A Blessed Mess Blog

Summer's end is never a welcome friend to me.  You know, there's just something special about summer.  Maybe it's the warm weather (if you know me personally you know I'm always cold).  Maybe it's the extra time I get to spend with my wonderful girls.  Maybe it's because we get to go to Perdido Key (by God's grace and mercy) most years.  It could be a ton of reasons.  No matter what the exact reason, I feel like mentally and physically I flourish in the summer.  The other seasons are great, too, but I prefer summer over them all!  Anyway, I just wanted to stop and jot down a feel things on my mind while I had the chance.  Dinner is in the oven cooking and both girls are occupied and occupied quietly, might I add.  It's been a wonderful few months at home.  I've been able to sleep in with the girls, stay up late with the girls, and one day a week I've worked alongside my husband in his off duty job doing home inspections.  It's ...

You know, I really hate it when I allow myself to get down and feel sorry for myself, especially since I'm so blessed.  My family has been blessed beyond measure, so how come I feel so blah?  I sure am hoping that this is normal and okay because here I am feeling it, living it.  We are all healthy.  My husband is working two jobs to provide for us which he does without complaint...ever.  This has been my first summer since I graduated high school to not be working.  When I finished up my MDO jobs a few weeks back it was so great to just go to bed and wake up whenever and do nothing or whatever.  Don't get me wrong...I still love doing that.  Tomorrow I'm going to work with Travis for my second time to help him out and am looking forward to it.  I thoroughly enjoyed last week typing that day for him.  I learned a lot about what he does and how he does it.  My admiration for him as a home inspector deepened.  He truly cares about...

Oh, my...what a difference a few weeks/months makes.  This is absolutely the most wonderful time of my life.  Last week I officially finished up my two jobs working in the Mother's Day Out programs at Valley and FBC!  As I type this on this lovely Monday afternoon, I'm reflecting on what I did on this first day of my "retirement."  With no pressure to be home for any reason whatsoever, Ruthie Belle, Mimi, and I drove Sophie to school.  It was soooo nice to not have to watch the clock and hurry up to work or anywhere.  Instead, we returned home doing the speed limit and were welcomed into our home with happy thoughts and plans to do whatever we wanted to.  I spent the first bit of time home cleaning ant killer off our front room windows (we were invaded by some house-hunting ants last night), a few of which probably haven't been cleaned thoroughly since we built the original house back in 1998!  Then, I moved on to tackling 3 loads of laundry, wate...

So most of you know what my family has been going through these past few weeks.  If you don't, let me fill you in quickly.  Travis fell off a roof back before Christmas and broke his wrist.  Of course, it was bad enough that he needed surgery, so surgery he had.  Things were fine, at least we though, until two weeks ago when his surgeon's office called to tell us our health care insurance provider called and demanded a refund of all the money they had paid because they had researched Travis online and found he was a licensed home inspector and that his accident occured during that job and his worker's comp should pay for it.  NEWSFLASH...Travis is a self employed business owner when not at the Fire Station, therefore, he has NO employees under him and the law DOES NOT REQUIRE him to carry WC.  Their reply to that...it's not their fault he didn't have it, so sue the homeowner where the accident occured.  My blood began to boil immediately and I fell a...

God is who He says He is.  God can do what He says He can do.  I am who God says I am.  I can do all things through Christ.  God's word is alive and active in me.  I believe God.  Today's entry is one I even struggled with the decision to put to life.  Basically, unless I am about to break I don't air my dirty laundry anywhere, let alone the world wide web.  But, if you know me at all, you know that I can express myself so much better and more clearly when I write it down, or in this case, type it out.  Maybe it's the writer in me, I don't know, but whatever the reason, I've always been able to express myself through writing so much better than in words.  But, I'm not gonna write down every little thing on my mind right now.  Honestly, I don't have to.  God knows what's weighing on my heart and mind right now.  And guess what?  He's not at all surprised one bit about any of it.  You see, He's already heard ab...

On this rainy, icy Thursday I sit at my laptop with pure excitement!  It's been one of those days, I'm happy to report!  Work was a little crazy, but what do you expect with 7 little 3 year olds?  Gotta take the fun mixed with the drama and craziness.  Thankfully I work with a wonderful person, Ms. Leah!  I was thrilled to come home and find my used American Girl doll on the front step waiting for me.  It's always a risk to buy something used, but I've wanted to do this for so long.  My doll clothes business has been going great, but I felt like I needed to try to offer some used dolls to the buyers and I finally found a used AG doll I thought would work.  I spent more than I wanted on her, but hopefully I'll still be able to pass along a great value to someone wanting to get a nice, used condition doll for less than the price of driving to Dallas or Kansas City, or one of the other far located stores, or having one shipped to their house for $1...

Today is kind of a day of reflection for us.  Today we celebrated Sophie's 10th birthday.  Wow, it even seems weird to type that.  I can hardly wrap my head around the fact that my first born is now 10...a decade old...double digits...my goodness!  It seems impossible.  Wasn't it just a few years ago that I labored for 20 hours and finally pushed that little stinker out?  She was the most absolute beautiful little girl... so perfect!  The three years leading up to her birth were difficult.  For a year we tried to conceive a child and then after months of fertility drugs and finally achieving that conception we went on to lose that precious baby at 12 weeks.  Being the skeptic I tend to be, I was certain that we weren't meant to have that baby, that for some reason we were going to just be child-less in life.  Man, little did I know that God needed to prepare us and grow us a little bit more before He gave us that gift.  I'll never f...

So I'm sitting here at Sophie and Ruthie Belle's Upward Cheer practice getting my thoughts together.  Actually, I just finished signing up for my leader shifts at our upcoming Searcy's Rhea Lana children's consignment event.  I wish I could work more, but I'm happy to have gotten 4 shifts pinned down.  This will be the first time I don't take my2sweets there as a vendor, but it's actually all good!  I decided last sale that it was time to say goodbye to the booth and hello to being a more active part of the Searcy Rhea Lana team.  I am SO excited to be doing that!  They girls are so great there.  Kristie has always opened her arms to me and taken such good care of me and my stuff, not to mention she is a repeat customer ;)  All, ALL of the ladies there are wonderful Christian women and I can't wait to get to know even more of them at the upcoming sale.  My two new jobs are about to kick my rear, y'all.  I never imagined taking care of ...