Life is precious- Life is sweet

I've been thinking......about a lot of different things lately. I don't know if I am becoming more analytical as the years go by or if it's normal to be contemplating life so much now that I'm 32 ?(ok,ok add a few years) I had a revelataion about myself in a conversation with my best friend a couple months ago. It should have already been obvious to me. I can't explain why it hit me the way it did that day but I haven't stopped thinking about it since. I realized that day that I do not live in the moment. I live mostly is the past and in the future. I rarely live in the moment. I struggle with fear and worry. I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. But, I will save those topics for another month worth of posts. I started realizing that I do through my days with thoughts about yesterday. I think about mistakes I may have made or things I wished I had done differently. I then move right into worrying about tomorrow..... It hit me that in doing this I miss out on so much or at least do not allow myself to enjoy all of the little moments that make up the day. My best friend lives life so differently than me. This is one of the qualities I admire most about her. She lives in the moment. To her yesterday is gone and tomorrow is not a thought yet. She will live in tomorrows moments when it arrives. I am trying to change this about me. It is not easy. It does not come natural. I am striving to simply live in the moment. It's amazing what happens when I do this. My whole perspective on life is different. I am more grateful. I am more aware of lifes blessings. This brings me to my weekend. For those of you who do not like long posts, hang on. :) This weekend was the "Aunt Lynn/Aunt Missy slumber party". In attendance were the Rowley kids and my two neices (Mike and Barb's). That's a total of 6 kids. First let me say that Aunt Lynn knows how to throw a slumber pary for kids! She had taken four of her mattresses from her beds and put them in her living room. It was a kids dream! We literally had wall to wall matresses. Of course there was no jumping!!!!!! Way to dangerous!!!! :) We had pizza, ice cream, a trip to the Gas City zoo and movies. The kids had a blast. Who knew a pot belly pig, goats, and mangly deer could bring so much joy to kids? At one point in the evening Lynn and I were cleaning up the kitchen and the living room grew quiet. All 6 kids had retreated to the bathroom where they were working on a "secret plan". Several minutes later they filed out of the bathroom and assumed their positions in the kitchen. They informed Lynn and I that they had made up a song for us. Hannah started and the other 5 joined into the song, "we love Lynn and Missy, we love Lynn and Missy......." They had worked so hard on their song even creating choreography. It was precious. In the middle of their singing I had one of those moments when time stopped. I have these moments every once in awhile. I stood there thinking, "this isn't how I thought my life story would go, I thought life would look different than this". Have you ever had those moments? I always thought my life story would be : college, marriage, kids, happily ever after. The moment was gone quickly. It was replaced with the voice within me that said, "this is one of those moments you must live in". How blessed I am to have these moments. The autobiography of my life has not turned out as I would have written it 20 years ago. The truth is that I am certain the story God has placed me in is better than the story I would have written. I do not have a husband and children. BUT, I have four beautiful neices that love their Aunt Mimi. There is nothing better than calling my neice Chloe and hearing her jump and and down in excitement when I tell her I'll be home on four days. I am blessed to have a second family in Marion (Munday/Rowley clan). What an awesome thing to hear that one of the Rowley girls prayed for me the night before as they got ready for bed. I am incredibly grateful to have a best friend to walk beside as I navigate through the path of life. And of course how precious and sweet the song the kids sang at the slumber party. At this point I need to explain further how the rest of the slumber party went. It may have been a test in just how precious I thought things were earlier in the evening. The movie ended and we all got into our jammies, grabbed our "night-nights", and settled into out slice of the wall to wall bed. I was just settling into a good dream (probably involving my boyfriend Matther McCaugheny) when one of the little angels (she will remain nameless) started to make a strange noise. My eyes flew open and I thought, "someone has to go to the bathroom. I was just starting to sit up as the strange noise turned into a frantic noise. It took only a second to realize that the slumber party had taken a turn for the worst. The little angel making the frantic noise started projectile vomiting. I can still smell it as I write. :) The memory of the smell is burned into me because I was struck in the neck, hair, cheek, and mouth by the projected matter. AUnt Lynn sprung into action running our "subject" to the bathroom as I rinsed off in the sink. I moved kids around and stripped bedding. Aunt Lynn was such a great nurse as she tended to the subject. After I cleaned up, the subject was cleaned up, laundry started, we went back to bed. The second incident happened approx. 15 minutes later. This time the projected matter missed me but covered Aunt Lynn's leather couch. :) Again, we stripped bedding and cleaned up all while the other angels still slept. Thankfully the third incident was confined to the large bowl AUnt Lynn had ready for action. I really need to mention again what a great nurse Lynn was. Lynn is a heavy sleeper and once slept through a house being surrounded by police sirens and a helicopter in a rental we shared with two other friends ( details another time). It is virtually impossible to raise Lynn when she is asleep. :) But Aunt Lynn was alert and loving as she cared for her sick little neice. After the last incident we couldn't help but laugh. As I collapsed back onto my cliver of the wall to wall bed I said to Lynn, "well I have my blog topic for Monday". I am happy to say that in spite of everything I still woke up on Saturday thinking how thankful I was for the moments that God has given me. Life is not always fair, easy or clean. Life is often not how we planned it. But, I say with confidence that life is precious, life is sweet. What a privilege to be a part of these little lives God has surrounded me with. Priceless!