Make a Smilebox slideshow

Something inspirational to get us through the week, day or a moment in our life that seems out of control:

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, Raised a glass of water and asked 'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.' He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, As the burden becomes increasingly heavy, We won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again.

When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden. So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, Let them down for a moment if you can.' So, my friend, Put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while. Here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

- Accept that some days you're the pigeon, And some days you're the statue.
- Always keep your words soft and sweet, Just in case you have to eat them.
- Always read stuff that will make you look good If you die in the middle of it.
- Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be Recalled by their maker.
- If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
- If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, It was probably worth it.- It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others. - Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, Because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
- Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.- Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
- The second mouse gets the cheese.

- You may be only one person in the world, But you may also be the world to one person.
- Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.- We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
- A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I loved this line from that inspiring story...

It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply be kind to others.

Sometimes I wonder what my purpose is in life...was it to be famous, or to make money, to well-liked or to make a huge difference to the masses? And I get down because I think I haven't accomplished these things. But then I realize that sometimes the purpose of life can be very simple. In other words...To simply be kind.

Many of us think we need to have extraordinary lives...traveling all around the world in our career, climbing up the career ladder in corporate America, go sky-diving, climb Mt. Everest, be a movie star, be a millionaire, be rock star, be a comedian, be a super model, be thin, have the perfect hair, teeth, body, gosh this list could go on and on!

And when we don't accomplish these goals, we feel like a failure. But sometimes the ordinary is the extraordinary. And the rest is just fluff!

To simply be kind to others. I can do that! And what a wonderful purpose in life!

Magical Christmas moments

Our 2008 Christmas was very lovely. This was the first Christmas without Dad present. It was a little weird. I always enjoyed seeing his smiling face and loving whatever we got him. And of course, he loved seeing Kendall open up her presents. But I must admit, the breakfast was a highlight for him.

This year, I didn’t really let anything get to me. Which is rare. But then again, we didn't have a lot of family with us this Christmas, so that makes it much more relaxed for me.

We had a very low key Christmas Eve – just the four of us, Mom, K, Chris & I. Who knows – if it continues this way, we may high tail it out of town for the holidays in the future and go somewhere either warm or more exciting than GR! But for now it was very nice!

We went to church on Christmas Eve. It was very lovely. The cathedral looks so pretty decorated at Christmas. Kendall looked gorgeous in her Christmas dress that her Aunt Cindy had given her last year. And she was so well behaved in church.

I took Kendall to see the Nativity scene. She was so precious asking about the animals and then knelt down in front of it and said a prayer.

Afterwards, we got in our jeans (of course after me making Chris put back on his nice clothes so we could take some photos by the tree with all of us looking nice) and had pizza from Papa Murphy’s and salad. And for dessert some cookies and port wine.

This is so different than in years past when we would do either lots of appetizers (meaning lots of preparation) or have a nice sit down meal (and that would also mean lots of preparation). Plus the boys would usually come on Christmas Eve and we would have them open their gifts and we would open the ones they would give to us, so past Christmas Eves were more eventful, less relaxing.

Kendall was so excited. It was so cool to see Christmas through her eyes this year. She understands it more and more every year. This year we left cookies out for Santa along with milk and magical reindeer food (Yes, I bought into the whole commercialism – Chris told me that when his boys were little, he would leave a carrot out for the reindeers. But me, no I had to buy “magical” reindeer food.). K even wrote a note to Santa. It was so cute.

Then in the morning she came in and snuggled with me while Chris went to pick up his parents. This was the first year that Chris' parents had the chance to celebrate Christmas day with us at our house with Kendall and the boys.

Once we got up, Kendall ran downstairs when we got up and looked outside and said “The reindeer at their food! It’s all gone!” And she looked at the cookies and wondered what happened. I guess she didn’t realize that Santa actually likes to eat the cookies and drink the milk we leave out for him!

When Chris came home with his parents and the boys decided to show up (around 10:45 – not 10 like Chris had told them to. Hmm…makes me wonder, how did they get my “bad” gene when I am their step-mom. I guess it doesn’t have to be a genetic trait!) we had breakfast. A egg/bread casserole dish along with Polish kielbasa, bread & cream cheese dip, nut bread and of course we can’t forget the mimosas!

Then it was onto the presents. Kendall had so much fun and Santa did not disappoint. She got the video games she wanted as well as the Barbie doll.

In the afternoon I took my mom and Chris' mom to see Marley & Me. Cute movie and a good movie to see on Christmas Day. I had never gone to the movies on Christmas. I couldn't believe how many people go to the movies on that day. So much for the religious and spiritual aspect of Christmas!

Christmas night was lovely – had dinner with Chris’ rents and my mom (and Kendall) and then Chris took his parents home. I cleaned up, K got on the computer and mom went home. Wonderfully relaxing!

What a difference 4 years makes!

This is my first blog. I am new to this. (I know -- how long have blogs been going on? I guess it is time to jump on the bandwagon!)

I like to write, it is just trying to get myself focused to do it. So no time like the present, eh?

My blog is called Crazy Days & Magical Moments. Because that is what life is all about.

It is filled with uncertainty, times of grief, times when we feel like the circus act with 5 plates spinning up in the air with all the "things" we need to take care of in our life -- family, work, home upkeep, bills (you get the drift) and yes, even times that we think we are in a hole that we can never get out of. Those are our Crazy Days.

But I also know for a fact that it is filled with Magical Moments. That if we only focus on the "bad" in our life, we will miss all the magical opportunities that come our way. Like the one that happened for us this morning.

Kendall (my 6 year old daughter) was hopping for us today on one foot. And she went from one end of our kitchen to the other. Now she has done this before, a couple hops here and there on one foot but then loses her balance. Today was the clincher...she was hopping throughout our kitchen without holding onto anything and didn't lose her balance!

Now while this may seem routine for most people out there, it was emotionally moving for us. You see, it was only 4 years ago when Kendall finally started mastering walking without assistance. She was delayed in reaching many of her milestones. And she has hypotonia (low muscle tone) along with balance challenges that make some of these "routine" exercises, more difficult for her to attempt or even succeed. But when we saw what she accomplished today, we just know that anything is possible for her...with a little patience, time, understanding and hard work.

She has shown us a what a Magical Moment is all about.

And we revel in that.