Tuesday, August 30, 2011

What a fly may hear.

A fly on the wall at my house would have heard a conversation like this a few days ago.

Sensible Me: What do you have to do before you go on your trip?

H: I have to take the car for an oil change (we had an appointment for 3PM the next day), buy chlorine tablets for the pool (I had told him to get them on the way home today but he chose not to and I chose not to remind him of the fact), vacuum the pool, pack my clothes, pack and ship the printer and scanner, go to the bank, plus work. I guess I will pack in the morning after I drop you off at work, then I can pack the office equipment and get some work done, then go to the pool...".

Sensible Me: I stopped him there. Too many flaws with the plan already to let him continue down this slippery slope. "Why don't you vacuum the pool now before going in while the sun is going down? It won't be so hot and draining and then you can cross it off your list."

H: "No." Shaking his head offering no reason

Me: "Why not, is that too sensible? To work in the yard while its cooler?"

H: laughing, "Yea, that's sensible, we can't have that. Prohibited with a capital P!"

Sensible Me: laughing but not giving up, "Why don't you pack tonight?"

H: "Can't yet. I may need to buy some things for the trip."

Sensible Me: "Well, then you should at least get all the stuff together after dinner so that if you do need something, you'll know and then you can get it on your way home after you drop me off at work."

H: "Hmm, you think so? Think things are open that early? You think that would work?"

Sensible Me: "I know. It sounds to sensible to be true doesn't it." as I continue to list the stores that are open and en route in the morning. Will they never learn that sometimes, I really know what I'm doing?

H: "Sensible! Can't have that! Absolutely not with a capital A!" He laughs. Thinks he's cute. LOL!


Thursday, August 18, 2011

Sharing

We get together
To celebrate, to laugh,
To eat, to mourn,
To share life's moments.

We get together
To help, to listen,
To give, to receive,
To share life's moments.

Each and any moment can be shared.
So, let's get together, live in the moment,
To share all our life.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Boys and showers

I have so much fun hearing stories of other kids who are younger than mine and the frustration of the parents as they tell you their daily drama in that 'you don't understand' tone because this has only happened to them and no one else before. Then of course the laughter that comes after when you share your exact same story or finish theirs for them because been there, done that!

A perfect example, was hearing about these parents who struggle daily to get their boys to shower. They have to tell them way too many times and sometimes the child comes out with dry hair or even a streak of dirt still across their neck. We all go through this.

I remember my boys bickering at bath time. Always arguing you go first, no you go first. Then magically it flipped to I'm going first, no me first. I honestly don't remember when it it flipped but it did.

Even when I was a kid I remember my brother being reminded to use soap when he showered. One time when my father went to check on him because he was taking too long. The water was running in the shower but my brother was sitting on the floor of the bathroom with his pajamas on playing with his little plastic green army men. My father about hit the roof! He looked ready for bed but all he had done was change his clothes. He hadn't bathed. LOL!

Every age has its stage. Some are better and some are worse. I just know that they are stages and this too shall pass at least until the next stage. ;)

I think the stage mine are in now are the "eat me out of house and home stage". They eat 24/7!

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Defining Gift Giving

Giving gifts. We all know there are so many kinds of gifts to give. You could give a money or go buy an item with your money to give to someone. Then there are the things you do that are gifts. Giving of your time and talent. You can give kind words, a smile, a helping hand of some sort etc etc.

So, here's what I have been pondering lately. If you do it habitually, is it still a gift you are giving? If you make coffee every morning, is that a gift you give albeit daily to those who drink it? Or does a gift have to be something more than what you would normally do? Maybe your normal is a gift for someone else? What you think is simply trite, daily, habitual behavior is in fact a gift for those around you. You simply need to be more aware and mindful of these actions and how they are offerings that you give.

I don't know the answers to these (and so many other) questions but it's what I have been thinking about lately. All because of the book I am reading, 29 Gifts from the website I mentioned the other day.

Friday, August 05, 2011

Cool Quote - a la Congress

"What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary."

Mark Twain

This quote selection is an homage to the (ahem) deal congress stuck this week to avert financial crisis where they have agreed that a "special committee" because they think whittling down the number of people arguing and playing tug of war to 12 will guarantee a smooth process. Yeah, right!

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Write something

In junior high one of my favorite teachers was my English teacher. Every so often she would tell us to take a a sheet of paper and a pen. I know. I know. You're thinking "Ugh, a pop quiz." There were plenty of those but every so often it was an assignment that she told us had no right or wrong. HUH? We didn't get it at first either. She would write a word or phrase on the board and tell us to write anything down. Whatever popped into our heads. Other words, phrases, sentences, a paragraph. Random sentences. Anything. There was no write or wrong. There was no erasing, hence the pen. Even if you misspelled something, just keep going. It was timed. We only had 2 minutes.

The very first word was WATER. I will never forget it. It was one of the longest 2 minutes of my life. The stress. What if I got it wrong? If I didn't write enough? If I rambled to much? How do I start? This blank piece of paper stared back at me. It was horrifying. If I made a mistake I couldn't erase it and start over. There wasn't even time. Oh no! How much time is left. "1 minute", she called out. Panic washed over me. I looked up and stared at her. What in the world did she want me to write? She was looking around the room and said, "Write something, anything. 20 seconds". I wrote my name at the top of the page and then I wrote a list: rain, shower, downpour, wet, drenched. "Time's up. Pens down. Pass up your papers."
I remembered being relieved it was over and panicked at the same time convinced I had failed.

As we left the room for the next class she handed us each our papers back with a smiley face in red ink. Our homework was to bring it back the next day because she was collecting them again. We were stunned. The assignment was the topic of conversation all day. Between classes and at lunch that's all we talked about was how weird, what was the point, how much more we could have written, we all thought of encyclopedic volumes we could write now.

We did these assignments for 2 years. More time was added to the assignment, 5 minutes to write whatever. Eventually, she would write comments on the papers but they were never critical. Our last assignments before graduating 8th grade was the word WATER again. This time I wrote over 2 pages. It wasn't a fully developed essay but good paragraphs some of which actually went together.

She returned them to us stapled to the first water assignment with the same comment on everyone's paper. "Look how far you've come" and the smiley face in red ink across the top of the paper.

I still think of those assignments when I try to think things through. Sometimes I still think in a list like the first assignment and sometimes its full sentences that come together. I find it curious.

Thanks Mrs. W for teaching me to think, think whatever but think.

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

Mindful of Giving

I know yesterday I said this would be more than a place to journal about me but bear with me. Baby steps people.

I also know that in the past I have blogged endlessly about doing things for others and how that makes me feel good. Trite. I know. But seriously, learning, teaching, giving, creating, doing for another I have honestly come to the true realization that those are the things that make me happy, content, and feel satisfied.

So, many times I feel like I didn't do enough. I should be doing more. I recently shared this feeling with a friend and she pointed me to a book she heard about. I ordered the book last night and surfed around the website, 29-Day Giving Challenge.

From what I gather one of its main ideas is to Be Mindful. At least that's what spoke to me as I was looking through it. In that vain I am going to try to reflect daily on how I have given that day so that I can be more mindful of my happy moments and be grateful for them.

Moments yesterday:
I bought coffee for the office because I knew we were low and all need our fix. I held the door open for a man carrying a stack of boxes and offered to help so he could make it down the stairs since the elevator wasn't working. He offered me the bag that was hanging from 2 fingers saying it would help him balance. He was very grateful.
I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought the ingredients to make Rice Crispy Treats for my son and then I made them.
I made a card for a friend who's struggling with health issues and pulled together the supplies to make a few others. I'm mailing the card today.
Hubby had a headache so I offered to massage his head to ease the pressure. Shared a good laugh because nice effort, poor execution didn't help at all as I truly have little strength in my hands.

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

A year later...

It's been over a year since I have posted but I have been thinking about it again lately. Coincidentally I have been running across articles and writing about 'listening to your inner voice' and 'going with the flow' and living the life you were meant to live' and all kinds of esoteric things like that.

The thing is every single time I read those kinds of things my mind wanders to my crafting, cooking, reading and writing. All creative things that I enjoy doing not that I particularly excel at any of it but it invariably brings me joy. Even when I the result ends up in the garbage that momentary frustration is still makes me feel good about me because I tried. I think I need to be creative. Seriously. I have precisely 1 bajillion projects in my head, I have started either literally or on paper approximately a ton of them and accomplished a handful of them. I think I need a little focus.

To that end I think blogging is a good place to start. It will help get the juices flowing again. So, I am jumping back on the band wagon and hopefully this time it will be more than just a journal of me. Maybe some short stories will pop out or an essay. Maybe you will just get a rant who knows. But I am going to dive in head first....tomorrow. Today, I sat on the edge and got my feet wet.