Friday - Taking care of Myself

This blog has suffered from my lack attention. I have been focused on other issues in my life recently and have been overwhelmed with trying to keep up with it all.
So I have been taking care of myself. I cleaned my house more than I had been able o in the past. I hung pictures, I have lived here for five years and although we have hung some things together I never took initiative to just do it on my own.

So I am hoping to settle back into a regular routine. With school getting out and part of the family being gone and the other part being on vacation. I am finding some sort of peace. And I intend to keep it.

Thursday - Site of the Week

We have been working on the relief effort in Joplin.  So I am going to share this website.  If you would like to help this is the place to go.
http://www.rebuildjoplin.org/

There will be need for months.  I have been to this city many times and it is a lovely place.  I spent a week there for vacation last year.  We just walked around town, ate at cool diners and just took a break from the hectic life we have.

Joplin will rebuild!

Tuesday - Gratitude / Random Acts of Kindness

Well today is a bit of a rant. I sat and worked really hard to gather coupons to go the the store and get all of the greatly reduced items so I could send them to the Tornado victims, but they were gone.  I have been watching extreme couponing and I get so mad when they clear the shelf.  I mean you will never be able to use 115 boxes of pain reliever.  And to buy things you don't need because they make you money seems selfish to me.  I wanted to score a big deal.  I blood monitor so I could send it to someone who really needed it, and they were all gone.  I can't afford to do a ton of stuff but I would have liked to have gotten more for my money so I could have sent it to the tornado victims.  I ended up with very little.  I would have done better by just going to Dollar Tree.  I did get two things free, but I only bought one of each of the items.  I didn't have multiple coupons or split my order up twelve different times.  I know that they are trying to save money for their family and basically spend nothing for groceries,but they have to buy newspapers, so this "free" stuff can't possibly be true.  Where do these stacks and stacks of coupons come from? 
Why can't they just leave some things for the rest of us to buy?  Why clean the shelves when you can't possibly use them.....

Menu Plan Monday

Hi everyone, Happy Memorial Day.  My father served in the military many years ago.  My husband's family has a long history of service.  I am very thankful for all they have done for my country.  I am able to blog and exsist because they fought for us.

My menu plan may change this week.  Part of my family is helping with Tornado relief and I am not sure when they are coming back.  So I am only planning for part of my family.  Trying things that I think the ones who are out of town may not like. 

Please run over to Meal Plan Monday at Orgjunkie.  I find lots of ideas from all of these wonderful people. :)

Monday - Memorial Day - Dinner with Family

Tuesday - Captain Crunch Chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes

Wednesday - Left overs

Thursday - Crockpot Beef and Peppers

Friday - Taco Twist Bake

Saturday - Blackberry BBQ Dump Chicken, salad, kraft Mac n Cheese

Sunday - Melt in Your Mouth Meatloaf, Green Bean Casserole, Rosemary Potatoes

Sunday Confessional

Well this is the last time I will be using this header.  I have recently discovered that it is being used on another site.  I do not intentionally take things from others so even though I like my Sunday Confessional I will find another name.

I am sitting and watching the Joplin Memorial Service on CNN.  My confession....I miss my husband terribly.  He is there providing aid for those devestated by this tornado.  Friends and family homes have been leveled and some have nothing left.  A friend fit everything that could be salvaged from her house in her trunk. 

My confession:  It kills me not to be with my husband right now, but I have other kids who are coming home and I have responsibilites here. 

Stay Strong Joplin!

Saturday - Family Fun

Today part of my family is in Missouri helping with the Tornado clean up, I am at home and the others are having their visitation time with their other parents.  So todays family fun is basically me sitting by myself.  I am trying to get motivated to do something but it has been such an exhausting week.  I have laundry that has piled up and a hundred things that I need to get done to the house.  But I am thinking I need to take some time off.  We have been just going and going and going non stop since Sunday.  School ended yesterday as well, so it has been really busy here.  So I think I will have a nice long shower and relax a little today.  Maybe take myself out to lunch.  The possibilities are endless.  I hope everyone enjoys their day, and those who are in the midst of cleaning up, I hope that they are able to recover absolutely everything they can.

Friday - Supposed to be Taking Care of Me.

I am not sure how many people see my blog.  I look at the stats and I know that this blog is not visited very often.  I know part of that is because I am not a big promoter.  I started this blog simply so I would take a few minutes each day to write down some thoughts.  I thought if I put it out there to people it would hold me more accountable.  Some times it did, other times, well I just couldn't do it.

For the last week my air conditioner has been out.  Now normally not a big deal but it has been in the 90's here this week.  We still have the air conditioner downstairs, but there is nothing where we sleep.  That in itself would have probably given me a wonderful excuse to be gripy and in a possible bad mood.  But as I realized Sunday night that there was an air conditioning issue we also started getting text messages from facebook from our friends.  Their entire town was gone.  In the blink of an eye their lives were forever changed.  Suddenly the air conditioner didn't seem like a big deal anymore.





 photo from: dailymail.co.uk

 We rallied and raised items, contacted churches, groups, anyone that we thought could help us.  My daughter had already been involved with a tornado relief drive at her school to help those affected in our area last month, she switched gears and she went gang busters.  She did announcements at her school (She had a wonderful school counselor who helped her facilitate this), she went on the evening news and she spread her story.  We got calls from all over and they brought things.  We rented a uhaul trailer, collected donations and then off they went.

I haven't been really active on the blog lately.  I am not a writer by trade and my life sometimes seems beyond hectic, but I do try.  My family is re-evaluating several things in our life, and this is something I have to do.  Our diet is hit or miss, and sometimes we are passing ships.  Time is precious, so are your loved ones. 

If you do read this I beg you to help.  It doesn't have to be monetarily, you can donate old clothes, you can give blood, you can volunteer your time.  This can be a great family activity.  Getting everyone involved can bring your family closer.  Anything and everything helps, even if you can't help those who have been affected by the tornadoes you can still help locally.  Three people lost their lives in the Atlanta area last night.  Sometimes we have to help in our own backyard.  There are always ways and places to help.

Giving to others gives great joy to the soul.