I got this forward from my sister-in-law at least a decade ago and it has been pinned to my cork board at work ever since. I glance at it every once in a while and it makes me smile… maybe it will do the same for you.
A Happy Message
Did anyone every tell you,
Just how special you are
The light you emit
Might even light a star
How important you make others feel
Somebody out here is smiling
About love that is so real
Did anyone ever tell you
Many times, when they were sad
Your email made them smile a bit
In fact it made them glad
For the time you spend sending things
And sharing whatever you find
There are no words to thank you
But somebody thinks you’re fine.
For lunch today I had a grape and fig protein smoothie that I believe has some cinnamon or nutmeg in it. It was very unusual and quite tasty (like for real).
My five-day juice/raw food detox is actually going quite well. I would not use the word “enjoy” but it really isn’t bad. I was realizing last night that I while I really wanted to eat something, it wasn’t because I was actually hungry, just that I wanted to eat – which is the wrong reason to eat.
I cannot imagine not enjoying food – but I know there are people who aren’t all about new flavors or delicious bites, very strange people who food does nothing for.
The evening meals might be my most favorite of the whole thing – we get raw soups each day: Thai Curry, Tomato Basil, Cream of Celery and tonight is Beet. They have been delicious and served with sesame seed crackers that at first weren’t that tasty to me but by last night were delicious (funny how your perspective shifts)
I have “cheated” with a couple tablespoons of soybeans and a hard-boiled egg (the first day I really needed a little extra protein), but otherwise I’ve been diligent – even drinking “fake” coffee (a blend of roasted barley, rye, chicory root, dandelion root and beetroot. I really don’t even know myself after reading that last sentence.
MOPS starts up next week – I am super excited about that!
This weekend is the women’s retreat for church… happy day! So looking forward to 2 days of fellowship and rest (plus a whole bunch of laughter).
Thank goodness for my mom who is coming to watch the boys while Simon is at work tomorrow afternoon/evening.
I’m possibly addicted to a natural shellac manicure… it makes my nails strong and unbreakable (aside from one I totally snapped off driving yesterday) and it stays on for nearly three weeks.
Liam has made a new good friend at school and I am so thankful and think it is super sweet that they have found each other. Liam is invited to his birthday party on Sunday and he is over the moon.
Liam said yesterday, “It’s no fair, Jack gets to do all sorts of fun things [i.e., walking with mommy, mall with daddy] and I just have to work, work, work all day!” Because first grade is so hard.
Whereas Jack strongly believes that it is no fair that Liam gets to go to school every day and he just has to hang out with daddy. Poor kids. Life is so hard.
In other news, I’m not my most sympathetic self this week.
I read a book I’d highly recommend to those in search of a good, funny, poignant read. The author is one of my favorite reviewers from the early days of Television Without Pity who now has her own blog and (apparently) career as a novelist. The book is called “You Take It From Here” Here’s the recap from Amazon: On the heels of a divorce, all Danielle Meyers wants is her annual vacation with sassy, life-long best friend, Smidge—complete with umbrella cocktails by an infinity pool—but instead she’s hit with the curveball of a lifetime. Smidge takes Danielle to the middle of nowhere to reveal a diagnosis of terminal cancer, followed by an unusual request: “After I’m gone, I want you to finish the job. Marry my husband. Raise my daughter. I’m gonna teach you to how to be Smidge 2.0.”As Danielle wrestles with this major life decision, she finds herself torn between being true to her best friend’s wishes and being honest with herself. Parenting issues aside, Smidge’s small-town Louisiana world is exactly the one Danielle made sure to escape. Danielle isn’t one for playing the social butterfly, or being the center of attention. And when your best friend tries to set you up on a date night with her husband, it might be time to become the bossy one for a change. In the spirit of Beaches and Steel Magnolias, You Take It from Here is an honest, hilarious, and heartbreaking novel that ultimately asks: How much should we sacrifice for the ones we love the most?
Simon and I got sucked into listening to a financial advisor for 2.5 hours yesterday. Apparently this person has been a sociologist, a business owner, a musician, an arts major, a world traveler and now a financial planner. Ugh. He was long-winded and told all the same stories he told when we met originally to talk about business stuff (albeit much more briefly, otherwise I would not have met with him again). Dislike. Plus when he found out I went to Calvin, he really turned up the Christian-isms, though he hadn’t at all indicated he was a person of faith before that. Double dislike.
I scared a little boy the other day when I saw that he was noticing Jack’s little hand – as in staring at it and holding onto it (the boy was probably 9 or 10) – so I said, “Jack, do you want to tell him about your hand?” And the boy then knew I noticed he was noticing it and instead of sticking around and listening to him, he ran away. Sorry about that.
A new brewery is opening north of town – cannot wait to check it out with Simon… Perrin Brewing Co. here we come!
Eleven years, though a year longer than ten, it doesn’t seem like as big of a deal because people remember things with whole numbers, or by fives. But it is still a big deal. It’s still the biggest deal. Anytime people die there’s an impact – but there were so many at once; so many who were simply going about their day. So we remember and never forget what happened on that day.
In lieu of a full out rehash of my memories once again, instead I’m re-posting what I wrote last year. My story hasn’t changed, my memories and feelings are still the same. I can’t look at the clear sky on this day and not be instantly brought back to that morning. We are forever changed. And we remember.
All weekend I’ve been reading people’s blog and Facebook posts about their memories of 9/11 and of course have been thinking about my own.
Like the majority of the Tuesdays for the last 10 years, I was at work on September 11, 2001. I used to come in to the office very early because I liked being the first person there – the quiet of the office gave me time to make coffee and check my personal email (these were the pre-laptop and smartphone days for me). So I’d guess I’d been at my desk close to 2 hours when my coworker got a call from a friend of hers who sounded sort of shaken up. I put the call through to her and after a few minutes made my way around to her office to see what was up (we were all nosy like that). Sherrie was already online, checking out cnn.com – which would become our tenuous connection to what was happening in our country for the next few hours, that and the radio since we didn’t have a television in the office.
We did not see the planes hit either building and for that I am so glad, because it’s shocking enough to watch it ten years later, knowing what’s going to happen. Instead we each sat at our desks, frantically refreshing our web pages, hoping for new information and reports that would tell us it was all over. I remember wondering when it was going to end and what this would mean for our country.
Another coworker came in to the office and hadn’t heard anything so I quickly told her what was happening and urged her to call her daughter who lived in NYC with her family.
We gathered in one office, sitting on the floor and listening to the radio, hearing Dan Rather’s voice crack as he reported the first tower’s collapse. I remember feeling disbelief that this was actually happening, thinking it couldn’t be real. Terrorism was brought to our doorstep in the worst, most unimaginable way. We would each steel ourselves away to call family and friends, checking our computers for more updates. I was on instant messenger with my SIL in Texas when the second tower went down. Again we wondered when it was going to end.
After that I don’t remember much. I’m pretty sure we went home early, unable to concentrate on work or think of anything else. At home we watched the news, seeing and hearing all the reports in real time, not having to wait for a website to update or for a server to allow us access to the information.
The next few days were just a blur. We were all in shock and we were so far removed from the epicenter of what happened, I can’t imagine what it would have been like to be closer to what happened. My coworker’s daughter was safe, no one I knew directly was in NYC or on a plane that day. Yet, I moved through life feeling dazed, unable to compute what happen, to believe that there were people in the world so filled with hate and so driven to bring ruin that they would do these things. People die every day, natural disasters happen and kill larger numbers of people, but this was different. This was calculated and motivated by hate and so, so senseless. Pure evil.
I remember the silence of the skies overhead. Our office was fairly close to the airport and we were accustomed to hearing planes coming in for landing or taking off and for days it was quiet, aside from the fighter jets going to and from a nearby Air Force base (hearing those jets still makes me shudder). A friend got married the following weekend and it was a welcome couple days of happiness and celebration – we were all grateful to forget about the rest of the world and get wrapped up in something so joyful.
The following month friends and I planned a girl’s weekend in Chicago – a tradition of ours – and we happened to get a hotel in the shadow of the (then) Sears Tower during the Chicago Marathon weekend. We had a great time but I’d guess we were all a little freaked out when we heard a plane above us, praying the city would not be a target and that another attack wouldn’t occur.
It’s true, life goes on. We were all affected by what happened on 9/11, whether directly or indirectly, whenever we are faced with our own mortality and weakness, we can’t help but feel something – outrage, fear, worry, sadness, disbelief. A year later, I arrived at work at the same time as my coworker whose daughter lived in NYC; it was another beautiful day with clear blue skies. We got out of cars and met in the parking lot as a plane was flying overhead, having just taken off from the nearby airport and we hugged each other fiercely, both of us sobbing because despite the passage of time, those feels were still so fresh and familiar, forever connected to that day. But things continue to happen – people get married, babies are born and trips are planned – we keep living our lives with the new knowledge that things can change quickly. We survive and come back stronger, knowing what we can withstand. Because we have to have hope and faith that good will win over evil in the end; and that evil doesn’t get the last word.
The Friday after 9/11, there was a television special called America: A Tribute to Heroes that brought together celebrities and musicians in a way I hadn’t seen before – of course since then, it’s happened other times for New Orleans and Haiti. I listened to the CDs from those performances with great regularity since then because the emotion was so raw and the love so evident. Those songs helped heal the wounds I felt from 9/11, because good can be born in adversity and love does win, no matter how strong the hate. Life is hard. God is good. Heaven is certain.
1. What is your favorite fall family tradition?
Does eating donuts count? Probably not since that’s a year-round tradition 🙂 I’d say going to Schwallier’s Country Basket, north of town. They have cider, apples, pumpkins, a corn maze, a wagon ride, goats to pet and feed, bunnies for cuddling, a corn box (a sandbox with corn) and a giant tube slide (and also, donuts). We love going there – though it’s a little crazy on the weekends, still super fun for everyone!
2. If money weren’t an issue, how many kids would you have?
I’d like to say three or four, because if money weren’t an issue, then I’d stay home full time, but our reality is such that both of us work and I can’t imagine a) the cost of daycare for two more kids or b) my husband wanting to take care of two more small children when he’s not at work and vice versa, my having them while he is at work – tag-team parenting as we do it, works for two or less children (at least for us).
3. If you were to get a tattoo, what would it be and where would you put it?
I have a tattoo, it’s the Chinese symbol for happiness on the inside of my left ankle. I got it when I was 22 with my two [then] roomies – Jenny got one on her back and Kara on the outside of her ankle. Jenny and I went first and totally lied to Kara about how much it hurt, knowing that if she really knew, she wouldn’t go through with it because she was a bit of a wimp about pain. Sorry about that, Kara. 🙂
If I were to get another one, it would either be a quote… something short, sweet and meaningful or my kids’ names or initials with a heart all intertwined.
I’m trying to convince my hubby to get one, either a Southern Cross (constellation they see in the southern hemisphere which is also on the Australian flag) or the same Chinese symbol as mine, because the double happiness characters mean marriage.
4. What condiment is a must in your house?
Mustard and barbeque sauce share equal rank in our household with ketchup left in the dust.
5. How did your spouse/fiance propose?
My tricky husband had a big surprise set up for me but to get his plan to work, he had to get me out of the house on that particular Sunday morning, normally this wouldn’t have been a problem as I would be going to church, but I had been sick with tonsilitis that week and wasn’t really feeling up to going to church so he enlisted the help of my BFF Kara (the aforementioned pain wimp) and had her call and arrange for us to go out for coffee after church – ensuring that I would get out of the house for church so I could meet Kara and go for coffee. I knew something was probably up then but I was also feverish so I didn’t think too hard about it. When I got home my surprise was waiting for me (my garage is at the back of the house and on the same level as my basement so when you enter the house, the basement stairs are the first thing you see)… so before me, on those steps, was an array of candles and rose petals and at the top of the stairs was Simon, waiting with a big grin and beautiful ring. I walked upstairs, he proposed and I said yes! And then we ate lunch, which he had picked up from Panera – where we had our first date. And then we called a bunch of people and told them the wonderful news! Happy day (see below)!
Thank goodness for four-day weeks! Though it will make next week seem that much longer! Ugh!
Here’s a bunch of randomness for you…
This morning as Liam and I were getting ready to leave and Liam was giving Simon hugs and kisses, Jack walked up to them and asked for one. Thinking he meant to bestow them on Simon, I said, “No, you’re staying home with daddy, come give mommy hugs.” And Jack said, “No, I want hugs and kisses from Liam!” Too cute. Moments like those give me hope that they do love each other 😉
I watched Thor last night while I was riding the exercise bike – nothing like Chris Hemsworth’s super cut body to make you cycle faster. Am still annoyed with Natalie Portman in general – why do people like her?
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Do you think they all came from the same spam bot? Hmmm… I appreciate the small variations, but read all together it’s amusing to me. I do hope they follow through on their promise to “very likely” bookmark my blog, I love “regards for revealing” my website.
I’ve been getting PT for my neck because I haven’t been able to sleep on my back for over two years without waking up with a horrible headache and knots in my neck that last a few days and I’d like to be able to sleep on my back again. It’s me with a bunch of older folks at the clinic I go to so at least I appear very healthy, though one of them asked me why I was there and I said for my neck and he asked how I hurt it and I had to admit it was from sleeping. Since yesterday I have been sporting some “cool” athletic tape, similar to the stuff the Olympic athletes would be wearing, which makes me feel superior sporty until I recall my injury is sleep related. The PT is helping slightly but I still can’t sleep on my back, fingers crossed that will change.
Also, I am such a procrastinator that it took me over two years to finally look into a solution for my problem. Either that or I’m not a complainer, but that’s probably not it.
When Liam got in the car yesterday after school, I asked about his day and he said, “I’ll tell you about it later.” When I reminded him of that this morning, he said, “I’ll tell you something: we had recess.” Thank you, dear, for that riveting insight into your day. [Note: He did tell us other things without our asking, like he has a kid in his class who just moved here from Mexico so he doesn’t speak English and the Dylan in his class isn’t the same Dylan from his preschool two years ago, but that Dylan is in another teachers’ class. Also, he loves his teacher once again.]
Does anyone else have to really think through what daylight savings time means each time it happens… I have to take a moment and think, okay… fall back, that means that the kid’s normal bedtime will feel like it’s an hour later… oh, this means they’ll go to bed easier [bonus] but will also wake up earlier [opposite of bonus]. I do believe I prefer falling back to springing forward, my kids have been giving me trouble with bedtime since the time change in the spring, for real.
I’m hoping to convince my kids to be angry birds again this Halloween… keep your fingers crossed on that one as well.
Women’s Retreat is coming up next weekend… cannot wait… don’t care at all what Simon does with the boys while I am gone (especially since my mom will be here half the time and he was gone for three weeks), hopefully we can argue this still makes me a good mother since I am taking time for myself, this is a good thing.
I totally sliced off the skin on the side of my ankle shaving last Friday and it still hurts. “Injuries” like that make me so mad because it’s not like I haven’t been shaving my legs for somewhere around two DECADES and still I do stupid things. Dumb.
The only reason I want to fast forward through fall is to get through the election… I’ve been done with political coverage since, well, ever. I don’t believe a thing any politician says – I watched too much West Wing – and at least there is less talking once the election is over (for at least six months until it seems to start again – it’s like when stores come out with Christmas stuff in October, or September).
Hi, I'm Michelle, married mother of two active boys (plus one 9-pound poodle). I'm a proud Michigander, having lived here all my life (besides the 10 months I lived in Chicago during/after college). I love family, friends, God, food, enjoying life and continually striving for improvement.
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