i'll huff and puff and...

Oooooh... he thinks he's sneaky. He thinks he's smart. He thinks he can derail me, deter me, scare me, push me away. Look at what he's done in the past couple of days:

• The announcement was made of my job loss happening this week rather than later in the year (due to merger).
• The company that bought us decided to play into a loophole of letting us go when we are "their" employees in order to give us their dinky severance package rather than the one that was negotiated by our company.
• My bank account was hacked into and subsequently I had to shut down my debit card, so no card for 7-10 days. Business days.
• During this past crazy storm, part of our tree fell and busted our pool. Our brand-new pool. 

What he didn't count on....me and my faith. God is showing me again and again that the Holy Spirit is guiding me. With the perspective from God, THIS is how I see it:

• I have the luxury of knowing ahead of time that I'm losing my job. It's a job that served its purpose in helping sustain our family when Hubby was out of work. It's run its course and it's time for me to go.
• I'm getting a severance package. Whatever money I receive is a blessing and will help carry us through the summer. A summer I get to spend with Boogie before he becomes a big Kindergarten boy. 
• I found the issue right away. My bank is making it easy to fix the issue. I'll have a beauteous new  debit card since mine is worn down anyway. It wasn't my last dime they took. 
• The tree missed our bedroom by inches. Hubby, Boogie & I were all dead asleep when the tree cracked and fell. Had it hit the bedroom, we wouldn't have heard it in time. We also have insurance on the pool. Who gets insurance on a pool from Wal-Mart? We do and we'll actually get our money's worth. 

Really looking back at it, these are all first-world problems anyway. These are nothing compared to the real sadness and suffering I see around me; friends losing all they own and their home due to a house fire, losing their fathers, getting their possessions stolen, having no money to eat for several days, suffering with tremendous health issues, preparing for surgeries, testing for cancer, laying to rest beloved pets, preparing funerals for their children... 

My problems aren't really problems at all in comparison. 

~~Joy

(c) 2012 Joy-Jasmin Brunnelson. All Rights Reserved.

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

oh he makes my heart smile!

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Boogie: "Daddy and Sweetgirl mad an (at) me."

Me: "No, baby. Daddy and Sweetgirl are not mad at you.You make us happy. Boogie makes Mommy VERY happy."

Boogie (closes his eyes and smiles as he drifts off to sleep): "Happy Father's Day Mommy..."

That kid warms my heart.

Sleep, baby, sleep

ring...ring...

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!
***************************************************************************


I was blessed this morning by a phone call. 


I love phone calls. With all the Facebooking, texting, IMing, IGing, KiKing, MySpacing (anyone?), Twittering, and e-mailing... just a simple phone call can make all the difference in your day. 

There's no misconstruing the tone of the other person, just organic back-and-forth conversation. Real conversation. Like they say something and you have to immediately answer them. You can't google an answer to their question (without them noticing that you take a long time to answer them). You have to pay attention when you talk to someone on the phone. It's a REAL person on the other line. You could multi-task while on the phone but I challenge you in your next phone call to take a step back and just BE in the conversation... It could be your biggest blessing for the day! 


I think it's more inline with how we should be with other people. 


Be personal. 
Be nice. 
Listen. 
Take turns. 
Hear them actually LOL when you say something funny. 
Make awesome noises when telling stories. It is very hard to write out sounds. 
Hear their voice. Isn't that what we all want? I think so since there is big business in recording our voices in cards, teddy bears and photo albums. We need human to human interaction. 


The bonus is that my phone call was from my spiritual mentor. I love her! She has opened a door for me to realize my potential in what God has called me to do and encourages me constantly. To be uplifted by a phone call can set the tone for the rest of your day. And she did that for me today. I didn't even realize that I needed it until she called.


For that, I am so grateful. 


~~Joy
(c) 2012 Joy-Jasmin Brunnelson All Rights Reserved

every.word.counts

Today I'm excited to link up with Heavenly Homemakers for my very first Gratituesday! 

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Words. They are so easy to take for granted unless you are in a position where they don't come easily. Then, words hold much meaning.  


A LITTLE BACKGROUND:
As many Autie parents have experienced, we will use things that are highly desired to try and coax those precious words out of our kiddos. For instance, Boogie (my son) loves to eat. I mean, like it's a sport. He loves food. Mind you, only specific food, but food nonetheless. So we knew that using food would be a big motivator to get Boogie to speak. [If we tried with toys or other things, he would just give up and go do something else.]


It worked. He learned that if he  made utterances out of his mouth that sounded like the utterances we made, it would result in his desired food. He liked it. He slowly made the connection that the utterances would work for other things as well. We were on our way to being able to communicate with each other!


Herein lies the problem. When you teach a child to speak based on what they want and/or need, then words become used only to serve a function. And that's exactly what happened. Boogie spoke to receive. We went through the typical echolalia phase. That was to be expected and as a Mama, I knew when he was comprehending a word or just merely repeating it. What I didn't expect was that he only spoke to get what he wanted or to please us. He wouldn't initiate.


Over this past year, Boogie has started initiating conversations. And not always just to get something so it's been a joy to watch. And when he speaks to show love...that is a gift from God. It happened today. I'm working from home and I just don't feel well. I'm achy and I have a headache that is so painful, I had trouble sleeping. I'm constantly having to take breaks from the computer as the screen is bothering me. Just all around kind of blah. Well, Boogie came home from school, saw me, smiled and ran over to give me a hug (a new thing, he's only been doing that for the past two months but I'll take it!!). On his way over, Hubby saw me wincing in pain. 


Hubby: "How ya doin' over there?"
Me: "Not so good, my head is killing me"
Boogie (in midst of my hug): "Aww, Mommy, I want you feel better. I lah you." <patting my back>


Wow. God is good! Boogie didn't have to use his words to give me love, it gave him nothing in return...but he chose to do so anyway. I love that little guy. And I love how God uses him to show me pure love. 


So today... I am grateful for words.


~~Joy

Copyright (c) 2012 Joy-Jasmin Brunnelson
All Rights Reserved