Well, I made it safely to Arkansas.  Thank you, Madeline for the excellent post yesterday on my behalf.  Life is looking good and WARM.  I packed clothes to suit the weather we were having in Indiana - big mistake.  I'm dying of heat stroke - in NOVEMBER.

I had a good long while in the van yesterday to THINK.  I'm full up now with all kinds of stuff to share.  So buckle up boys and girls, this ride could cause whiplash . . .

heh heh heh .... I figured out her password! 

Quiltnmomi and her children arrived at my house last night about 6:15.  The drive was long and uneventful and I think they were glad to get out of the car!!  (After 10 hours who wouldn't be??!!)

I promised her I wouldn't write dirty words on her weblog so all of you can attest for how good I am being! 

But as long as I am here anyway I may as well plug my own site!

Have a good afternoon!!! 

madeline

Many thanks to all veterans

This year I feel an especial need to say thank you to veterans.  I have been aware of Veterans Day, grateful for the holiday, and positively inclined toward veterans in the past.  But this year with my brother overseas doing his part in the military, I'm both grateful to and proud of our veterans.  Thanks.

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On another note - my baby boy has his dental surgery tomorrow.  Wednesday I'll be traveling to Arkansas to take my turn helping with the care of my grandmother, giving my Mom and Aunt a break.  Madeline has offered to post on my site so that my perfect record of posting everyday won't be broken - but I don't know.  She also offered to use words that would "excite" my readers... 

Yeee Haaaa - Xanga is working again!

Imagining -

I'm not feeling well today.  I had a long day of shopping on Friday and yesterday, and now, I'm worn out.  My baby has a cough and sore throat, so we stayed home from church to take care of each other.  His idea is that he should be eating Dove chocolates (and we wonder how he wound up with tooth problems) and handing me the wrappers to read to him.

"To accomplish great things one must not only act, but dream."

I like this one.  I also like my handy dandy thesuarus so I looked up 'dream'.  I was referred to imagine and here's what I got . . . "imagine, fancy, conceive, invent, coin, fabricate, improvise, originate, devise, create, speculate . . . dream."

Sounds like in order to accomplish great things one must be willing to step outside the realm of rational materialism and get the perspective of "why not?"

Anyone wanna make a guess whether this would be an easy or difficult place for me?  I really like firm solid unshakeable ground under my feet.  I don't want my plans to be changed, or to receive a surprise.  In fact if you really must surprise me - it's best if you warn me first.  Truly, I'll still be surprised.  Without the warning, my reaction goes WAY past surpise straight into hyperventilation. 

So maybe the reason I haven't accomplished so many "great things" is that I can't quite reach them while I'm hanging onto the secure and known things.  I had a conversation last night with a man who praised a certain author as being a "creative thinker" in a field not known to value creativity.  So I was already thinking about this before I went to sleep last night.

Daffodilious in an aside recently listed the perfect dissertation topis as one of the elusive items we never seems to grasp.  Well, that wasn't the point of her blog, but it sure scored a hit on me.  I have never complete a master's thesis, or a doctoral dissertation.  I can never quite narrow in on a topic I'm willing to live with long enough to get through the process.  At tleast that's what I've been telling myself for years.  After all, you put in all that work and you only get a little piece of paper . . .

Now I wonder if the real culprit to my lack of acheivement isn't a distrust of dreams, imagination, and original thinking?

I've Been Thinking

As I was making my bed this morning, I cleaned out the pile of books that I've gone to sleep reading this past week.  I laughed when I realized the thing they all have in common - they are all religious in nature - and aother characteristic - they are each written from the viewpoint of a different religion.  In my pile this week I have a book by a Pantheist, a Buddhist, a Jew, a Jewish Christian, and a Protestant Christian writing about 9 months spent in a monastery. 

I quoted from one of these books the other day, in conversation and I was surprised by how shocked the other person was that I was reading a book authored by someone from a "pagan" religion.  (Don't try to guess which book was under discussion, you'd be wrong!) 

I was tempted to launch into all the arguments for how it is that reading different viewpoints is helpful in the pursuit of my relationship with God.  I even took a DEEP breath (this was going to be a sustained argument) then just before I started to speak, GOd whispered a joke in my ear.  Okay, I didn't hear a literal voice, so you guys reaching for the thorazine can relax.

But God let me know that it wasn't my place to "set straight" anyone.  And He did it by making me laugh.  I think that the spiritual lesson here is that "turn the other cheek" sometimes means turning the verbal other cheek.  I very rarely have anyone actually smack my face.  But I regularly experience people who through ignorance, rudeness, hostility to my message (the kids never want to pick up their toys), or just outright contentiousness, say things that tempt me to jump right back into it and argue. 

So this week, I'm going to be cultivating a spirit of hearing what other people have to say and letting them say it without trying to set them straight.  If you know me in the Real World - you're laughing right now.  But because of my commitment I'm not going to say "stop it, that isn't nice!"

'Tis the Season

Well, its getting to be that season of the year again.  Every year SOMEONE on my list causes me to way exceed my carefully planned budget for holiday expenditure.  This year - it's wormy.

I had already planned what he was getting for Christmas, he had requested an afghan.  And, hey, for once I'm actually on schedule with my holiday gift making so he's going to get it!  He's also going to get - let's see, I just got home from shopping a little while ago and I don't want to spoil anything by naming things he doesn't know about - let's just say that instead of one present from his sister, this year he's already up to five wrapped packages. 

Does it seem strange to you that I'm so far ahead of the season?  Wormy - David - is in Korea this year.  I haven't spent every one of his 30 Christmases on this earth with him, but this is the first time that he's been SO far from home, and away from ALL of us.  I miss him.  I usually only see him a couple times a year, and then I usually spend far more time griping at him to lay off smoking than I spend telling him how much I love him.  He's one of those people who willingly sacrifice the comforts of home and family for the opportunity to serve our country.  And it is a sacrifice.

I'm 38 years old.  And I can say that EVERY Christmas Eve spent under my parents roof, whichever of their kids who are able to be there, sleep under the Christmas tree.  In 38 years none of us have ever "caught" Santa Claus.  Madeline has stories about waking up to discover that her pillow has been removed and replaced with a present without waking her.  David usually gets cold and is buried under all the packages by morning.  I'm a little too cool to actually sleep under the tree the way they do, but I'm not too cool to sleep on the couch right next to it.  I was still in college the last time that littleredtahbo and I shared Christmas under the same roof.

By now we all have kids.  (Except David, as far as we know   And I wonder what they think.  I know Christmas is supposed to be for kids, but in my family, we haven't yet figured out that WE aren't the kids any more.

I hate that one of the kids is missing.  So I'm blowing my budget on him this year.  If all the rest of you get potholders . . . just treasure them because they will be made from the scraps of yarn left over from the afghan David got the year he was gone from us.

Well, my husband is out of town tonight.  And while the cat's away . . . I plan to linger in a bubble bath, eating chocolate, sipping diet coke, and reading theology by candlelight.  Wooo hooo hooo.  Oh, wait, if he's gone I have to worry about what the kids are up to.  Well, my Calgon bubble just burst. 

Usually, hubby is the one who posts the cute things our kids say.  But since he's not around this evening, I guess it falls to me.

Tucker - "Michael, hold still and look at me when I stick out my tongue at you."

Michael - "Hey Mom, I used my sense to figure something out.  You can hum and cook at the same time."

Tucker - "It's my turn to choose wht we watch on tv.   Michael - "ok, what are we going to watch."  Tucker - "Commercials."

Michael - "Mom did you live with my Grandma when you were a little girl?"  Yes, Honey, why do you ask?  "I was thinking if I get mad maybe she'd let you move back."

Michael - "Mom do you have our suitcases packed?"   No, Honey, I'm still finishing up the laundry.  (Yells back over his shoulder)  "See Tucker, I told you she's not on it!"

I had a freak out moment this afternoon.  A week or so back I noticed that Tucker had a spot on one of his molars.  So I made an appointment for him to see the dentist.  Turns out that his teeth didn't develop properly.  He's got to have all his molars capped and one of them may require a root canal.  He's only four years OLD.  What's up with that?  The dentist tried to reassure me that he could tell we were getting the teeth brushed, it wasn't lack of care that caused the problem.  Now I'm thinking I ate too much candy while I was pregnant . . .

Ssssooooo - I was supposed to be leaving Friday morning to spend two weeks with my family in Arkansas.  Madeline and I had BIG plans.  (Her husband is heading off to deer camp so we were looking forward to girlstuff.)  Now that has to be put off until sometime next week.  Obviously, we can't travel if my baby is having a dental crisis.

I think I'll head over to Daffodilious and see if she has any ideas that might cheer me up.

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