So I Was Just Thinking

It's that time again. The time when we - my fellow Scrapblog sisters and I - reflect on our words for the year. It has been an interesting year so far, and if I hadn't agreed to do this exercise in personal growth, I wouldn't have realized all the wonderful things that are going on around me. (Contrary to popular belief and every Facebook personality test I have taken, I can be quite the pessimist.) This month we decided that a picture's worth a 1000 words. Although, being Scrapbloggers, we had to throw a couple of words in there. :-) Let's start off with Peggy's photo about Balance: Next up is AVTCoach's thoughts on Abundance: Roban (Flygirl) has chosen to live a life of Faith and Joy: Here's my take on Discipline: And last but certainly by no means least is Octamom's most wonderful shot of Excellence at its finest with a photo of her 7 of 8 showing us reach her goals in recovery of her neonatal stroke: Isn't our God an Awesome God? Please r...

Today was my daughter's dress rehearsal. The girls looked great! Here are the photos I took of my girl. The girls' contest is this coming Sunday! I know they will rock it out!

This morning is QUITE breezy, but it is also very beautiful. I will have to go out and take in the sights. Another day this week, I came out f school and was greeted by this lovely sky. Being on a military base and being surrounded by tanks and other armored vehicles on a daily basis, it could be really easy to forget see the loveliness that is always around us. Take a moment and look around your world and find the beauty. It's easy to do when you just look up!

Photograph by Yva Momatiuk and John Eastcott Due to confidentiality issues I can't discuss the current issue at school that makes me want to lay like this elephant seal, but I know that this too will pass. I just saw the photo and it made me smile - something I needed today.

What's a Puerto Rican American girl doing with a blatantly IRISH blog background? Well, growing up, I spent a lot of time visiting with my mom's sister who loves everything Irish as does my mother, even though they were both born and lived in Puerto Rico the first few years of their lives. This all came from the fact that when they were in grade school, their father put them in a children's home run by Irish Catholic nuns in New York. You can't get any more Irish than that. The Irish people have certainly known their share of hardship and trials from the Potato Famine of the 1840s which lead to many leaving their homeland in the late 19th Century to come to the United States of America only for many of them to find opportunities here to be not much better. Even until recent times there has been civil unrest between the Nationalists and the Unionists in Northern Ireland. Yet, my mother and her sister love the Irish. Maybe it's the hardships they, too, endured like lo...

My parents loved the family road trip. Since my father was in the military, he would have 30 days off a year for vacation. He always waited until summer to use them. The trips always started with Dad getting out the old Rand McNally, a Best Western Guide and a pad of paper. (These were the days before Mapquest.) He would then map out our route correlating travel times with Best Western Motel locations. Dad knew he would be doing most of the driving while mom read the map, and my brother and I sat in the back of the metallic blue Chevy Impala station wagon continually saying, "I'm not touching yoouuuuuu." It's a wonder dad never pulled the car over. Lunches at roadside parks consisted of foods that would survive long times out of the refrigerator. Mom found something called "deviled ham" and another product known as "Cheez Whiz." She would use these together to fashion a ham and cheese sandwich with mustard on the white bread that stuck to the roof ...

Yesterday was my son's birthday. He turned four even though he still says he is three when people out and about ask him. I think about the day he was born - 8 weeks early. It was such a surprise. I had everything planned out to a tee. He would be born in May, I would use my sick leave (I had accrued 30 days which would give me six weeks) that would carry me through the end of the school year. This would allow me to not have to go back to work officially until the new school year. Well as they say, the best laid plans of mice and men. That Friday night I awoke to early labor and spent the first three days of spring break in the hospital trying to keep him from coming, but nothing was holding that little fighter back. Although he spent the first 6 weeks of his life in the hospital, since that time he has hit the ground running. He's a whirling dervish, a determined boy who knows exactly what he wants and how to get it. Case in point (Overheard Saturday morning): Daddy, you NEED t...

This video was sent to me in an email. It made me want to know more about this remarkable woman. In the fall of 1999, a rural Kansas teacher encouraged four students to work on a year long National History Day project which would among other things; extend the boundaries of the classroom to families in the community, contribute to history learning, teach respect and tolerance, and meet our classroom motto, “He who changes one person, changes the world entire” . Students from rural Kansas, discover a Catholic woman, who saved Jewish children. Few had heard of Irena Sendlerowa in 1999, now after 270 presentations of Life in a Jar , a web site with huge usage and world-wide media attention, Irena is known to the world. How did this beautiful story develop? When people say, "I am just one person. What can I do?" Look at this woman.

One person in seven • goes to bed hungry every day. One-third of the world’s population • is undernourished. There are • 25,000 starvation-related deaths each day. Each night • more than 300 million children go to bed hungry. Every day, • over 12,000 children (one every 7 seconds) die from hunger-related causes. Approximately • 146 million or 27 percent of children under age 5 in developing countries are underweight. Nearly 17 percent of babies • in developing countries are born with a low birth weight compared with only 7 percent of babies in industrialized countries. More than 4.4 million children • die from malnutrition each year. Worldwide, • 161 million preschool children suffer chronic malnutrition. Today is Global Food Crisis Day Millions are going hungry. Click here for more information and some powerful videos. $13 can feed a kid for a month. Please think about clicking the Donate Now Button