http://yvonnemoss.blogspot.com/2009/12/baby-james-has-arrived.html http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZFbNAvQC2IY/SxkYLl9j8dI/AAAAAAAABLk/sy3yf88irjQ/s1600-h/IMG_7691-3.JPG He wasn't due till December but he decided to make an early appearance, arriving November 28th.  We are delighted that he is here.  I think he looks an awful lot like his big brother, Jack! I couldn't be happier about this...

I don't know if I agree with Mr. O'Reilly about people "loath(ing) the Baby Jesus," but I couldn't agree more with the notion that there are many people who love making money a whole lot more. Interesting article; I particularly liked the suggestion about spending less on gifts and giving the savings to worthy causes. http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20091215/us_time/08599194759000

Our church's ladies bible study recently completed a study series Stepping Up from Beth Moore. It was my first experience with her and she is fabulous...such a love for Jesus and so spunky. If you are looking for a study even on your own she won't let you down.

Ok, Ladies its Tuesday and ,as I said, today is the day we can all vent "anonymously" if preferred, and get everything off our minds..without judgement:)I will start the ball rolling:Is it wrong that sometimes I wish I was brave enough to dose my kids with ibuprofin, so they would go to sleep at a reasonable hour without me having to lay down with them?Sometimes, I really miss my life before I was married or had kids, so much so that I fantasize about who I used to be:)LOL OK, Ladies those are my two for today. Please share yours in the comment section. Come one! Come all! Don't be shy, no one will judge you here. No one thinking how you are not up to par or dropped the ball in Mommyland.Just pure support and sisterhood!

Sometimes we get our inspirations right here in The Motherhood! http://labyrinthwellnessllc.blogspot.com/

If this touched you, pass it around.  It's a lesson not to miss. http://yvonnemoss.blogspot.com/2010/02/are-we-too-busy-to-stop-and-hear-music.html http://yvonnemoss.blogspot.com/2010/02/are-we-too-busy-to-stop-and-hear-music.html http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZFbNAvQC2IY/S18v9Bb733I/AAAAAAAABZ0/SQb_aO3zTY8/s1600-h/Screen+shot+2010-01-26+at+1.08.04+PM.png  As mothers, we know that life is made of moments.  Moments we just shouldn't miss like the first time our baby smiles, or walks.   Life in general has moments if we just know how to pay attention.  When we get too busy, these moments will just pass up by. Take a moment to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myq8upzJDJc video.  It is a moment that could teach us all a very valuable lesson.  Sadly, this is a true story.... Below is the account of the 15 or minutes while Joshua Bell played. In Washington , DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007 a man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.4 minutes later: The violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.6 minutes: A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.10 minutes: A 3-or-4-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.45 minutes: The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected $32.He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded. There was no recognition.The violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played some of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the Metro Station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and people's priorities. The questions raised: "In a common place environment, at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?"One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:  If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made.... How many other things are we missing?

"We are what we love. If we love God, in whose image we were created, we discover ourselves in him and we cannot help being happy: we have already achieved something of the fullness of being for which we were destined in our creation. If we love everything else but God, we contradict the image born in our very essence, and we cannot help being unhappy, because we are living a caricature of what we are meant to be."

It seems everything we need to know in life we learn in preschool. My 4 year old has been repeating, "Mommy, to have a good friend, you've got to be a good friend!" No doubt a piece of sage advice bestowed upon her by her wonderful preschool teacher.Anyways, Bella tends to like to share these words of wisdom with Mommy. Normally, I say ,"Yes, sweetie. That is right!" But, this time I actually took the advice to heart and examined some of my own relationships.I've come to the realization that you get out what you put in and if you don't then cut them lose. So many of us go through life making acquaintances that we let pass for friends, but there is definitely a difference, as one of my closest friends told me, " It's like coming home." It's the feeling of being safe and secure to be yourself and be accepted and loved unconditionally. I don't know about you but that's what I want out of a friend. I'm not one for superficial friendships, I don't have the time or energy to play that game at this point in my life.If I call you my friend, I genuinely think of you as my friend, as family. I know that acquaintances have a place and I do have those relationships but I don't call them my friends. I don't want to spend inordinate amounts of time with them or subject my family to them. I don't call them, text them, email them. I'm a Mommy, my time is precious and few, so I decided that I need to put in what I want to get out and if its not there I gotta cut it lose. It's always disappointing though when you put it all in, only to find out the other person is only half way in. It's actually very sad and you feel let down. I don't want to be responsible for doing that to someone, and I don't want to be that kind of an example for my daughters. I learned a lot of life lessons from my daughter and her wise preschool teacher, and those wonderful women in my life who are my friends. We have just recently moved home from spending time in a delightfully beautiful part of the country called Chesterfield, Virginia. I am convinced that it must be the closest thing to heaven on earth; it is gorgeous and the people there are amazing human beings. I don't know how they go there or why, but it works.Its like a vortex for goodness:) I hope I don't embarrass anyone but this has to be said. I don't want to spend my life wasting time and not telling people how important they are to me. When we first arrived, I was new and knew absolutely no one. The people I met there, were by far the most wonderful and genuine women I have ever met. They invited me into their lives, their hearts, their families.They were supportive and amazing. They made me feel like I was at home, even though I was hundreds of miles from where my "family" lived. I have never experienced anything like this before in my life. Who knew you could form true friendships and bonds with other women in such a short amount of time, especially as an adult. We left Virginia without a job but much richer people. I left with a heavy heart, and will miss these women and their amazing spirits . We may be geographically apart but they will always be in my heart.They took me in , extended friendship and sisterhood, when they didn't even know me. It wasn't for any reason other than to be kind to another human, but they will never know how much that kindness meant to me at that time and will always mean to me. I will miss our talks, long walks, saying hi in the hallways, sharing our childrens firsts in life, our laughter,prayers, the cocktails when we needed to decompress, but most of all I will miss their sisterhood. I don't need to mention names, but you all know who you are and you know how you touched my heart. You have taught me that to have a good friend, I need to be a good friend. I just hope I can live my life living up to the standard that you ladies have set. If all Mommies, women , could have that kind of bond that nurtured and supported one another like you did me...the world would be a better place. Thank you, my friends, all of you. I must be doing something right, to have all of you wonderful women as my friends! Just remember, as my 4 year old once told me, "To have a good friend, you've got to be a good friend!"

Hi MOMS ON THE LABYRINTH and all other friends on the Path! Check out this FABULOUS new iPhone app (just 99 cents!) created by Notebook Press. You can "walk" six different labyrinths to the music you select from your iPod library. Here (finally!) is Peace for everyone's Path on-the-go! Love, Robin http://www.notebookpress.com/info_ipause.html

The Spirit of Veriditas, Voices From the Labyrinth Winter 2010 Journal is now online. Peace for your Path, Robin http://www.veriditas.org/newsletters/archive/LJ-Winter2010%20-%20FINAL.pdf

To Life, To Love, To Spring!

I am thrilled to announce that I will begin hosting new episodes of this innovative radio program created by Dr. Lauren Artress beginning on Thursday, May 13, 2010! I hope you will tune in...Peace for your Path! Robin http://labyrinthwellnessllc.blogspot.com/2010/03/listen-to-wisdom-of-labyrinth.html

check out www.dosmallthings.com for creative ideas on how to raise our kids with an awareness and care for others! www.dosmallthings.com

Meet the man who’s re-creating Noah’s Ark Inspired by a dark dream, Dutchman is building massive vessel to biblical proportions By Michael Inbar TODAY.com contributor TODAY.com contributor While Noah will likely always remain the first name in arks, tourists are chomping at the bit to climb aboard “Johan’s Ark,” an ambitious re-creation of the biblical boat that’s attracting gawkers galore along a waterfront shipyard in Dordrecht, a city in the western Netherlands. Dutch builder Johan Huibers is expected to complete work on the massive vessel sometime next month in what has been a staggeringly ambitious project to bring one of the best-known stories of the Bible to life. It’s taken three years of his life and $1.6 million out of his pocket, but Huibers, owner of a successful construction company in Holland, says the project is a dream come true — literally. “I dreamed a part of Holland was flooded,” Huibers, 60, told Janet Shamlian in a report that aired on TODAY Wednesday. “Then, the next day I get the idea to build an ark of Noah.” Biblical proportions That dream occurred 20 years ago, and Huibers has been ark-obsessed ever since. Despite his wife’s misgivings, he built an ark in 2004 that was roughly half the size of the specifications listed in the Bible. He guided the craft through the myriad canals of the Netherlands, and it proved such a hit among tourists, who were charged seven bucks apiece to climb aboard, that it financed Huibers’ true dream — building an ark every bit as big as Noah’s. “Johan’s Ark” clocks in at 450 feet long, true to the Bible’s account of a 300 cubit-long ship (in ancient times, a cubit was the length of a man’s arm from elbow to fingertips, or roughly 18 inches). The ark weighs in at a whopping 2,970 tons, and is constructed of Swedish pine, which Huibers told The New York Times is in keeping with God’s command to Noah that the ark be built of resin wood. As far as God’s command to Noah that the ark be stocked with two of everything in the animal kingdom, Huibers steered a wide berth around animal rights activists and opted for inanimate models instead — and indeed, the ship now boasts faux giraffes, zebras, cows and donkeys by the pair. Read more: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43492787/ns/today-today_people/t/meet-man-whos-re-creating-noahs-ark/