Lopsided Living at It's Best

Dear reader,

I had every intention of continuing with my thoughts on recent changes in my life and in my thinking, but I'm delaying part 2 of the Paradigm Shift (at least for now) and embracing a little lopsided living. To celebrate our anniversary my dear husband has made arrangements for us to spend two nights at The Beachview Club on Jekyll Island (shhh...I think it's even in one of the luxury suites). The name says it all...the sound of waves crashing and a view of the sun rising over the Atlantic - all from our suite. No kids, no responsibilities...just he and I (see I told you it was lopsided).

Go ahead...be jealous.

A Paradigm Shift - Part 1

Interestingly enough, I've recently been challenged to rethink a couple of ideas I simply assumed to be true. First, I read Shopping for Time by Carolyn Mahaney and her daughters. I requested it on PaperBackSwap ages ago and so can't even remember the life events that precipitated me thinking I needed the book. In any case, when it arrived I rolled my eyes at the sub-title, "How to Do It All and NOT Be Overwhelmed." Uh...yeah...right. Another book that promises the moon. I've an entire bookshelf lined with those books, so what's one more for the collection? Seriously, if the books on my shelves delivered all that I thought they would, I'd be the perfect wife, have an immaculate house, the laundry would always be caught up, perfectly well behaved children who all achieve National Merit Scholar status would live in my house, in addition to me being thin and svelte. So, why not read this one too. Really, it can't hurt to read it and...well...I'm a sucker for that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, so I starting plotting when I could squeeze it into my schedule.

In a moment of weakness over spring break, I took the younger girls to the beach (not my fav place to share with 3 million people) and thought I'd zoom through the short book before relegating it to the bookshelf....or the most drastic fate at book can meet at our house - that of being re-swapped at PBS.com. Beach weather was perfect and I devoured the book.

Not only is it NOT getting re-swapped just yet, I'm actually implementing many ideas from the book and am only on tip 2 of the 5 suggested for "finding more time". What ARE tip one and two that I have faithfully implemented you ask? Well...let's just say it involves an alarm clock and copious amounts of caffeine (at least initially). Yep...that's right. I'm getting up early...me...the night owl who relishes every moment of stillness after all the kids are in bed is getting up at 5am (or 5:30am depending on how early I can get in bed) and having a quiet time with the Lord. It's amazing really. After so many years of KNOWING my best hours of sleep come between 4am and 7am, this is a real paradigm shift.

My second challenge has come from my dear friend over at Pleasing to You who has just completed a series entitled Anti-Balance with this cute little tag line, "living lopsided and loving it". Hop on over and check it out. In my next few posts, I'll share more about my new routine...both the up side and the down side...as well as some thoughts on "lopsided living".

It's a Wrap

Last weekend was CRAZY, but I think I've recovered enough to give a quick summary. Hannah's nearing the end of show season, and it appears she has enough points to qualify for the state show in Perry, GA Labor Day weekend. Apparently my summer will be filled with daily trips to the barn so Hannah can keep the horse in tip-top shape. While it's not Hannah's horse, she is the only one riding, grooming and taking care of her this summer.
After Hannah finished showing, I popped into Panera Bread for some lunch with Patrick's family before heading home to pick up Victoria at her friend's birthday party. I arrived home in time to see a very handsomely dressed young man preparing for prom.
After we snapped a few pictures at the group meeting place, they headed to dinner on Jekyll Island, and we crossed town to pick up Hannah from the barn. We missed the Kentucky Derby (much to Hannah's dismay), but she did catch the replay of the race - over and over.

I spent the rest of the evening acting like Santa Clause, making lists and checking them twice. Victoria had a pageant (on Sunday...grrr...) that require SIX changes of clothing. The pageant, her first ever with an interview, talent and modeling categories was a bigger undertaking than I had ever imagined. I did manage to remember everything - except a fully charged FLIP, so I have no video. Waaa... The good news is, she won her division and will be able to participate in the state pageant in July. Thankfully, I don't think there's a lot of changes to be made to her "pageant game plan", so it aught not be too traumatic to prepare for.

Getting ready to tap to Judy Garland's, "Get Happy" from the musical Summer Stock.
She won best talent, despite slipping and sliding like she was tapping on ice. She fell during the opening sequence, but hopped up, kept smiling and found her place with the music. All three judges commented how how well she maintained her composure despite the less than ideal tapping surface.

Casual Wear - I love this outfit that Mary (the lady who talked me into letting my girls try pageants - and trains them how to be proper ladies) found at a little shop on St. Simons.

The famous green dress! Victoria LOVES this dress...second only to the blue dress she has (sadly) outgrown. Amazingly, we found this dress used at a local formal wear store, Essentials. I had been trying to work up the courage to ebay her old blue dress, but much to my delight, Essentials liked it and bought it from me for nearly as much as they sold me the green one. Yeah...I get the old dress out of the house, they gain a dress in a size they are low on, Victoria has a new dress she adores...for less money that it takes to feed the family a meal at Chick-fil-a.

Shew...it was quite a weekend. Mother's Day has been pretty chill - Patrick's family for lunch and then a little reading in the hammock. Lovely!