busy, busy, busy

and feeling overwhelmed. we're making it through, we're doing it (kind of like that feeling when you first stay up on a bike...i didn't learn to ride til i was eleven, so that one is particularly etched in my brain...), but i am looking forward to a break.

this past week i...

went to a funeral for my grandmother. it was a really nice funeral. we always laugh at funerals in that family...everyone gets a little manic, i think, to be honest. i mean, there are tears, too. it was good to hear such great memories and stories about my grandmother. it is a weird feeling to attend a funeral for someone that alzheimer's has been slowly taking away over the last decade. my grandmother was such a difficult woman when i knew her...it was really neat to hear stories of the woman she was before i knew her. it was a letting go even though it's been a gradual letting go for so long...but at the same time, there was so much receiving i didn't expect. i am glad i went.

got a baby niece. she was born tuesday. she had her first major surgery on wednesday....to repair a bowel obstruction. they removed a little over half of her intestines...but her prognosis is very good. i am sure her parents feel much like those little chamois you run through those rollers at the car wash to get all the water out of them so you can go back to drying the car...but really, really relieved and grateful chamois, you know?

figured out how to get my oldest to a rock climbing competition (almost four hours away) and my third born to his soccer game (and soccer pictures) at almost the same exact time on saturday morning. my spouse will still be at work at that same exact time, just to explain why i'm so damned impressed with myself. but really, the credit goes to my bil for agreeing to take my oldest to the comp. you know what? i'm going to give myself a little credit, too, for asking him. i'm still a little mortified that i asked for something so big, but the relief when he said yes is so much greater than the mortification...

and that's all i'm going to blog about... really, i came here to post that even though i feel wiped out, stressed out, worn out, and strung out a lot lately...i can still be stopped and moved by the beauty of life, whatnot. a mama posted about kd lang singing leonard cohen's "hallelujah" in my cyber tribe and i just had to you tube it...it.is.beautiful. (i wanted to say, i know the people waving in the background of her singing is annoying, but i spent a lot of time watching you tube clips of kd lang singing this one yesterday, and i just loved her voice and the sound quality of this one...even though visually, it is so distracting...and dar, i sat here crying listening to it again this morning...thanks for sharing it)


and here's an indigo girls song off their new cd (which i have and i like a lot...it's a little more mellow than their few previous, but there are some beautiful songs on there...like this one...i love the part at the end when she says the one she's waiting for is me...well, her, not me...ugh, just listen)


so there's my week in review. i get to stay home this weekend and aside from soccer, i don't have many commitments. well, i have robotics and such, but i have big blocks of time i can use to get caught up on all the stuff that's sat and waited while i was running around crazy the last few weeks.

peace out

quickie

we went to visit dh's family this weekend...

prayers for my niece who is due friday, on 08-08-08. she looks wonderful, she and her husband are the kindest people, and i can't wait to meet this baby.

i am worn and feeling quite vulnerable after not having a weekend at home for a month. and spending time with my in laws, particularly one brother in law who is so fixated on insults lately, only exacerbates the weariness and defensiveness. but some time at home should help with this.

i think my kids feel much of the same.

we need to join a local gym so that we may start swimming daily (or near daily). we did some of that this weekend and the kids neeeeeeeeeeed that.

i bought all four of the stephanie meyers vampire books this weekend and am on the third one...halfway through it. my oldest son has been reading them, too, and is waiting for me to finish the third. i can't explain what is so compelling...i called them sweet valley high but with vampires. i do want to say, from what i remember of sweet valley high, that the writing of these books is a lot better and the plots are more intricate. but i can't help that i think they are also really sweet books and i am really enjoying them.

married life wasn't so hard this weekend.

there is another relationship that i am doing some meditating on... a friend i had not spoken to in a long time. and she's having a hard time.

and my sister's been in philadelphia all weekend attending a family wedding. so i've been thinking about her lots, too.

oh, and my niece who is moving three and a half hours away to begin her own journey with medical school. she got her first new car last week and moved into her apartment over the weekend. i know she is nervous. i know her family will ache sometimes with her absence. and i know everything will be great, too.

peace