Doing...

a check-in.

I can't believe it's almost 10pm on a Wednesday night.
Do you also find when there's a holiday on a Monday it throws you off course for the rest of the week?

It sure has done that for me.

Just yesterday, I asked Savannah's teacher about a end of year assignment.

Her answer was yes by end of this week something is needed.

School is out next Friday.

Meaning tomorrow would be good or no later than Friday.

I'm also having to rewrap committments for Savannah's swim lesson tomorrow.

I'm trying to help my neighbors next door with a appointment the need help on.

So yep in closing in on a short week, everything is moving like the speed of light.

Hope you and yours are doing well.

Viola

Pics from our Memorial Day...

...BBQ.

Savannah and I hung out with 6 other families from church this afternoon.

The property has a pool and jacuzzi area.

A trampoline for the kids.

I sat there with my camera with the background of kids playing, while taking in the beauty of this yard.

I think my camera is my prop at times.

I can get lost in it, taking in all the beautiful scenery.

Enjoy!

Viola

The girlie just itchin to get in the pool. She reminds me of that Beverly Hills Hairdresser with the hat on. What was his name? Jose Eber. Ha!

"The pool is coooold'

The other end of the pool with the covered patio area.

Now that's something you don't see in yards any more, a Hammock.

Wow a close up of a flower with the hammock in the background.

More kids in the pool.

Memorial Day 2012

Thank you to those that have gone before and the present U.S. Military Personnel that continue to fight for our Freedom of the Red, White, and Blue.

My older Brother Steve served in the Military and I have a nephew Derek that is still in the Army. More than just a job, a career in protecting a country we all love.

God bless you and yours on this Memorial Day!

Viola

It's a wrap.

Our Sunday that is.

We had church this morning (we went to a early service).

We then came home and waited for Savannah's grandparent's to come by, they had stuff they wanted to drop off for Savy.

They wanted to go to lunch.

Then we all went across the way to the pool and watch Savy swim at the pool.

After our company left, Savy and I had to get ready for our S.M.U.R.F. meeting.

It is a Sunday afternoon, so I couldn't miss it my second week of volunteering.
I love it.
I'm having fun.
It feels good to give back.

While I was there, I had the ability to work side by side with a group of Ladies from the church that provided tonights meal to the ladies and their children.

This is what was served.

Chicken Nuggets

Mashed Potatoes

Biscuits

Salad

Brownies with Vanilla Ice cream and Chocolate Syrup.

While in the kitchen, I tried to do the following,

break myself of some organizational habits.
It's very difficult to do.

Here's one example of what I organized.
No one else would of cared...but for me, I just had to go one step further.
part of prepping for the meal.

These are seven packets of instant mashed potatoes.

I couldn't leave it alone.

I had to place them in a bowl with the tops cut off.

It's sick I know.

Ha.

Hey, on my own defense, the pkgs were all contained, making pouring into the boiling water easy.

Me mixing up the potatoes...Yes a Apron...I know my sister's are laughing, I love cooking with a Apron on.
And yes, all the volunteers wear the Red Aprons.

On candid camera.

Once dinner ended, I found this in the give away pile that the gals at the meeting get to go through.

It's a semi new Brighton Purse.

One of the volunteers brought it in.

She said it's just too small for her own use.

You can always a new little purse right?

Its a nice shade of Brown with Silver accents.

I hope you've had a great weekend.

Tomorrow is up in the air what Savy and I will be doing.

 If anything I have the pool across the way that I can take Savannah to.

I missed being with my siblings down in San Diego today for their kickoff summer gathering.
I'm sure the food was wonderful.
Lots of picture taking ops, and good laughs.

I'm sure there will be other gatherings were we can make it down there.

God bless you and yours!

Viola

A Pink Saturday...

Posting.

Linking over to Beverly's Party.

A Blogging party celebrating four years of Blogging.

The punch is served.
The cake is being sliced and put on pink plates with beautiful shades of pink.

I Couldn't think of anything Pink to include until this.

One of my straw hats in my room.

I have these hagging over my bed.

I love the simplicity of these hat's.

So this in my contribution to Beverly's site, "how sweet the sound".

Feel free to drop in and see what everyone else is posting.

Have a wonderful weekend.

 

This was fun.

Helping the other mom's serve lunch to the Administrators and Teachers at my daughters school.

One parent asking what can I serve you?

Another parent serving up the soup.

Another parent getting them their beverage of choice.

And a whole lot of good food.

Beef and Chicken Fajitas.

Beans and Rice.

Home made Corn Tortillas.

Abondagas Soup.

Salads.

Guacamole and Chips.

Desserts galore.
Care for some

German Chocolate Cake?
or maybe a Little fudge brownies...
or what about some Warm and Gooey Peach Cobbler?
How about a Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookie?
Oh a piece of Fruit instead?
Sure you don't want to taste the Lemon Cake or
the Apple Pie with the Lattice Top Crust?

These Teachers got spoiled.

Such a appreciative group of employees that are with our kids 6+ hours a day.

It felt good to give back.

Moi, holding one of the salads.

From school,  Savannah and I head over to a late afternoon gathering of friends from Church.

A grouping of parents and our kids.

Meeting up to have the kids play and the parents go about socializing.
Me sharing my, "Organize It SymondSez".
Grins and Congrats.

All of us have done a Bible study together.

We've all traded babysitting stints to help each other out.

For most of us, our extended families are not in town.

We've pretty much become like family.

This evening, over a dinner of Hamburgers, Hotdogs, Salads and fruit & veggies, we bond.

Connect.

This is what coming to Temecula has done for me.

Meeting up with some awesome families.

And watching the blossoming of new families.

One of the couples who just got married.
Jenny and Brian.
And they adopted this lil guy today.

Welcome Scout.

"Scout" a german shepard pup.

Scout and Savannah.

Me and the pup!

I sure hope your Holiday Weekend is relaxing and you enjoy whatever is on the calendar.
My siblings in San Diego are getting together at my sister Gloria's house.
It's the beginning of the summer kickoff at my sister Gloria's home where family will enjoy the wonderful pool.

God bless!

Viola

Friday's schedule.

I feel like I'm being timed today.

And it's not even noon.

Ha.

I've committed to a event at Savannah's school during the lunch hour today.

It's been a week of the parent's and kids giving back to the teachers.

Monday was bringing in flowers.

Tuesday a handwritten note in a card and a box of tea

Thursday a donation of school supplies

Friday teacher appreciation luncheon.

The kindergarten and 1st grade rooms (the parents) are preparing and serving lunch in the teachers lounge today.

I was requested to help out.

I'm going in and help serve at 11:45am.

Once school is out we are headed out to a gathering with a group of parents and kids as all the kids in Temecula are out of school on early memorial holiday.

Savy and I will pop in when she gets out and good thing its at a house near the school.

What do you have planned over in your neck of the woods?

God bless!

Viola

Organize It...

...SymondSez.

Ha.

A business opportunity?

Nothing in business makes my heart soar more than systems in place.

As I reflect back from childhood, I have two take aways that have probably geared me for this 'Business" I'm about to begin.

More about this at the end of the post.

As a child we moved alot.

I have hours and hours of experience under my belt with moving and unpacking, having a house in place before the sun came up from the next day.

That was how my mom ran our home.

Pictures on the wall, cupboards with stuff in order, dressers and closets with 'stuff' put away.

I then remember my summer of 9th grade.

I had two pen pals from Texas.

 I kept letters from these girls and logged them into my own paper base.

Why would I do that.

Was it the necessity for sanity or consistency when the only order was the chaos that I lived in growing up?

In the five years that Dennis has been gone I've looked for opportunities that speak to my situation and how to start over. 

One such environment that I was placed in,  was a professional contract for 8 mos to go in and help the client close up shop so to speak.

No systems in place on how this was to be done.

I got to sort, retrieve, and build a organized methodical database that the client felt was user friendly and retrieval of pharmaceutical stability records were all important.

Loved this type of environment.

I owned it.

 It was my baby that I caressed and bundled up tightly at the end of 2008 when the company shut it's San Diego office.

I then have two take aways from personal moving experiences with family members, that at times where I have helped one sister with packing and color coding boxes in the garage and the home to make moving day easy.

Or the other sister with organizing a Linen closet and Two master Bedroom closets.

Most people cringe with the thought of packing tape, boxes and placing of personal items into boxes loaded onto a moving truck.

For me it's a opportunity to share a gift that GOD has uniquely given to me to use to help others out there where there's no zeal or interest in Organization.

With all this background, I received a text message from my friend Monica.

She said, "Why don't you start your own organization business"?

This was odd because in the past couple weeks I had one of my older sister's say that, and another friend besides Monica.

Sometimes GOD uses people to get the message across.

I started some research, and thought about internships.

I placed a call to a Professional Organizer, who left corporate America and has been in business for a year.

She said she would keep my name and number on file.

Well yesterday afternoon she left a voicemail asking if I could meet with her as she has a client and will need the assistance of another organizer with a speciality talent.

We met up this morning and I asked questions, trying to get the lay of the land and she gave me info on her client.

If all goes well, I will help with a contract that is a week long in merging two homes to one.

With this I will be dipping my toes into the perimeter of starting a business, and how to make this work.

My friend Monica has offered to help with a web site, and logo and design as I start...

"Organize It - SymondSez"...

The athlete

in all of us is what I'm blogging about this morning!

Or specificially in my extended family.

I was thinking about this on how my late mom was a ballerina (more art than considered a sport), from Belgium, how she would have at least one daughter that loved sports, along with numerous grandsons and granddaughters.

I have two neices that majored in sports academia in college and at least 7 of the girlies in the family have been involved in soccer, running, basketball and waterpolo.
Savannah is surprising me with her love for sports.

This girlie sure amazes me every time she gets awarded some type of medal or recognition.

 I as her Mother will share I've never been a athlete, I don't have a competitive bone in my body.

It's just not me.

I do remember in Junior High enjoying Volleyball.

And not sitting on the sidelines either.

I had a volleyball PE Class.

I thought it was fun.

As I got older, I then enjoyed lifting weights for toning, as this was none competitve and wasn't timed.
 It's hardly considered a sport.
It appealed to my personality.

Savannah's late father enjoyed racquet ball and he was super good at it.

So maybe she gets this from a combination of the families, but not me specifically.

I have nothing to do with it.

God does.

Not I.

So on Monday Morning, Savannah received her t-shirt for running 200 laps in the running club for the whole year.

Mind you she had to be pulled away from this when she had the cast and the splint on.

Her PE Teacher said this child loves to be outside running, playing games and is super active outside.

You rarely see Savannah playing in the Sandbox at school.

She's on the monkey bars or just playing. 

Go Savy.

So I share the following picture with you as one of the highlights from the end of the school year.

My child the runner.

As I close I'm trying to keep the momentum of her enjoying being active.

In the next couple weeks there will be signups for Soccer.

This child has wanted to play soccer for so long, time will tell if she has the ability to do it.

I'm gonna just keep feeding her the enjoyment to keep playing.

Have a blessed day!

P.S. Later today I will share about my Professional Organization Endeavors.

Viola

a Season of life...

I feel like at times I get on mini tangets and over expose myself via blogging with overdosed sessions of 'where am I in life'.

How come I can't find a job...

What should I be doing with my time...

Should I really pursue the Professional organizing gig?

I have to admit, i'm in that season.

All questions that arise continually.

(I'll share tomorrow on the professional organizer bit).

 I am in the final weeks of my 2nd Beth Moore session of the book of James, "Mercy Triumphs'.

The impact that this study has hit me to the core.

This morning I was in a home study with the gals and we were watching the video, and I'm clued in to what Beth was saying on screen and how it cupples over to my own life.

My challenges are daily.

Much like alot of us, right?

I share that every day is not the same for me in my walk with our lord, is it for you?

I walk in faith not sight, (and there's no pun intended as I have only vision in one eye) but each day it's not a cake walk but a faith walk.

Really it is.

And I'm going to keep being in this space till I hand over what I haven't handed over.

It's super difficult.

Yesterday was one of those days.

I won't expound on the details and bore you, but what I will say is God called me out today.

He used Beth Moore via video to tell me.

The biggest take away today for me, and why didn't I hear this when I did this class before was, "Your God has not Forgot you".

It's super easy to worry about where will gas money come from.

How will I buy the fruit and veggies for my food plan.

I then peel another layer away and start to wonder, do family and friends think I'm being lazy for not getting a job.

Do they think I'm trying to mooch off of the kindness of their genorosity?

These are lies that Satan wants to feed me.

Then feed my head with them.

All I know is that...

I don't need to worry.

It's already taken care of in advance.

I just need to let GOD supernaturally take care of it.

Whatever 'it' is at the time.

I know this blog at times is filled with my walk as a widow.

And how challenging the past five years have been.

With snippets of how my walk as Christ daughter as my identity have evolved.

Its the transformation of me from no longer a wife raising a child, but a single woman raising a child with the faith that "Be still and know I am GOD" Hebrews 46:10.

No longer carrying the identity of my corporate america days, but who am I in Christ.

As I absorb the Hebrews scripture, I settle in on it, and I do Think about it.

Think about it alot....

GOD is saying don't do a thing, give it all over to him who is almighty and he will handle it.

He's Soverign.

He's in control.

Not you.

Not I.

I can't keep going on wondering if after all bills are paid, a car payment is made, and my rent and tithing and some food, where will the rest come from?

I need to be still and know GOD will give me what I need, when I need it.

And I just need to let tomorrow take care of itself.

My job for right now, is to keep the faith in the Season that I'm in. 

Hugs!

Viola