The other night I was giving my daughter a bath and had to pull out a new towel.  By the time it had taken me to turn my back and pull out a new towel, my daughter had taken her cup and spilled water all over the side of the tub and onto the floor.  Now, my initial reaction to all that water and suds was horror.  I mean, now I was going to have to clean all this up!  Come on, baby girl!  

The look on her face was pure joy and even though I knew I should say something to her about making messes at this point it was all over anyway, and I just couldn’t seem to get super mad when looking at her as she happily pointed to out to me that she had made a mess.  I think she must have felt some kind of sense of accomplishment for whatever she had in mind when she dumped the cup of water over the side and she just didn’t see how I could be mad about that.

It got me thinking about the times in my life when I had a certain plan for how something should have happened and then fate stepped in and made a huge mess in my life.  

Perhaps it was a horrible mess, but there was good that came out of those messes, so I guess I should be grateful.  Has that ever happened to you?  Have you ever found some silver lining in a huge mess?

Recently my family went through some trying times to include a surgery for my baby girl’s eyes.  I can say that even being deployed to a war zone didn’t come close to the stress and fear that I had when they wheeled my baby girl back for her surgery.  

Today, we got some really great news from her doctor.  The surgery seems successful and my daughter’s eyes are doing so well that they think her vision is better than 20/20. 🙂  I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear that, it literally was like this huge weight was lifted from my shoulders.  My daughter, who has no idea the stress her mother is under, is just happy to be out of the exam room that we had been stuck in (and had played with all the instruments in there – hey, she’s three and we were bored) for over thirty minutes.

(Image from Google Images)

On the drive home, I couldn’t help but say a quiet prayer of thanks for these blessings.  It is so easy to become overwhelmed with things in life that I think it happens that we can sometimes forget what we have.  So, I had to take a moment tonight to just out loud say, “Thank you!” to whomever was listening, for this moment!

I’m at the point of time known as the ‘book hangover;’ the time after I finish a good book and can’t decide which new book I want to read.  I have a couple of craft books that I need to finish, but even that seems like too much right now. 🙂  My favorite genre’s are romance and YA, but, as I’m waiting for another Nora Roberts book to come out, what should I read?

(Image from Google Images)

Have you ever been at that point?  I love to read.  It’s one of my favorite things.  When I was younger, it could also be known as my time waster because I would rather read than do anything else.  (Even a book that I don’t really care for.)  

I’m told that a love of reading is crucial to anyone that wants to write, and I can see why.  You know?  How else are you going to be able to tell your story if you haven’t read what a story is yet?  My favorite room in my house my little library where I house the majority of my books.  However, I have little stacks all over the place, of books that I want and need to read.  Does anyone else do that?  Right now, I’ve got a stack on my nightstand, my hope chest, and my kitchen counter.  I’m not counting the end table in the living room, because that’s only writing magazines. 🙂  Do magazines count?

How about you?  What book are you reading or what book have just finished?  Any recommendations for a new YA book?