Tag Archives: birthdays

Cherish Life!!!

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I am sitting here on my porch swing, doing a little work and resting from just doing a photo shoot for some bathing suits, sunglasses and sunscreen we are reviewing.  My photo shoot went something like this, “Come on kids, the sun keeps going in and out and I am afraid it might rain.  Hurry, get these trunks on.  Luke, let me help you.  Oh my, how could these 4Ts be so big on you? They are never going to stay on.”

After trying safety pins and a multitude of other things it was just not going to work so we decided to just wing it and get this done in case it does rain.  Then the other part when we got down to the dock went something like this, “Okay, we have to make this quick, I still need to review the chainsaw.  Yes, you can put your feet in but you can’t go swimming.  Don’t throw the rocks, did you hear me?  Stop with the rocks, look over here, okay you can put your feet in and splash, don’t lean over that far! Okay take the sunglasses off, okay put them back on. Luke stop with the rocks!  Okay, I think I have enough, let’s go.  No, we have to go back to the house now, right now!”

So I am sitting here taking a stress break because frankly I have so much on my plate.  I mean I have articles to write for my editor, people to train,  customer service issues, plus all the reviews I need to finish and get up for this blog and of course being a mom and a wife and trying not to have a nervous breakdown and did I mention we are doing a dual birthday party for both little ones and we invited his entire pre-school and my other son’s kindergarten class.  No idea what we will do if the weather turns bad and due to what happened last year when I planned and planned for the party and had everything arranged and we had to change locations at the last-minute because it decided to rain, I am not really planning and that is now stressing me big time.

So back to the present, I am sitting here and on this very warm day, can still feel a cool breeze blowing in from the lake and my little guys are racing around and around the house on a race track (yes, we are the only people who probably have a race track that runs the entire perimeter of their house and garage.  So about every 1.5 minutes because it is pretty large my little guys pass in front of me.  and I smile and then I get sad.  I get sad because I think of all the petty things like I just mentioned above and more. How I could feel there is a lot on my plate when others have the weight of the world on their shoulders? How  could I worry about some rocks being thrown in the lake or a birthday party that should only be about kids having fun and in the end won’t notice if a certain decoration is up or if there was something missing. Then I feel guilt because I think of one of the women I work with who has a grandson fighting for his life and I think how much he would love to be riding around on a race track and I think of those friends that are dealing with kids with real challenges who may never walk or live independently and the struggles they have and well…it just makes all those little things feel incredibly small.

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So if you know anyone going through some tough stuff, let them know you are thinking of them, if you pray say a prayer for them, if you live close offer some help, maybe a meal, a shoulder, a friend.  Also try to look at what is worrying you and put it in perspective so more time can be spent just cherishing the moments as they come.  Not building everything up so it has to be some Pinterest worthy event but relishing even in the small, messy, loud, moments that define our lives.  We never know what the future holds so don’t take one thing for granted ever!!!

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Cakes, snow, shopping, cleaning, organizing and Disney vacations, to name a few of the things on my mind this week.

Cakes, because we have a lot of birthdays coming up.  Michael starts the pack with a February birthday, Ray’s is in March, Ethan is in April, Alexandra is in May and I am in June.  I have been stressing over Ethan’s cake.  The older boys are easy in the way they do not have to have a cake decorated with a construction site or their favorite character.  I usually order my cakes and they are elaborately decorated with the characters or theme the kid’s have always been into.  However, I bit the bullet and tried my hand (I am a good baker) at making and decorating Luke’s cake and so I am going to attempt a construction cake for Ethan.  I have all these ideas and pictures in my mind.  I basically know what I want to do so I hope it will come close to the pictures in my mind.  Only time will tell I suppose.

Snow, because we are getting another storm.  We are luckily not being hit hard and NYC and NJ will bear the brunt of the storm.  This is the trend that was last year, so hopefully it will  be this year as well.

Shopping, because tomorrow afternoon, Alexandra, Luke and I go on the famous Sam’s run.  Seriously we hit Sams every week.  I know there are many people who only need to hit the wearhouse stores monthly, but not us.  We need a weekly Sam’s run.  We have to stop at the eye doctor as she drove herself the other week to an eye exam and they could not dialate her eyes.  So, we need to stop in and let them do that and examine her dialated eyes.  Needless to say I will be doing the driving.  It also looks like a Wegmans trip is on the agenda as well.  I love Wegmans.

Cleaning and organizing, because we are working on our basement right now and are clearing out and organizing.   We finally got our exercise area  set up and I did 30 minutes of cardio on the treadmill so that made me really happy.  I have also been going through the little ones’ closets and trying to get things organized.  That is always an ongoing battle.

Disney vacations, because in the Spring we are driving down to Florida and so I have spent the last few nights up to the wee hours of the morning researching villas, hotels, parks, packages and more.  My eyes hurt and I am not even sure if the little ones are just too little.  We are going down because Jimi is in a power-lifting competition in Atlanta, GA.  Then we are going to go to Florida to see his sister so we will be in the Tampa area.  I am looking at maybe doing Tampa Busch Gardens and Sea World instead.  I am not sure but we have to make our minds up soon because most of the booking deals end January 31st.

Some of the other thoughts running through my mind on these cold winter days are planning my garden.  Planning my garden really reminds me that spring is around the corner and I can taste it.  Spring always has me thinking of free-ranging chickens but then I am always brought to reality by my sane husband who reminds me that our dogs will put an end to free-ranging chickens.   He also points out he is the pet caretaker and he does not want any more to take care of at this point.  I can’t blame him.  He does all the work with the pets while we just get to enjoy the pets.  So one can still dream right.

Hope you all have pleasant dreams and that you all are staying warm and cozy on these Winter nights.  God Bless you all.


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