The World According to Leslie

I remember as a child how much I loved Christmas. I remember loving parades and lights and Santa and gifts and family. I remember as I got older how Christmas became more hectic. It seemed that the wonder I had as a child started to fade. I started to see the hustle and bustle. I started to feel the stress. Now, as I sit here a little more than a week before Christmas, I have only purchased a few gifts (all for the Princess). I stress out because my Christmas village isn't up yet. I hate that part of my lights on my house aren't working. (I am thankful that Tony and my nephew, Dorion, put them out over Thanksgiving weekend for me.) I don't really feel Christmas-y. I feel sad because I can't do all the things I want to do for others and for myself this Christmas. I worry because I know what the Princess wants for Christmas, and I'm afraid she'll be disappointed if it's not under the tree. I wish I really still believed in Santa Claus and that he could...

As you all know, I have a 13 year old daughter. Sometimes, she's a handful. Sometimes she seems to have everything together. Her grades are awesome. She has everything when she needs it, where she needs it. Sometimes, she seems like she would lose her head if it wasn't attached. That has been our house the last couple of weeks. Last week, she forgot her Spanish notebook. Luckily for me, she remembered it (and yelled, "I don't have my Spanish notebook" and scared me to death) as we were pulling in to the school parking lot for drop off. Then there was the lunchbox that we had to turn around to get. She remembered it before we got too far down the street. Yesterday, it was her flashdrive, her pencil bag (one of those zipper bags that holds pens, pencils, markers...everything), and flash cards for Social Studies. So, I came home from dropping her off and rounded up all of her stuff and took it to school before I went to work at the daycare. Today, well, tod...

This is one of those questions that I get asked often. "Do you believe in Karma?" I have been known to say, "Karma stinks, right?" Sometimes I think I believe. Other times, I think it's just consequences of actions. That makes no sense. As I wrote that, I confused myself.  :) Sometimes, I think that there really is Karma. People do things that are mean or horrible, and then something happens to them that is equally as bad. It also works in the reverse. Someone will do something awesome and then they get a "payback" out of nowhere. Other times, people do something horrible and then there are natural consequences from the action(s). Those consequences are sometimes better than any punishment anyone could have given them. Of course, that works in the positive also. Someone will do something and then they will get a reward they never dreamed of because of natural consequences. My parents taught me to believe that God handles the behaviors that ...