SRKindredSpirits

They still love playing with legos.... On hard days, these thoughts often linger in my mind.... When it feels like I can't go on...When my head is throbbing with pain. When every breath is more painful than the last, and my heart is breaking into a million pieces. When my tears won't dry, and just keep falling.  I feel utterly helpless - there's nothing I can do. I used to believe in miracles, but I don't understand how God can be so cruel. I love these kids. Why them? Why me? Why this?  My one and only wish is that my kids could be normal. I hate seeing them suffer, not knowing what their future holds or the suffering they will have to endure. The only way I can made it through each day is to keep telling myself... There has to be a reason that God made my kids this way. I pray that someday God will use them in a big way to bring people to Him.   I have no idea why God chose me to be their mom, I lack in so many ways. But God knows I love them. So...

The value of our home and land has nothing to do with what they are worth. How do you put a price tag on the memories you make? On the years of laughter you've shared, or the tears of heartbreak you've cried? Or the dreams that have come true because we chose to live here? When you add all those up.... we won the lottery to be able to call this place home! When you account for what we paid for the place, the improvements we've sunk into it, the thousands of trees and plants we've planted, the tons of stone and mulch we've hauled in... and all the other things that add up.... we are sunk. We will never get all the money back out of this place. But here's the thing.... if you love where you live.... if you truly decide to love where you live and dig in and live there.... truly live there, it doesn't matter whether you got ripped off or stole it when you bought it; the value of your home will be much more than a professional home estimate could ever ...

Don't just sort through stuff without getting rid of it. Put it in boxes/bags, and donate it! Don't just organize- deown! Your clutter wars will never be over if all you do is keep re organizing... it's a never ending battle, one you will NOT win.  Don't keep something you no longer enjoy because a family member/friend/ busybody says that you need to keep it, or that it's an heirloom peice, or whatever excuse reason they want you to keep it. Don't let them make the decision for you. It's not their stuff. It's ok to let it go.... it has served its purpose.  Don't keep something because you may need it someday.... someday has come and went. Let it go. My husband and I have gotten rid of trailer loads of stuff and there has been only a couple times (in the years since then) that we think oh, man, I had one of them and got rid of it, but we made do perfectly without it, so in reality, we didn't need it at all. Someday hardly ever com...

A few weeks ago, we got together with my side of the family, - my parents, siblings, and all our kids to have family pictures taken.  The whole family, minus one sister in law.... I always struggle when it comes to extended family . I had a great life growing up as a kid, but my teen years and into adult life have had there fill of extended family issues.... On one hand, I love my parents and siblings and want to be involved in family get togethers, but on the other hand, there's been too much pain, too many differences, and too much water under the bridge, to make it worthwhile.  Oh, we all get along when we are together, but it's like we are all trying to be something that we aren't. For now, I still go to most family get togethers.... I make an appearance, but try not to stay too long or be too involved....( I struggle with chronic stress, which seems to flare up more around my extended family), so for me, its just better that way. You see, I'm...

If you ever wanted to know how mental illness can effect people, Leaving Cloud 9 is a great read. This book could've been written by my someone I used to know. There are so many comparisons to things he went through as a child, yet in some ways, his experience was different too. I was so young at the time - 16, and I was pretty nieve. I didn't know anything about mental illness. If I did, I really think things would have ended differently. I wish that I could've helped him get the help he needed. I really think people struggling with mental illness just need someone to love them, and walk beside them and to get them help, wether that's medication or therapy, etc... they really just need someone to believe in them. I believe everyone could benefit from reading cloud nine! Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the  book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The...

There are different seasons in every one's life.... but in my life, it is especially true. I'm thirty-five, but I've lived three different lives.  In the first life.... I grew up conservative . I was the middle kid out of seven. We grew up on a farm and learned to work at a young age. We made our own clothes, as a girl, I was not allowed to wear pants, a watch, jewelry, or to get my hair cut. We did not have a TV. We were home schooled. For the most part, I had a great childhood. I loved going to the auction barn with dad, eating ice cream floats on the front porch after a hot day of baling hay, riding go carts, or playing in the playhouse. Having sleepovers with my best friend Carla, was my favorite.  When I was 12, that all changed. My parents took us away from the church, friends, and family that we knew and loved. They joined a even more conservative church (cult) out of state. Life suddenly turned upside down. I hated my parents and their beliefs. I felt l...

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'Lifesteading'.... is a term I read from Rory Feeks book - Once Upon A Farm . "It is planting yourself In the soil where you live and growing a life you can be proud of. A love that will last. And a hope that even death can not shake." "We are all living somewhere between "once in a lifetime" and "happily ever after." - How very true those words are.

Caution: Unpopular Opinion Below!!! Your former husband doesn't have to be your best pal, but thanks to a shared respect for each other, he can still be your friend. I have never understood why people, when th ey hear you are divorced, automatically think that you hate your ex, or that you have horrible memories with your ex. Or that your ex is a horrible person... Why is this? If the couple loved each other at one time, why does the relationship have to  weaken to the point of sheer hatred for the other? Is it because we don't accept a reasonable difference of opinion? Is it because society says it's so? Is it because it so happens to comply with the universal law of nature? If you don't hate your ex, why are you still not with them!?! - more like a catch-22 kind of thing. Every couple has their own relationship dance. All you have to do is change your part in the dance. I know that most people are surprised when I speak of my ex-husband with real ...

My kids love to watch "The Andy Griffith Show" in black-and-white, and I don't mind it one bit - in fact, I rather enjoy watching it also. The one thing I think everyone loves about Mayberry is the peaceful, simpleness of it. And many of us wish we could live in Mayberry too...maybe it's because we ache to live in a place where kindness and goodness seem to be a way of life. Every day.  Mayberry was a town so comfortable and calm that down-home Sheriff Andy Taylor hardly ever got to do any sheriff-ing. He mostly dispensed folksy wisdom to his motherless son, Opie, rode herd on his jittery sheriff deputy, Barney Fife, and helped his Mayberry townsfolk keep on the straight and narrow and neighborly. I have come to realize that Mayberry can still be.... it just has to be wherever you are. You make Mayberry. We all do if we want it. And so it turns out, it is right here. - Rory Feek  Here some things to remember to make Mayberry a reality wherever ...

You always hear about abuse, but you’d never think that it might happen to you.* I was an early graduate ; came from a good family, didn’t get into much trouble. I was a generally good kid… and right on the edge of sixteen. In my mind, I was grown up and thought I knew everything.  I loved fantasy stories. The whole knight-in-shining-amour, rangers, castles, and sword-fights… that’s what I was into, and a few years before, I had stumbled upon an online, text-based game that gave me the ability to star in one of my favorite fiction worlds of all time. Being a writerly person with a huge imagination, I fell in love with the game’s scripturally detailed, adventurist feel instantly, and made a lot of allies through roleplaying my character. A few were high level players, who were quick to help me level up. One of these in particular had become a close friend –too close for what it was worth. You couldn’t send pictures in-game, and so he convinced me to download a gamer’s app...

I was a home schooled kid.... I never really wanted to home school my kids, but I came to love a few things about it. I loved the freedom to have our own schedule, to choose our own curriculum, to have as many field trips as we wanted.... no rushing to leave the house every morning, no stupid class parties, no bullying, no 5 days a week..... We home schooled for over 11 yrs... and over the years I found a way to streamline our homeschooling . Our oldest daughter finished her high school online and graduated with all her credits and a diploma a year early. You can see her grad party here ! Our son is special needs and although he should be going into 6th grade this fall, he is still a first grade level... he just started reading 3 letter words. There has been a lot of testing, a long with speech, and occupational therapy. He has a difficult time retaining information, so there's alot of repeating.... Our youngest daughter.... let's just say she is often in ...