Day 88 - Sports Banquet

It promised to be 3 hours long. Frankly, I was dreading it. But it was for my daughter's sports banquet - and her portion would be at the very end. Sitting there, watching all the other athlete being recognized, seeing her friends -- I realized she was in good company. And I was so proud of her and all the other student athletes of their accomplishments. Students with a 3.5 grade point average or above were also recognized and I was stunned with how many names were called. We also made it to State Championships for the first time in the school's history and placed 14th overall on our first try! This truly was a wonderful year. And I felt nothing but joy at the banquet today.

Day 87 - iPod Fixed!

If you've been reading for at least a little while you know that I LOVE music. I have it on in the car, in the house, when I cook, when I clean, when I shower - even when I blog. And I LOVE my iPod. But my husband's laptop crashed last September and even though I know better, I hadn't backed-up my songs. So if I synced my iPod with my husband's "now" fixed computer I'd loose about 800 songs that I hadn't purchased through itunes. I'm not that computer savvy and I didn't want to take the chance of loosing music, so I just didn't. It's been 6 long months with no new music. My dear, sweet husband found a way for me to keep everything and still connect to itunes AND be able to buy/add more music. It's a program called Pod To PC and it was awesome! First of all, it worked. Second of all, I can add more music to my iPod and still keep all of my old songs managed on itunes. Joy! Joy! Joy!

Day 86 - Game Night

We declared Friday night movie night, a long time ago. And then that didn't happen every week for whatever reason. Then, the boys saw something on television and declared Friday night game night. And again, for many reasons it just couldn't seem to happen on a regular basis. But last night we played Fish, Crazy 8's and a rousing game of Sorry before the boys went to bed. We finally had a game night! We decided with 5 busy schedules we can't set in stone a particular night for game night. But we WILL make an effort to make it happen more often. Because tonight brought joy!

Day 85 - The Group Hug

Ok, I'm bummed. My computer died. You try to be so careful but you can even visit a site (that you think is legit) and a nasty virus will hop on and follow you to your computer. And that's what happened to me. My kids noticed my less than upbeat mood and asked me what was wrong. I tried to pass it off as something small - but I love blogging. I love reading blogs. My day was a little emptier without you all. So I told them. And my oldest said, "Group hug! Mom needs a group hug!" Oh my goodness. Honestly. The entire day turned completely around. Who needs computers when you can have a group hug? Joy!

Day 84 - Show Tunes

I was a musical theater major in college. I ended up switching majors, like just about every one else in my graduating class. But I still love musicals, operas, soundtracks. Our cable has a whole slew of music stations to choose from. I turn them on when I'm cleaning house and today was no exception. But today I choose the Soundtracks and Musicals station. Listening to old songs from Oklahoma and South Pacific and then jumping to Rent and The Lion King. I was in heaven. And it sure made my chores go by that much faster. Joy in show tunes! Nothing better!

Day 83 - A Clear Winter Sky

My husband came home from work late and saw that the kids were still up. "Come here, I want to show you something!" It was frosty cold outside and the sky was so clear. Stars just lit up the sky. The moon was bright. We just stood there, staring, marveling at how gorgeous it all was. The boys, especially, thought is was so cool! There was joy in the winter sky tonight!

Day 82 - Clean Laundry

In about 38 minutes, when the dryer bell dings, and I've finished folding that last load - I will be completely finished doing laundry. Every item in the house will be clean. That is, until I give the boys a bath and put them in their pjs. But for now, I am totally caught up with the laundry! And for the next 4 hours I'm going to relish in that joy! It's the little things sometimes.