Epilogue

Christos Voskrese! Voistinnu Voskrese!

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

Growing up with grandparents who attended a Byzantine Orthodox church, this was how we greeted each other on Easter morning. In following this tradition, I greet you with these words in hopes that your day will be filled with Easter joy!

Goals: Accomplishments, Failures, Self- Evaluation

1. Alcohol. I successfully gave up alcohol for a significant period of time for the first time in my life. I have not had a drink or even cooked with alcohol for the last 46 days.  This has been new for me and it has felt really good to have accomplished this task. Granted, it was not easy. For me, alcohol has been an occasional  cure all for stress, loneliness and decompression but knowing that Jesus gave up so much for me made it bearable. When I felt like I was going to cave, I simply remembered what He did for me and thought, if He can do it, so can I. Going forward, however, I have decided to adopt a new mindset on drinking. Because I do everything at warp speed, I tend to drink too quickly, so from now on to slow my rate of alcohol consumption, I plan to drink a glass of water or a glass of tonic water for every glass of alcohol I consume.

2. Sun Submissions. As of yesterday, I finished and mailed all 5 of the writing prompts that I set out to address and sent them off to the The Sun. Whether or not any of them will be published remains to be seen. The following subjects were the topics upon which I wrote: Fire, Danger, Right and Wrong, Clothes, and First Love.

3. Watercolour Wednesdays.  These were a great success (emotionally, if not always artistically)! It was really nice having something to look forward to during the middle of the week and I know that my best friend enjoyed them just as much as I did. Although we may not continue to paint every Wednesday, we do plan on continuing this new tradition.

4. Children's Stories. Here I was a dismal failure. I only sent out one children's story to one publisher and did not contact any artists about illustrating my children's stories. In my heart I believe my stories have merit, but believing that anyone else will agree with me is quite another thing. I guess this is what it comes down to: it's a numbers game. There are a zillion publishers out there and a zillion writers. You have to be that one lucky writer who manages somehow through fate to get connected to a publisher who sees worth in your writing and that's just about impossible. This is really disheartening and I quite frankly feel disheartened. It's really too bad, because in my heart of hearts, this is one goal I really want to accomplish: to see my children's stories published in book form with my children's names on the dedication pages. Oh well, we can't win them all.

5. Blogging. First the numbers: My posts as of this moment have received 961 page views. The top 4 countries where my posts have been read are (in order) The United States (885 posts), Germany (28 posts) and  Thailand (28 posts) (thank Lottie!) . Bulgaria comes in number 3 thanks to my husband's family. Interestingly, according to the map which shows where my readers are located I seem to have an audience in Alaska. This is really cool since I've always wanted to visit Alaska and see the Aurora Borealis. (So much so that even one of my 4 year old sons knows what this is.) Sadly, comments were few and far between. Thanks though to those of you who did comment or who emailed me their feedback. It was great to know that I was not alone. Finally, although this has been a great experience in that I have pushed myself to be more disciplined as a writer, the downside to blogging is simply that mentally, it has taken a lot away from my children. I have thought about what I am going to write about constantly and frankly anytime anything takes me away from my children, I am less of a mother to them. In the end, I am happy I undertook this project but I will be just as happy to unplug, refocus and just live in the moment for a while.

Henry Higgins (aka The Cat)

As of today, we still have the cat but we are going to try and take him to a farm as we just can't keep him. Twice in the last 2 weeks, my son has been in the ER because of breathing issues. My throat closes up around him and he makes me itch. This is crushing as he is such a love and is a true lap cat. Unfortunately, I just can't continue to itch every time I pick him up. Not picking him up is not an option as he seems lonely and continually seeks me out for affection. For now, we have named him Henry Higgins because just like Eliza Doolittle swears to get Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, our 1st cat, Silver Bell swears to swipe at Henry every chance she gets. Please- if you know anyone who would love him, let me know.

Finally, in a twist on the immortal wolds of Buzz Light Year:

To Infinity and Beyond!

And as a parting gift, let me leave you with a piece of music my Father always played for me on Easter morning:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToNb-02n3KY&list=PL06F22145AE0F4938

Bell Well. Be Happy and
Be at Peace. 

Day 46

In Search of the Golden Egg. Today I took my twins on an Easter Egg hunt. It was held in our town park and it was really quite a marvel. Thousands of real eggs had been dyed and strewn across the park grass. Age appropriate areas had been roped off and at the sound of a whistle, hundreds of children stormed forth in search of Easter eggs. 3 minutes later, the hunt was over. My sons had each found three eggs. Their comment, "Mom, this wasn't really fun." No, I thought, this wasn't. But then again, this isn't what Easter is all about anyway, so taking our eggs, we made our way over to my Mom's house and shared our bounty with her. She got 4, we kept 2. On our way home, I smiled at my children and laughed with them about the hunt. They were neither upset, nor did they worry that they hadn't found enough. They were simply content with the one golden egg left in each of their pails. The moral of this story: Again (because you've heard it before), it's not the quantity, but the quality that counts.

Day 45 Good Friday

The Friday that is Good. Today has been hectic: back to back therapist appointments for one of my twins, a rushed lunch and off to a community wide church service. But as today is a holy day, it is important that I take time to reflect on the great sacrifice that was made by the Savior. Today I am happy because my Lord sacrificed himself so that I - we - can be with him for eternal life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlkxYDvyQ84

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Week Seven Paintings

Pink Forsythia?

Day 44 Holy Thursday

Chocolate. Today my Mother, the twins and I made our annual trek over the hills to visit the best chocolatier in the area. For those of you in the know, yes, I'm talking about Victoria's. There we stood in line gazing at the various confections which ranged from hollow filled chocolate Easter eggs to chocolate covered sea salt pretzels to old fashioned rock candy. After making our Easter purchases, my mother treated me to my very favorite childhood candy: peanut butter melt aways. As I walked out of the store savoring every last bite of my treat, I thought, yes, this is truly a slice of Heaven.

Day 43

Look for this week's Wednesday painting on Thurday due to a previously scheduled appointment.

Rocks. Are Cool?! Yeah, they are! I have always loved rocks. When I was a little kid my Dad had a collection of rocks which he displayed at eye level on his book shelves. I think this is what got me hooked on them. They were never taboo. I could pick them up. Touch them. Turn them over. Look at them any time I pleased. My Dad also had a friend who was an amateur geologist. He had this amazing collection of rocks in his basement. He even had a moon rock. Anyway, my son is really into rocks. He has a nature collection box (my old lunch pail from the 80's) in which he puts his rocks. This week I surprised him by checking out a book and a video on rocks from the library and today I pulled out my own rock collection. He has now stood for the last hour microscope in hand examining every nuance of these rocks. He is such a little scientist! How cool is that!

Day 42

Wild Wacky Weather! This morning as my children and I were eating breakfast, I happened to glance out the kitchen window only to be surprised by the fact that my forsythia was blooming. When I pointed this out to my son, he happily acknowledged that this was a "sign of Spring". Later today it began to rain, and as he splashed in the puddles, he noted that the weather was cooler. I laughing told him that we were supposed to get snow.  How surprised was I when just a few hours ago, it really did begin to snow and he said, "Mom, now we can go sledding!"