LATE IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

If you're familiar with the title of this post then you know the song from which these lyrics come and it's stuck in your head right now. 

Your're Welcome.

This song is so uplifting to me. I often find myself singing it when I need to encourage myself. Speaking of midnight hours, I've been on the phone with a friend for the past three hours and I swear I'm not even tired. In fact I'm hyped. So much so that after I post this I'm going to the elf website to look at their new products and to qvc.com to look at the Dooney bags I'm currently craving. 

Anyway, our conversations were so that I felt the need to put some of it in writing to share with whomever wonders upon this site. We discussed a plethora of topics. Mostly, however, she's having relationship issues and I'm having every other kind. I told her to focus on herself and be less unavailable. She reminded me to have faith and to faint not.  

All good advice; all very hard to do. Often we don't want to do the hard things. Usually because doing the hard things are really hard to do. We are human. We want ease, comfort; instant gratification. When these things don't happen we get discouraged, stressed, hurt, and we give up or give in. But God. He says His grace if sufficient. We must believe that because we will fall short. 

My friend, talking about a romantic relationship, told me that when she got up the other morning to attend an event concerning her romantic relationship, a thought popped in her head: fish bowl; "you are like a fish in a fish bowl", the thought said to her. "You are being feed, every few days/weeks, by romantic relationship, and you just stay there and eat and wait to be feed again." "You are living in that fish bowl and accepting that processed food he is feeding you when your Father owns the ocean".
This was so profound to me. You are accepting little when you are the heir to great.

I am accepting little from myself. I am looking at the smaller picture because my comfort is being threatened and I am afraid. But I am the heir of great things. Why am I accepting little?  Well, because I am still doubtful at times and still have not fully realized that even when my faith is not sufficient God's grace still is and everything will work out for His glory. 
Late in the midnight hour, God turned it around. 

MORNINGS

....I think I hate them. I mean, I want to like them but I just can't seem to get it together. I would love to get up early, have a soothing cup of hot tea, read my Bible, meditate, and do all the other things that supposedly lead to a more productive day, but my mornings never seem to work out like that. 

Here's how they typically go down:

4:30: Alarm Sounds
4:30: Hit Snooze
4:40: Alarm Sounds Again
4:40: Completely Shut Off Alarm
         
5:40: Jump out of bed
         Rush to the bathroom

5:42: Scream for everybody to "get up!!"; Twice

5:50: Husband gets in shower

5:55: Wake up my baby (okay, he's 7. What's your point?) with kisses and sweet talk

6:00: Fuss at my husband for staying in the bathroom too long

6:15: Hug my baby all the way to the bathroom so he can brush his teeth and wash his face

6:20: Wake up my daughter (15) with another scream
         (she screams back that she "has an alarm" (I don't hug her all the way to the    bathroom))

6:25: Iron my baby's clothes. My teen thinks ironing is "like, tots lame"
6:30: Kiss the hubby goodbye and stop him from squeezing my butt right before my baby walks in
6:40: Get baby clothed and get his book bag and snack together
6:45: Fight with baby about wearing his "stupid big coat" because its 30 degrees outside
6:50: Pretend to cry because "I'm going to go to jail for sending him to school without a coat"

6:52: Help him put his coat on and be completely shocked that he's still falling for this trick*

6:55: Kiss, hug and tell my baby I love him at least 10 times as he gets on the bus

7:00: See if my daughter wants me to iron something for her (of course she doesn't)

7:02: Go back and forth with daughter about clothes, hair, ironing, outerwear, etc.

7:05 Surf the net/watch tv until daughter gets on the bus

I know, I know. I could get my ironing done the night before and go to bed earlier. But, in my defense, night time is the only real TV my kids definitely should not be watching (House of Lies, Girls, anyone?) time I have. Plus, even when I do get to bed early and prep the night before, I still have a hard time getting up.

Any suggestions on getting up earlier and getting the morning started in a calmer, less rushed manner?


*Hubby says my baby doesn't actually believe I'll go to jail but because he's such a momma's boy**he can't fathom the thought of anything, real or pretend, making momma cry. I personally don't see the problem with this.

**I can tell you for a fact, if he's a momma's boy he definitely inherited the gene and since I'm not a boy, I'll just let you guess who he got it from.

HONESTY

While I have been experiencing internet connection problems, they haven't been the sole reason for my lack of posts in almost a month. The truth is I've been going through some thangs. For one, the job I told you about here, well it has ended and now I'm faced with unemployment yet again. I had an interview at the end of January that seemed very promising but I haven't heard back. It's probably safe to assume I didn't get the job. So, the hunt continues. The whole thing is taking a toll on me and my ego and confidence are really taking a beating. Although I'm trying to keep the faith and stay positive, I must admit, it's getting harder to do each day.

Another reason I haven't been posting is that I've been busy planning for and hosting parties: Pity Parties that is. Lately, I've been having plenty of 'em and they've taken up a great deal of my time and energy. Bed lying, TV watching, binge eating, and spontaneous bursts of ugly crying can really take a lot out of a girl. Before I knew it, 8:30 am quickly turned into 3:00 pm and I'm up waiting on my baby to get off the bus and getting started on dinner. The time I could have spent being a productive blogger, among many other things, was lost and I just went with that.

Also, since I'm being honest, I must mention that lately I've been a little intimidated by many of the blogs I've been reading. It seems so many bloggers are posting either new items, high end designers, and/ or DIYs on a regular basis. Their posts are filled with large hauls, swatches of all the new and latest in cosmetics, room redesigns, etc. I, on the other hand, haven't really done any real shopping in a while, I don't own any high-end designer items, and my DIYing is minimal. Needless to say, I've been feeling a little like I don't have anything worth contributing to the blogosphere.

So, there you have it: the real reasons I haven't posted anything lately.

Now that that's over, stay tuned and/or tune in, I think I've got my mojo working again.

HUMP DAY QUICKIE





O TASTE AND SEE THAT THE LORD IS GOOD

Psalms 34:8

 



SORRY

I'm so sorry I haven't posted in a while. I would love to say I've been on a vacation, but that's just not the case. I have been working and my internets have been hating me. I had posts set up to publish that never did and then I couldn't get my laptop to connect to my network. I'm getting it looked at but in the mean time I'm at the library down the street doing this post. I don't like this because I'm cold and need to go to the bathroom really bad but hate using public facilities. So, I'm packing up to go home. Hopefully, I will have something new posted soon. Also, if any of you can give me some advice on scheduling posts to automatically publish in Blogger, please do so in the comments below. I really cannot get mine to work.

Thanks for understanding.

NOTICE ANYTHING DIFFERENT?

Hey Ladies, (all two of you) I've decided to make some changes around here. Okay, okay, only one change, but a change nonetheless. First, some background: a few weeks ago I did a Google search for "Life and Lipstick" just to see how my blog would look to others when they pulled it up. Well, this is what I got:

 

 

and guess what?

 

 

None of them were mine, well at least not for the first three to four pages. I stopped looking after that. I didn't need to see anymore to know I needed to change the name of my blog. Though this blog is not much different from many other lifestyle blogs out there, I do want to be able to distinguish it from the masses. There is no better way to do this than with branding and the start of any good brand begins with its name. To that end, I've decided to go back to the name I originally loved in the very first blog I stared in 2011. Remember, I mentioned it here.

 

So, without further ado, allow me to reintroduce myself:

 

INVENTING IRIS

 

The mission is the same, only the name has changed.

 

Stick around.   



SUNDAY SWAG

Oh how I've missed you guys. I feel like I haven't been here in a month of Sundays. But I'm back. I been working y'all; a lot. For the past week I've been working till 7 almost every day. One of the attorneys I work for has been inundated with filing deadlines for the past week, but because she's always late getting started and has never met a brief she can't revise, we (the paralegals) have to suffer the consequences. On the bright side, more hours/more money for me. On the not so bright side, when I do finally make it home I'm usually exhausted and feeling a little guilty cause I haven't seen my babies all day. So, instead of getting on the laptop I spend time with my family; and I don't feel guilty about that at all. 

Good night.