Random Thoughts from My Head Today

So here’s what’s going on in my head tonight. I’ve gotta warn you, it’s a scary place in there right now.

1) I hate the “F” word! I think there is absolutely no use for that word. I also think that the day someone tells me that I just have to “accept” that word directed at me, I may have to find a new job.  I tell my children – “Using curse words in the sign of a small vocabulary – and a small mind.”  I hate curse words!

2) Pepperidge Farms Gingermen don’t taste  QUITE as good in February as they do in December.

3) Italian Wedding Soup is fabulous, I love it and I wish I could make it!

4) Conversation heart candies taste terrible.

5) I like writing my blog, even if nobody reads it! It makes me feel better.

6) I do NOT like my timeline thingy on Facebook.

7) I don’t know how to pronounce this word – “MANDALA” and every place I try and listen at it says it slightly differently. Two places say it “mun-dula” but some say “man-DA-LA.”  

8) I love reading children’s books and nothing makes me happier than a good book to read.

9) I keep forgetting to get the back windshield wiper on my car replaced – until I need it! Then, it’s too late!

See, completely random, completely strange, but that’s how my brain is working today!

My Sunday Letter for Madi

My friend Jennifer  blogs about her life and she does it more regularly than I do.  You can fin her blog here:  http://coffeechaosandcontentment.blogspot.com/

I probably shouldn’t link to it, because she writes so well, I’m kind of embarrassed.  She cooks and posts recipes and all the clever, creative stuff she does –and I just rant and rave like a lunatic. Oh well, I guess it takes all kinds, right?? Anyway, she writes Sunday Letters for her children and her husband. Her daughter Madi, is one of my Junior Church kiddos and she just blesses my heart. So, I’m stealing from Jennifer and writing my own letter for Madi.

Miss Madi,

I love getting the chance to watch you grow up!  You make me smile every Sunday morning when I go into my Sunday School class and you and Trevor are waiting for or eating your donuts!  I love how you like us to give you math problems to do, even though I hate  math. I like watching you figure it out and the look on your face when you get it!!  I love the look on your face when you run into the building for Junior Church.  I love, Love, LOVE listening to you read Bible verses during our lesson. I am fascinated by the look on your face when we do something crafty, and you are concentrating so hard, trying so hard to follow directions. 

Today, you did something really special.  As you know, we’re doing our JeDi lessons – which do not have to do with Star Wars, but are teaching us to be better disciples of Jesus.  Our No-Duh videos seem to always make you laugh!   Our first lesson was on reading our Bible, and when you brought me that list of all the verses you read, I thought my heart would burst. I know that your Papa was so proud of you too!!

So, I brought you a little treat today – a  plastic Yoda cup filled with treats. You so sweetly asked – “Can I give this cup to Trevor?”   I was so proud of you, and I know your family is too!! I think you share a trait with your Grammy – you think of others all the time. She has an amazing gift for that – and I think you do too!  I’m so proud of you and what a sweet girl you are, I can only imagine how proud your family is!!

Stolen but Good “ In What Other Profession?”

I got this in an email from a friend – I am certainly NOT the author. I wanted to post it, because I think it’s so good.  I’m not sure how to credit it and don’t want to be a thief. . .

So, here’s my best guess how to do it!

 http://www.examiner.com/k-12-in-topeka/in-what-other-profession

I think anyone who has ANY stake in education at all (and don’t we all???) needs to read this and get everyone else they  know to read it.

A Lazy Saturday Afternoon with my Best Girl

So today was a completely lazy day. I had a Ladies Meeting to go to this morning and I really, really didn’t want to go. But God knows what’s best for me and it was EXACTLY what I  needed. I knew I’d enjoy it once I got there, and I did. The devotion and the skit were just for me and I got to ask some questions of a really wise friend and spent some time with my best friend.

On the way home, I spent a little time in Target (it was right on the way) looking for some Valentine stuff for my sister.

Then, I got a phone call. My favorite 13 year old in the whole wide world wanted to come to my house. My sister and her husband had gone to my dad’s house to pick some stuff up and after 11:45 when my niece woke up and had done her stuff at home, she needed some company.  So I picked her up.

She bounced out to my car in her flip flops, her flippy little skirt and her dance studio shirt. She jumped in my car and we came home.  And then, we did nothing.

I sat in my chair, read emails, poked around on Pinterest and took care of my city and my castle in the stupid games I play. She laid on, sat on, and rolled around on the couch, with the TV remote firmly in hand. While I dozed in my chair, she moved between Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. She watched episodes of Jessie, Victorious, and iCarly.  I took a nap. She ate. Wow, can that kid eat! Most of a box of Cheez-Its, cookies and milk, and then chicken nuggets and tater tots. We took a break for strawberry limeades from Sonic and came back home to more TV. 

In between episodes, I washed dishes, cleaned up my kitchen and put away some stuff.  Then, we talked. We discussed an issue at school, 8th graders with tattoos and the the boy she likes.  In between all of it, she sang. She sang along with the shows when they came on, she sang with the commercials, she sang random songs.  She is such a neat kid.

During one show for no apparent reason, she said “I love you, Aunt Sandi.”  Another time she said “You’re the best Aunt Sandi and not just because you let me eat junk food.”

For a while, she and my sister lived with  me. I saw her every day. Then, they moved two blocks over. I still saw her nearly every day. I feel like there’s so much that goes on in her life now that I don’t know about – and I hate it!!!!  I know that it will just get worse the older she gets. So today, I passed her the remote control, watched her roll around on the couch,  listened to her sing and just tucked it away inside. 

I

Lucky, No, Blessed!!

My family has spent more time in the hospital in the last 5 months than we have in years. It’s strange – we’ve been medically blessed.

I had hepatitis in the 7th grade – spent 3 days in the hospital while they figured out which kind I had.  When they discovered it wasn’t the bad kind, they sent me home.

My sisters had three babies between the two of them – 2 C-sections and one regular delivery. Except for my niece being 7 weeks early, and Josh being a little jaundiced, our babies were perfectly healthy, which is a blessing. They’ve never even broken anything, except Josh broke his arm. 

We spent 3 days at the hospital in Marathon, waiting, after my mom had her heart attack. That wasn’t pleasant.

At the end of September, I had my gall bladder removed. I got there at 6:30 and was home by noon.  While my daddy was taking care of me, he had a little episode and spent 3 days in the ICU ward.

This week, my sister had a hysterectomy. We were at the hospital by 8, she was in a room by 3:30 and was home before noon the next day. While I was sitting there waiting for her, I thought once or twice to myself how lucky we’ve been! I know people who’ve spent hours and hours and days and weeks in hospitals! While we were waiting for my sister to be discharged, we started discussing our family’s medical history.

Basically, we agreed on these things:

1. We’ve had good hospital experiences. Everyone during Robyn’s surgery and my surgery and my dad’s ICU visit was remarkably kind and knowledgeable.  I did have a phone conversation with my dad’s nurse that wasn’t exactly pleasant, but other than that, everything’s been wonderful.

2. God has blessed us to be remarkably hospital visit free --- and what a blessing that is!! We are very grateful for that!!

3. We know we have been blessed – this is not something that we take lightly. Many families we know have had many, many more hospital and doctor visits than we have – and I don’t know how they do it. I was so impatient waiting the other day – and there is lots of waiting at the hospital. ( I think that’s another story right there!)

 

We are blessed.

Christmas Treasures

I hate certain parts of  Christmas decorating.  For the last week, I’ve had the “stick” part of my artificial Christmas tree sitting in my living room. Yep, just an empty stick. Yes, I use an artificial tree.  The last time I had a real tree, my cat tried to climb it every day. I picked it up 5 times. . . and sat with a squirt bottle every second of the day. He’s not nearly as attracted to the fake tree, although I do have to be careful what ornaments are on the bottom.  I hate fluffing the branches after I’ve stuffed them in a plastic tub all year. I hate trying to figure out which branches go on which layer of the tree. I hate untangling the lights and figuring out which ones work and which ones don’t. 

BUT, what I love about decorating for Christmas is seeing all my special treasures that I haven’t seen in a year or two. I  always want to talk about them. Poor Josh got the stories again tonight. 

Here are some of my favorites! 

I got this one the year I graduated from FSU!  Some people think it’s weird to put things like this on the tree, but it is important!!

This was a gift from one of my AWANA girls, YEARS ago.  I’ve had this for at least 15 years. It makes me smile every time.

  

These were my mothers.   She loved music, even though I think she was tone deaf.  These were always on her tree, and she even used them at Christmas parties! Imagine grown up people, playing these little tiny instruments!

My granny made these years ago.  I have some she made for me, and I got some that were my moms.  Now that my Granny is 92, and she’s getting feeble, they mean even more.

This one was my Mom’s and when we sorted her Christmas stuff, this is one of the ONLY ornaments I wanted.  One Christmas my mom painted this set of wooden ornaments.  We all painted some, there is a terrible looking orange teddy bear somewhere that I painted and I think it was before I was even in kindergarten. It is HORRIBLE.  I did a dreadful job.  But Mom painted this one.  We called him “ The Little Boy.”  We used to fight over who got to hang up this one – I always loved it.  Here’s the cutest part: the front and back  are different:

We called him “Butt Boy” but only when Mom couldn’t hear us! 

This sounds really corny, but pulling them out is like seeing old friends again. I always go “AWWWW” when I see certain ones. I have ornaments that special friends have given me, I have ornaments my students have given me – and I love them all.

What will $3.00 buy??

When I was a little girl, my mom would give me a penny for a gumball at the store sometimes.  Now, there’s no such thing.  Any machines at the store cost at least a quarter. That’s craziness.  I know, I know, I sound like an old person: “Back when I was little, you could get. . .”  I know what it sounds like. But, this is important!!

It’s time for me to be done buying Christmas gifts. Because we only get paid once a month and because our paycheck for December gets deposited early, I have to be careful about Christmas presents. I have to start early. Not because I buy so much, but because I need to be frugal. (Note – I prefer the word “frugal” to the word “cheap” but in this case, feel free to read “cheap.”)  I decided this year, I’m giving everyone in my family a book and something else. In my attempt to be frugal and to be a good steward of my limited funds, I’ve been looking at used books stores and thrift stores for books. I know that sounds really bad – but people donate GREAT books and at most places, hardback books can be picked up for less than $5.00. Not bad when you consider most cost at least $17.99 to start with.  So, I’ve been haunting the Lighthouse Ministries store (picked up 3 books for $2.50 one day and yesterday got 6 for $1.50)  and I’ve checked at the several Goodwill stores.  But, last week I got the deal of the century. 

My nephew works at our local public library. I know, I know. . . if you’d told me my nephew would get to work in a library before I did, I would have laughed at you, but that’s the way it is. He calls me the other night as soon as he left work and tells me the library is having a sale.  Our library often has books for sale on a table by the door, usually $2 for hardbacks, $1 for paperbacks. That is a little more expensive than some other stores, but the proceeds help the library!! The library had purged a WHOLE lot of books, and was trying to get rid of some of them. There were books EVERYWHERE, double stacked on carts, on the floor under the tables, the tables had multiple rows. It was  book lovers dream!!  Here’s the best part:  if you bought a library bag for $3, you could fill it up with as many books as you could get in it.   Yes, you read that right. As many books as you could cram, push, arrange into the bag for a measly $3.  I made out like a bandit.   Here’s my library bag:

 

And here it is stuffed full of books: (I was in a hurry – I had a baby shower to go to, I KNOW I could have gotten more in there!)

 

 

And here’s the stack of books that came out of there:

 

I think I got 17 books in there.  Most are hardback, with library binding.  Such a deal!

If you have an opportunity to support your local library, JUST DO IT! If you never go into your public library, JUST DO IT!   There are vast resources available for you, if you just see what’s there and take advantage of them.