Live a Meaningful Life

I have no clue if this is possible or not. I am trying to write this blog while listening to a Ted Talk-A Rich Life with Less Stuff by the Minimalists. We'll see how this turns out. Yesterday afternoon, we shared a good laugh in the Cox house! Our neighbor's son came and visited for a little while.  The three boys were upstairs playing, and Johnny and I were sitting in the chairs downstairs talking.  I thought all was normal and fine.  After a few minutes, our neighbor came to get her son who had come to visit.  She came into the house, stood in the kitchen and talked to her son who had come down the stairs along with our boys. In the meantime, Johnny swiveled his chair around more toward me making a few weird eye moves at me.  "That's a little weird." I thought.  A few minutes pass. The neighbors are gone. The boys are wildly running around the living room.  Johnny is laughing-the belly hurting kind of laughing. "What is wrong? What are you laughing...

First, I just want to say "Wow!" I was completely overwhelmed, humbled, and encouraged from all the responses (public and private) regarding my last post.  I am so grateful that so many of you took the time to read something I wrote-it is indeed humbling. I can't begin to tell you how thankful I am for the calls, texts, private messages, emails, and social media comments that were sent my way.  I want to put them all in one place to look back over in the future. I still hope that by openly sharing my struggle and pain that others will continue to be encouraged. So what about today?  I guess it all began last night. Johnny attended a training at work recently and received a book.  He has read it and was telling me about some of the principles, etc.  It is about preparing for the ACT/SAT.  He tossed me the book and told me it wouldn't take me long to read it. So, I started reading.  I read half of it last night and finished it up before John woke up th...

I looked out the paned door as I was humming the song, Yearn, that played in the background. I thanked God for my aunt and that she is able to celebrate her birthday today. I saw the trees' images reflecting all along the bank of our pond.  The green grass was shimmering from the dew and the bright light of the sun was peeking over the horizon. I was flooded with memories...a little girl staring at pictures of her (my aunt) on the shelf, visits in Jackson, TN, a little silver stick-shift car, a foster mom, a changed a heart, a giver...a ragged pillow with Annie on it. And it was there I was reminded... I knew this little girl once. She was full of life and energy. Innocent. Her only concerns were dolls, school, and whatever the moment brought.  She was confident. Her parents, though divorced, were both supportive and encouraged her to be herself, work hard, and love others. She was carefree-just living life. However, all that seemed to change one day.  She fell aslee...

Guess what? We survived the budget this month and had enough money left over (along with a surprise gift) to go on a trip for the extended weekend!! Whoo hoo!  Oh--and I can't WAIT to buy groceries this month!  We only bought fruit, milk, bread, and ice cream last month!  We ate what was in our pantry the rest of the time... We hit the road around 4:30 or so Friday evening.  Our destination: our favorite campground--Thunder Rock.  We planned to paddle the Hiwassee and Nantahala rivers as a family and Johnny would paddle the Ocoee.  This was the first picture I snapped.  About an hour into the ride, our boys were laughing and playing with each other so well (this doesn't always happen).  I was in one of those blissful mom trances in which I looked at my children and just swelled with positive thoughts about them.  I wanted to capture the moment so I would never forget! And just so you moms that are reading are aware-it wasn't long before ...