A Roller Coaster of Emotions

Happiness, terror, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, relief, a bit of nausea…that sums up my weekend.  Coupled by quite a bit of excitement and disappointment.

photo credit: Ben Hodgson via photopin cc

No, I did not ride the newest coaster at Cedar Point (although I would really love to do that!) I got together all of my courage and I told my mother about my rape.  After 32 years.

This Valentine’s Day is for Saying Goodbye to Loved Ones

Well, it certainly hasn’t been a traditional Valentine’s Day.  We had to say goodbye to a dear family friend.  Funerals and Valentine’s Day usually don’t mix.  But our pastor reminded us that on a day of love, it is very fitting to celebrate the life of one we loved.

Christmas is for Imperfect

It’s Christmas Eve and many of us are in a flurry of activity, trying to finish all of the last-minute things that need to be done to create that perfect Christmas morning.

The tree is trimmed, cookies are baking, turkeys are thawing.  We’re still wrapping those last few gifts.  The past weeks have been a blur of Christmas card writing and shopping.  It’s a wonderful time of year, but stress levels are very high.  We tear out our hair when things go wrong…and they always do.  Gifts don’t arrive on time.  Flights get postponed.  Family gets snowed in.  You run out of tape.  The turkey burns.  In my own home, the Christmas cards just got mailed yesterday.  We decorated the tree this morning.  There was a great deal of bickering between me and my husband.  And I just finished wrapping the last gift at 9:45 PM.  Hardly a perfect Normal Rockwell Christmas.

And so it begins…

The holiday season.

Many of you have been looking forward to the holidays.  Thoughts of turkeys roasting, pies baking, shopping madness, and time spent with family and friends have you filled with nostalgic happiness.

I normally am a big fan of the holidays.  But I’ve been dreading this particular holiday season for quite some time now.  And now here it is upon us and I’m not sure how I feel.

Cookie update!

I just wanted to post a quick note for my regular readers. It is an update on my Father’s Day Cookie post of June.

While Father’s Day cookies were a bit bittersweet and angst-ridden, it turns out that “My Baby Graduated from High School and Now I’m Throwing him a Big Party” cookies are full of smiles and joy!  No flour, eggs, or vanilla were injured in the making of these festive cookies.  Although, I must say it was a whole lot easier to make 2 dozen cookies for one father-in-law than it is to make 15 dozen cookies for a large, but happy, mob of friends and family.

The weather report looks perfect…80 and sunny, with none of the horrible thunderstorms we’ve endured all week.  Congratulations go out to my college-bound son, (cum laude, mind you, and with a hefty college scholarship–Praise the Lord!) And please send all your positive energy to me, his sleep-deprived mom, who hopes to make it through the graduation party festivities tomorrow!