A sigh of relief!

I am up super early on this Saturday morning, not that it's usual for me on the weekend, because I do like sleeping in a little, but I crashed last night around 8pm.

It's been an exhausting week in more ways than one.  The testing is finished, the children enjoyed it, they both say it wasn't very hard and think they did well, so now we await the results which will be out in the summer.

But aside from the rushing back and forth between the testing site, and then rushing home and still having to do lessons, and housework and cleaning etc......there have been other things at play.

We've had the worst wind here lately and it's wreaked havoc on my allergies and dry eyes.  My vision is so poor at the moment, everything is blurry in the distance, my eyes hurt when I blink, they feel so gritty and they're red.   I've been relying on my eye drops for some relief.  Aside from that, Nicholas and I are struck by allergies kicked up by all this wind, and if you suffer from them too you know that it's not a walk in the park.

And if all this wasn't enough, we have had one of the hardest weeks here in America.  This country has been hit so devastatingly hard, that we can't but feel on edge, and heartbroken, and sad and angry.  It's a rollercoaster of emotions.

My heart is heavy.  I feel like our world is just lost, and there seems to be no ending in sight.  You can almost hear the plea of Christians crying out to Jesus for help.

I am not American, but my husband and children are.   But you see, I have lived in this country longer than I've lived in any other country, including Portugal and South Africa, and though I'm Portuguese and grew up in South Africa and love the country.....I am at home here in the USA.  THIS is my home, I love this country, I love it's people and when something happens here it rocks me to the core too, and I feel it just as much.

I will never understand acts of violence on this scale, or any scale for that matter. 

I will never understand pure hatred and evil.

I will never understand disregard for human life.

I will never understand looking someone in the face and knowing that you are going to hurt them or kill them, without feeling any kind of remorse.

And I will never understand turning your back on a country that has taken you in and given you opportunities and benefits that SO many people out there in the world, only dream of having.

It's sickening!

So yes, I'm very glad to put this week behind me, in more ways than one.  I feel exhausted and I feel like I need a day to climb under the covers, hide my head and just sleep it all away.

On the bright side, I can finally come around and visit everyone today, am so looking forward to it :)

Need to make a run to JoAnn's this morning for some white felt for one of Jasmine's birthday presents.  Then I have some gardening to attend to, some sewing to muddle through and tons of Jane Austen books on my Kindle to read.

Should be a quiet, relaxing weekend, just what I need.


WHAT I'M COOKING:

Lunch - Mini Pepperoni Pizzas
Dinner -  Homemade Chicken Egg Rolls, Salad