Road Kill

Excuse the bad quality phone photo, but I need to ask a question. Answer honestly. Seriously, I can take it and I need to know.

Does it look like I'm wearing a dead animal around my neck? ...'Cause I'm not into wearing, you know, road kill.

Fur coats and leather jackets, fine. Road kill? Ummm. No.

So what do you think? Lose the road kill?

It's Raining, and I Love It!

I mean, what's not to love when you can wear boots like these?!!!Aren't they too cute for words? Love them! They are a "happy thing!" I wish I knew where to find them because I would buy them! They are totally me!

Rain. When we lived in England we had so much rain and grey skies that I thought I'd never be happy to see the rain again. I'm a desert rat at heart. I grew up in southern Arizona where the rain blows through in huge beautiful monsoon storms in the summertime and some gentle rain in late winter. That's it. Mostly we had dry hot weather and I grew to love it, though when the rains came though we got as excited as kids at Christmas. The weather in England was a novelty at first, but the constant grey and drizzle quickly grew old and downright depressing. Move forward eighteen years, and here I am in Northern California with beautiful, beautiful weather. Lots of sunshine, hot summers, beautiful fall color, mild winters. Perfect for me. This would, however, exclude San Francisco, where we lived for about a year when we first moved out here. For geological and meteorological  reasons I don't understand, San Francisco gets a lot of cloudy grey chilly weather. Someone said that the coldest winter they ever spent was summer in San Francisco. So true! I'm sure I could find the quote if I looked, but if you really want to know where it came from I'm sure you know how to Google it. (I wonder how long it will be until "google" is officially a verb in the English language...) SF is too much like England! Some love it and the fog is beautiful, as is the city itself and I think it's an amazing place that I love, but I had enough grey to last a lifetime!

Anyway, back to my point.

Rain. It rained last night and it's still drizzly this morning and you know what? I like it again. Never in a million years did I think I would say that, but I do! I like the rain! 

It's so much more satisfying to be content than to always be fighting against whatever life throws at you. Not that we don't contend for what's right, what's good, what's pure and lovely, but there is great gain in contentment. 

So, bring on the rain in the Bay! 

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

To the Rude Shopper at Michael's: Seriously? Are You Really That Important?

So I'm in Michael's yesterday. The place is pretty dead; a few employees stocking the shelves, only a handful of shoppers and one register open. No need for more than one. There is a couple slightly down the aisle from the open register, and one lady finishing up paying for her stuff. I'm standing in line...such as it is...with my purchase.

There isn't really a marked place to stand in line. People just kind of hang around and wait for a free register. (Methinks by Halloween time they should do something about that because of my experience yesterday, of which I am about to tell you. People can be pushy and demanding, especially around the holidays when they are in too much of a hurry to do all their stuff that's more important than anyone else's stuff, or more important anything else in life for that matter. Insert sarcasm font. Most people need to be told what to do and where to go. I'm sorry if I am insulting someone's intelligence, but I've worked in retail. At a craft store. During Halloween. I know whereof I speak write.)

Anyway, I'm standing there, minding my own business, not in any hurry to do anything or go anywhere, but finished in the store and needing to pay.

I can hear the couple in the aisle approach as they walk up and stop directly behind me, ready to pay for their stuff. They are talking about how the guy who owns Michael's got into a car crash and died (???? I have no idea about this) and generally chatting together. Ho hum. The lady in front is counting out her change. Bees are buzzing lazily.

No, not really about the bees, but you need to understand that the atmosphere is very quiet and relaxed and no one is in a huge hurry but just going about their business with no rush or stress.

Suddenly the woman who is part of the couple behind me jumps into my line of sight and says to me, rudely, loudly, and in an annoyed voice, "Excuse me but were were in line in front of you," to which I reply, "Oh, sorry. I didn't think you were in line, go ahead." My first cue that she was an angry person (or schizophrenic!) should have been her sudden shift in demeanor from chatting with her friend to indignation that I was in front of her. Her attitude toward me would have been more appropriate if I had turned around and slapped her across the face for no apparent reason. Seriously. Granted, I wasn't paying very close attention to her personally, and I certainly wasn't slapping her across her face, but it is entirely possible that she WAS in line and had stepped aside for a moment and I didn't realize it. No biggie. I apologize and step aside so she can pass in front of me but she continues to be argumentative and says that the lady in front of both of us could "contest" that she was before me.

I don't have the heart to tell her that if the lady "contested" her assertion that she was before me, then she would have been disagreeing or confirming that I was indeed first.

According to this source, the definition of "contest" in verb form is this:

To call into question and take an active stand against; dispute or challenge


Semantics. It's my thing. 

But whatever.

I didn't tell her my whole mind, but I did tell her that I really couldn't care less if she went before me and to be my guest. My actual words were, "I really don't care. Go ahead." Then she turned on her heel and marched out of the store, (hello, schizophrenia!) leaving her bewildered counterpart to pay for their purchase while trying to hide from embarrassment.

I suppose I was a bit rude to her in return, but at least I didn't tell her what I was thinking....that I felt sorry for her if she felt she was such an important person that she had to barge into line in front of one person who had one item to pay for in a store that was anything BUT busy.

OK. That's really all I have to say. That's it. No point to this post, really. Nothing more to see here. Go back to your lives, citizens. (Name that movie.)

PS Follow me! Tell your friends! A fun giveaway when I reach 25 followers! (Small potatoes I know, compared to some fabulous blogs that have like millions of people reading them daily, but I'm not one to despise small beginnings!)


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.
  

Fashionably Late

I am late to the party....but I finally joined in. Lots of beautiful images and a fun place to keep track of things that are inspiring. Click on the icon to find me on Pinterest. I'm just getting started but it's a great way to waste time get inspired and save images of things you want to remember. (Icon also in my sidebar to the right.)



But be careful...it's addicting! 

Thaaaaaat's all folks! I have websites to visit, images to pin and time to waste, important things to do!

Image from pinterest.

Cat In a Quilt

A cat in a quilt. What could be better? I have the cat already. Just need to make the quilt!

I know. If you read my last post you'll know I'm slightly obsessed with quilts right now!


Found the picture 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.

Clearly I Need to Visit This Space More Often.

This is what happens when you neglect your blog and disappear for an indeterminate amount of time.

It disappears.

Sort of.

The pictures are gone and so is my background and who knows what else.

Not sure what's up and thinking maybe I'll shut it down and start fresh anyway. I have some ideas and inspirations so we'll see what happens...

7/26/11 Update! Not shutting down! Stay tuned.... :-)

9/2/11 Update! It seems that when I updated my Picassa account and deleted a bunch of old stuff that I didn't want to store there anymore that it directly affected my blog. Who knew? Ok...so I'm ...err... technically challenged! 

There is Great Need for a Sarcasm Font

 

Came across this recently and it made me laugh so I'm posting it here. Who can't use a few extra laughs!

Random Thoughts of the Day

•   More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can’t wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that’s not only better, but also more directly involves me.

•   Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

•   I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

•   The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

•   Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

•   There is a great need for sarcasm font.

•   Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first saw it.

•   I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

•   Was learning cursive really necessary?

•   Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

•   I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

•   Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

•   How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

•    I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent an aggressive driver from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

•   MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

•   I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

•   I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

•   Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from; this shouldn't be a problem....

•   You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren’t doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

•   There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

•   I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

•   I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

•   Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

•   It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

•  I wonder if cops ever get annoyed at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

•   Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

In Which I Enjoy Life Instead of Continuing My Endless High Speed Rush to...Where Exactly?

Some time ago I was privileged to post this on Carmen's blog but I wanted to post it here too in the interest of resurrecting this old blog! This version is updated and slightly edited.

Life is pretty complicated sometimes. Sometimes in this techno-fast-paced-gotta-set-higher-and-higher-goals-and-do-and-be-everything age I think we need to slow down and appreciate little things. Where, exactly, are we going so fast? And what are we missing on the way there? And when we get there will we be glad we're there? “Enjoying the journey,” is a phrase that I think is highly overused. After all, the destination IS important and goals are very useful things, but we do need to find balance; recharge periodically; assess priorities and enjoy life in general. Yes, the goal is important, but it's not ALL about the goal. Having said that, however, we do need to stop every now and then and realize that life is for living, not for rushing through until we collapse exhausted, just to get up the next day or week or month or year and start it all again. I've been thinking about simple pleasures...things we can do to make the load seem lighter for a moment while we continue on this journey called life. So here are thirty one simple pleasures, one for each day of the month. Little things...things that can be done with little or no expense. These ideas are easy and inexpensive. If we don't take time to smell the roses, pretty soon we'll forget what the roses smell like!

This list is in no way complete, nor is it in any order. Some of these ideas may appeal to you, others not so much. The point is, enjoy life! It's made for living!

1. Take a walk. Don't take your music with you. Just walk. Barefoot if possible, for half an hour. Breathe the fresh air and enjoy your surroundings.

2. Take a hot bath. With bubbles. And a book. And the door locked!

3. Sleep in. Take one day and just sleep until you wake up. No alarm clock, no nothing. If you have small children who are up early, this may be more difficult, but at least stay in bed until you feel like getting up. Maybe use the time to cuddle up under the covers with the littles and read a story. Or maybe cuddle up under the covers with someone not so little.... ;-)

4. Make a cup of hot chamomile and peppermint tea. Use two teabags, one of each, and leave the teabags in the cup. Or hot chocolate. Here's an awesome recipe!

5. If your coffee maker doesn't have a timer, get an inexpensive one used for lighting when you go out of town and set your coffee pot to start brewing fifteen minutes before you are going to wake up. Nothing like the luxury of getting up to freshly made coffee just waiting for you!

6. Stay up late into the night with a good book. (Don't do this right before you have to be up early for something, though!

7. Go to a local bakery and purchase 2 super duper exquisite indulgent cupcakes. One for you and one for a friend. Or make some. Chocolate lover's recipe here.

8. Color. Like when you were a kid. Get some crayons or colored pencils and a cheap coloring book and color. Don't worry about staying in the lines!

9. Spend 30 minutes in silence. Turn off your phone. Turn off your TV. Turn off your ipod. Turn it all off and enjoy 30 minutes of absolute total silence.

10. Have some old fashioned chicken noodle soup. Not just any old canned soup, either. Get a really good quality one. Or make some.

11. Put a couple of tablespoons of yummy flavored syrup in your coffee or hot chocolate. Hazelnut is amazing in chocolate, by the way! Make a cup for your spouse or friend or son or daughter or work colleague too. (Make your own syrup:http://catfeetstudio.blogspot.com/2010/04/some-calorie-laden-recipes.html

12. Call an old friend or relative you love but haven't talked to in a while and catch up.

13. Laugh. A lot. I read this somewhere (if anyone knows where it came from please let me know and I'll credit the source!), “Children laugh over 300 times a day whereas adults laugh only 15 times. This is because children laugh unconditionally while adults do so only if there is a cause.” Laugh as loudly and as often as you can. For no reason. Who cares if they think you are crazy!

14. Write a letter. A real one. On real paper. With a real pen! Add some doodles and little drawings and personalize it. Tuck in a tea bag or a couple of photos (yes, real ones! Printed on real paper!).  Put it in a real envelope with a real stamp and put in in a real mailbox to send to a real person. I'm a huge user of email and I think technology is great, but there's just something about an old fashioned letter in the mailbox...and you never know...you just might get one in return!

15. Take your sheets and blankets off the bed and launder them in nice smelling soap and softener. Before you put them back on put something soft like an old comforter on the mattress under the fitted sheet. Then put the sheets back on and count the hours until you can snuggle down in your sweet smelling homemade feather bed.

16. Use a towel fresh, warm and fluffy, straight from the dryer when you get out of the shower.

17. Hold hands with someone. A child, a spouse, a friend, a grandparent. Human contact and touch go a long way in the well-being department!

18. Do a small random act of kindness for a stranger. Look around you as you are out and about. There are opportunities for this all around us all the time. Anonymously pay for the coffee for the person behind you. Help a harassed mother with a stroller to put her groceries in the car. Let someone go in front of you in line at the checkout.

19. Have fresh berries for breakfast.

20. Turn off the news in the car and listen to music you love. Don't listen to the news for a full day. The world will still function even if you aren't up to the minute. The news doesn't usually change from day to day anyway. If there is a major catastrophe someone will tell you.

21. Go outside at night and look at the stars.

22. Lie on your back outside in the afternoon and watch the clouds change shape.

23. Do something you've been putting off and check it off your list. Complete that pesky task and get it out of your hair!

24. Clear all the extra junk, stuff, trash, and knick knacks off your desk. File papers. Throw away spent pens and stubby pencils. Keep only what you need to use regularly on your desk. Put everything else within reach, but neatly away, out of sight. A clear workspace contributes to a clear and productive mind. (More on this in a later post!)

25. Make popcorn. Extra butter. You won't be able to eat it alone, because the smell of popcorn will attract people from miles around, so make a lot!

26. Leave the house ten minutes early in the morning so you won't be so rushed and stressed on the way to where ever you have to go.

27. Smile at a stranger. You never know what kind of day that person is having and a smile will brighten even the darkest moment. For you and for them!

28. Grow something. Mint or basil if you like herbs. Flowers in a pot. Plant a strawberry plant. Get a cactus or succulent if you have brown thumb (like me!) Anything. Inside or out. But plant something.

29. Get a pedicure. Pick a beautiful polish, even in cold weather when you wear closed toed shoes. When you take off your shoes at the end of the day your feet will look and feel gorgeous. Even if no one else sees them, you do!

30. Put your pj's on early in the evening, lounge around and be comfy.

31. Pick up a cheap bottle of bubbles and blow bubbles in a public place. Try to do it where no one can see you but let the bubbles float out where people are. Something about bubbles makes everyone happy.

32. And a bonus! Work out. Hard. Really really hard. (Obviously this will take longer than the ten minutes I mentioned at the beginning of this post!) Then take a long hot shower and let the water pound the muscles you've just used. Finish with a quick burst of cool water and you'll get out of the shower refreshed and raring to go!

Photo Credit

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.

Happy Places

The world can be filled with so much misery and bad news sometimes that I often like to just surf around the internet on a quest for "happy places." This takes many forms but usually I go to blogs I'm familiar with for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I once put a few words into a search engine on one of these quests and came up with some very questionable sites. Very questionable. So. I have learned to be more selective! And careful! My latest quest turned up these gems:

Send some happy mail! Nothing like a real package or letter in the real mailbox! Email is great and stuff, but nothing beats a surprise that can be opened or unwrapped!

Make some summer sangria! This is a yummy fruit drink reminiscent of Spanish sangria, but without the wine. Love the fruit filling the pitcher!

And this...it speaks to me about being happy in one's own skin. Plus it's fun!

Photo credit:
http://www.art.com/products/p15329560-sa-i3697626/jim-dratfield-smile-and-the-world-smiles-with-you.htm

Random Thoughts About Nothing, Really. Skip This If You Have Anything More Important to Do, Like Clip Your Toenails.

Clearly it's time for a new post.

Clearly the muses have gone on vacation.

Again.

I have eleven drafts waiting to be worked on, but nothing grabs me.

In the past week I attended the baby shower, (Edit: I have deleted the post to which I just linked because I do not want to risk offending a friend--basically I'd been invited to a baby shower and was making negative observations about gift registries.) which was pleasant. I realized that I'm so not in baby mode. Mine or anyone else's. My kids are grown, but no where near making me a grandparent yet, so babies are the farthest thing from my mind and I discovered how disconnected I am from all things baby related. Also, I didn't know anyone other than the new mother and her mother.

Serendipitously, (cool word...wanted to use it!) I met a lady there who had lived in England before I did. She was actually the sister of someone attending the shower, didn't know anyone either and is also out of baby-mode, so we struck up a conversation. She and her husband were stationed in England and they also pastored there for some years, so we had some old stomping grounds in common. That was nice. My husband is actually there preaching this week so between having daily conversations with him and meeting her I'm longing for a visit. I thought I was way done with long haul flights, but...maybe not!

So. See? I am clearly lacking inspiration to write, so maybe it's just better if I don't. At least until the muses return. Maybe they went to England too.

A Story of Mr. Gray, the Water Balloon Incident, and Retrospect

Thirty years ago I was in 9th grade and Mr. Gray was my English teacher. He had a passion for the written word and imparted that to his students. Thus began my love affair with writing. The fact that I was also in love with the young and handsome Mr. Gray had nothing to do with it.

Really.

It didn't.

I swear.

Ok. Don't believe me, but it didn't.

Seriously. How could it? I still love all things grammatical but I'm SO done with Mr. Gray.

Fine. Obviously I can't convince you, so let's move on.

He assigned an essay, the requirements of which have long since escaped me, but I clearly remember the essay itself and the events that inspired it. I wrote a radical and scathing satire defaming one of the administrators of the school. I'm not sure I would have such boldness today, but life has a way of taming the wild beast within. I like to think that these thirty years have taught me something about compassion and concern for others. I like to think that I have learned that the circumstances of life mold and form personalities, my own included, but at fourteen years old I hadn't had much in the way of life lessons.
My essay detailed a series of events that began one Friday toward the end of the school year. We had a half day and that afternoon had been set aside for some sort of carnival on the school campus. The staff and students were in a partying mood. Several of my friends and I managed to engage some of the teachers in a spirited water balloon fight.

Alas, the dashing Mr. Gray was not involved.

Some of those balloons may or may not have been thrown inside the halls instead of outside on the grass (I'll never tell!) but we paid no attention to where, exactly, we were aiming and we were having a grand old time drenching each other.
School spirit, don't ya know!

Suddenly the sky turned dark and the air grew cold and we kids realized that we were alone, sans our teacher-accomplices. They had fled the scene and left us, holding the evidence, to face the dark and menacing presence of the sinister Mr. Haugh. Mr. Haugh was someone with authority over everyone, liked by no one. He was a large man, as wide as he was tall. Suffice to say he was not short. He had fleshy hands, droopy jowls, was mostly bald, and extremely out of shape. The poor man probably hated his job and was at high risk of cardiac arrest but we didn't think about those things at fourteen years old. We were just scared of him.
He was always scowling except now,when he looked down at us past his ample, pore-enlarged nose through his coke-bottle glasses with a grim self satisfied smirk as he turned the key in the detention hall lock.

We were incarcerated. Not innocent until proven guilty. Never mind that we had been caught red-handed. Never mind that the school janitor was probably, at that very moment, mopping up bucketfuls of water from the math wing. No trial by a jury of our peers. No nothing. Just instant incarceration.

"There will be, not today, nor ever, as long as I am assistant principal, a water balloon upon these hallowed premises." Mr. Haugh had spoken, and his word was law.

I was humiliated and mortified that I had to serve detention. Me! I was an "A" student! I was a good kid! I didn't associate with the usual riff raff that populated the detention hall on a regular basis. And the real kicker: we had been playing with the teachers, for crying out loud, and they all got off scot free and didn't come to our rescue! I was highly indignant at the injustice of it all. I duly served my time but I was incensed.

When Mr. Gray assigned that essay I went to town. I needed an outlet for my indignation. I told the story of that fateful day: the innocent joy and fun times had by all until the squelching of said fun times by the heavy and unreasonable hand of Mr. Haw. I thought about referring to him as Mr. Hee-haw but I decided that just might be stepping too far across the line and I didn't want to be hustled into a covered truck in the middle of the night and never heard from again, my outrage not withstanding. I was already nervous about Mr. Gray's response so I decided I could only push the envelope so far and no farther. I knew I could write well and that my essay was grammatically correct, but I was concerned with the content itself. My love for Mr. Gray was unrequited and didn't extend to actually KNOWING him as a person (and rightly so! Ewww!) so I had no idea how he would respond to my slanderous editorial.  I couldn't help it though. My story was crying out to be written and I had no choice but to obey the muse and take the risk.

I like to imagine Mr. Gray grading our essays in the evenings in his bachelor pad (of course he had a pad; this was the 70's and he was a bachelor. They all had pads) over a bowl of Top Ramen. I imagine him laughing over mine. I imagine him laughing so hard that he had to stop and clean up the Top Ramen that he inadvertently snorted though his nose. 

All right. So I flatter myself, but I really do think he must have enjoyed it.

Thirty years brings a great deal of retrospect. It brings a softening of the edges and a greater understanding of human nature. I hope Mr. Haugh was able to gain some measure of health and happiness in his life. I don't think he was really Mr. Haw. He was just Mr. Haugh, doing a job that no one else wanted to do. Maybe he was a little stiff, a little strict, a little too "by the book." Perhaps he was tired of high schoolers and their antics. He wasn't a young man at the time, after all. Maybe he was dealing with personal issues and our wild abandon of protocol was the last straw, as it were, for him that particular day. Or perhaps, unthinkable as it may be, we deserved to serve every moment of that detention. Whatever the case, I sincerely hope that Mr. Haugh was able to find joy and happiness during his lifetime, and if he is still alive today I want to thank him for some great essay fodder then and blog fodder now. The indignation and rage have long since faded and I want to thank Mr. Haugh for giving me a memory that still makes me smile thirty years hence.

I sincerely wish you all the best, Mr. Haugh, wherever you are. You had a job to do and you did it, and I offer you all due respect. Tardily, but respect and good wishes nonetheless.

By the way, I got an A+.

Photo credit: 
http://photography.about.com/b/2008/06/13/fun-with-photography-exploding-water-balloons.htm

In Which I Determine That Purchasing Cleaning Products Makes Me Happy.

So. I bought a new mop, Murphy's Oil Soap, new sponges, Bar Keeper's Friend, and a toilet brush. Obtaining these items has made me inordinately happy. What does that say about me? That I need to get a life? That I take house keeping seriously? That the doors on my kitchen cupboards need to be cleaned? That I have dirty floors and toilets? All of the above? Or maybe I just like to buy cleaning products.

Seriously, though, spring has sprung and that makes many of us want to clean up, and clear out the old junk. Lots of simplifying and decrapification (to borrow a term from...ummm...somewhere....???) has been going on lately and I'll be listing a bunch of stuff on Craig's List in very short order.

I'm also in the mood for lighter cooking and I'm in the process of cleaning every inch of my kitchen. My cupboards were never properly cleaned before we moved into this house, so I'm tackling them first. It doesn't help that my husband cooks a hamburger at about 1000 degrees for lunch every single day of his life. Word has it that Murphy's Oil Soap is the best thing for cleaning grease off the cupboard doors. You know what I mean...that sticky shiny stuff that looks totally gross and appears out of nowhere. Nowhere, that is, unless you have a husband who likes to cook hamburgers at exceedingly high temperatures.

Photo credit: 
http://keepingitpersonal.com/author/leah/

In Which My Muse Goes on Vacation

So. I have nothing. Nada. Zip. My muse must be on vacation. I'm so sorry...several of you have been checking up on me daily and I apologize for not having something groovy and captivating and entertaining for you. Not that I often do have that kind of groove thing going on, but hey! I for sure don't have it going on right now!

The moon looked amazing the other night. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was beautiful and super bright through a break in the clouds. Just thought I'd throw that in there to justify posting the picture because what's a blog post without a picture? Lack of content must be made up for somehow, even if it's in low quality pictures.

Sigh. I hope the muse comes back soon.

Same old stuff going on around here...working out, house-y stuff, some sewing and I have some inspiration for the shop, but I have yet to get that inspiration from my head to my sewing machine to the shop...soon though. I'm working part time at my local craft store to support my habit and because the fall season is fully upon us with it's assorted holidays things are picking up and I'm getting more hours. Still part time, very part time, but for this SAHM it's a big switch! Love it though. I have to prioritize and do a lot of mundane things like grocery shop when I would much rather take a nap but such is life. My hat is so off to wives and moms who work full time. I can't even imagine the kind of time constraints and pressures you are under!

So. The shefflera is behaving itself. I posted about the battle on my facebook page and a friend commented that maybe I should learn not to open an umbrella (tree) in the house as it usually causes problems of one sort or another. The new hat continues to fit well with no alterations, so far anyway. In other news my tomatoes and strawberries are putting out sets. What's up with that? I think they are confused. I doubt anything yummy will come from it though. It's getting too cold at night now, I think, though we are having glorious days. In yet other news, my son is preaching in church tomorrow morning. My husband will be away for that service and asked our son to fill in. It's not the first time he's preached the service, but it's the first time for a Sunday morning. He's a little nervous, but he's well prepared so I'm sure all will go well. I think it's good to be a little nervous sometimes...reminds us Who is in charge!

Anyhoo...just wanted to check in, and thank you for checking back. More to come soon. The muse must be here somewhere. She doesn't usually disappear for long. I just hope she hasn't gone to Hawaii or somewhere with sand, sea, and sun. I will be most jealous.