A Better Day

I did have a better day today. I had a talk with both of the people who I was upset about yesterday and things have improved. I was upset with two of the people dearest to my heart and I was having a hard time dealing with the anger I felt. At Mass today, I lifted up the anger to God and asked Him to please help me deal with it and in both cases, He did.
I always struggle with my prayer life when I'm angry about something. I tend to think of anger as being something bad but I know I need to get away from that feeling. It's not the anger that's wrong, it losing your temper and/or acting in an inappropriate way with it that's wrong. I need to learn that lesson. Growing up, anger was always thought of as a bad thing at my house and I know it's because my poor mom had to deal with her father's alcoholic temper. I don't blame her, she was just reacting to the trauma of her childhood and never had anybody to help her really deal with all of it.
So I need to get past that mindset and know that just because I'm angry doesn't mean I'm being bad unless I act in a sinful manner because of it (and I must admit that sometimes I do lose my temper in those situations.) In one situation yesterday I did lose my temper and yelled (which I felt really bad about and apologized for) and in the other, I kept praying for the Lord to help me with the anger and He did and hopefully, I didn't handle it too badly.
I guess that's a bit confusing...
But anyway, thank you for the prayers sent my way. I do really appreciate it and I know those prayers helped me.

I'm off to bed. We're having Mark's family over for New Year's Day and I have a lot of work to do tomorrow plus the homeschool moms are having a Mom's Lunch out, which we haven't done in over a year. I'm really looking forward to that.

A blessed peaceful night to all......I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of the year.....

I had a crummy day.
It started crummy and it ended it crummy and inbetween wasn't too great either.
I want to write about all the crummy stuff but I guess I shouldn't. I'm just going to bed.

God bless...

Christmas Weekend

The last few days have been very busy....
Our Christmas Day went very well. We actually had sunshine for a change...a beautiful day. My parents were healthy and we were able to spend Christmas dinner together at my sister's home.
Friday we spent a bit of time cleaning up our house after the mess and I made a huge batch of barbecue for dinner today. We had Community Mass in the evening and then went to friends' home afterwards for some Christmas cookies and a lot of fun conversation.
Saturday found me up early to morning Mass. I came home to Michael making marvelous omelets...they were wonderful! I told him he can make me an omelet any time his little heart desires. I spent the afternoon with grocery shopping and getting ready for today's dinner. Last night found us at a local pub listening to Will's Irish band.
Today was 11AM Mass and lunch out afterwards. I had invited Will's band to our house for dinner so they arrived around 5. They decided to turn it into a recording session using our piano. So all evening they have been singing and playing Christmas carols. Many beautifully done....
The only problem is that it is now almost midnight and my dear husband has to get up at 5:45 to go to work. I really didn't expect them to go this late and I'm hoping he can sleep. He put in the earplugs he uses when he goes shooting and hopefully he will be able to drift off. If he can't sleep, I guess I'll just have to kick them out...hehe....

I hope all of you have had a blessed Christmas weekend....may you sleep tonight in the comfort of His gift of love..

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

May you know His peace and joy.......

What a day....

First we sadly received the news that our sister-in-law's father died. This is Suzy's dad and Jack's grandpa. Losing someone at Christmastime is so difficult. I had a baby brother who died in a tragic freak accident (before I was born) five days before Christmas and it was always such a sad memory to carry every year.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.....

This morning while Mark was in the shower, Michael and I were downstairs talking. We could hear water dripping madly somewhere and started looking. Here water is dripping out of the ceiling of our front hall closet, right under the shower stall in our bathroom upstairs. I run upstairs to tell Mark to turn off the water and Michael grabs a bucket and towels. Lovely mess.

Next my brother Bill calls to tell me that both of my parents are sick with a stomach bug of some sort. We had plans with them for tonight which included dinner. So all day I've been saying prayers that they will be better for tomorrow and Christmas Day. Every year I find myself wondering if it will be their last Christmas and I hate the thought of them spending their last Christmas sick.

We spent the day finishing up a few shopping chores, baking cookies, and wrapping presents.
We did go to noon Mass and now I'm going to finish up my day here by saying my rosary.....peaceful time with our dear Lord....

A blessed, restful night to all.....may you sleep in the comfort of His peace....

An Early Christmas Present

Wednesday night our darlin' children gave us an early Christmas present....
They presented us with tickets to see the Nutcracker last night, a gift certificate for dinner at a restaurant downtown including tip money, a gift certificate to Graeter's for some ice cream after the ballet, and a night at one of the hotels downtown. We had a room on the top floor with a view of the river...very nice. They also gave us some delicious rolls and orange juice for our breakfast.
It was wonderful...
I rushed around yesterday trying to get some things finished and packed up an overnight bag for us. Beth drove me downtown to pick up Mark from work and she dropped us at the hotel. We checked in and Mark got dressed up for our evening (Beth had already worked her magic on me at home). We walked to dinner and had a wonderful time there....our meal was great. Then we walked to the ballet. They had bought us tickets in the balcony but when we arrived, they exchanged our tickets for ones on the floor...even better! That was the first time I had ever seen the Nutcracker performed and it was beautiful.
We walked to Graeter's afterwards to enjoy our ice cream and then walked back to the hotel.
We slept in until 9 and enjoyed our breakfast in bed. We checked out around 11, went to the Art Museum to do some Christmas shopping, went to noon Mass downtown, ate some lunch, did a little more shopping on the way home and arrived home around 2:30. I hated to see it end....
Now back to all the craziness here but it was a lovely break....one I'll long remember...

December memories

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted. Life has been crazy.
I've been having a mixed week....moments of that pre-Christmas joy and moments of being heavy-hearted.
I realized that it was a year ago today that I saw my brother for the last time before he died of cancer. The weather has been the same and it feels like those days when he was here to me. Memories and emotions are such amazing things...
For those of you who remember our little nephew, Jack....his grandpa is now dying of liver failure. Suzy flew out to Arizona last Saturday to be with her parents during this time. Very difficult...especially since the other two children's birthdays are both this week and she's been away. It's bringing back memories of our Jack dying and David too.

Hopefully, I will find some time to write some more later this evening...something more cheerful. Now I need to figure out what to have for dinner and get things ready for the piano tuner who's coming at 6.

A blessed day to all....