A Southern Rehabilitation

I was on the phone with my daughter the other day and I said to her, "It's just a different season. A different season for parenting, for life, for everything it seems." She said, "Well, this 'different season' sucks." Part of me agrees with her. Since I've last blogged, my son has gotten married, my brother has gotten married, my ex-husband will be getting married in a couple of weeks, my children's friends are getting married one right after the other...it seems to be a never-ending season of weddings. All these weddings certainly bring many emotions to the forefront again and it also brings the reminder of a colossal failure. It can't be helped. It just does. Other things have happened as well. I have closed out my first year of teaching at a new school; I have decided to change grade levels for next year. Instead of teaching Kindergarten, I will be moving to First. I am excited about the change. I think it's time to switch things ...

What does "survival of the fittest" mean? I looked it up in the dictionary and one definition said this: "the belief that only the people with a strong desire to succeed and the ability to change as conditions change will achieve success." I'm here to report I survived the funeral and the days in WV. I feel like I for sure fit under the title of "Survival of the Fittest." I had a strong desire to get through that weekend and I definitely had to change as the conditions of my surroundings changed. Bottom line... I made it. I am a SURVIVOR!! I achieved success!! It wasn't pretty all the time, but I did it. I mentioned in the previous post , part of me was excited to see so many family members and friends. The other part of me was dreading the uncomfortableness of not being "husband and wife" in this sea of family members and friends.  Even in the midst of that awful awkwardness, it all worked out. Seeing all 12 of my nieces and nephe...

What do you do when your heart can't quite seem to mend itself? Oh, you think you've got the pieces all put back together. Some of the pieces are a little chinked up and some of the pieces don't quite fit back together like they used to but overall you've been able to glue the shattered bits of your heart back together again. It's not the prettiest "fix it job," but it's lookin' darn good for being smashed to smithereens! You've been thinking, "Hey, I'm on Recovery Road and it feels good." At times you even do a little Happy Dance. Yeah,well, that is until it's less than 40 days away from my 22 year old son's wedding or my father-in-law is literally moments away from dying or I just spent the last three hours sitting at a restaurant with my ex- husband talking about his dying father, about how our marriage fell apart, taxes, the rehearsal dinner plans, and how our children are struggling in a myriad of different ways. Th...

It's Spring time... I love the Spring. It is my favorite season. Everything comes back to life. The birds start their incessant singing, the grass starts growing again and the sounds of lawn mowers can be heard throughout the neighborhoods. The trees start their beautiful blooming process. Oh, how I love the Dogwoods when they begin their show of gorgeous pinks and whites. The Dogwood trees are my absolute favorite, but my, the Red Buds! Early Spring signs are the yellows of Spring... the Forsythia bushes and the Daffodils. Tulips, Irises, Pansies, Geraniums, Daisies, Rhododendrons, Mountain Laurels, all those beautiful flowers, are like food for the weary winter soul. Spring is a Rebirth. A time to start fresh, brand new. The barren days of Winter are over and it is as if the earth becomes reenergized and awakens with vim and vigor. The height of Springtime is a heady feeling. I can't get enough of it. Extraordinary colors can be found everywhere one looks. My world becomes ...

Music... it has been a part of my life ever since I can remember anything. My grandmother used to sing to me with I was a baby up through little girl stage. She would play her vinyls on this huge record player cabinet thing. It was seriously 8 feet long! Her records were all gospel. I still have them. Groups like the Gaithers, The Happy Goodman Family, Elvis Presley, The Oak Ridge Boys, The Kingsmen, Statler Brothers, Loretta Lynn, Johnny Cash, and others I can't remember. She began my love for Elvis and Johnny with their gospel songs. When I was a little girl, my grandmother would take me to revivals and gospel sings, you know the kind where Quartets were popular? I didn't realize it then, but the harmony of those singers was truly amazing. Oh, it was country singin', but it was good singin'! People clapped and sang and swayed and moved to the rhythm--got happy, that's for sure. I learned to sing all the gospel hymns by memory and I loved them-still do. I have my f...

Welcome, Friends... Three years ago I started hosting a Girlfriend's Get Together at Christmas time. Initially I started it because I wanted to thank all the girlfriends in my life who helped me get through what was then, the worst year of my life. You can read about the first get together here .These girls were there for me in word and action, and I just wanted to find a way to express my heartfelt gratitude to as many as possible at one time. I also wanted my different sets of friends to meet. I talk about everyone at different times to different people. I wanted folks to be able to finally put a face with a name. The 2013 party was hugely successful and so when 2014 rolled around, I decided I wanted to do it again, and then 2015 and so on. Now I think it has become something my friends look forward to each year.   As I was contemplating what to do for this year's party, I searched Pinterest for party ideas (let's just give an ol' shout out for P...

This week an eleven year old boy committed suicide. He hung himself. This was right here in our amazing little town, a town where a great majority are affluent people, middle class people, family oriented, hard working, we love our neighbors kind of people. We have an incredible Little League and we have Pop Warner Football and we have Friday Night Lights mentality when it comes to our high school teams. We have a brand new Krispy Kreme where the locals camped out for days waiting for opening day just because it was something fun to do with their kids or their friends. Yet we had this horrific tragedy occur only a few days ago and the ripple effects of this will continue out into our community in ways we will never know or understand. My heart is saddened that a vibrant 11 year old boy, youngest of four children--only boy with three sisters, felt that the only relief from whatever, would be to kill himself. I simply cannot wrap my mind around it. What on earth could have been so bad ...