i am a blessed woman.

warning: this post is much more sentimental than other posts. caution: if you read this, you might realize i'm slightly more substantial than my random, frivolous posts would imply. READER BE WARNED.


it's true. i am so very blessed. i have been absent from this space because i've actually been socializing with real people and doing real things. (not all the time. i've also wasted my fare share of time online, but been too soggy-brained to write.)

i am blessed to live really close to my arnold family. if i really, really needed them, i would have at least two brothers, a couple of sisters, and maybe even a strapping, handsome nephew at my side at a moments notice. i can literally look out my back door (like i am right now) and see my beloved oldest brother's (and godfather-a role we take VERY seriously in our family) house. inside it are some of those wonderful nephews and one of the loveliest sisters. they are the best neighbors i could ask for.

arnold can be a strange breed of people at times, but i really do have the best family in the world-for me.

i am blessed to be part of the woodburn family. so welcoming and fun loving. i feel so blessed when friends muse (or vent) about their in-laws. heck, sometimes i like tim's parents more than i like him. i don't like to call tim's mom my mother-in-law because that so often has an unpleasant association. so i call her tim's mom. (not to her face obviously.)

i am blessed to have a man who is a fantastic daddy. upstairs, wrangling max and building yegos with ben. the dialogue i am listening to has my heart a practically explodin'. (i'm just trying to not think about the fact that max has eight lego helmets in his mouth. fortunately he doesn't swallow, just packs and hoards.)(cancel that. they came down, and he only had one very small wooden bead in his mouth.)

i am blessed to have a man who knows that i need some quiet alone time, and makes me have it, even when i don't know-or won't admit, that i need it.

i am blessed to have two incredibly hard, intense, beautiful little boys. they bring me so much joy and fill me with such awe and wonder. i marvel at God's creation through them.

i am blessed to have good friends who share pretty much all my important beliefs. because i need that sense of understanding and agreement.

i'm also blessed to have just a couple, maybe even just one, who doesn't agree with me. and it makes me crazy. but i love him. and it's good for me. until he comes around, finds the truth, and oh what a world it will be then.

these blessings are so above and beyond...true gifts from the Creator.

but some of them have also been conscious decisions and have resulted from hard work. tim and i chose to raise our family close to our own families and in the Diocese of Wichita. we opened ourselves to His will and have been gifted our boys as a result. my ancestors and my parents worked VERY hard to give me this family and to preserve the Faith. and marriage...oh marriage. i know i can get an amen to how much work it is. and sometimes it is so not fun and romantic and not what our world tells us it should be. but when it is the sacred, the sacrament, what it is truly meant to be, it is so good.


so there it is. this is meant to balance all of my whining. and my whining about whining. don't say i didn't warn you. my time is up. and no pics, because i just can't find the time to upload, position, and write.