Can somebody please tell me where in the heck the last 4 months went? Oh, and also, how in the world did my sweet little baby survive those 4 months with such a basketcase of a mother?
life is what you make it
Category: Living the Life
I just received this e-mail from my cousin. I really liked it and wanted to post it here to share with others and have as a reminder to myself.
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 cups of coffee.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then
asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
**update** I was informed that this is actually from Steven Covey’s book the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the ! jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous “yes.”
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
“Now,” said the professor as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—God, your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.
The sand is everything else—the small stuff. “If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another
18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. “I’m glad! you asked.
It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend.”
4 Comments- The boy finally slept good lastnight, which means I slept good lastnight as well. I was very, very happy about that. I only remember feeding him once during the night, although it could have been twice. I may have done it in my sleep.
- My dad and his wife return from their trip to Italy today. I spoke to them a couple times while they were there and it sounded like they were having a wonderful time. I’m anxious to see their pictures from the trip (and to get my camera back).
- Sugar free hot chocolate isn’t so bad. It would be much better with a bunch of marshmallows on top, but I suppose that would defeat the purpose of the whole sugar free thing.
- My goal for the rest of the day (after I finish writing this) is to stay off of the internet and get some work done. I really want to get started on the new brochure and web site, but I really need to finish up a couple of other things first.
- I get to see Ray tonight which I’m very excited about. I haven’t seen him since before I had the baby and I feel like a lousy guardian. (For those that don’t know who Ray is, he lived in a group home for developmnetally disabled adults that I used to work at. After I left there I became his legal guardian. He doesn’t have much family around so I try to visit him as often as possible.)
- And finally, it’s rainy and cold outside today. I have to admit though, I’m kind of enjoying it. I got to put on a nice comfy sweater this morning. If only I could be at home snuggled up on the couch with my hot chocolate and Zachary it would be a perfect day.
Just when I get really down about my job, things start perking up a little. I just found out today that I get to start working on a new marketing project. My mom and I came up with the idea of putting together a little promotional brochure for our company and sending it out with a letter to some local building owners. Along with that, we want to build a simple website outlining the services we offer. She finally was able to talk to the boss man about it today and he gave us the ok to start working on it. Basically the “us” means me. I get to design the brochure and put together the web site. It may not sound like that exciting of a project, but compared to the filing and bookeeping that I’m usually doing it will be a lot of fun. I finally get to do something that I love doing and get paid for it!
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I just thought I would add a quick update about Zachary. He is learning so much these days it is hard to keep up with him. He recently started eating a little bit of rice cereal in the evenings. I was hoping that woudl help a bit with the sleep issues, but so far it hasn’t. He’s still not really thrilled with the cereal, but if I let him nurse a little first, he will usually eat it.
This weekend I put him down on the floor to play and stretch out for a bit and all of a sudden he was rolling all over the place. It was not the first time he had rolled over. He actually did that quite a long time ago, but he has never done it multiple times in row. He was rolling back and forth and moving all over the floor. You could tell he was quite proud of himself too. I was very proud of him as well, but this also means there will be no more laying him down and walking away for a minute.
Then lastnight I was playing with him in the floor and he started laughing. Let me tell you, that was about the best sound I have ever heard in my life. Hearing him laugh in response to me was so awesome. I can’t even describe it. Not to mention that he has about the cutest little laugh that I’ve ever heard. He’s let out a little chuckle here and there in the last couple of weeks but this was full out laughing. It is absolutely adorable.
4 CommentsI always feel the need to do a “catch-up” post when I’ve gone a few days without posting to my blog. I’m not sure why. I mean, can’t I have a couple days off without having to tell the internet exactly what I’ve been doing? I suppose I can, but this blog also serves as my personal journal of my life and I enjoy going back and reading the entries sometimes to remember exactly what I was doing at that time. So yes, I feel the need to catch up on my life today.
I’ve been quite the busy little bee lately, and unfortunately, the one thing I haven’t been doing is sleeping. I know the lack of sleep is something that all new moms have to deal with. But, when your little angel who started sleeping through the night at only a few weeks old suddenly wants to wake up every 2-3 hours all night long, it can get rather frustrating. He does usually sleep for a good 4 hour stretch starting around 8:00 and if I was smart, I would go to bed at 8 and enjoy that 4 hours of uninterupted sleep, but I need a little bit of time to unwind after he’s finally down. I try to make it to bed by 10:00, but going to bed at 10:00, waking up every couple hours, and then getting up at 6:00 does not exactly add up to a good night’s rest. Have I mentioned how tired I am? I almost fell asleep at my desk yesterday. I would love to take a night off and just sleep without being woken up. I can only imagine how good that would feel right now. But enough about that.
Work has been rather frustrating lately. It really is not any worse than usual, but I just don’t want to be here at all. I have big dreams of working from home someday, but I just don’t know how to make it happen. I could go out and find another job easy enough but I want something where I can make my own schedule. I want the flexibility to be able to take Zach to a doctor’s appointment when I need to or just to stay home with him when he isn’t feeling good. I also want something that challenges me and makes me think. I want something that encourages me to use my creativity and that I can get excited about. I want to be proud of what I do, not trying to blow off the questions when someone asks me about my work. I have so many big ideas, but don’t have the financial ability to back it. Plus, I am so afraid of failing. So, I stay where I am, search the want ads, and never do a damn thing about it.
Fortunately, I have at least been enjoying my social life lately (even though most of the time I would rather stay home and sleep). We spend a lot of time with our friends R and M. They have 4 kids, so when we do hang out it is pretty low key. The kids love to see the baby and we always have a good time together, even if all we do is play a game of Scrabble or Yatzee. We hung out with them Friday night. Then on Saturday, we left Zach with my mom and joined my sis and her hubby at her friend’s annual October birthday party. We all had a great time. After the party we stayed at my sis’s house, got up and went out for breakfast. My nephew had a soccer game, so me, my sis, my mom, and the boys went to the soccer game while the men went to my house to watch football. After the game we met the guys at my house, cooked a huge Jambalaya, watched a movie, and finally at 10:30 after everyone was gone, I fell into bed. I was exhausted, but it was a very fun weekend.
Also this weekend, I got a new wireless router which I’m all excited about. My old one worked ok, but I was losing my signal a lot and it was kinda slow. So far, the new one seems to be working much better but I haven’t experimented to see how far away from it I can get without losing my connection. The old one has been passed down to my sister who is excited because she’ll now be able to use her school-issued laptop at home. I’m also in the process of re-loading all of my software on my laptop. It has been acting funky lately and I’m really afraid that I’m going to lose it soon. So, I re-formated it and I’m only going to load the bare minimum on it and make sure I back up my files frequently.
I suppose that is enough catching up for now. I should get back to my boring, depressing job.
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