Lent Season

Ash Wednesday is only two days away. I am very much looking forward to Lent this year. This will be my third year and I fear I did not give my all the previous two. I intend to grow in many ways this season although the path that I will take is not completely planned yet.

For those of you who have never taken part in lent, or never heard of it for that matter, I found this article helpful:
http://marshill.com/2011/03/09/why-bother-with-lent

So Much Noise

These walls hold a family of five. Not a quiet brood. I long for a moment of silence, a moment of being unplugged, disconnected from people and the world for just a few minutes. Decompression can soothe a soul.

So, for about six minutes today I sat in a hot bath all alone, closed my eyes, and took several long, deep breaths. It was not enough time to find clarity. Suddenly, the husband is playing with the dog, and the toddler is whining about something, and the baby, well, is just a baby!

I found myself feeling extremely guilty. Those little noises mean health, heartbeats, life. The life of my sweet family...

Far Away Places, Far Away Thoughts

Places I remember...
I didn't always capture the moment.
...other than in my mind.
My mind holds them well enough

Maybe someone smart will read this

Since starting this blog very recently, I have done more "following" than "blogging". There are so many interesting people out there and I already know enough about myself, so why waste time, right? Having said this, I must now complain that my Dashboard is incomplete...sometimes. There are eight blogs that I follow that always appear on my dashboard. I am actually following closer to forty blogs. It seems that Google Friend Connect and Blogger are missing a link in cyber space. I have to leave my page and look around and take some other route to my dashboard; eventually, my list refills. Is there a fix for this?

A Favorite Memory

This is one of my favorite places. An image captured on my honeymoon, by the man of the hour, my husband.

New to this

Looking forward to this.

About Me

My name is Shelley. I am a wife and a mother. My family believes in Jesus and each other.

 My husband, Chris, and I are both home health nurses, but we prefer being at our home with our three girls. Obviously, we would like to be at home laughing and eating, but evidently we have to work to feed ourselves. Oh well.
I enjoy reading and painting over all hobbies. I prefer acrylic paint, but enjoy mixed media projects. I was a better artist in high school but I am trying to brush up my skills. 
My love of books stems from the moment I learned to read. I find myself choosing between art and reading several times a week. The books usually win. I find particularly difficult when I want to watch a movie with Chris or the whole fam, but am unable to read and follow along with the movie. Really?! Can my brain not do both? I like thrillers, memoirs, historical fiction, some fantasy (well, A Song of Ice and Fire is about it for that genre). I do not love romance novels. Luckily, I get that at home. Thanks, babe!!
 I have a love for music as most people do. Folk and singer/songwriter have become my favorite over the past few years. I still maintain a relationship with classic country and classic rock. 
As I stated initially, we are a Christian family. We are Catholic and never have I had such a foundation in my beliefs and my relationship with God as I have in the past few years.  I feel fortunate to have found the man that I have and been able to learn from him and his family. This is a trying earth in which we reside. There is nothing more important than God and family. Others will fade away; these will not.