Questioning my Intelligence

Funny Words, Words, Words

2012-02-10T07:55:00.001-05:00

A few pins from Pinterest that I thought I'd share....

Pretty much everything Sheldon says makes me laugh. Bazinga!

Source

"You came here in that? You're braver than I thought."

Source

Civilized anarchy...it doesn't have to be an oxymoron.

Source

May your weekend be filled with laughter and fun!!!!!

Things on Thursday: Email

2012-02-09T12:15:00.000-05:00

This week's Thing on Thursday is email. Generally speaking, I love email. It brings me comments on my blogs, notes from friends, funny videos from GodTube, alerts that my son's lunch account is low, and messages from my honey when he's traveling. I can use email to send out family news, answer questions, ask questions, and connect with friends and family and blog readers in wonderful ways.

Yep, email is good.

Sometimes, though, emails make me sad, like the three unsubscribe notices I got within hours of yesterday's post going out in email. Ordinarily, these notices don't bother me. There are lots of reasons someone might unsubscribe from a blog, and many of them are not negative commentary on the blog's content. But a cluster like that coming so soon after a particularly lively post feels...weird.

I hope that the Busyness Syndrome post wasn't what made them flee. Recently, I've had several friends express their frustration at having a million obligations and the overwhelming feelings of inadequacy and guilt those obligations cause. As they've talked, I've empathized completely. Been there, done that.

The essay's intent was to encourage people to think about why they do what they do. Sometimes, life is just busy in rich and wonderful and natural ways. Sometimes, we bring busyness on ourselves in unhealthy ways, getting sucked into society's version of how we should live our lives rather than doing what works for us and our families. I sure have been sucked in over the years. Freeing myself from that was hard but oh so worth it.

Also, one person's busy is another person's bored. We all have different tolerance of busyness, and within our own range, we can be happy and healthy. I certainly don't presume to judge others' motives for their busyness. I just know I've had problems in this area and so have a number of people I know.

If I offended or hurt anyone with my post, I am sorry. It is my intent to get people laughing and thinking at the same time. Based on the post's comments, I succeeded with at least a few people and am glad the post touched them. Hopefully, the unsubscribers left for other reasons.

Anyway, today I'm celebrating email by contemplating its many good qualities...bringing distant friends and family closer, easing communication, giving us lots of laughs and entertainment. Oh how I love that ding my computer gives when there's new email!

How about you? What are your feelings relating to email? If you've ever been the victim of hacking or phishing or simply a mean email from someone you know, you've seen the seedy underbelly of email. But do the benefits outweigh the costs for you? Why or why not?

Fight the BS

2012-02-08T15:00:00.000-05:00

In this age of "disorder du jour," you might roll your eyes when you hear of a new affliction crippling many otherwise intelligent, well-educated, people. But I assure you, there is one syndrome you need to know about because if you don't suffer from it yourself, you know someone who does. I promise.

It's called Busyness Syndrome, or BS for short. Many of us suffer a mild form of BS at least once in our lives and eventually figure out how damaging it is or limp along with a low-level chronic infection that doesn't interfere with our ability to be, generally speaking, happy. For many others, however, BS is a life-long struggle.

The people most susceptible to severe BS are smart, self-motivated high achievers who never learned to say no. These men and women sacrifice themselves on the altars of work and/or volunteerism and/or family. They over-commit themselves (and their families) to "organizations," "sports," "school," "activities," "experiences," and "accomplishments."

Aren't egregious quotation marks annoying? My point in using them here is to emphasize just how meaningless these otherwise worthwhile pursuits become when a person suffers from BS.

You see, in their frenetic drive to achieve everything they think they need to achieve, sufferers of BS lose their pleasure in life, their sense of purpose and self-worth, their healthy and justifiable sense of accomplishment, their satisfaction in a job well done. They move from one activity to the next with little thought of why they are so busy or what they truly need to be doing to feel happy and fulfilled. In filling their life with busyness, they become empty and dissatisfied.

Ironic, that.

I've observed two distinct variations of BS.

1. Megalithic BS occurs when one specific area of life completely overwhelms us. An attack of M-BS occurs when sudden events throw a person's life out of balance temporarily, most often through no fault of their own. When Jack was diagnosed with autism, that megalith took over our lives for a time, which, given the seriousness of the situation and our urgent need for self-education and quick action, was entirely appropriate. Eventually, the panic subsided, we figured things out, and a healthy balance reasserted itself in our lives.

Another example of M-BS occurs when a workplace fails to recognize that people have, you know, actual lives. In these cases, it may simply take a little time for a person to wise up. I have a very close relative whose workplace quite abruptly became so dysfunctional that she was working 14 or more hours a day, sacrificing sleep and sanity and family time, on the promise from supervisors that "it would get better." Wisely, after a period of sheer craziness, she applied for another job, got it, and now makes more money doing far less work.

Megalithic BS, though painful and serious, should go away naturally as sufferers move beyond the crisis that provoked it, but if they don't recover on their own, professional intervention may be necessary. (That's not a joke, by the way.)

2. A completely different variant of Busyness Syndrome is Task-Saturation BS. TS-BS happens when people just can't say no. Sometimes, they can't say no when people ask them to do stuff. Sometimes, they fruitlessly collect accomplishments and experiences to pad some sort of imaginary resume that will win them a plaque on their tombstone labeled "Busiest Person Buried in This Here Cemetery."

TS-BS sufferers are addicted to doing too many things. They forget how to breathe because they are simply too overwhelmed to slow down and think, to prioritize, to delegate. They do not regularly take stock of their to-do lists and make decisions as to what tasks are truly important and need to be done, and which ones are optional.

Like any addiction, the habits formed in sufferers become deeply entrenched in their brains. Even when all evidence points toward stopping a particular activity or establishing healthy limits to the number of activities one person or family can reasonably do, TS-BS induces feelings of guilt that perpetuate the illness.

"I worry that if I didn't volunteer to do this, no one would."

"All my son's friends are taking tennis, acting in community theater, playing football, and building Lego robots. He'll feel left out if he doesn't do all these things, too!"

"My three-year-old simply must take this $400 computer class so she doesn't fall behind her peers!"

"If I don't stay up late and finish this post, my readers will be disappointed!" (Oh, wait. Was that my outside voice?)

Anyway, as someone who finally learned to say no (and was tired and went to bed last night without posting to either of her blogs), I can assure you that, if you suffer from TS-BS, there is hope. Just follow these three steps.

1. Start small. Identify one activity you can purge from your life or your family's schedule. Question why you are doing that activity. For instance, paying $400 to teach a toddler how to use a computer is just silly. Why would anyone waste money and time on that? Kids absorb technology even when we don't want them to in an insidious and unpreventable osmosis. You don't have to pay for it.

2. Once you have identified one activity that you can live without, purge it. Just quit. I know, I know. You don't want to be a quitter. But do it anyway. Quit. And don't replace it with another activity.

3. After you have achieved a slightly lower level of TS-BS, go back to step one. Repeat the entire process as many times as necessary to achieve balance in your life and find yourself again.

Each repetition becomes easier than the last, until eventually you will do these steps without even thinking about them. They will become a life-long habit just like the BS was a habit...only healthy and good for you.

Image Source

A Letter of Note

2012-02-07T05:58:00.000-05:00

Ordinarily, Lowering the Bar makes me laugh out loud and roll my eyes at legal stupidity, but today's post sent me to another blog where I did not laugh out loud but rather snorted in deep satisfaction at brilliantly ironic justice.

Letters of Note posts, well, letters of note, such as this gem of a letter written by a freed slave named Jourdon Anderson to his former master, Col. P.H. Anderson. The Colonel had the audacity to ask Jourdon to return to Tennessee to work for him in 1865. The letter is a rhetorical tour de force, and I wish I could invent a time machine to go back and shake Mr. Jourdon Anderson's hand.

We actually live near a stop of the Underground Railroad near Dayton, and when I saw that Jourdon lived in Dayton (although he was freed in Tennessee by Union troops), it drove home to me the reality of basic rights denied to so many people during slavery's terrible reign. Jourdon Anderson asks for nothing unusual or unwarranted, and his strength and dignity and a certain ironic sense of justice shine through his rhetoric.

Take that, Col. P.H. Anderson!

Jourdon got his wish that his children be educated. Follow the links at Letters of Note to read a bit of what happened to Jourdon and his descendants.

Gratitude Journal #124

2012-02-06T07:11:00.002-05:00

Today, I am grateful for tissues. Still.

Today, I am grateful for a husband who cooks me good food and takes care of me when I am sick.

Today, I am grateful for auto mechanics who freely admit when they make a mistake and fix the mistake.

Today, I am grateful that I don't have to do anything except take Jack to school and pick him up. In between, I plan on napping, staring at Pinterest, and drinking hot lemon tea.

Today, I am grateful for sunshine and stunningly pretty sunrises.

What are you grateful for today?

Things on Thursday: A Recliner I Can Live With

2012-02-02T07:20:00.001-05:00

George and I had an excruciatingly painful weekend of furniture shopping last weekend. You see, we have opposite styles of shopping. George is a hunter: decide what you want, pull the trigger, wait for delivery. I, on the other hand, prefer to browse, compare and contrast, weigh the options, consider the big picture of long-term practicality and short-term affordability, ponder how well each piece fits with what we have and what we still want to buy.

Basically, we drive each other crazy. We settled on an entertainment center only because George gave up and said, "Go by yourself and get whichever one you want." Which I did.

And yes, I changed my mind twice while doing so but got there in the end.

One thing George and I completely and totally agreed on, however, was this incredibly comfortable chair.

We liked it so much we ordered two (along with a mission side table to put between), scheduled for delivery to our home library on the 15th. I have to clear out some boxes to make room for them, as the library currently looks like a banker's box warehouse.

Next, we need a pair of desks and some bookshelves, and the library will be finished.

Heaven help us.

What Are Your Diamonds?

2012-02-01T22:31:00.003-05:00

Watching a jewelry store commercial got me thinking about my China Policy. That policy states that people should buy only what they truly need and want, not what other people or society tells them they should have. George and I don't have fine china or crystal. We don't want any, don't need any, and would much rather spend our money on ping pong tables, bookcases, and new knees for the dog.

And his and her Nook tablets. Let's not forget them.

That's just how we roll.

Other people love their china and crystal, and that's great.

Which brings me to diamonds. Last summer, my sister-in-law told me how some of her co-workers lust after ever-bigger diamonds. My sister-in-law has a lovely wedding set she will wear until she dies, but apparently her co-workers buy bigger diamonds every few years and show them off at work, and spend quite a lot of time talking about them.

It sounds to me like this diamond buying might be some sort of incredibly expensive, grown-up version of the add-a-bead craze. Remember those? When I was in junior high school, everyone--well, all the girls, at least--had add-a-bead necklaces. Who has the most beads? Ohmygod did you see Caroline's 32-inch chain completely filled with alternating gold and bloodstone beads? Eeeeee, I want those sooooo bad!!!!! My mom is so mean. She won't buy me any more! It's just not fair!!!!

I have no idea what happened to my add-a-beads, and in retrospect, I find the entire concept a tad silly. But then, I was in junior high and quite as silly as any other teenage girl who desperately wants to fit in and impress everyone.

As an adult, however, I've stopped trying to fit in and decided to be myself. Just as I'm not a china person, neither am I a jewelry person. Part of me completely understands why someone would want a big piece of pressurized coal on her finger. It's so shiny! But I can't stop my brain from calculating how many rubber stamps that much money could buy.

Yum. Rubber.

That yum was figurative.

Since that conversation with my sister-in-law, I've met several people who really love fine jewelry. One even works at a jewelry store to get the employee discount and spend her days surrounded by beauty.

That's the same reason I worked in book stores.

Which leads us to this week's question. What are your diamonds? What are the not-entirely-necessary items you thoroughly enjoy spending money on? Have your diamonds changed over the years?

Books and rubber stamps are my diamonds, and at an earlier times in my life, so were add-a-beads, clothes, and fountain pens.

How 'bout you?

Weekly Giggle: Imaginary Friend

2012-01-31T21:47:00.000-05:00

I found this on Pinterest and it made me laugh out loud.

We're all crazy, aren't we?

For those of you who enjoy The Big Bang Theory, did you see the episode in which Sheldon's sister makes reference to his imaginary childhood friends? He corrects her, saying, "They weren't friends. They were colleagues."

I have plenty of real-life friends and thus no need for imaginary ones, but I sure could use some imaginary colleagues.

As a stay-at-home mom, I miss having colleagues, prairie-dogging in the cubicle maze, and the Friday morning discussions of the Thursday night episode of Friends. These days, my imaginary colleagues and I could have meetings about grocery shopping and round-table discussions of the best way to clean toilets or to get children and husbands to put their dirty clothes in the clothes baskets.

On second thought, perhaps not.

Gratitude Journal #123

2012-01-30T06:59:00.000-05:00

Today I am grateful for words. They let us say things like I love you, I care, I'm listening, and Pick your coat up off the floor.

Today, I am grateful for tissues.

Today, I am grateful for texting. It's yet another technology I've adopted after kicking and screaming, but it helps me stay connected to a few people. For that, I'm grateful.

Today, I am grateful for lunch dates with friends.

Today, I am grateful for sunshine.

What are you grateful for today?

Words, Words, Words about, um, Words

2012-01-27T06:58:00.001-05:00

from Pinterest

Things on Thursday: The Devil in the Tile

2012-01-26T07:24:00.000-05:00

You know how sometimes hidden pictures jump out at you? Weird arrangements of raindrops on a car window form bunny ears that get swept away in the airstream. Jesus appears on your morning toast. A cloud looks like a turtle or elephant or an open book.

Well, here's what I see every morning in my shower.

It looks like a devil's face (well, half a devil's face, appearing from the left) painted by William Blake, don't you think? At first, I found this devil in my bathroom tile creepy, but then I remembered this pin from Pinterest:

Now, I see the devil's expression in a slightly different context. Yep. I'm freakin' him out.

Every.

Single.

Morning.

Of course, it could be an expression of horror at seeing me naked, but I prefer not to think about that.

Lost in Transition

2012-01-25T09:07:00.001-05:00

Transitions tend to throw even the most even-keeled people for loops. Sometimes, transitions take us to places we don't want to go, as with divorce. Other times, transitions take us to happy places. Think marriage and babies, graduations and new jobs.

But even when the end goal of a transition is a happy place, the transition can feel awkward and uncomfortable. Remember the stress of planning your wedding? Remember the stress of pregnancy and childbirth?

Oy.

Our move to a new house has been fraught with stress and anxiety and awkwardness, especially for me as the AR/obsessive-compulsive half of our marriage. I want order, and I want it now!

You can't always get what you want when you're lost in transition.

Most of our furniture has to stay at the old house so it's staged to look like a model home. Our new home, in the meantime, sends the inaccurate message that we are house-poor, as if we bought a big new house we can't afford to furnish.

Aaawwwk-werrrrd!

This state of affairs also makes me hesitant to decorate. How can I hang things on the walls if I don't quite know precisely where the furniture will go? What if the curtains I buy don't really go with the furniture? Can I return them if they've hung on my walls for a few months? Fortunately, our new neighborhood is full of large lots and is sparsely populated, and living in a fish bowl doesn't feel quite as weird as it would have felt in our old house, crowded cheek-to-jowl with neighbors on all sides.

But it's still awkward.

Certain aspects of this new house, however, transcend its lack of furniture and the air mattresses that suck heat from our bodies and the wobbly patio table in our breakfast room and the boxes of books in the library we can't unpack because there are no shelves to put them on and the frantic way we search through unpacked boxes for that one roll of tape we suddenly need. In the chaos of slow transition, we're catching glimpses of a settled future.

First and foremost, the breakfast room. It juts out from the back of the house and has windows on three sides. When we first looked at the house back in October, I thought, "What a nice room." Now, sitting where I am typing at the breakfast room table, I have a 180-degree view of trees and a bit of the neighborhood. The yard hasn't received its final grade, and the bare dirt shows erosion rivulets carved by the rain and snow melt. The view is rather dismal, but I can see a future full of green grass, a patio with a fire pit, and leaves on all those bare trees. We already get flashes of color from the cardinals and blue birds, a promise of prettier things to come.

The breakfast room isn't just nice, it's awesome!

My craft room is another transcendent feature of this house. I positioned my craft table under a window. Sitting there is a double pleasure, especially when the cardinals are flying about. I don't have everything arranged in the room yet because too much stuff is still at the old house, but at least it's workable now.

The finished basement makes me happy, with its wet bar and sliding glass door. When we walk down the stairs, the first thing we see straight ahead is a huge sliding glass door and daylight. Basements can feel so claustrophobic and creepy, but not this one. Once it has furniture, it will be perfect.

And there's the rub. Transition time lingers in this house, an awkward pause in the moving forward of life.

Part of George misses our old house. When he visits it to load up stuff to move, he feels a pang of regret for its loss, even though he wanted this move, at least initially, more than I did.

He asked me if I missed the old house, too. My answer, without hesitation and with extreme italics and all caps for emphasis, is NO! I never felt at home in the old house. It didn't fit me, and I knew it from the beginning. It was fine, but not mine. This ranch with the finished basement is home already, even without furniture and especially since the orange stucco disappeared. The cheep of the cardinal outside my breakfast room window as the sun rises before me feels right and good. The brightness of the stars when I walk Daisy before bed sends me into raptures of peace.

The transition will end at some point, and we will settle into a new normal. Grass will grow, windows will be dressed, our art will hang on the walls and in the niches, books will grace shelves, clothes will rest in dressers.

The lost order will be found, and home will be more--much more--than fine.

What awkward transitions have you experienced that, with patience and fortitude, took you to wonderful places? Please share!

Gratitude Journal #122

2012-01-23T07:18:00.002-05:00

Today, I am grateful that George had a good and safe trip to Saudi Arabia and that I have my personal chef back in residence.

Today, I am grateful for cold medicine.

Today, I am grateful George's jet lag caused him to awaken early so he heard my alarm clock when I did not.

Today, I am grateful for Sabbath rest, prayers, and nice people.

Today, I am grateful for space.

What are you grateful for today?

Words, Words, Words about Stress

2012-01-20T07:27:00.001-05:00

"I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once." Jennifer Yane

I completely relate. Several days attacked me at once, and for some reason my ability to cope just gave up and left me late yesterday afternoon. I want to thank my friends at Stephen Ministry for listening to me babble incoherently for a bit last night. That helped.

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment." Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

While I think Marcus is a bit optimistic about our ability to control our thoughts so completely (especially when we moms are worried about our children!), I do take his point. A friend called Wednesday with another dollop of bad news in her life, a side-swipe of significance. I listened to her very understandable drama and saw how she was flailing in panic in a bit of rough surf, yet I could see that her situation--bad as it is--offers many opportunities to solve itself that she can't see because salt water is splashing in her eyes. She will find footing in the sand again and start bobbing comfortably in the waves.

And so will I.

Like many women (and some men), I'm a talker and need someone to listen when I am stressed out. Fortunately, I'm blessed with many friends and family who do listen. I also work out my stress by organizing the material aspects of my life...but with the new house situation, I have a bit too much to organize right now! I try to focus on one thing, finish that, move to the next. Lately, however, I've been a crow randomly flying from one shiny bit of chaos to another without much to show for my effort. Today's the day for mental readjustment, for breathing, for taking Marcus Aurelius' advice and revoking my estimate of the problem. I'm seizing today.

What do you do to stop panicking and start bobbing in the surf? How do you adjust your mental attitude to cope with the stresses of life when they hit you? Please share.

Gratitude Journal #121

2012-01-16T15:10:00.002-05:00

Today I am grateful for blue bird sightings in my back yard.

Today I am grateful for kind and well-mannered children who come for playdates.

Today I am grateful for Martin Luther King, Jr. and a life lived with purpose.

Today I am grateful for friends who help me in a pinch.

Today I am grateful for slightly warmer weather.

Today I am grateful for the end of the orange stucco. (Pictures when the sun comes back!)

What are you grateful for today?

Email Hacked

2012-01-13T18:08:00.003-05:00

My email got hacked. If you received a forwarded email from me with a link, please delete it immediately.

Words, Words, Words about Grass

2012-01-13T14:09:00.000-05:00

Our builder came to check some cabinet drawers that were rubbing, and when he opened one of the drawers, he found a baggie of Penzey's Turkish Oregano. It looks, apparently, like weed of another kind.
But today's words are about another kind of grass altogether, a metaphoric grass, courtesy of Pinterest.

How can you water your own grass to green it up? Something to think about.

Eating Humble Pie with a Blue Bird on my Shoulder

2012-01-11T17:46:00.000-05:00

On January 1, 2009, I wrote the following:

"Mom, from whom I inherited my Luddite tendencies, recently saw the electronic book at Barnes and Noble and is very excited about it. Huh? This is a woman who fears her computer (which my sister and I bullied her into buying) and is terrified that one wrong click will destroy the thing. But when the electronic books come down in price, she plans on buying one. She has lots of good reasons for this act of heresy, but honestly, I’m not sure what’s gotten into her.

"I see these electronic books as a sign of the coming apocalypse. Books are living things made of paper, glue, thread, boards, cloth, and ink. I love holding them, opening them, smelling them, creating them. I love surrounding myself with them. I love libraries. I love the sound of a new binding cracking and the soft, susurrous whisper of pages turning.

"Pixels and buttons do not give the same sensory satisfaction. They are cold and … electronic. The words on the screen have no permanence, no life. Even George is a tad uncertain about them—he has as many books as I do. I declare, with grave certainty and much kicking and screaming, that I will never, ever have an electronic book.

"I have to draw the line somewhere. Consider it drawn."

Well.

Um.

Errr.

I guess it's time to get out my eraser...

'cause that line done been crossed!

What, you might ask, made me skip merrily over that line? Because merrily I did skip, with a zippity doo-da, zippity aye, into Nook Tablet ownership.

First, the staging consultants who transformed our house into a model home for sale insisted that at least two-thirds of the books on our shelves be boxed up and moved out. Given that eight years ago, the nice military movers hauled 109 boxes of books into our house, and given that in the eight years since then, we added lots of books, this task was overwhelming. As we undertook the back-breaking effort, a little, tiny voice in my head said,

"A Nook doesn't weigh this much."

Second, I've been reading too much about the minimalist movement. While my closet is mostly minimalist, I'm nowhere near ditching all but a hundred items from my home, but I found myself questioning whether or not I really needed all of the hardcover Anne Perry Inspector Monk mysteries, four copies of Pride and Prejudice, and a pile of mass-market paperbacks that I'll never read again. Of course some books are far too precious to ever donate to the library, but still....

Third, you can get magazine subscriptions on the Nook. Magazines are fun to read, but they multiply like dust bunnies in my house, filling shelves, closet floors, and basement boxes with dead trees.

And they are heavy. Oh. My. God. They are heavy.

Fourth, the Nook Tablet is more than an ebook reader. I can get email on it. I can surf the internet. I can watch movies on long trips. I can buy apps for it that do things I don't even know about yet. Most importantly, I can get instant new-book gratification anywhere there's wi-fi, any time, day or night. If I finish reading a book at 1:00AM and want to find a new one, I can buy it from the comfort of my own bed.

Do I need all these things? That would be a big, fat No.

Are they handy and fun to have? Well, yes. Yes, they are.

Now that I've had my Nook for a few weeks, I can say that the sensory vacuum I feared is mostly true. The cover I bought makes my tablet feel sort of like a book, but the fake electronic page-turning sound doesn't come close to the susurrus whisper of paper sliding on paper. There's no smell I can detect, except that of the faux leather cover, which reminds me more of luggage than books.

Perhaps that's not such a badly scented metaphor, however, given that books take you places.

There is an advantage with pricing for older classics in electronic form. A few months ago, after reading the National Geographic article on the King James Version of the Bible, I reached for my copy, only to find that pieces were falling off of it. A trip to Barnes and Noble revealed that a new print copy would cost me more than $70. Since we were buying a new house and I already had about ten different Bibles on my shelves, that seemed excessive. The first book I loaded on my Nook was the KJV...for a mere $4.99. Bargain Bible prices are no reason to buy an electronic reader, but I'm happy that I got to read Luke 2 as it should be read on Christmas Day.

On a MUCH lighter note, I'm catching up on Jasper Fforde's recent addition to the Thursday Next books, which always make me laugh.

So the apocalypse is at hand: Susan has a Nook, a mouthful of humble pie, and a brand new monkey on her back.

But I prefer to think of it as a blue bird on my shoulder.

Zippity doo-da, zippity aye.

Weekly Giggle of Goldens

2012-01-10T08:02:00.002-05:00

George found this fabulously true picture on Pinterest last night. Daisy's mother Mango had this exact advice, and Daisy has taken it very, very seriously.

I wonder how much money veterinarians make each year because of this canine sock fetish.

Gratitude Journal #120

2012-01-09T07:09:00.001-05:00

Today, I am grateful for my Stephen Ministry friends and my former next-door-neighbor who gave us house-warming gifts. No one in the new neighborhood has stopped by to welcome us, although everyone seems quick to return waves in passing. I assume it's the cold weather and long drive-way, but perhaps it's the orange stucco.

Today, I am grateful for paint, which will take care of the orange stucco in the next few days.

Today, I am grateful for hospice and for all those who comfort the grieving. George's extended family in Colorado lost 38-year-old Patrick Haikal to cancer this weekend.

Today, I am grateful for windows and doors.

What are you grateful for today?

Words, Words, Words about Words of the Year

2012-01-06T07:29:00.000-05:00

If you're new to the Word of the Year concept and want more information, please read this post and this post. Then come back to here and join the fun for 2012!

I've been ruminating on a word for 2012, and I've found it, thanks to my friend Betsy.

My word for 2011 was Learn. Since it's impossible for me not to learn, I feel quite successful and hope the rest of you who chose words last year feel successful, too. Remember, it doesn't matter if you did a lot with your word or just a little. If your word made you act or feel or think at all, you succeeded. There are no grades here, no pass/fail, as with more typical New Year's resolutions.

Words of the Year inspire.

If you want to be inspired by a word this year, choose carefully and post it in the comments here. There's no deadline, and I'll remind you periodically to choose a word and to put it into action. How you act is entirely up to you and your word. With Learn, I read and researched topics that interested me, listened to NPR, and subscribed to some new magazines...all things I would have done anyway, but my word made me more conscious of how much I learn and how good it makes me feel.

This year, my word is Gratitude. Like Learn, Gratitude is a natural choice for me. I spend a lot of my time in prayer expressing gratitude to God and a lot of time writing about gratitude for this blog. In the past few weeks, I've bumped into discussions of gratitude with freakish frequency, and this morning I opened an email from my friend Betsy with a link to this video, and suddenly, I had my word for 2012.

I will be inspired by Gratitude.

What word will inspire you this year?

Gratitude Journal #119

2012-01-03T08:14:00.000-05:00

Today, I am grateful for closing on the new house last Thursday (a day late, but done!).

Today, I am grateful for sleep. We've been crashing into bed each night shamefully early. Even on New Year's Eve.

Today, I am grateful for delivery and moving people. We've had the nicest men deliver our fridge, new furniture, and some of our stuff from the old house. When our old house sells, we'll be able to get the rest of our furniture and REALLY get settled!

Today, I am grateful for dollies (AKA hand-trucks). With the aide of the dolly I bought last week and frozen rather than muddy ground, George and I were able to get the ping pong table into the basement yesterday. George assembled the table, with a little help from me and Nick, and we're now able to paddle the ball back and forth. Daisy likes to catch stray balls, which makes for quite the work-out to save her from choking on the durn things.

Today, I am grateful for the memories the word "dolly" brings up. My grandfather was known as Dolly. He was rather small, but strong and extraordinarily useful. He also loved me far more than I deserved, and I thought about that while moving the ping pong table.

Today, I am grateful for a new year, a clean slate, and freedom from the rush our lives became in the past two months. A slower pace, greater peace, getting back to some sort of routine. What a blessing.

What are you grateful for today?

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T11:15:00.001-05:00

Movin', movin', movin'. Keep those boxes movin'. Rawhide!

Okay, that was lame, but I'm feeling lame. George and I tried to move the ping pong table from the garage to the basement. It did not go well, although feeling is returning to my left hand slowly. Who knew ping pong tables were so heavy? Not me. Anyway, we didn't even get half the table top through the front door before I cried uncle and we retreated to the garage. We will have to wait until the mud freezes, and we can go around back through the walk-out (rather than negotiate the stairwell inside), and we can get someone else to help George because I'm no help at all.

I hate to fail.

There was also an unfortunate incident in which a plastic laundry basket melted on the stove when a burner accidentally got turned on. A spatula gave its life to save the stovetop, and a little Barkeeper's Friend took care of the rest.

Otherwise, things are going well. Slowly, but well.

I expect postings to be very light for the next week. In the meantime, please contemplate this truth I read on Pinterest...

"You never know what you have...until you clean your room."

I would amend it to read, "...until you move." But no matter.

Happy New Year to you!

New House Haiku with Egregious Exclamation Points

2011-12-28T08:49:00.000-05:00

Drove to house Tuesday.
Saw orange, dropped jaw, exclaimed, "Noooooo!!!!
This will not work. Fix it. Pleeeeease!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

As George said when I posted this picture on Facebook, it's worse in real life. Bright pumpkin orange stucco just finished Monday, and everyone's appalled...even the woman who picked the color...a woman who did a fine, understated, and conservative job with every other color choice for this house and is as shocked as the rest of us.

Can you imagine how the orange will pop when the sky is bright blue instead of snowy gray?

*shudder*

A friend asked if we were Tennessee fans. No. No, we're not. My blood runs Duke blue, George's runs Carolina blue, and we wouldn't put stucco in those colors on the exterior of this house, either. The house needs some color, but I was thinking about painting the front door, eventually. Orange, however, wasn't a color I was considering.

The builder will fix this, which is why I snort laughter every time I see this picture. Laughter with a slightly hysterical edge, to be sure. But laughter, nevertheless.

We're still waiting to hear if we close today. There's been a holiday-related hold-up with the title paperwork, but our mortgage agent thinks it will get cleared up soon. Will keep you posted.

Gratitude Journal #118

2011-12-26T11:37:00.004-05:00

Wow. I'm not even sure where to start today. Gratitude overflows in this, the last Gratitude Journal entry of 2011.

Today, I am grateful for the gift of Christmas. So grateful.

Today, I am grateful for family and friends, for the community in which I live, and for my country.

Today, I am grateful for my children and my husband.

Today, I am grateful for rest before chaos...the move begins tomorrow (Tuesday).

Today, I am grateful to look forward to another year, with all its promise and hope and uncertainty and adventure.

Today, I am grateful for you, the readers of my blog, for your support and encouragement, for your comments and emails. Thank you.

What are you grateful for today?