... its just apart of life ...

bedtime is a usual battle of the wills in our house.  your house too?
sometimes its just 1 or 2 times of me saying "ok, so what is our bedtime rule again?"  and unanimously they say "stay in bed"  so they get it ... but do they care?  other nights its more like 10-20 times.  sigh.


last night, after the usual 1-2 time lecture, Samuel comes out crying.  I knew it wasn't his "hurt cry," it wasn't his "freak out, I'm scared cry," it was one I wasn't too familiar with.  how funny, he's 6 1/2 years old and here's new one.


he comes out to hug me tightly and says, "mom, I don't want you to ever leave me.  I don't want you to die."  my heart instantly breaks.
I do my best to reassure him that part of my purpose for being alive is to be his mommy.  "God has a plan," is what I kept telling him, and reminded him of why we are thankful every night in our prayers for THIS day.


he has asked about death before, but without much concern.  for whatever reason he has taken it one step further.
I suppose I could look at it in a good way; he's thinking, he's applying principles and following through ... sort of.  but of course we all know where that "what-if thinking" gets us ... usually unnecessary anxiety.


I can't help but think of my favorite movie - Forrest Gump - and recite those words his mother told him as she lay in bed with cancer.  "death is just apart of life.  its something we're all destined to do."
I wouldn't say I'm comfortable with death, but when I think of it as the way God designed it, it brings a little more peace.  yes it will be sad to leave my loved ones, and enter in to an unknown, BUT I do look forward to meeting my Creator.


my 2 cents -
unless there is some freak accident, I don't have the sense my time to go is anytime soon. I have been told so many stories of that 6th sense kicking in when their time is near ... to me, that 6th sense is from God and its more than just a voice inside your head.




how have you handled the "death talk" with your kids?

a curve-setting day

my day started out with someone telling me "you don't know what you're doing.  you're walking in darkness.  you're this.  you're that.  just wait and see what is going to happen."  as you can imagine, my day did not start out well.
after that lovely conversation, I was running late.  so I got everyone dressed and ready to go on our commute (right now its 1 1/2 hrs one way).  well what do you know, my oldest has to go to the bathroom 45 or so minutes into it.  so we stop.  for me, he's not quite old enough to just run in somewhere (he's 6 1/2yrs) so I unload us all for a 10 second pee.  grrrrrrrrrrr.  I come back to the car and guess what could make my morning better ... it doesn't start.  lovely.


yesterday - literally yesterday - the battery light came on.  once I started driving it for 10 or so minutes, it went off.  I let it go forgot.  today no warning, but apparently it still wasn't happy and decided not to tell me ... well, until it died of course.
so I approach a friendly "grandpa" type in a truck, batted my eyes for him, and ask for a jump.  luckily I had cables & the spot next to my car was open.  easy peasy, started right up.  ok, this day is starting to get better.


driving again, and about 5 mintues later the car dies.  as I'm driving it!  although I have only driven about 5 minutes from where I was, I was in the middle of no where.  that's just how NorCal is in some spots.  couldn't walk anywhere.  didn't have a wireless signal for my laptop.  had the boys with me.  scratch that whole thing about the day getting better.
as I was figuring out what to do, CalTrans shows up to cut some of the overhanging trees.  as you know, it takes like 5 CalTrans guys to stand around "supervising" while 1 works, so I had lots of guys available telling me what they thought the problem was.  luckily they had a phone that worked, knew the local towing company who was also a mechanic garage, and got me hooked up.


turned out to be the alternator.  boo.  expensive.


by total surprise my day did get better ... the mechanics that took care of me, really did take care of me.  looking back on the day, its good news to me that I was able to see the positive aspect of it all and be able to receive the blessing.  if you're in darkness, you can't do that ... just sayin'.
they looked at my car right away.  order the part to show up that day AND it actually did AND came in on time!  gave my kids lollipops.  gave us directions to the park & gave us cold water to take with us.  once the part came, they installed it and I was out the door in less than an hour.
If you live in the area, I give 2 HUGE thumbs up to the crew at Phil's Towing in Corning, CA.  Earl, you are my hero.


with the drama of this morning running throughout this day + the car issues + running after my kids = I am completely exhausted, and at the same time, grateful.
for a minute (ok, an hour) I thought "is this a sign of that darkness?"  but in the end, its been a blessing.  it was so great to work with a company (a mechanic shop no less) who is so good to their customers, all  without even knowing what else I've been walking through this season.  usually these stories don't have a happy ending.  but mine does.


I said lucky a few times, but in times such as these, there is no luck to it.  *thanks for sending angels to watch over me & my kids today*


ps.  how old is old enough to run in a pee somewhere?

Aloha Friday

Aloha Friday is a real thing here in Hawaii.

its a day spent relaxing, looking forward to, and planning the weekend ahead

... I'm not making this up!!

ps. if its a Furlough Friday, that makes it a 3 day weekend, in which case, it becomes Aloha Thursday

... but that's just my guess!

anyway -

with the theme of keeping it mellow, what do you like to do to relax?

leave me an answer in the comments ... then

visit Kailani over at An Island Life to read more.

Alooooooooooha!

leaving christianity

can one really leave christianity?

I used to not think so, but I read this entertainment blog (which by the way, I NEVER do! I saw the title and it intrigued me.) and I thought she explained it just about perfectly.

Ann Rice fan? check it out.

POG

is POG a Hawaiian thing?

I haven't been in the islands for THAT long, yet I've forgotten if/when/where I've had it before somewhere.

POG is passion fruit, orange, and guava fruit juice. yummmmmm-y!

if you haven't tried it, you definitely should!!
and that's my endorsement for the day :)