Birthday Party Bonanza

Oh yes, here we are again... April. While this should bring about enormous amounts of joy and goosebumps - it is after all not only my birthday, but 5 of the 6 of us have birthdays all within a month of each other - it has instead brought on quite a bit of weariness and a bit of a personality disorder.

Don't get me wrong.... I LOVE MY FAMILY! And I love making them feel special. Birthdays are the perfect opportunity for this. But if I eat another piece of birthday cake, I might just gag.

I've just finished icing my 60th cupcake. And packing the goody bags for daughter number 3's Monkey Party tomorrow. And did I mention that it is my husband's 44th birthday tomorrow as well? And two days later, my #1 daughters 21st birthday? Daughter #2 has her birthday 5 days later, with her "friends party" a week after that..

I'm plumb birthday'd out. And there's still Mothers Day, and our Anniversary....

Definitely a case of too much of a good thing....

Learning to Cruise

In my former life (ie. before we moved to South Africa) my husband had a boat. When he bought it, I was not exactly excited... I really don't love water. However, it didn't take me long to see the value in having a toy that would wisk us away from reality and plant us on some far off beach off the river where we could play and bask in the sun.

Oh, wait...I digress from my original thought...

This boat was perfect for towing water tubes... We spent at least one week each summer with our church youth, hauling them all over the lake, and we spent every weekend we could in the river.

Soon, David wanted in on the fun, which meant I needed to learn to drive the boat.

The problem? He is a big guy! And his friend, who was sometimes on a second tube behind the boat was also a big guy.....

The first thing I learned about the boat...as you take off the nose of the boat rises - and the bigger the load, the higher it rises.... and the motor digs into the water deeper which doesn't really help with the speed. It takes a few moments of power to pick up speed, which brings the nose (I guess it's called a bow, isn't it??) down... Until then it's really tough to drive.

Once the boat planes on top of the water it's a smooth ride - but up to that point, it's a rough, tough pull.

I think I've been having "life" boat lessons these last few months. Circumstances have made life a rough tough pull... I'm tired, my time is bogged down with the tyranny of the urgent, I have very little time for some of the most important things in my life.. my family. But thankfully, during this rough tough pulling time, I've been able to make plans and to put pieces in place for the future... and this gives me the feeling this morning that perhaps the bow of my boat is beginning to come down, and that maybe, just maybe in the very near future... my life will hit that lovely "plane", and things will operate so much more smoothly... and all the little things that give me joy will once again have a more prominant place in my day to day living.

Hope is a great thing, isn't it??