my blessed life

I rarely have a quiet Sunday morning.  Usually Sunday mornings are filled with activity for me: getting myself ready for church (I am a pastor's wife, after all), helping my children get ready for church, preparing a quick breakfast, maybe preparing something for lunch, making final preparations to teach a children's class, making sure the dog is taken care of.  Then when all of that is finished, we jump in the car and head to church where much more activity ensues.  Sundays generally don't have a quiet moment for me until the afternoon--and sometimes even those can be busy as well. Today is different though. I am sitting here by the French doors to our back deck watching the rain come down, as I stay wrapped up in my pink Snuggie in a comfy chair with my cell phone, my Bible and some good books and the laptop for my companions while my family is all at church. I am recovering. This past week I underwent a hysterectomy.  It was a long time coming and my body ...

I've never been a morning person. Never . As long as I can remember I've wanted to cozy up in my covers and stay in bed as long as possible in the mornings.  I still feel that way.  And it would have worked out okay, I suppose, since I also married a night owl and we had a night-owl-child, but then we had our second child. Yep, he's the one morning person in this family of four.  I'm pretty sure God's still laughing over that one. Since growing up, I've certainly realized the benefits of being a morning person--just because one isn't one doesn't mean that you don't have to actually get up and function like one.  It's just really hard. And as I've grown older I've also come to realize I just don't like to talk to people for a couple of hours after I get up.  It's my processing-this-whole-waking-up-thing time with my coffee.  Of course, that doesn't always work out so well as a mother.  Sometimes I am brutally awakened...

Yesterday it was officially a month since I gave up caffeine. Yikes! Did I really just say that? It seems so unreal. I mean, Coca Cola is my drug of choice, people! Now, to be completely honest, I still have my 1-2 cups of coffee in the mornings. I bought some decaf coffee and just mixed it with the regular coffee that I had left (I'm too frugal to just dump it), so technically my coffee has been half-caf for this past month. I think that's probably a very good thing though since it seems to have kept me from having any headaches from withdrawal. But I'm well on my way to being totally caffeine-free. Why am I doing this to myself? Well, for reasons I may go into later. Right now let's just say "for health reasons". Isn't it amazing what we can give up when our health is really threatened? I never thought I could or would give up caffeine. And even though there have a been a few moments this past month when I would have given my left arm for a ...