Music you can march to!

If you know me, you know I love music!! I think my mom had a lot to do w/that...she used to always turn it up and clean and sing and dance around =) That was a lot of fun! When I was younger, I listened to the Beatles a lot. I don't remember where or when I got a Beatles' poster to hang above my bed. I guess my parents saved it...which is odd (you guys, it sort of is!) b/c they seem to have gotten rid of tons of stuff since us kids are now grown (I'm not complaining, I'm just explaining). Anyway - my boy likes the Beatles, too. We heard their songs on the radio or on the Ipod and I told him about the poster. We checked out the yellow submarine book for kids from the library. Well, my parents brought out the poster and gave it to Mo! He loves it! It's in his room, on the bookcase. We haven't figured out how to hang it yet, but he said he wanted it on the part of the ceiling that slants in...anyway - our whole family loves music, but lately I have been really pushed on by music. I take the Ipod when I go work out and it's so awesome to just close my eyes, ride the stationary bike for 2 miles or whatever and let the music carry me away. I built a playlist - here's a sample of artists!

Rhonda Vincent, Gipsy Kings, Kirk Franklin, Celia Cruz, Keith Green, U2, Led Zeppelin, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Journey, Styx, Barlow Girls, Superchic(k), Bob Seger, Steve Earle, FFH, Mary Mary, Tom Petty, ABBA and Hillsong...

A lot of times I have to catch myself to stop from singing out loud! Can you just hear me? "I go out walking...after midnight..." or "Don't stop, believing, just hold on to that feeling..." NOT!! I am not a good singer!! But who cares? I sound awesome in my head =) What kind of music keeps you marching??

Inspiration deliberation

Lately I've been thinking about all the things that keep me going, keep me thinking, keep me revising the way I do things...in case I haven't said it already, I am truly inspired by a lot of my friends! Some of them are so much more intellectual, creative or disciplined. I get recipes, craft ideas and motivation to get out of the house from them! Speaking of getting out of the house, I am so grateful to live where we do. We go to the library, the art museum, restaurants w/real food, parks galore and the beach! Some things we are looking forward to right now are starting seedlings for our garden boxes and the garden box we adopted at church, wearing our rain boots to the secret beach, and biking around town. We are blessed to live close to church and Mo's school, the grocery store and a bunch of parks. Today I am reminding myself about the inspiration that is around me...even my kids keep me marching on! When I see Mo coming out of school, when I hear Fabi putting multi-word sentences together, when I see Baby Ray figuring out how the ExerSaucer toys work and when Leah opens up and shares some of her struggles w/us, I am inspired. All these things happen w/o help from me! Time marches on, kids grow up, all those cliches would fit here! But I feel challenged to do new things and meet the kids where there are at, even if that might change tomorrow!

Waxing. Well, at least philosophically!

Do you ever have those days where you wonder if what you are doing is really important, would any notice if you stopped and what's the point? I do. It's hard to keep marching when you doubt the reason for the journey. Lately I've been having a lot of things click in my head though. I have analyzed what it is that I actually do. I am a stay at home mom, and as soon as I say that you already have an idea in your head of what I do. But everyone's different, so maybe I don't do exactly what you think I should be doing. Or something like that. I do laundry. I load the dishwasher. I feed kids. I taxi family members around. I take notes when it is necessary for the medical needs of Fabi. I go to a ton of appointments for everyone. I really don't clean much, which is evident if you come to my house. I play outside a lot. I make speeches about rules and admonish those that break them. I fuss over what we eat and cook a little. I make myself available to my friends and family. That's pretty much it...So is it important? Well, obviously I say yes! But no really, is it? Would anyone notice if I stopped? Yes. The family wouldn't have clothes to wear and couldn't go to their job/school. Well, they could but it's socially unacceptable and generally not recommended to go places naked in the winter!! Having dishes to eat off of is pretty important to keep the mess in the house down. Helps keep sicknesses from spreading in my opinion. Everyone needs to eat, but not everyone in this house can make their own food. No one wants to walk to where they need to go, they try to avoid the bus and the little ones would never make it anywhere if they had to walk. Fabi will never get better if I don't try to follow what the dr's say. Getting outside relieves stress for all of us, plus we get vitamin D and enjoy time in the world God created! I believe everyone will be healthier and have less dr appointments if I fuss over the food - cut out white flour, sugar, HFCS, corn syrup, random meat from CAFOs, etc...all that means less future dr appointments, I hope! I believe in building community and treating others as God instructed in the Bible. Every nap and night time I pray w/the kids..."Lord, we purpose to love you w/all our heart, soul, mind and strength, love our neighbor as ourselves and love one another as You've loved us!" The point is that even though these tasks seem so menial and that anyone could do them, 'anyone' isn't. I AM. I know my job is important, I know w/o me things wouldn't run as smoothly and I know the point is that I am not doing all this for them. I am, to a certain degree, but I am really doing this for the Lord. No earthly reward compares to that which I will receive for acting in obedience to his commands. So I keep marching...!

MARCHING

(Please click the link to hear a sample of the song - sorry, I didn't know any other way to do it...)

Praise Worship Spirit Truth We Are Marching by Praise Worship @ ARTISTdirect.com

We are marching! This song has been in my head a lot lately =) And tomorrow we dive into the month of March! I plan to post a lot more...I know you don't believe me, but I take that as a challenge! I hope to post about the things that keep me going...there are so many! Today I have a photo and a story.

This is the light switch for the upstairs hall, between our room and Mo's. It gets a lot of use. I slipped one of my favorite photos behind the plastic...

This is my BFF from way back, Dawn! She keeps me going in so many ways...Every time I use the light switch I see my girl and I just keep going. We try to talk on the phone a bunch but we don't see enough of each other even though we only live an hour apart! Lately we've been trying to do once a month kid free dates...there's a bonus to this picture too - Dawn is holding the frog shaped bird house I made for her bridal shower. I made that bird house w/Dave's dad, who has since passed away. It was a pretty cool project to work on w/him =) Anyway - the memory of that project and my BFF in this picture keep me going every day. I love you Dawn! Thank you for being a model of a Godly woman, wife, mother and friend! Thanks for helping me march...