A little bit

Day 181

Well.

There were happy moments.

Definitely.

And "break-throughs" at work.

And conversations with venting, laughing, crying, and more.

And the last 1/2 of my cake.

If I just had something greasy, I could count the day as pretty good! :-)

No, really--I believe that even with all of the changes out of my control and my extreme exhaustion, the roller coaster is at least pulling up to an even level.

(Perhaps the holiday weekend's plans will send us on a high!)

Some Days

Day 180

It's one of the rare happy spots.

But, oh, what a gloriously happy spot.

Maybe Far Away, Or Maybe Real Nearby

Day 179

It's the hard-knock life for us.

Some things are just...hard.

It's the hard-knock life for us.

And I feel guilty.

'Stead of treated, we get tricked.

'Cause I know there is so much to be happy and grateful for.

'Stead of kisses, we get kicked

And we just had a weekend of Stake Conference where the theme was "Never was there a happier people."

It's the hard-knock life.

But one thing I need to remember:

Don't it feel like the wind is always howlin'?

We all have our days.

Don't it seem like there's never any light?

And though like Gracie from "Return to Me" where "I don't feel like I should have days,"

Once a day, don't you wanna throw the towel in?

I will still have them.

It's easier than puttin' up a fight.

Then it is a matter of how I handle them.

No one's there when your dreams at night get creepy!

Today, I think I handled it well.

No one cares if you grow...of if you shrink!

Indeed, it probably was more drained energy than low spirits--

No one dries when your eyes get wet an' weepy!

And the low spirits enflamed because of the drained energy.

From all the cryin' you would think this place's a sink!

Still, I am extremely grateful that

The sun'll come out--tomorrow!

Sabbath Time

Day 178

An entire afternoon and evening on a Sunday. Do you have any idea how much stuff--reverent, Sabbath-keeping stuff--can be done?! Oh. Sometimes I do miss having church meetings in the morning. I get a lot of scripture and lesson study done on Sunday mornings. But somehow it just doesn't feel the same as what I was able to do today.

So wonderful to have Sabbath things to do--and time for them as well.

Great Expectations?

Day 177

Another storytime which surpassed expectations. I knew we could get a lot--being the first craft storytime of the summer. But you never know. I tried not to disappoint myself, so I leaned toward expecting on the lower end. We had 4 times as much as I expected.

Looking back on this week with its programs (including huge turn-outs for all 6 storytimes), I would say our first week of storytime was hugely successful--which means fathoms to me!

Whatever

Day 176

An utterly lazy day. Well, OK. I did make me visit to my friend. And I ran a couple of errands. And I got some indexing done while watching movies, backing up videos, and uploading photos to work on my digital scrapbooking. But best of all, I had a nap. A real, honest-to-goodness, in the middle of the day nap. Gloriousness.

I love being able to just laze around and do "nothing."

Beyond Expectation

Day 175

We have tried over and over to get a school-age storytime to work out. We'd moved around times. We called it different things. But we still never got more than 5. Usually our average was, um, 1.

So when 32 kids (and 11 adults) showed up yesterday for our first school-age storytime of the summer, I was floored. I honestly lost my concentration for the first few minutes as my mind raced through if I could handle all that I had planned with 6 times more than I had expected.

And I did handle. And they looked like they enjoyed themselves. And I enjoyed myself. And I really, really hope they'll keep coming!

What a joy that comes from something which exceeds hopes and expectations! (Don't you think the celestial kingdom will provide such a joy?)