In the past several months, I have come to realize how heavily I rely on my planner. Things often get so busy that, if I didn't write down what I was supposed to be doing, I would completely forget to do things. Last week was no different, though most of the chaos was unplanned. Thus why I haven't gotten to this entry earlier. I had a whole paragraph typed out to explain how my week went, but I decided not to include it since much of it was a blessing in disguise and a chance for me to learn about giving of myself and sharing my resources. While it was crazy, it was a huge blessing for me to be able to serve in the many and various ways I was given the opportunity to do, and thus, I don't want to detract from that by making it sound like it was a burden by listing it all off.
Regardless, it WAS a busy week, and this will be no different.
Some highlights of the past week are worthy of mentioning, though. In the midst of all the chaos, I was able to grow some friendships that I hadn't otherwise had the opportunity to do. Tuesday, I was able to go to lunch at Panera with Michelle Farmer, someone I originally met at Wayside and have ran into on several occasions, but never had the chance to get to know much in depth. We had a great conversation (so much so that we didn't realize that there were literally people standing around watching us waiting to snag our table the minute we moved) and I'm looking forward to getting to know her more as time goes on.
I also had the opportunity to go on the Edwards' Officers' Spouses Club Retreat. I have to admit that I was initially severely hesitant to agree to go. Over the past several months of being involved, I've found it somewhat hard to connect with many of the ladies in the group. I realize that the majority of them are older than I am and already have kids of varying ages which I've learned is a barrier for most people. I also don't live on base and am not actually a military wife, which also makes it harder for people to relate to me, though I try my best to relate to them. In addition, I've found some of the common interests of the club don't as much apply to me (I'm very frugal, hate shopping, I'm not much for dressing up or fashion, etc.). And to add to all that, I've found myself to be very busy and time management has led me to miss several of the events. All that being said, leading up to the retreat, I have to say that I wasn't even sure I was going to be a part of OSC, next year. In hindsight, I am glad that I went. While all the above qualities still apply, I feel like I did have some breakthroughs with several of the ladies. I added many new people to my Facebook friends (which we all know makes friendships official, right ;)?), as well as getting to know some ladies that I didn't know as well a lot better than I would have, otherwise. The ladies that I spent most of the weekend with were really great and made me feel like a part of the pack. I didn't once question myself amongst them and didn't feel like any of the things I was lacking (kids, military affiliation, etc.) mattered to them. The ironic part is that several of them will be moving away in the next months. However, going to the retreat has made me rethink my position on "renewing my membership," so to speak. I have met some really cool ladies, even in the last couple weeks. It still might take a little more convincing, but hopefully some of those cool ladies will help me weigh the pros and cons of it all when decision time does come around. I guess I didn't even mention in all that what we actually DID at the retreat :-p. We headed to Temecula, CA and walked around Old Temecula. It's really cute and has a lot of nice shops and boutiques. We also did some wine tasting, olive oil tasting, ate at some nice restaurants, did some sight seeing, and hung out. There are some pictures (the ones I'm in, anyway) on my Facebook page, but since it's not my album, I can't share the link on here. (Sorry Grandma). Long story short, I'm glad that I went. I think one of my favorite moments was went Michele was lost looking for the hotel when the Pink song came on and she belted, "Took a wrong turn...once or twice...." Good times :).
As for my art classes, last week we learned about how you can use colors to express your emotions. We read "My Many Colored Days" by Dr. Seuss and looked at how the artist used different colors in his paintings to represent different emotions. Then we talked about how they made some of the colors they used. The kids picked out some colors that they wanted to paint with and we painted self-portraits of us happy and surrounded them with things that made us happy. All the kids did a great job. They got to share with their friends about what they painted. One little boy told me that his was actually him sad because he was sad at home, and the others all painted themselves and talked about that, as well. This week, we'll talk about warm and cool colors and paint landscapes with whichever they like better.
We lost our softball game, last week, but we tried our best! I actually caught a fly ball and got someone out at first (not in the same play, but both things I was proud of :)). Regardless, hopefully losing the past two games will help insure that we won't get demolished like we did last season. The last couple games have been more fun than last season, so if it keeps up that way, hopefully it'll be more enjoyable.
Anyway, I'm heading into town with Adam tonight to meet up with the Wrights and Strongs for dinner at a newish restaurant in Lancaster called BEX. It's our first time there, so I'm excited to see how it is. Until next time....
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