until we head to VBS tonight? And I love that these are all active items to get them off their butts! The rest of the voucher items are still due to them.....

First, I'm ba-ack! After my 5 month unplanned hiatus, I'm back and ready to jump back into the fun world of blogging. Now, on to.. Summer Break, day 1: I am fairly sure someone told my kids they only had 1 day of summer vacation and so they had to accomplish everything right this very minute. Today, we: - Got up at the butt crack of dawn (707 am) and snuggled puppies - Went to Krispy Kreme (while the hot sign was on) and gorged on donuts - Got ice for the ice chest, intending to work on building the pool. Never got back outside to work on the pool. Tomorrow! (Let's see how many more times I say that...) - Hung up more things on the walls of the kids' room and continued truly personalizing this house - Gave both dogs a bath. Then Shug shook dry and gave me a bath. - Hit Walmart for groceries and Sonic for soda. - Enjoyed a visit from the Bramletts and Cate's bestie Abbi stayed to spend the night. - Had an impromptu singing and dance party. - Headed...

I've been anxious and worrying a lot over the past six weeks...really, from the onset of my pneumonia before Thanksgiving. Lots of turmoil. Lots of bills. Lots of doctor appointments. Some changes already happening. Others coming soon. Uncertainty. Upheaval. And all that on top of a life that's already pretty chaotic. So tonight, with only some of today's goals accomplished and even more on deck for tomorrow, I turn to Matthew 6:25-34 in the New Testament. Well-known words, y et somehow - sometimes - difficult to remember. Even when I stumble, God's got this; God's got me. 25Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to ...

For almost all of the past 10 years, I have lamented on New Year's Eve that the year hadn't been so awesome and that the following year was bound to be better. What I should have been doing was celebrating the various tough times we survived through then between major illnesses, surgeries, deaths, now divorces...and yet we - and here I can only speak for the kids and I - keep trucking along. Enough of that noise. There will always be tough times. Heck, I ended up in an aircas t and on crutches today after injuring my foot and ankle a couple nights ago and finally going to the hospital mid-ice storm today after my foot swelled and I lost feeling to my toes, which, it turns out, will not currently bend. But whatever! I'm done with that nonsense defining me and settling for merely surviving. So I'm here to say that 2018 is going to be AWESOME. Completely and totally awesome. For all of us! And I can't wait to work my way to what I know will be great things in s...