Sweet Life in the City

Hallelujah we have finally arrived at Spring Break! It started yesterday and on Thursday night I had BIG plans to sleep in late on Friday. I was dreaming of sleeping until 9:00 or maybe even 10! 7:00 my eyes shot open. Technically I did sleep in an hour, but this was not what I was hoping for. Minnie realized I had opened my eyes so she was by my bedside. I pulled her into the bed for some puppy snuggles and enjoyed just laying in bed for a little longer. I then realized why my mind had woken me up, I must get my house cleaned today! Oh it has been a struggle to keep my house as clean as I would like. It actually stresses me out! It's mostly issues with the amount of clothes that are just laying around my house, clean, dirty, whatever. My laundry is my nemesis. I secretly love when I see other post about their laundry struggle because I know I am not alone. I remember my mom doing laundry every day. She would take it out of the dryer, throw it on the chair in the living room and th...

I was a mess last night as I drifted off to sleep. I am not sure what time Jeremy came to bed. I am sure it was late. I am sure his restless mind and hurting heart was preventing sleep to come. I let the tears flow until me pillow was wet and at some point sleep finally took over and my mind and heart had some time to rest. I woke up to several messages that once again had the tears flowing. This time for a different reason. This time they flowed because some hope began to stir in my heart again. Several friends commenting on my faith and guilt took over because my faith seems pretty shaky these days. I feel like I have been pretending to be strong for way too long and I just couldn't bear this weight. I cannot help but feel very similar to 15 years ago. 15 years ago this coming Monday (April 2nd) our world was turned upside down when I sat in my doctor's office and heard the words, "You have cancer." We prayed. Our family prayed. Our friends prayed. People we never m...

I was hoping to post some good news, but Jeremy got word today that he did not get offered the position at that school. I am feeling deflated, weary, and mad. I know that I was preparing my heart that this was not going to work out, but the final word was just too much for my already weary heart. I had to tell the kids after school that daddy did not get the job. The sourness of my soul wanted to say, "you know that job we have been praying about? You know the special pray meeting we had at our house? You know the one that we had people all over the country praying about? Well God didn't answer our prayer." More tears fall as I realize that there is a bigger picture, but the disappointment leaves me with a weighing question of why God is doing this to us? What have we done to bring so much heartache and broken expectations. As tears streamed down my face I tried to tell my kids that we will be okay. I tried to use this as a lesson that God doesn't always answer our pr...

This week has been a whirlwind. Actually this whole month has been flying by. As I looked at the calendar today I could not believe that this month is already almost over. This week has been filled with knots in our stomach and restless nights and waking up wondering what the day will bring forth. I know I have people read my FB posts or see stuff that I have posted and wonder what in the world is going on with our family. I wonder if I am being too dramatic. People need jobs all the time. Are my posts for prayers over the top? Maybe. We have been in these seasons before. Praying, waiting, trusting. We even went through a season where it seemed like God was running late and Jeremy was unemployed for over a month. We have been in this waiting room before, but this time it seems to be much more critical. Maybe because we stepped away from so much and we believed that we would be in this chapter of our life for many years. Maybe because the hurt and disappointment is so severe. Maybe beca...

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers and love and outpouring of encouragement. Things went really well on Wednesday. I cannot give any details because the details of our life right now are under a microscope and our name is trying to be tarnished. But, I am asking that you would continue to pray for us this week. There is another step that will be taking place this week and we are crying out to the Father and claiming in Jesus name that this will go in Jeremy's favor. I am pleading with the Lord that He has not brought us this far to give a different outcome. Please plead to the Father on our behalf. I look forward to posting how God has answered our prayer. I was going to post much more, but I just deleted it. I will ask that you would pray for me. I feel like I have been treading water for the last few months and every few days I am submerged in the water. I fight my way back to the top, take a deep breath, and I feel the weight of a hand push me back under. I ...

So yesterday was all you would imagine the Monday after day light savings would be. Waking up Monday morning was pretty brutal. I also knew that my teacher's assistant had been hit by a nasty illness over the weekend and so I would be flying solo yesterday. Flying solo a plane that was on fire and filled with wild animals 😆. Have a mentioned that I have a hard class? Please do not misinterpret me saying that. I hope anyone that knows me or has seen me with my class has no doubt that I love those 26 kids. We have a lot of fun and so many moments that bring tears to my eyes as I think about how far we have come, but there are really hard moments. Moments that all I can do is pray that the Lord gives me the right tools to help those kids that need extra attention. Yesterday I had a few students out because strep has been going around again, but the rest of my kiddos were dragging in and one still had his eyes closed as he tried to walk to his seat! Thankful for some awesome par...

It has not been an easy week. I did not get much rest last weekend. I was really excited about the high school choice for Samuel, but then that ole enemy started to get inside my head. Thoughts like, "that's awesome, but how are you going to pay for that?" and " you have to pay for the girls school too and your husband doesn't have a job yet." So many other worries came crashing down on me. Monday morning I was faced first thing dealing with some of the unpleasant things about being a teacher. Trying to get the correct information on an incident that had happened last week. It is bothersome to me because I know I cannot see everything that happens in my classroom, but I make it a top priority to always be vigilant and diffuse situations before they even happen. I had some behavioral issues with a few of my kids and that is also troubling to me as I try to figure our how to help them make better choices. Drama and more drama that I cannot talk about. A little...

I never really know how I am going to feel as this date rolls around every year. I take comfort in the fact that each year my emotions are a little more in control and each year the Lord reveals to me good that came out of the darkest time in my life. I cannot wake up on this date and not think about the events that unfolded now 14 years ago. I relive almost every moment of this day. I guess because I remember waking up 14 years ago today knowing that the person I had been up to that point would never be the same. I remember looking in the mirror that morning wondering what would become of me. We drove the hour away to the hospital. I remember waiting. I remember finally being placed in this tiny room and I put layers of hospital garb on. My parents and Jeremy's parents were in the room with me and I remember we were making small talk. There was a thick feeling of uncertainty in the room. There were people that stopped by to see me and since we had not been in SC long I really did ...

Woah. I am not sure where this week went. As I write the word "March" I am not quite sure where the month of February went. I guess with all the illness and just living life the month just passed so quickly. This week we had Spirit Week at school, so needless to say it was a pretty exciting (translated stressful) for the kids at school. Monday was crazy hair day and I didn't get any pictures. Mainly because our idea of crazy hair was not really that crazy. Tuesday was Career Day. Sam was a Cubs fan, Emma was a teacher, Chloe was a vet, and I was a Chicago Cubs drink/hot dog vendor 😁. Wednesday was Decades Day. Sam wore jean on jean and a white shirt so he could be several decades. Emma was a hippie, Chloe was emo, and I basically dressed like I did in high school, curly hair and all! It was a little freaky because I basically haven't aged in my face at all. I have quite a bit more grey hair than I did in high school though. Yesterday after school I help with the dram...