Good Morning! This past week has been hormonal for me. Highs and lows. Although I am not sure at times, I can handle the hot flashes. The crazy mood ups and downs is so crazy. One day, I am going to conquer the world, and the next, I want to burrow down in some whole somewhere.

Monday was aesome high as I rode on a birthday bike ride WITH a friend that turned 67.  We rode 67 miles. Yes I said 67 miles for 67 years all in one day. Took us 8:24:36 of ride time and 3:20:00 of rest time. We were both sore for a couple of days.
Tuesday, I worked on the pictures from the bike ride so the friend could have them sooner.
Wednesday, I just laid around and nursed the sunburn on my legs from the bikeride and waited for mojo to return.
Thursday is ladies hormone lunch. I get to talk out my frustrations and listen to others encourage me that I am not the only one having to deal with issues.
Oh Wednesday was also the day that threw me for a loop. As a Christian, I strongly believe that my goal is to be and become more Christlike. With our love for God comes a responsibility to give guidance, encouragement, love, and correction to our brothers and sisters. This world is not a friendly place. I, on the other hand, feel that the whole world should be a perfect balance of love and harmony operating within the guidelines scripture has laid out for us. I tend to be a very black and white mentality person. The yellow line on the road is there for our protection and guidance. We may drift occasionally over the line, but we are not to play with the line to see how many times we can cross it before we hit something. Some act as if the yellow line is a suggestion, dancing back and forth regularly. My whole heart is happy to live on my side of the yellow line.
With that being said, a dear friend announced this week that she not only wants to ignore the yellow line, she wants to flaunt her defiance to everything she has been raised to believe. I know we grow and change, adopting new understandings of who we are. My problem was not with her announcement of her engagement to her girlfriend. My problem was the CHRISTIANS who stood up and cheered her. I expect evildoers to cheer on sin, but not those of us who are supposed to be fleeing all appearances much more the outright defiance to scripture.
If I announced tomorrow in my prayer group that my husband and I can no longer limit ourselves to one partner and therefore we will be "mixing it up." I would not expect my fellow believers to stand up and cheer. Sin is sin. My fat is a problem in my life. I am constantly battling with gluttony and it shows. Scripturally I do not expect to get rounds of applause when I gain more tonage.
Needless to say that whole situation had me thrown. Again not that she announced that she did not care what scripture said about it, but that my fellow "Christians" encouraged her to "slap God in the face" and to ignore any scriptures concerning the issue.
I do not ever expect fellow drivers to stand and cheer the other driver that wants to defy the yellow line. If you see someone going the wrong way, you get out of the way, and do everything in your power to bring some kind of correction to provide safety to society.
I just did not expect Christians to stand up and cheer on a sinful behavior.

Amidst all this drama and emotion, I mention to my husband last night that I feel so totally overwhelmed with the packing and cleaning. He took it as a whine and complain and instead of "do you want to talk about it?" he says, "You have all day. I go to work 11 hrs a day. If you went to a job for 11 hours. . ." at this point I hear nothing, but I think, "Seriously!!!!!"

I feel ugly, aged, fat, indulgent, unappreciated,  and "seriously????"

And now I sit on Friday morning needing to prepare for a camping and caving trip this weekend. Maybe the time away will refresh me. It best refresh me because it will be a mess next week trying to get everything put back away. And since I am the stay at home, the putting away and reorganizing falls to me. But then again, a friend recently told me "She can do it all!"

This is probably one of those posts that should just be deleted.

All finished with the wedding book.  100 pages.  It is wonderful and ready to put in the order. Where can I get a loan?

As motivated as I am today, I should be able to finally do it all!!!! I have written a 4 page letter to a dear relative in Germany that I have neglected for 2 years. I made copies of all the articles and magazines to send to her as well. I have done two loads of laundry. I am so glad I do not have ot haul them to a wash board. I have also started the turkey stew for dinner. I called a friend who is anxious to see pictures that I took in her garden. I made a new chore list and checked off the appropriate lines. I need to go mow the yard for 5 minutes so I can check off that line. If I am going to do it all including blogging, I best move on and mark off the blog line. I hope you can do it all today too, because I have been told by a very reliable source that it can be done.

Today, I am closer to finishing my niece's wedding book with all of her photos in it. 70 pages so far. I am just a romantic at heart. Then when I go to order, I will have to make sure to get one for myself.

    Today is downright "DISTRACTION" day. Most days, I get up and I hit the ground running. Today, was one of those, "Oh no really?" kind of days. It doesn't help that I stayed up until 2 watching movies because I could not sleep. Then at 9:30 I rolled out of bed to the dreary, rainy, cooler morning. I have two things at the top of my list. I started working on the first one and have been distracted ever since. It is now noon, and I feel no further along. The livingroom is the number one priority today. I generally let my time be consumed by my love of photography, so dusting is not on my list. The living room gets a dusting maybe every 3-4 months if that much. If you are allergic to dust, then we need to have lunch away from my house. This is in all seriousness. There is also a wall in this room that drives me crazy because I cannot figure out how to decorate it. Between two windows, equally in size, is a space that is almost the size of the windows. BLOCK BLOCK BLOCK. I have always struggled with trying to break up the "block" look. Today, I have come to the wall and have just lost all motivation.
     What is motivation, anyway? Is it really even necessary today?  On the theme of distraction, let me go on to say. The other day, a couple of friends and I were out exercizing, and I was talking about my new "hours" concept where my chores are listed within HOURS. Anyway, I was discussing how difficult it is for me to stay focused without lists. To which the friend replies that she has no idea how anyone has trouble doing their chores. "I just do them. Done. Finished. What's the problem." She also went on to say she can change the world with her "just do it" attitude. She used to run circles around her co-workers. Can you tell that I wanted to just lump her in the basket with my husband and send them to the whitehouse. Maybe she could be president and stay away from me with her "JUST DO IT" speech.
     Sometimes I just want an ear and someone who understood. Well, it was not her. After her spill, I wished I had never opened my mouth.
     Well today is one of those days. So if you are having one as well, hold your head up, cry if you need to, get some food, drink some water, and head over to my house for a hug. In three months when I come back to read this, it will all be a blur.

Once again, I tell myself, "STAY FOCUSED!"