Both Direction and Magnitude

I have been reading lots of blogs lately. I enjoy them, I am kind of a snoopy curious person and enjoy reading about other people's lives.

One of such mentioned blogs said that to be a successful blogger you need to have direction in your blog and write about a passion.

Which is great advice-kind of. My passions include eating, napping (not so much sleeping - a post for later), teaching, crafting, cooking and friend/family time, reading - mostly smut and historical fiction, oh! and crime novels.

Here is the "kind of" part. Passion is abundant in my life but direction is not. It is like on Dispicable Me when Vector (my favorite character in this particular movie) explains his name "I go by Vector. It's a mathematical term, represented by an arrow with both direction and magnitude. Vector! That's me, because I commit crimes with both direction and magnitude. Oh yeah".

So I have the magnitude part but not the direction part.

I think teaching and other educational things would be good topics but there are all these "laws" about privacy and what no, that I don't think I can write about just that.

Napping is a serious passion of mine but not good blog fodder. I should do a post on my napping vs. sleeping philosophy.

Eating is a great blog topic but I am not a foodie or a good photographer and I forget to take a picture until half the casserole is gone - you know how appealing a half eating shepherd's pie is??? It looks awfully close to the bottom of a trash can but it tastes SOOO GOOOD... okay, cooking blog is also out of the question.

Crafting is out too. I do "crafts for real people" not that ambitious stuff on pinterest.

Reading seems like a great topic, people are really into smut currently with 50 Shades of Grey being so popular but I don't think I want to give suggestions on books, as my tastes in smut are varied and depend on the author. While I like a little action and a lot of romance in my smut I mostly enjoy the banter and character development. SERIOUSLY!!

This is one of my FAVORITES!! It is Rule, by Jay Crownover. This book is yummy!!

  So lastly I am left with friend/family time. This I can write about. I don't want this blog to be a daily journal or just a list of all the cutesy things my kid does but it would be nice to have a place to share favorite memories and happenings. This pretty much sums up all of the above items.

So we are basically no where...just me trying to figure out which direction and with how much magnitude this should be pursued.

Trippin' 2013

That time of year again, Senior Trip!! WOOOOO!! (did you feel the sarcasm?)

I enjoy planning the trip but not necessarily going on it. It is simply because I am a worrier....like a MEGA WORRIER. I worry that a kid didn't put on sunscreen, or she will over sleep, or he will sneak to the qwikie mart to get a Dr. Pepper and be kidnapped, I worry that someone will mess up and I will have to call parents to come get them.

Not because they are bad kids, they are really, truly good kids, but the worry is because of follow through. I follow through on my consequences and those consequences can be harsh.

This trip we didn't even have to remind them of the consequences after we got there...we just went and did and enjoyed.

Dallas was good to us, minus the ridiculous road construction that made me want to scratch my eyes out...it took us 47 minutes to go 6.3 miles to the MALL, oh and the lady down stairs. She called the front desk at 2 am to tell them the kids were being too loud. One of them had gotten up to go to the bathroom and flushed the toilet. Anyways - we switched rooms and all was well.

The JFK memorial was neat to see, this group of kids found it interesting, we also went to the Dallas World Aquarium, Six Flags, USA Bowl, Adventure Landing and Zero Gravity.

We ate at Rudy's BBQ which is inside a gas station and reminds me of Oklahoma Joe's in Kansas City and we also ate at the Iron Cactus, it was beautiful on the rooftop patio where we ate.

The hubs went too and I think he enjoyed himself. I enjoyed his company as did the students, he provided lots of comic relief and another set of eyes and ears.

Providing

Today I saw on the intranets this quote or maybe this inspiration and it reminded me of a revelation I had over Christmas break this year.

"God is making things happen for you. Even when you don't see it, even when you can't feel it, even if it is not evident. God is working on your prayers."

This reminds me and encourages me that God is providing for us.

It is difficult to remember that sometimes.

I want my husband to find a job he can be happy and fulfilled in. He left a job he disliked (that had full health benefits and a good wage) to go to school to be a lineman. I supported him, and still do, 100%. It was a good move for him personally and for us, our marriage is stronger because we had to lean on each other more.

We both thought he could find a job right out of the gate of his internship. The company he interned with for the summer did have an opening, but someone else with the same qualifications got the job. So we were back to one income and I was feeling really terrible about the situation itself and for my husband. He worked so hard to get excellent grades and work small electrical jobs on the weekends to help with bills. He did everything right and he still didn't get the job.

I was so upset, I started being mad at God. Thinking things like...we are good people, who don't live beyond our means, we just want to buy our house and have enough money to pay our bills, why isn't God doing anything? 

And then I realized God WAS providing for us...my husband was finding enough work to make his truck payment and help out with groceries. He shot a really nice deer so we had other meat in our freezer. Our vehicles were not breaking down, we were not ill and didn't have medical bills. When we ran out of propane (because I forgot to shut the windows one day when it was nice and it got really cold that night and the furnace ran all night. WHOOPS!) our propane man was headed to our area that very day.

So as I sat this past Christmas break and thought about all of our blessings and thinking that I wanted our daughter to grow up thanking God for his blessings, instead of asking God for prayers to be answered that were already being answered, we just didn't notice it.