A Southern Rehabilitation

Today is Easter. Typically on Easter morning, one can see jelly beans strewn across the floor of our house letting all know that the Easter Bunny has indeed been here. He has come. He has gone, but he left a jelly bean trail throughout the whole house. The kids would wake up to find a small Tupperware cup outside their door; a cup to collect the jellybeans. It was a race. Who could get the most jellybeans in their cup first? This usually meant some form of pushing and shoving. We always hid their baskets too. After picking up the beans, then they would start looking for their baskets. It was great fun. Well, there is none of that this morning. The house is quiet. I am the only one awake and for the first time, not all of the kids are here on Easter morning. I guess there have to be "firsts" along the way, but it's not so great when that first "first" happens. Maybe it's different for Moms. We moms tend to be very nostalgic, sentimental; we want our kids to b

"Today" is here. In 45 minutes I am picking up a U-haul truck to move a bunch of stuff to another house. "That time" is here. Soooo... in attempts to bolster myself for this task, I got out the believe book and read a few pages. This is what I'm believing today... BELIEVE THAT THE BEST IS YET TO BE.... "Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all.  Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach.  Check your road and the nature of your battle.  The world you desire can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours." Ayn Rand Later, D~

Believe! Believe! Believe! This one word has come to be my lifeline; it's the rope I'm hanging on to for dear life. BELIEVE. "Dawn, you've got to believe that everything will be alright. YOU will be alright. Just believe it." When I got back from Miami last Saturday, there was a prettily wrapped gift on my front porch. There was no card, no note, nothing to identify the giver of the gift.... but I knew.  I had received a text from this person earlier in the day asking me if I was back in Clemmons yet... "No, not yet, " I told her. So I wondered what she was up to with that comment and when I got home and saw the pretty package... I knew.  (I'm not even sure she reads this blog, but I'm going to thank her nonetheless.) Thank you, Bay, for the book, but more, thank you for thinking of me when you saw it and thank you for knowing I would need it. The name of the book is... believe ... written and compiled by Dan Zadra and Kobi Yamada. Every

It's my Spring Break!! Spring Break 2014!! I am getting to spend it in Miami, Florida with just me, myself and I. What's that you say? How did I do that? Well, I asked my son b/c it's his break too, and he said, "no, thanks." I asked a few friends, and they couldn't come with me either, sooooo, it's me and me alone. Since I didn't get to the condo until after 6:30, I did not try and go to the beach. Instead, I unpacked and then walked a few blocks to this great little Italian restaurant I found when I was here last summer. It's called Specchio's.  You can read about it here . The food is delicious; the atmosphere is quaint and it has an intimate feeling and the wait staff are super nice.  I decided to have pasta with asparagus and crab meat with this yummy garlic butter sauce. It was scrumptious! After dinner, I walked to a nearby grocery store for a few necessities. By the time I got back to the condo, it was after 10pm. I was tired and read