Saturdays Are For Nothing in Particular

Well. That's not entirely true. Usually Saturdays are pretty busy and I love that, but this Saturday my hot husband is at a men's discipleship meeting in another city, with the car, which means this Saturday is for nothing in particular. My day is off to a great start. I'm not being facetious or sarcastic. I've been up for two hours and I've done exactly what I wanted to do. 

1. Slept in until 8am. May not seem like sleeping in to some, but during the week I'm almost always up at o'dark thirty, so 8am means the morning is practically over! 

2. Ate a singularly unhealthy breakfast. Yes, Brittney. I do remember our convo yesterday. Meh.

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3. Surfed. 

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4. Pinned some stuff.

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5. Drank some coffee. Why, yes, I am addicted. Again. Thanks for asking. 

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6. Contemplated going for a run. See number 2 above. I love my KSO's, by the way. And Vibram has not asked for my endorsement, they have no idea who I am, and they don't care, but I will never run in anything other than my five fingers again. Unless it's my bare feet, but hello? I can't afford a pedicure every time I run and tear up my feet because they are bare. This warrants a whole post at some point, but not now. It's a nothing-in-particular-day, remember? Anyway, I love running. Just not sure if I love it right this minute. I'll contemplate it a bit more and get back to you on that. 

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All in all, I'd say it's been a very productive Saturday morning. 

What are you doing today? 

Part Two. You Didn't Even Know There Was a Part One!

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Part 2 to my last post is this (and not nearly so lengthy): Much as I would love to be involved in the travel industry, I don't think it's the right option for me. I've sort of come to a balance in my mind over all this and I think for now I need to concentrate some things coming up on my plate this fall (weddings of two of my kids and a minor surgery that I need but is not yet scheduled, among other loose ends).

I would like to also focus some time on getting my Spanish back up and running, and progress. I've worked out sort of a schedule for myself to loosely follow for my weekdays that involves prayer, exercise, study, and some work on various projects I have going on related to the weddings and also some other stuff I've been putting off. One of these projects may or may not involve categorizing and filing ten years worth of digital pictures. Ahem. Organization is actually one of my strong suits.

Apparently so is procrastination.

January will see me jetting to a tropical paradise for another wedding. I know. It's a real sacrifice.

My plan is this, for those who are interested (and for those who are not, feel free to click the "x" ;-) ): Have the surgery whenever it gets scheduled, spend the summer working diligently on my fitness level and nutrition and also enjoying my patio with friends and family from near and far. By the way, I recently finished my patio with some seating, flowers, lighting for the evening, and generally making it summer-y and nice (no, that picture isn't from my patio. It's my inspiration, though!). Weddings will come up in the fall, then Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, trip to Fiji, and then...we'll see. I'll be structuring my days a little more closely and stepping up my involvement with outreach and all that is involved with that at my church. I might look into taking some classes in nutrition with an eye to move in that direction professionally in the Spring semester of 2013, but that's up in the air.

All in all I will be taking the advice of a good friend:


 ".... just begin to praise God for what He is about to do your life. Something is definitely brewing deep inside and soon all will unfold."


Sounds like a good solid plan of action to me! No more stressing about squandering time. Time and life are gifts, and stressing out about not appreciating what God has given me isn't doing me or anyone else any good!

In Which I Think Again About Wearing Hats.

I can't call myself a blogger if I don't actually, you know, blog.

So I'm not wearing my blogger hat much these days.

I'm not really wearing any hats these days.

Ok. So I'm a wife. I'm a mom. I'm a lot of things, but I'm experiencing a strange mentality lately. My kids are all off on their own, and I'm absolutely loving the empty nest thing because the kids are all happy and successful and getting on with their own lives...and we see them and talk to them all the time and still have a very close relationship. My husband and I have a great marriage and we love being together. He works from home so we are almost always together which is awesome and I love it. But even so, I am finding myself with lots of large blocks of time on my hands.

I've been trying to find some kind of productive way to fill that time. I dabbled in several jobs over the last couple of years, and nothing has challenged me or been something I felt was what I wanted to do long term. Either I was totally unchallenged (retail), and thus, bored, or the field was something that just wan't up my alley (banking. Challenging, but hello? I'm not really into explaining for the zillionth time that if you spend more money than is actually in your account, you will be overdrawn and it's not the bank's fault. It's yours. Again).

 I still cook and clean and take care of the house just like I've always done, but with only two of us at home now (three if I include my aged but still undemanding and low-maintenance cat), I'm not exactly a busy person. I am feeling super duper unproductive and I'm finding it easy to be lazy. I sew. I grow flowers and stuff in pots on the patio. I refinished some furniture for my guest room and I'm getting ready to do a table to go outside on my patio.

Shall we talk about that challenge thing again?

I'm also super involved with my church in the area of outreach and I do the book work and keep the financial records accurate and up to date. (The record keeping takes me a total of about two hours a month. Not exactly demanding.)  I work out at least three days a week. I write regular letters and emails to a few people I know who are in situations that are...well, let's just say they are less than ideal...as a means to encourage them and let them now there's someone out there who cares about them and prays for them. These are all good things, but I still have huge chunks of time on my hands.

Which led me to this. And then this. I wrote those posts more in jest than anything else, but there was a seed of truth, a seed of longing, in the back of my mind when I pushed "publish." Feel free to click the links now and then hit your back button to come back and finish reading this post.

So. Here's the deal. I believe that we are created with the need and the drive to be productive. We are created in the image of God and He has placed within us the same drive that is within Himself...the drive to succeed and excel and produce and contribute. It goes against our hard wiring as human beings to be unproductive and lazy. We were never created to be couch potatoes. At the moment, I feel like a non-contributing-zero and I hate that. No self pity here. Really. I've moved past that. (I had a long weekend visit with a good friend a few years ago when I had a good cry over this and pretty much dealt with the self pity aspect of it then. Hi Carolina!! I'm still thanking you for that!) I'm just looking at the reality that I'm stuck in a rut and it's (way past!) time to get out of that rut and do something with my life. I'm not even fifty yet! I have only lived half my life. Ok. Maybe a bit more than half, but still! I'm reasonably physically fit and I think the same way I did at 25. I can reasonably expect a lot more years of potential productivity, unless I come to an early and untimely end. Or the rapture happens, but I'm not going to sit around and do nothing since I have no idea what the future holds. I prefer to be proactive and enjoy life!

So all this is to say that I am on the lookout for...I don't know what. I'm am very blessed and fortunate in that I have the luxury of not having to earn money to support myself. I am grateful for that every single day. I have the luxury to do pretty much whatever I want. The fact that not many people have the luxury is not lost on me. It's rare and priceless and a gift from God.

All that is to say this:  I'm squandering this gift that has been given to me.

So is it finally time to find a job that is something that will allow me to be part of the community and interact with other people while challenging myself and learning new things? Is it selfish to want to do that in an area I enjoy? Or how about volunteer work?

Travel has always thrilled me. I love other cultures, people, and the very act of traveling is, though exhausting when dealing with long haul flights and time zones, fascinating. I experience a thrill that I can't explain at airports. Maybe I'm weird, but it is what it is! I love airplanes! They hold an unreasonable thrill for me. And I've met some very interesting people waiting at gates to board planes.

There is an airline with openings for ground crew (ticketing and etc) based in my city. I'm strongly considering applying. It's a part time position. It would get me out of the house, off my butt, and into the community. Granted, not into the air, and I'd still like to be a flight attendant, but I'm not willing to relocate and that is usually a requirement for the job. But ground crew? I can do that.

Or maybe there is something else I can do in the travel industry. I've toyed with teaching, photography, and admin, among other things, but nothing thrills me like the travel industry.

So the big question is this? Now what?

Also...and I'll toss this into the mix...I love to write. L.O.V.E. to write. So what's out there in the way of combining travel and writing? Or travel and photography and writing? And are there opportunities for "women of a certain age?" I'm probably being very naive. I don't know of anybody who will hire a middle aged woman with no experience or education to speak of and only amateur photography skills as a travel writer right off the bat. I mean, I have life experience, but so does everyone else. So where to start?

Time for prayer because above all else, I want to remain within God's will and purpose for me life. I do feel it's a new season for me; a God-given one. I'm looking down the barrel of fifty in a couple of years and this seems to be a time of Jubilee, of freedom, of celebration in my life. It has been for a while, but I've been faffing around. The window of opportunity is still open though, and I intend to go through it before it closes. Just not sure how!

Please comment and leave your thoughts, or email me! I'm wide open for feedback, whether I know you in "real life" or not!

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In Which I Think About Putting A Wild Hare on a Plane and Flying Somewhere, Part 2

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So...where was I? You can read Part 1 of this post here. Either click on the link or just scroll down. The post is right below this one.

Oh yes. I was toying with the idea of jetting off into the  clouds on a DC-10. Or maybe a 737 Airbus. (Have you seen of those babies close up? We are talking about a very large airplane.)

Okay.

 So...

Am I going to look into it?

No, if I follow my usual pattern.

But...do I want to live the rest of my life following my usual pattern? I think not. My usual pattern tends to keep me where it's safe and familiar. There's comfort in that, but I'm not sure I want to stay "safe and familiar" for the rest of my life. Call it a female mid-life crisis. Call it what you want, but in remaining "safe and familiar" there's no achievement, nothing to be proud of, no long term fulfillment, and very little need to grow and change and become a better, bigger, more productive person.

I quit a job a while back because, among other reasons, I felt like I was never home. (I've kicked myself over and over since, but hindsight is 20/20 and I learned a lot from that mistake. I should have stuck with the job for a while longer...but, well, it is what it is.)  I understand that my first responsibility is to my home and husband. He is, however, perfectly capable of preparing his own meals on occasion and even knows how to use the washing machine if he has to. He can take out the trash and he knows how to iron. He can even feed the cat and prune the roses! And he doesn't mind doing those things if I'm busy or not around for some reason.

My kids will find that hard to believe...the part about him not minding, but he honestly doesn't. Don't get me wrong...I'm very aware of priorities and what my role is and is not, and I happily do all those things for him. If I didn't I'd probably hang out on Pinterest all day or something. It's not like I have regular commitments that need to be met, but he does. He works full time. He's at home, granted, but he's still working. The man writes three amazing sermons a week that take 10-12 hours of study each. He also runs a weekly men's discipleship class, and takes care of countless other church related things, offers pastoral counsel to people in person and over the phone, not to mention maintaining the house in good repair, taking care of the car and making sure all the bills are paid on time. He also works out twice a day (we both do) to stay healthy. He's a very busy man so the least I can do if I'm not working is take care of all the home stuff so he doesn't have to think about it. What else am I going to do with my time anyway? Blog?

...ahem.

But...roles change in life as circumstances change. Our lives are in a new season (hello empty nest!). I can stay in my old patterns of thinking and living, or I can step out in faith and pursue new or renewed interests.

Most flight attendants work 75-80 hours a month. That's right. A month. That's the equivalent of two weeks out of four. Less time than I was working before, but for days at at time, which would feel, again, like I was never home. Sometimes they have to crash for a few hours of sleep in between flights wherever they can find a place to lay their heads. Without seniority the schedules usually pretty much suck. And, really, is this realistic for me? If you know me, you know how much I like my sleep...in my own bed...with my own fluffy duvet! But all that aside, am I just entertaining pointless ideas or is this a dream that doesn't yet have feet? Sometimes I get tired of having big ideas and then giving them up for what's "practical." It's that old mode of thinking thing.

A few things I know for sure: I need to pray. I'm feeling a bit restless and I think working outside my home in some capacity would be good. I need to find the right job, and the right balance, and the mind of God! But regardless of what I do on the outward, the main thing is learning to break out of my usual pattern of thinking. Those old ways aren't wrong, per say, but they are no longer current or relevant to my life. Time to grow, to change, to learn, to find out how I can be a productive and contributing member of my family, my marriage, my church, and my community in this new season of life. Time to not be a "non-contributing zero." (Click the link. It's a four minute video. Hilarious.)

Time to pray.

In Which I Think About Putting A Wild Hare on a Plane and Flying Somewhere, Part 1

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When I was little I desperately wanted to be a flight attendant.

After I graduated from high school but before I became a Christian I thought about it again and decided against it. I would have (very much!) liked to do it but I didn't have the confidence. I felt at the time that the process was bigger and scarier and more intimidating than trying out for cheer leading had been when I was a freshman. That whole experience was awful. The comparison, the peer pressure, the cattiness of the girls, the feeling that I didn't measure up and never would and the fact that I wasn't "popular," and therefore someone to be looked down on, was too much for me as a freshman at age 14. It actually affected me deeply for a long time. I shouldn't have let it do so, but what can I say? Fourteen is a pretty impressionable and important age. My high school years where fraught with insecurity and my motto was "I'm in search of myself. Have you seen me anywhere?"

After graduation I felt like applying as a flight attendant would bring up all those old feelings of inadequacy.

So I didn't go there.

I went to California instead and lived in a near constant state of inebriation on Malibu beach and squandered my parents' very generous investment in my education.

Yeah, I really had it goin' on.

But that's another story for another time. Or maybe it's all better to stay forgotten!

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Fast forward to a couple of years ago when I was thinking about going (back) to work. The thought of applying to airlines crossed my mind and I started to look into it but things took a different turn, one reason being that my son was still living at home and I felt a need to be home more than be flying the friendly skies regularly. So I went to work as a bank teller. That was a mistake, but that's also another story for another time. (I'm just full of stories!) I thought of the flight attendant thing as a wild hare anyway.

Fast forward to a few days ago. One of my neighbors came over with a gift for me. (So nice!) She picked up a calendar with beautiful pictures of Hawaiian flowers the last time she was in Honolulu. She is a flight attendant for United Airlines and flies the SFO-Hawaii route regularly. I didn't know that until she brought the calendar over. I had noticed she was out of town for a couple of days every two weeks or so, but I had no idea she was doing the exact job I had dreamed about as a child and again as a teenager.

We ended up spending all day with her getting to know each other. It was totally spontaneous and a lot of fun. When she brought the calendar over she asked about our church and what we believe and the three of us (my hubby, she, and I) hung out on our doorstep talking for about half an hour. I invited her in but she wanted to stay within sight of her own front door because she was expecting some sort of appliance repair man. We ended up going over to her place so we could all sit down and be more comfortable and she wouldn't miss the repair guy. We stayed for three hours drinking coffee and just chatting and talking. She is very interested in our church and we talked a lot about that but we also talked about everything under the sun.

I mentioned that if I ever went to work seriously, on a permanent basis, I thought being a flight attendant would be fantastic. I'd rather do something interesting other than little retail jobs or house cleaning or something--not that I'm knocking those things. They all have their place, and I've done them all. (I am thinking of starting a house cleaning business again...I could set my own hours!)

This lady worked on the ground for United Airlines for years and then started flying. I mentioned that at 48 years old, I think I'm too old to be hired to fly but she said, no way. She said she herself started flying in her 40's (and has been doing for at least 20 years) but I pointed out that she had already been working for the same airline, just in a different capacity, for over a decade. She said the airlines prefer these days to hire older people, even in their 50's, instead of younger. Lots of reasons, none of which are important here. She strongly encouraged me to look into it, and even mentioned a specific airline that would be good to work for, should I decide to apply.

I get these ideas in my head and then I realize they are a total wild hare and I go back into my well traveled mode of thinking and settle down. My well traveled mode of thinking it what is "comfortable" to the people who know me well. They know I get these wild ideas and half way entertain them for a minute but then they go by the wayside. (The ideas go by the wayside, not the people who know me!)

Here's the thing, though. When my neighbor was encouraging me my husband said...

get this...

"Hey! Well, there ya' go!"

Let me translate: "That's not actually a bad idea. Are you going to look into it?"

Whaaaat?

...blink...

...blink...

...blank...   (not a typo. I was seriously totally blank in my mind, aghast at his response)

 Did he just say that?

So there's the question: Am I going to look into it?

This post is getting too long, so check back tomorrow to find out if I'm looking into becoming a flight attendant or if it's just another wild hare of mine that will go away and then I'll calm down.

Note to my family and friends: No need to panic. No need to call your father (Brittney, I'm talking to you) to find out if I've lost my mind. It will all come clear tomorrow.

The other morning....

(Click here for the giveaway!)

....when I went out early this was the view across the parking lot where we live:

Normally it looks like this:

At least it didn't look like this! 

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Fog covering the Bay with only the tip of the tower of the Golden Gate Bridge visible.

The fog is beautiful and all, and I absolutely love living here in Nor-cal and wouldn't change a thing, but really, I'm a desert rat at my root level. I guess you can take the girl out of the Arizona-Sonoran desert but you can take the Sonoran desert out of her. 

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Sunrise at Saguaro National Park near Tucson.

In Which We Had a Minor Flood, I Go For A Run, and I Am Not A Horticulturist.

Go here for the giveaway! 

So we've had a lot of rain. A lot. In one night. Not even the whole night. On Friday evening the skies opened and dumped more rain in two hours than we had all year last year it seems. Enough to flood the entire foyer of our church. Actually, the flood could have been avoided if the storm drains on the street outside hadn't been made "environmentally friendly." Apparently the city installed filters in the drains and the filters are lame and caused the drains overflow. I was under the impression that drains are supposed to, you know, actually drain. But no. I was obviously misinformed. Fortunately we didn't really have any damage, though the carpet is still soaked. This happened on Friday night and now it's Thursday. But whatever. We (the operative "we..." I actually mean the guys) cleaned the black street dirt out of everything (glad it wasn't sewage...ewwwww!) and used a shop vac to extract as much water as possible.

Meh...it's life.  It will dry eventually.

My point in telling you that is to show you this: 

The rain has turned stuff green! 

The ice plants that cover the edges of the lagoon behind my house have suddenly gone from their sickly winter look to plump, green, full of water, and blooming. 

Another view of the ice plants...I threw in some kind of water birds in the background for your viewing pleasure.

The bottle brush are also putting out blossoms. As are the dandelions....

This purple stuff (yes, that is the scientific term: Purple Stuff.) is just starting to bloom. There will be lots more purple in a few weeks. So pretty.

Even this jade is blooming. I've seen jade bloom, but not like this! 

The crowing glory, though, is this (out of focus) tree. I have no idea what it is, being that I'm such an accomplished horticulturist and all. It had nothing, and I mean nothing on it just a few days ago. 

And last, but certainly not least, is a collection, though it may be hard to see, of  naturally occurring "unwanted silk flowers that still have their labels thrown over the side of someone's balcony and left to languish in the weeds at the water's edge." A common sighting around these parts. It's nicer when they are attached to a park bench. 

All these are pictures I took with my phone on my jog yesterday. 

Just to round things out here are a few more shots: 

Not sure if you can tell from the picture, but the sky was brilliantly blue. 

Kayaks parking for residents along the dock.

Someone's cat enjoying the beautiful weather. I may or may not have offered to scratch his ears and I may or may not have spent too long hanging out with him. 

And lest you think things are too idyllic on my jogging route, I cross under the freeway which is a bit unnerving when the trucks rumble across. The whole things shakes. I guess it's that earthquake-proof thing going on. 

And this, people, is a picture of my lily white legs after my run. The angle shows my calf all splayed out and looking huge. They may or may not be that size in reality. Let's pretend they're not, shall we? Let's pretend they are muscular and toned and tan, hmmm? 

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I was up to yesterday.

Among other things. 

Miracles, Drawing Near, and Purpose

A year of miracles, a year of drawing near to Christ. This is sort of the theme in our church this year, and I have added to that for my own personal life, that this year is a year of purpose. As in "to purpose to do something." Or "living with purpose." For so long I've wandered in and out of this interest and that hobby, and I find myself wandering in a wasteland of unfinished projects. Not only physical projects like quilts or stitchery or half finished garments stashed behind the sewing machine, but also...how to describe it? Intangible projects; specifically the regaining of my health and healthy body shape and size. Not that my health is bad. In fact, it's very good, but it won't continue that way if I don't get busy.

With all this in mind I have set some goals for this year. Not resolutions, but goals.

 There is a difference, by the way. :-)

My goals include, aside from trusting God for His miracle power to work in and through my life, and drawing near(er) to Him ("...draw near to God and He will draw near to you..." James 4:8), to finish everything I start this year. For this reason, I have been reticent to resurrect the ole' blog here. If I'm going to do it, I need keep up with it. I know it's not a huge deal, but this issue of finishing what I start and being consistent is important to me and I intend to be mindful and live with purpose in every single area of my life. I am purposing to do this. I'm really not sure about the grammar in all of this, but I think I'm getting my point across effectively!

Anyhoo.

I'm going to give the blog some direction. I've never had much direction with it; it's mostly been an avenue of creative outlet for me, and it will continue to be so, but I intend to add a purpose to it this year. I will be posting pictures of our lives, if not on a daily basis then at least regularly, as one (of many!) ways to keep a connection with our daughter, as she lives in another state. As an aside, I thought about taking part in one of these "post a photo a day every day all year" things but I don't want to commit to something I may not follow through with...see above!

So without further ado, I give you a picture of what I am doing every week day at 6am.

Notice the bookmark...a gift from a dear friend. So pretty, and it folds over and has a small flat magnet on each side. 

I get up at o'dark thirty and spend time in prayer and the word of God. I hate getting up, and I do mean hate, but once I'm up (and get caffeinated!) it's my very favorite time of the day. There's something very peaceful and satisfying about the very early morning just before the sun comes up.  The day is filled with potential and possibility and I love that! The virtuous woman in Proverbs 31, the ultimate example of a godly woman, "riseth also while it is yet night..." Throughout scripture we are exhorted to rise early. Maybe I'll do a post about specifically about that. Not now, though, this post is too long as it is!

Thankful today for home made caramel latte. The perfect cozy pick-me-up on a chilly grey afternoon.

I'm nesting around here today. We emptied an old bookcase that was an eyesore and consolidated all my husband's books into one area, then carried the bookcase out to the garage to await advertising on Craigslist. I fixed a wall hanging that had been broken but jerry-rigged together on the wall since we moved, and I'm working on getting my guest room/craft room/office/whatever in shape to receive company over the holidays. I'm painting the furniture in that room so it all matches (we all know how important it is for the furniture to match...sheesh!), hitting up Freecycle, Craigslist, and Goodwill for a black floor lamp and/or something black that can be used for a sewing table/desk. I'm thinking about using filing cabinets with a hollow core door across them, all painted black, if I can't find anything else, but I'd like to avoid the amount of work that will take if possible. I'm kind of done with black paint for now. It makes such a huge mess! I've repainted a lot of furniture in my time, and it all turns out well, but I make a huge hot mess in the process every time. This time I discovered that the paint soaked through my drop cloth into the carpet in a couple of places...yikes! Luckily I caught it when the paint was still wet and was able to scrub it out with a washcloth. I paint barefooted because I step in it all the time, but I have to remember to wipe my feet before I walk on the carpet. Don't ask. I tell myself that projects like this always look worse before they look better, right?

I took a nice picture of my latte on the mantel with twinkly orange lights and dried leaves (very seasonal, eh?) and emailed it to myself so I could post it here. It's not showing up in my inbox. So...I uploaded it to my Picasa account. Not there. Either Verizon has a problem or it's a user error. That would be ummm....me. Haha! My Verizon service isn't that great these days, but the problem right now is probably the latter. My latte actually looks pretty much like the picture anyway, except for the twinkly lights.


image credit 

Some More Random Notes for Your Reading Pleasure

A few more notes before the "big one." I am working on a long post to detail some stuff that's been going on, but it's not ready for posting. So...in the meantime...some more notes. I know you are thrilled, and thank for bearing with me and my sporadic/non-existent posting schedule.
 
*I won the book I wanted! It was sort of the grand prize of the drawing (see my last post) and I won it! Yay!!!  Here is the image from The Jolly Jabber, the site that held the drawing.

I was after either the book or the pattern for the quilt shown on the right. So...I scored! Yay! And thank you to the Fat Quarter Shop!

*I have sunk (sunken? sunked? whatever) into a habit of sleeping all morning. I get up daily at 5.30 but I usually hit the sack again at 7.30 or so for about three hours. I need to be up at 5.30, so getting up later isn't an option, but seriously? Do I really need to waste the whole morning? What the heck??? I can't seem to get out of the cycle. I'm not over-caffeinated at night, but I'm not sleeping well. I'm one of those people who need eight hours, but I think I've got my circadian rhythm out of synch. Or something.  Maybe one of those alarm clocks that slowly brighten the room to simulate daylight is in order. I didn't seem to have this much trouble in the summer when the sun was blasting in the bedroom windows early in the morning. Maybe it's just that I don't want to drag my butt out of bed when it's still pitch black outside. I mean, who does? But seriously. Gotta get my act together.

*I've been doing some long power walks lately for the cardio. Four and five miles. Want to work it into a jog. Feel great about that! Getting my act together on that front!

 *Counting down now until my daughter's wedding. The whole thing still has an unreal, twilight zone (who else besides me is old enough--ok, so it was reruns when I was watching-to remember that?) quality to it. I can't really believe it's happening! Maybe I feel that way because she lives out of state and the wedding is taking place there. The preparation and anticipation levels are mostly amongst her friends there so it's not so intense for me here. Anyway, I'm making my dress, the wedding is in less than three weeks, and I haven't started it yet so methinks I'd better get cracking.

But for now...bedtime. 5.30 comes early.

A Few Things of Note

 *Blogger has this new thing called Dynamic Views. I want to check it out and see if I like it.

*It's hot here. Still. Bleah. We had a few days of rain and that was nice for a change, but now we're back to hot. I shouldn't complain because when I lived in England I loooooonged for this kind of weather. Daily. Every single day of the year. I'm a desert rat at heart. But still. It's hot and I'm tired of sweating all. the. time.

*I'm thinking about starting a house cleaning business. Nothing crazy, just getting a few houses to clean. We'll see. I'm doing my neighbor's oven as a one time thing, as we speak. I sprayed it this morning and I'll go back in a few hours and wipe it down. It has a self cleaning function, but she says she doesn't like it. (See above. It's hot. And self cleaning means a hot kitchen. Maybe that's why...) She's a real estate agent and always has empty houses that need cleaning. She said she'd hook me up with jobs if I want. Thinking about it...

*My son is almost finished with his research paper. Can you say "Finally!" Can you say, "I'm SO done with this school thing!" H'e'll be 20 years old in the spring, he's my last kid, and this research paper is his senior project from high school. Granted he had to re-start as a freshman at age 16 because we couldn't transfer credits from Europe, but....wow. Home schooling an-almost-twenty-year-old-boy-who-already-has-a-great-job-and-his-own-apartment-and-thinks-he-knows-everything-already-anyway is not my idea of a good time. Just sayin'. But he only has the bibliography and some formatting of the paper itself to finish up and then we hit "send." Nice.

*He just called me. He's decorating his bathroom in his apartment and called me on his lunch hour to ask about prices on shower curtains and stuff. What's too much, what's reasonable, where to shop. I guess he still needs his mommy for some things...

*I have a million and one projects lined up for this fall, crafty and otherwise, which explains my absence here.

*I won something! I have never won anything in a random drawing. My husband did one time...a trip to Hawaii! Seriously. We had a great time. But I've never won anything until now. I entered a drawing for a book and a pattern that I was going to order anyway, and I won! I'm not sure what I won yet though. Apparently it's a surprise. There are five prizes, two being the book and pattern. So we shall see what comes in the mail. I'll let you know what it turns out to be! 

So...on that note, I'm off to check the mailbox!

Image credit

Great News!

I could just repost my last short post where I begged off because things are busy.

I'll add to it though...my daughter extended her stay here by another few weeks! Yay! Still want to squeeze in lots of stuff but we have a bit more time to do it.

One of the things I want to do with her is hike to the top of Sweeney Ridge. The picture is the view from the top out toward the Pacific. I did not take this picture, by the way...image credit below. You can see both the San Francisco Bay to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west from the top. Good cardio on the way up, too! Always a benefit...

Also, my other daughter has a blog. She just started it yesterday, so please head over and say hello. You can click to it here.

Ok...that's it for now...I do want to get back here soon though.

Image credit

I'm Back!

(The image to the left is the home page of Into-Africa, a charity I support and love. Please feel free to click through and find out what Into-Africa is all about. Make a donation if you feel inspired to do so. Those of you who know me know that I almost never promote charities or ask for donations to anything in particular, but this is an exception! Into-Africa is run by a friend of ours and I totally and completely endorse what this charity is doing in the nation of Sierra Leone and other nations in West Africa. Truly exciting stuff, with eternally lasting effect!)

I'm back.

I've been doing a few things this past week:

• Traveling to England and back for a funeral. 
• Planning and purchasing all the materials needed to make my daughter's wedding veil, requiring multiple trips to fabric stores and phone calls to locate trim that has been discontinued. Meh.
• Changing my mind about how I want to make the veil and locating receipts for returns, including the discontinued trim. 
• Thoroughly cleaning my house and patio including digging out at least a zillion calla lily bulbs that have multiplied and divided on their own all over the beds in my patio. A previous tenant planted them and I can't get rid of them. They are evil.
• Starting to plan all my fall sewing for gifts and holiday decor including Christmas stockings. This year I want to do new ones for all my fam and I'll be doing one more for my (soon-to-be) son-in-law! Love that!
• Looking at a pile of sewing I need to do for fund raising for Into-Africa. (My sewing machine will be smokin' hot next week! I've got to get it finished and mailed. It's been so long since I made the commitment to do it that my integrity is on the line!)
• Working out daily. 
• Eating carefully to fuel my workouts and provide energy but not over eating or indulging in things that don't accommodate my fitness goals. This actually takes more planning that one would think. 

This is all a joy to me. Even the funeral. It was a family reunion of sorts, as the man who passed away was someone we've known for many many years, a member of a church we pastored in England. Sad for his family and those of us who loved him to lose him, but he is with Jesus and we will all be reunited forever one day!

I have been busy, it's all good.
  

Focus, and Focus Well

Sometime after all the dust of Christmas begins to settle and the New Year is on the horizon most of us look back at the previous year, take stock, evaluate, regroup and make some goals for the upcoming year. It's a good idea to keep these things in mind, maybe even in written form somewhere, so we don't forget them, and revisit them from time to time. Life starts to happen and even spiral out of control sometimes and we forget our goals if we haven't noted them somewhere.

With that in mind, this being a bit past mid-year, it's time for me to take another look.

This year, instead of making lofty goals that I may or may not achieve (probably wouldn't achieve if the truth be told, and then I would feel bad and flog myself and feel like a loser) I chose a word that would be my theme, the hinge pin of sorts, for 2011. My idea was that this word would color all the decisions I would make throughout the year. It needed to be something that would encourage me to continue to grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually (not physically, thank you very much! I've grown way too much in that regard and need to shrink! LOL). It needed to be something simple that would encompass the areas of my life that I wanted to address over the months of this year.

The word I chose was focus.

Where is my focus? Do I have clear goals and purpose? What is that purpose? Does it line up with God's purpose for me? Are the things in life that I'm pursuing furthering that purpose? What do I want to be doing in December of 2011? How have I been productive? What exactly has my life produced over the year?

I made a decision to simplify my life in any way I could, and dedicate myself wholeheartedly to whatever I was doing. The scripture tells us in Colossians 3:23, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men..." .  I wanted every single decision I made, whether that be concerning my attitude, thoughts, or actions, to be purposeful and intentional.

This is a huge challenge here in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's an area dedicated to materialism and commercialism. Culture and lifestyle here is a one hundred and eighty degree shift from living in southern Spain, the most recent place we lived prior to here. People in Spain enjoy their lives. They aren't caught up with 'stuff,' or making more and more and more money. They are generally content with what they have, they work to pay the bills and provide for needs, but they aren't running here and there and everywhere consumed with the rat race of life. It's a very relaxed, happy, family oriented culture. It's a much slower and enjoyable ritmo de vida. I can't speak for other areas of Spain, but where we lived, on the southern coast, right on the shore of the Mediterranean, people had a passion and love of life that I rarely see here. In the summer time the beaches were filled every day by mid afternoon. Folks took care of the necessary affairs of life as quickly as they could, and then spent the rest of the day enjoying being alive. They didn't have a lot of 'stuff,' and didn't feel a need for it. They weren't so consumed with making their way in life that they forgot to enjoy life!

What a sad legacy it would be to have lived all my life striving to do and have more and more and more, so much so that I forget what's really important. Am I enjoying my relationship with Jesus, or has what I do for Him become an obligation? Am I enjoying my family, or have I allowed so much selfishness into my heart that they irritate me? Am I noticing the small joys of daily life or am I too busy being busy that I forget those things? Are my friends more important than my stuff? What am I focusing on? To what am I applying myself?

Did I notice the way the edges of the clouds turn silvery pink right before the sun comes up? Did I notice the way my cat runs to greet me when she hears my car drive up (I know...she's a weird cat. She sometimes thinks shes a dog. She even plays fetch)? Did I enjoy the process of creating a healthy tasty meal or just throw something on the table so we could hurry up and eat and move on to the next thing? Did I help that young mother on the sidewalk trying to get her stroller over the curb and in the process meet someone new? What am I focusing on? I am guilty of letting all these and more totally pass me by, but this year I have been applying myself to focusing on the task and hand, completing it well, and living more in the present moment that wishing for something else.

I don't want to be so caught up in busyness that I forget to be content. That's really the issue right there. Is what I'm focusing on bringing contentment or is it making me wish for more and more and yet more? And do I focus completely on the current task and complete it well or am I so scattered that do a half job at everything? And perhaps the most important question of all: Is God pleased with the focus of my life?

'Cuz really, that's what life is all about anyway.


I'm not sure where the original image for the picture for this post came from, but I found it here.

Fifty Things

This gorgeous quilt can be found here. Actually, the whole website is super duper inspirational for me. (See #15 of my list below!) 

My husband turned 49 a few days ago. Some of his friends have already been ribbing him about turning 50. I'm looking down the barrel of 50 in a couple of years so this seems like a good time to make some goals. So! This is my list of 50 things to do by the time I turn 50. Not sure I'll get them all done, but I'm a list person and it gives me some focus. Focus! Reminds me...but I'll do another post about that and try to remain focused on one post at a time (haha!).... My inspiration for this came from this post.

1.Lead someone to Jesus.
2. Lose 50 pounds. At least.
3. Be able to run 5 miles easily. 
4. Do my part to put us in a position where my husband and I can both quit our jobs and he can pastor full time.
5. If I still need to make an income then I want to do it by making stuff.
6. Finish the red, white and blue quilt I started for my son many moons ago.
7. Make a quilt for our bed.
8. Make a fall themed quilt.
9. Get all my photo albums scanned and saved electronically.
10. Organize all my digital pictures on my computer in a way that makes sense.
11. Get strong. See numbers 2 and 3. It's all related.
12. Be able to do 10 pull ups (chin ups) (again see 2 and 3 and also 11).
13. Make a string quilt. This may be one of the quilts listed above.
14. Learn how to free motion quilt.
15. Learn to quilt in general! (See numbers 6, 7, 8, 13 and 14!)
16. Lead someone to Jesus. (I know this is here twice. It's at the top and bottom of my list because it is the most important thing in my life, from beginning to end. Everything else is good and important to me, but people have eternal value, and that's more important than everything else put together.
17. ....................................   --crickets--  ...............................

Ok. So maybe I can't come up with 50 things. That's a lot. This list is in no way complete even though I can't put my finger on more things I want to accomplish right at the moment. Also, I think if I add much more to this list I'll lose my focus. See my next post for my thoughts on focus! (Let's hope I post it sooner rather than later, as "later" seems to be my custom lately!)

Update! Between the time I started this post and published this post I gave my two weeks notice! (See #4) It wasn't an easy decision, but it was the right one. More on this in a future post as well.

Down Time

Sara wrote a great post. Click on her name to read it. Couldn't say it better myself. In light of Real Life, today has been filled with prayer and outreach, iced tea, home made poptarts, and laundry, pretty much in that order. This evening will be some sewing, maybe, some reading, maybe some hot tea later, and probably not a whole lot else. Down time.

This post has no title because I can't think of one.

Hello! Checking in after a long absence to let you know my mojo is back! ...And I'm glad. I was feeling mentally frumpy and scruffled*, uncreative, and generally not-able-to-get-it-together for the last few weeks, but the muses are returning and motivation in the area of all things creative, including blogging, is finally on the upswing.

Today is rainy and misty, which I love this time of year. I love crisp bright days in the fall too, but I'll take what I can get! Anyway, today was a good day for baking and thinking toward "home stuff." I made some cookies, per my son's request for Bible study tonight. He said, "How about some good old fashioned chocolate chip, kind of raw in the middle?" This is the kid who likes his pancakes literally oozing raw batter from the inside. So I made them. The cookies, not pancakes. Not sure about the "kind of raw in the middle" part, but they are definitely yummy and soft, not hard and crispy. Chocolate chips cookies should never be hard and crispy. Bleah.

I have lots of stuff piled up in the studio to get put together and post in the shop and I'm really looking forward to getting that done. Not in a "good-grief-I-wish-this-was-done-already" kind of way, but in a "looking-forward-to-the-creative-process-and-getting-my-hands-and-eyeballs-onto-that-yummy-fabric" kind of way.

In other news: I'm trying out a new whole grain bread recipe. Results to follow. Getting inspired for Christmas decorating. This is the first year in a long time that I am inspired to really do up the house. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this is the first year in a long time that I've been eating right and exercising regularly. Does wonders, wonders, people, for the general disposition! More on that in my other blog.

*scruffled: a mental or physical state of being scruffy and ruffled in an agitated and annoyed sort of way. syn.: scrumpled.

Attack of the Killer Schefflera or I Heart Freecycle. Choose Your Own Title.

Good news! I didn't have any problem with the accounting! The real test will come next month when I have to do it by myself, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Add another hat to the collection! Thank God He is strong when we are not! Accounting and I do NOT get along and I don't think we ever will, but with God's help I will get the job done!

I will be needing a filing cabinet to house the various paperwork and receipts to which I will have to refer each month, also useful for my home schooling stuff which currently lives in a box under my desk, so I advertised on Freecycle to see if anyone had any laying around. Don't you have extra filing cabinets just taking up space in your living room? I didn't think so. I don't either. But apparently lots of folks do. I scored two, two drawer ones that are red to boot! My kitchen and desk area is black and red (or will be when I finish implementing all my decorating ideas!) so these will fit right in. Woohoo!  I'll pick those up tomorrow afternoon.

I even had time today to launch my assault on the garage. (See my previous post AGAIN and you'll know what I'm talking about. I won't link to it a third time to spare you.) I listed all the Christmas stuff from that weird warehouse (same post again if you don't know what I'm talking about) on Freecycle and had a few responses right off the bat. A very nice lady named June is coming early in the morning to pick it all up, and she's even giving me some extra twinkly lights that she has laying around to boot. Woohoo! Scored on that one. I also had some quick responses when I listed a chair that I don't want. Anne wins the chair (no, not you, Anne, I'm so sorry, another Anne!) so she'll be coming to pick that up. Anne, not the winner of the chair, the other one is a friend who reads here. At least I like to flatter myself that she does.

Anyhoo.

I had a very productive day after all, and finished it off by being attacked by the killer schefflera. It used to be a very nice plant but it got a little out of hand and I had to remind it's who's in charge around here. It's a tree, really. I had it in the living room and we were very happy together but my husband hated it. It was kind of in the way, I have to admit, so I moved it to an unused corner of our bedroom. The poor thing was naked, though, so I adorned it with some of the previously mentioned white Christmas lights (the ones that came from that weird warehouse). I was standing on a chair, trying to clothe the thing when it grabbed me and tangled me up in it's branches. There I was, helplessly balanced on a chair, being eaten alive by it's upper branches and the string of lights that was innocently standing by. I was too quick for it, though. I snapped off the top branches since they were too tall and bending over under the ceiling anyway. Hah! My self defense tactics took it by surprise and I was able to subdue it into submission. I will force it to grow out instead of up! I win. Muuwaaaahahah!

I'm not happy with the way the lights look though. Too many wires hanging out. I think it needs a longer length. Hello? Freecycle? Do you have any long strings of lights? You do? Great! I'll be right over to pick them up.

I heart Freecycle! More than Craig's List, if the truth be told.

In Which I Prepare to Add A New Hat

I wear many hats. Most wives and moms do. Mom, wife, nurse, chef, chauffeur, counselor, teacher, and that doesn't even scrape the surface. Lately I've been trading hats pretty frequently and the most recent one is that of janitor. In the six months we've lived in this house we have managed to amass far more junk and stuff than should be allowed. I'll never understand how that happens. It must reproduce on it's own when we're not looking, and it's really starting to get under my skin and irritate me. I hate that unorganized cluttered feeling. I don't want it in my house because from there it tries to invade my mind and lately it's been successful.

I put on my janitor hat and started clearing out the garage today. For months it's been irritating me super duper a LOT! To the point where I've been getting annoyed and short tempered just looking at it. It's at one end of the house and I figure I'll start there and over the next few weeks work my way through the entire house to the other end doing little decorating projects I have in mind and clearing out unwanted clutter. "Excellent plan," I congratulated myself on getting motivated instead of getting annoyed.

Anyway, I started on the garage. The garage in our house had been made into a rec-room sort of area many years ago before we even knew this house existed, but it has been more of a storage room than anything else since we moved in. The foosball table and mini-pool table are crowded out by assorted junk and stuff. I had an old but functioning full sized fridge out there that I was able to unload painlessly on Craig's List. Yay! Our daughters have some boxes containing the remnants of their childhoods stored along one wall and they have been able to go through them on various visits so those boxes are dwindling, which is a good thing. (Confession: I have confiscated a few of those remnants to sustain my own cherised memories!) I have an old desk that was my grandmother's (not going on Craig's List!) and some boxes of mementos that I want to keep but don't want to display stashed in a corner. I need to find a place for those things, and others but the worst problem out there is that I collected a bunch of Christmas decorations (hello again, Craig's List) that I don't know what to do with. Some woman was getting rid of literally a warehouse full of stuff and she had probably five or six full car loads of just Christmas decorations.

After looking around in that warehouse I decided she was definitely certifiable. I mean, what kind of private person (not a retailer or seller) has a whole warehouse of junk including a nearly infinite amount of Christmas stuff...much of it brand new?  And not just your regular junk. Bizarre and weird things. But that's another post.

I was looking for a zillion strings of lights because my husband is inspired to make our house some kind of electric wonderland this year. For some reason he's interested in outdoor Christmas decorating for the first time in our 25 years of marriage. I have no idea what sparked his interest, but whatever! I'm into it. It'll be fun.

Where was I? Oh yeah. That weird warehouse. I scored these bazillion strings of lights but part of the deal was that this woman wanted me to take all the other decorations too. I declined the extra carloads, but out of some misplaced sense of obligation I did load up with one trip's worth of greenery, Santa hats, wreaths, trims, bells and other holiday sundries. Now, don't get me wrong: I LOVE to decorate for Christmas. It's just that I don't really have a need for 27 wreaths. No kidding. Twenty seven. One of them is about four feet in diameter. It must have come from a department store display or something. It also looks like someone tried to fold it in half for some reason and it's all kind of mangled and wonky. Anyway...my point...I do have one...my point is that I set aside all the lights and I now have several very large garbage bags of Christmas cheer to get rid of. Once I find a home for all that stuff (anywhere...I don't care! I just need it gone! It's making me crazy! Hello again, Craig's List) I will be able to organize the rec room and finally feel like I've accomplished something productive. It will be a good start on the productivity thing.

I said all this to say that I had planned to dedicate the whole day tomorrow to getting my garage, and thus my life, in order. I just knew that once the foosball table is pulled away from the wall into a usable position, the weights and workout equipment is tidied up, the chairs are distributed attractively, and the boxes and extra furniture are removed to the "official" storage room (at the opposite end of the house...I shudder to think what that place will be like when I've finished going through the whole house!) and the whole place well vacuumed--I just knew that THEN I would feel settled, unruffled, calm, and peaceful. Forever. It's the key to life. It's all I need for happiness.

But.

Even the best laid plans can go awry. This evening my husband asked me to take over the accounting for the church that we pastor and he wants to dedicate tomorrow to training me. This, too, is fodder for an independent blog post, but suffice to say that accounting is NOT my forte and there is a REASON why my husband has been doing it and not I, and it's not because he wanted to! I love that he wants me to help him and I truly want to relieve some of the load he carries but seriously? The accounting? And tomorrow? I guess the garage will have to wait another day or two. It doesn't really matter...it's been that way for months already! I just hope I can keep all that clutter and junk from toying with my mind because I will need all my faculties and I will need them fully functional tomorrow if I can ever hope to successfully "get it" with the accounting.

So I will be attempting to add an accountant's hat to my vast collection.

Photo credit:
http://www.examiner.com/x-9721-Omaha-Style-Examiner~y2009m5d3-Kentucky-derby-hats

The Reason Why I'm Tired Today or A Good Excuse to Go Back to Bed

Yesterday was a busy day. It started with this.


All my days start with this around 6:30. Oh yeah! And this too! My coffee pot has a timer. What a luxury to wake up to fresh coffee. It's almost like someone made it for me!



Then I moved on to a little of this.


Actually a lot of this and everything that goes along with it concerning glass cleaner, mops, washing machines, dust rags, dish soap and toilet brushes.

Then I did some of this.


Not on my dining room floor, however. I used them in the garden. (Can you hear the British in the way I speak?) In America it's a yard. Y.A.R.D. A garden is where we grow stuff like veggies. Something I would like to have but don't. In England a yard is a little paved area off the back of the house big enough for a mouse hole and a broken flower pot and one plastic chair. No worries though. It's always raining so you wouldn't even want to sit out there in your one chair and enjoy the view of your broken flower pot.

Anyway.


I wondered why in the world is there an apple tree planted on top of a banana tree in my garden. (It's a garden in my mind. Old habits never die.) Or maybe the banana was planted on top of the apple. Whatever. It's a rented house. What can I say?

I watered my pathetic little mint plant. I am trying to get it to take off and fill the pot with lush verdant growth that will beg me to make tea.


Speaking of pathetic, I contemplated throwing out the basil. I just can't do it though because there is a tiny bit of fresh green in the middle. See it? I'm not sure if that's old green and it just hasn't died yet or if it's new and the thing is going to make it. I suspect it's old, with my fab gardening skilz. There is a reason I don't have that vegetable garden...



I moved into the Studio. (I feel silly calling it that. Let's just refer to it as the pack rat's nest. I'd call it a cave except it isn't dark.) I finished a quilt for a dear friend's daughter who is about to have her first baby. The picture doesn't do it much justice, but it did turn out to be very cute!



I also worked on this.


The plan is that it will turn out something like this. I love it...eccentric and colorful. If it works, and I think it will, I have a desk in that room to do also.

I also debuted a new-to-me Pottery Barn fabric that I might make into a new duvet cover for our bed. (Thank you Goodwill!) The cat approves. She won't get to sleep on it, though because my husband doesn't allow her to sleep with us. She used to be able to, but lately she wakes up at 4 am and walks around on our heads. He kicked her out the other morning and said she's never coming back. Poor baby. He's a mean old man to kick her out into the freezing cold (70 degrees) living room where she has to curl up on the furry throw that lives on the couch. Actually she has her own room. My "Studio" is really "The Cat's Room." She spends most of her time sleeping in there. If she's not outside saving the world from bugs and dead leaves, that is.


The picture isn't the greatest (typical...they look good on my computer but they lose something on the blog), but you get the idea. I love the fabric, but I'm still not sure what I want to do with it.

I finished the day with a this, and a long phone chat with my daughters who live in another state.


I managed to do some other things too, making it a VERY productive day. And now, I'm going back to bed. I need more sleep after all that productivity!

Just kidding!

Maybe...