I must confess that I miss coming here during the week as I once did.  *Sigh*  After work these days, I don't have much energy left!  I used to have a life!  hahaha  Now, I just work, eat, sleep ... and get up to do it again. 

Good thing life comes and goes in seasons, hmmmmm?  I'm hoping this season doesn't last too long, but trying to make the most of it. 

See you at weekend time!  lol

~ B

Memorial Day is soon upon us, and as you may imagine, it has a fresh & heightened significance to our family this year.  With this in mind, this book caught my eye ... and heart.  It is a story about a child whose father is being deployed.  The boy wishes to give his father something of himself to make the separation more tolerable, so he traces his hands, measures the distance from one hand to his other hand and cuts a piece of yarn that length.  He sees it as a "paper hug."  Anytime his Dad feels lonely, he just has to wrap the paper hug around himself and feel his son's love.

The child center where I work has agreed to share this project.  We are making paper hugs and sending them to a unit about to deploy ... to any soldier who wants one, as many as we can make.

For ages long the battle rages,

Well ... I knew this day would come, and frankly, I thought it would come faster than it has, but that doesn't make it any easier.  You know how some possessions take on special meaning because of the circumstances one might attach to them?  It's true.  Silly, maybe, but true. 

I know lots of people have gone through the emotional and psychological process of divorce both online here and in my circle of friends.  Each of us deals in our own way, of course.  Perhaps the hardest thing for me through that time was the feeling that such a big part of my life had been "wasted."  Fortunately, I have 3 incredible kids to prove that is not an accurate assessment!    Nevertheless, those thoughts swarmed me for about a year after our separation.  It was during this time, after losing my teaching position, my marriage, and our family van within a few months, that God blessed me with the Mustang convertible!  I received it as a "love gift" from Him.  I have thoroughly enjoyed it, but ... it now has 140+ thousand miles on it (63k when I got it 4 yrs ago), and ... well ... it's time.  Time to move on ...

My son is laughing at me, but ... I'm saying goodbye to a "friend."  Some of you will understand ... maybe! 

Thanks for your indulgence ...

~ B

"Character - the willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life - is the source from which self respect springs."

~   Joan Didion (1934 - ) ,
Slouching Towards Bethlehem"