happy 14th birthday millie...

i had a little surprise party for millie last night. i had told her that we just didn’t have any time for a party until spring break this year. but i invited 5 of her friends to surprise her at osakas (one of those japanese steakhouses). she was VERY surprised and felt VERY loved! 

she is such a FUN and SWEET 14 year old (of course she has only been 14 for one day, who knows how the rest of the year will go). she is always so helpful to me and asks me all of the time, “what can i do to help you?” really i don’t deserve a daughter that sweet! she actually was fine with not having a party and with going out to eat with only her mom. or else she is a really talented actress and was just faking that, hmmmmm...

life has been VERY busy around here. soccer starting for rosie, the children’s musical that i wrote and am directing for church, a bunch of little things that always add up to MUCH MORE (the sum of activities always seems much greater than the parts). after spring break, things will slow down.

yesterday i heard someone talking about how they prioritize things with a 10.10.10 rule. how will it affect the next 10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years? and i was trying to apply it to a situation to see whether to participate or not and i started thinking that in 10 years, millie would be 24, maxx 22, and rosie will be a senior in high school preparing to graduate. oh my gosh! parenting seems like it will last forever, but when i actually think about it like that, it is not long before they are grown and gone (or back home and living with us and we are wondering why they aren’t gone).

of course the decision i was thinking of was do i go home and take a nap or go to the gym and work out. in ten minutes i could be snoozing or sweating, in 10 months i could be in much better shape if i make it a continual pattern to go to the gym every day, and in 10 years i could be alive and healthy if i continue the trend of health over slothful living. 

so i went home and took a nap. i am not good at that 10.10.10 thing. AND it was time change monday and that rising at 5 is a KILLER at daylight savings time. 

frankly, i will vote for ANY candidate that promises to abolish time change sunday or at least make it illegal to schedule my kids to sing in church at the early service (8:30) AND the regular service ON time change sunday for two years in a row! we were at church for over 8 hours total yesterday and i do LOVE LOVE LOVE God, but i was feeling less enthusiastic about the bride of Christ (the church) yesterday. 

really, i don’t care who you are or what you stand for, IF you will abolish (or perhaps have some plan where we ease into the time change 15 minutes a week for 4 weeks), then you have 1 vote from me! 

i will leave you with another picture of the birthday girl.... this is from the series of individual portraits that i took of each one of the girls at the party. daylight savings time was good for this because it was still light as we left osakas (but that is not changing my stance on this issue at all)...