The Gift of Gratefulness

We had a women's meeting for our church today and it was about looking at life and seeing your "gifts" or blessings from God. We talked about a book called "1,000 Gifts", and one of the ladies said how hard it was for her to be grateful, that her life was so busy that it was hard to see all of life's little blessings through the day and then she asked "Is it just me, or does everyone else else have a really hard time being thankful?" I paused and thought to myself, then I said out loud that I know we can always slow down and be more grateful, but I guess having lupus has changed my perspective enough that I am grateful for so many small things each day. The biggest blessing God has ever given me was my lupus.

Today I am grateful for the biggest life changer that has ever happened in my life. Of course I love my husband and value our children, and the day we were married and the day our children were born were life changing days, but my disease has shaped and molded me into a better and stronger person for these people whom I have been blessed to have in my life. And I will always see my disease as a blessing.

It's Been a Long Time

It's been a LONG time since my last post......that's because I feel NORMAL!!!! And I am soaking up all that I can do with my family. The past two-four weeks I have forgotten I had Lupus and just lived my life. It's been great! We went to the zoo today and stayed from 10:30 until 3:30 and it was 80 degrees outside and sunny. I still feel great. Life is great right now and I have thanked God for all He has blessed me with and tried to truly enjoy every moment each day of what I am capable of doing. Here is my plan for this summer:

I'm also going on this Saturday for an interview to go back to teaching. My life has been "given back" to me, or maybe I'm being rewarded for really giving it to God!

Here's some pictures from the past weeks:

                                Today at the zoo!


           The kids are out of preschool and it feels like summer time!


Ella McCray had her preschool graduation!! Now we are a Kindergartner;(


               The kids were trying to disapper!

Lovin' Life

I'm just feeling great and loving life in general. It's amazing that feeling so bad can make you so grateful and joyful when you finally feel good. An illness is a blessing in that way, it makes you appreciate the things normal and healthy people take for granted.

Here's our evening, and my view is great! Please take a moment today an appreciate all that God has blessed you with and truly soak up every minute with the ones you love, because they make life worth living! THEY PUT THE US IN LUPUS!

Oops I Forgot, Guess I'm Lupie

So last night we ended the evening with dinner on the back porch and drinking a beer while we watched the kids play together and giggle for at least an hour. I love spring time.

 

So far today, Tip and I spent the day in Memphis, an hours drive away, getting end of the teacher gifts purchased and collecting all of my freebies! I picked up 3 dresses and 3 camisoles from Oldn avy for just $1.25 (I had a $30 gift certificate I earned from using my Old Navy card last month)! Then I also picked up two free birthday presents from TJ Maxx for a birthday party Ella McCray has coming up this weekend. I love couponing and I'll never go back to shopping normally. I started couponing because I was at home, with my kids but also ill from my Lupus and unable to work, and because we also had a LOT of medical bills. This was my way of helping cut costs. And it did. I love it.  This week I am teaching a friend, who is a stay at home mom, to coupon and I am so excited to pass this skill on to someone else. In case you are interested, here are my favorite blogs and websites for couponing. These sites give you all the information you need to get started, organized, and they list the sales at each store along with what coupon to use and where to find them!

 

1. My favorite site: The Krazy Coupon Lady. This is the first site I would recommend. If you use only one site, this would be it! But because they are based in CA, I also use the next site for local stores (like Kroger).

2. My Memphis Mommy is great. Each big city has their own My..Mommy site (lie My Atlanta Mommy, etc). This is great because they know all of the regional stores, which are most grocery stores, and I use Kroger all the time since they double coupons up to $.50

3. I also like Saving and Sharing for Christ. This is a wonderful site because she does a lot of charitable things with her shopping and teaches you and pushes you to give back through your couponing.

4. The last two sites I visit daily are www.coupondivas.com, which gives a great coupon database as well, and then I also check facebook pages each day. I have slowly added the brands I use one at a time and now I'm alerted when they have a coupon available. I also have more facebook couponing blogs like How to Have it All, that I look at when I'm online.

 



Walk for Lupus

Okay, so I just realized that the post I wrote and thought I posted a couple of days ago about The Lupus Walk, really never posted. So here it is!

So we made it:) I raised $2,170 and we had a great time at the walk and collected all our prizes (a shirt, hat, blanket, walk sign, a team banner, and a pair of walking shoes or a DVD player). Last year we came for the walk but no one in my family wanted to go because the weather was yucky so we missed it, much to my disappointment, and the year before it was a struggle for me to make it the one mile. This year was a different story. I could have walked all day, maybe even ran, so this year it wasn't about proving to myself that I could make it through the walk, this year it was about having a good time and raising money to give back.

We also had a great Friday night. We went to Music on the Square with the kids. This was our family fun night away from home. First, we ate pizza and had balloons made, then we walked around the square and found my sister, also there to hear the music, and then we ate ice cream and played on the playground. Altogether, it was a perfect evening together.

And of course I had my infusion Friday morning. I never have any trouble with it, I am just drained the next day and require rest...more so then usual. I could sleep all day if I didn't have the kids with me:) But I was able to sleep until 10 and I took a nap with the kids before the walk.

Now we are heading home. We only have two more weeks until school is out for the summer...hard to believe.

 

This was me on the way to my infusion...fuzzy, but again, I'm trying to take more pictures of myself.