Blooming

Felicia

2010-02-20T15:09:00.004-05:00

So this week I wrote a great blog about my best friend from high school. I got to the part where I was proofreading and I accidentally deleted it. The whole thing and no I did not save it while I was writing it. I was really mad and frustrated and did not sign back onto this blog until today. I showed ......well, I am not sure who I showed but I did calm down. Now, I absolutely believe in writing about really cool women and Felicia deserves her turn so I am going to try again.
Feicia was my best friend from about junior high until I graduated from high school. She is probably one of the nicest people I have ever known. We spent tons of time together. I am not sure why our parents let us but we spent the night over at each others houses a lot. When she got her license, she would drive in the opposite direction of the school to pick me up. We had one really odd thing..we always ate weird breakfasts. It was either leftovers from dinner....I vividly remember her mom shocked to find us eating spaghetti and meatballs one morning or we would stop at the B&C and get chips and cokes. Well, she got bbq chips and mountian dew and I got chili cheese fritos and diet coke. For breakfast, many, many mornings.
Our friendship had somewhat of a spiritual component. Her family often took me to church with them. Again, driving out of their way to include me, paying for probably many meals after church, and always making me feel a part of their family. I went to church with my family too but Felicia's church had bible studies and special worship services. My home church was rich in tradition and intelligence but hers was more relevant, practical, and welcoming. I was never pressured, always included.
Fe, her nickname in high school, never spoke a cross word to me, ever. I don't think I ever spoke one to her. She was just sweet. Not sicky, fakey sweet. Just really grounded on good morals. I don't think we ever did anything bad together. No breaking rules, no cigarettes, no drinking. We weren't really risk taking kind of people. The riskiest thing we ever did was not wear sunscreen the first day of band camp. She is a fairskinned blonde and we had to sleep (at her house) with ice packs and fans blowing on our very burnt skin.
I don't remember when but at some point her parents divorced. We spent even more time together and hung out with her mom a lot. Her mom worked so hard back then.
My favorite picture of us is from high school graduation night. After high school we kind of drifted apart. I went away to school and at some point her mom remarried and Fe moved away to California. We lost touch for many years.
I had mentioned once to another really awesome friend (cindi-who deserves her own post too) that I wanted to find a friend. Cindi worked all day and into a night before she called me to tell me she had found Felicia and had just gotten off the phone with Felicia's husband. Of course we reconnected. We both had little ones not too far apart in age. We stil exchange an occasional letter or Christmas card. And would you believe she is still one of the kindest, caring people I've known....She is a great advocate and parent to her kids. She is still a kind and sweet person and I am better for having the honor of being her friend.

Resolutions/Lent/ Other reasons for change

2010-02-17T15:15:00.003-05:00

So I have been thinking and praying about doing something to facilitate change in my attitude. Not so much my life but just my outlook. I struggle being the glass is half full kind of gal. I am more of a "oh, your glass is half empty, let me get you a refill" person. You know, a fixer. It sounds noble but really I think its a sin issue. I could go into great detail about how it is disguised but I know I am not a very positive person right now. I am trying to change that about myself. So I had this idea of using this blog as a sort of gratitude journal that all self help books say you have to have if you are going to practice happiness. I thought maybe I could write about people I see doing positive things. Or just people I really admire. I could practice saying nice things about people which may train me not to be constantly "evaluating" others.
Here are some advantages: I get to say nice things about other people. I get to blog instead of farming on facebook. I am doing something different.
Disadvantages: Someone may not want me blogging about them even if its good. I will have to stick with this for a long period of time. It may become one more thing to do and I already feel overwhelmed with things to do.
Maybe I should just try it for Lent. I have already designated something to give up but maybe I should also add something........

Date night with 12 year olds

2009-01-10T16:06:00.002-05:00

Had such a good time taking my daughter and her friend to see Bride Wars. It was cute funny and ultimately had a good message. That Kate Hudson was awesome.
the really fun part was seeing my daughter's behavior with a friend. I am so proud of her. She was so nice to me. She had a chance to be a snotty teen to look cool in front of friends and she was so kind and concerned. She didn't want me to sit by myself at the theater. She was shocked to hear that I had gone to movies by myself. She was concerned I had been lonely. How sweet.
Her friend spent the night and about 11:30 a bottle of nail polish spilled on the carpet during a makeover. Actually it was while she was CLEANING UP from a makeover.
She was so apologetic that she had spilled it but also that I stayed up late trying to clean it up. I wasn't mad or anything, isn't it a rite of passage for every girl to spill nail polish on the carpet? She has been in a great mood all day in spite of little sleep. Now this is the sign that she is mature enough to have friends spend the night, hang out, good to the movie theater, etc.
Yeah for God in working in her heart.

Holidays are Over, Yipeeeee

2009-01-09T08:05:00.002-05:00

Ok I know this is not a popular or nice thing to say but I really do not enjoy the holidays as much as I think I should. I saw a Dr. Phil show and it was about Christmas grinches. I thought the grinches had some pretty good points. Like why is it at Christmas its demanded that family get together. I hear all kinds of marketing about how Christmas is about getting together with family. I don't mean to be a grinch but really........I thought Christmas was marking the birth of Christ. All the rules of our culture have made this event almost painful. For me, gift giving is not a joyous outpouring of love. It is a stressor to see who I do not offend. Who have I left out? Who is not happy with their gift? How have I broken the unwritten rules that my mom can create? I feel like I am on the defense. And not to gripe but I overindulge my own children to make up for their lack of extended family gifts. Stupid. Oh and guess what I do after Christmas? Return. I return things because I bought stupid stuff that got wrapped up so there was lots to open. Its just sick.
So there, I have confessed my weirdness. There were very few moments I thought really fit the Christmas season. Serving at church as a family. Spending Christmas eve with friends, Going to church on Christmas Eve. Hopefully next year I can do better with prioritizing consumerism vs. spiritual growth. I'd like to keep consumerism to the other 364 days of the year.

Ready for Christmas, always........

2008-12-19T08:27:00.002-05:00

Isn't it funny how people always ask this time of year......"are you ready for Christmas?" Its meant to assess if you have shopping, wrapping, card sending, etc completed. But i am thinking these days its a good question to ask often and all through the year. Are we at any time ready to celebrate the birth of Christ? Matt played flag football this year with Upwards. If you ever have a chance to be involved in this organization I cannot say enough good things. One of the lessons they taught the kids was about celebrating. It was strange to see kids in football/cheerleading uniforms with birthday party hats on. A great lesson for the kids to celebrate often. Celebrate birth, Celebrate life and celebrate in death. Now that one is a tough one. I can't celebrate when someone I love dies. I can't celebrate when someone I don't know dies tragically. It is however a beautiful thing when a life that has ended is celebrated. I am awed and amazed by loved ones who even in times of mourning can think of others. Our church family lost a young member tragically this week. Celebration, no, but ready for Christmas, yes. Ready for Christ at any moment, yes. Celebrating Him, yes.

Beautiful snow!

2008-12-06T21:43:00.002-05:00

Woke up to a winter wonderland this morning! The outside was frosted white with snow. It was gorgeous. It snowed off and on all day and really amounted to no accumulation. It was cold........... A good day for chilli and Christmas decorating. The kids played outside a little bit. I started planning for what cookies and candy to make for the holiday. Just a perfect way to spend a Saturday in December.

Facebook account

2008-12-05T08:02:00.002-05:00

Ok so in my attempt to join this century technologically, I set up a facebook account. My daughter has some friends who have their own accounts and I wanted to check out the security before I allow her to have one. The odd thing is that as old as I am, I still have several friends who have accounts too. I have learned that some of my high school graduating class have accounts to keep up with one another. Its a very odd thing but a great way to stay caught up with a few people that I just don't talk to or even email very often.
So visit me there............not that there is anything better on facebook. I think I like my blog so much better.

Thanksgiving

2008-12-04T07:56:00.002-05:00

Wow, did I have a ton to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving! My beautiful sister drove up from Texas with her two boys and one rascal dog named Sydney. The cousins had a great time. We celebrated Suzanne's birthday the first night. the funniest gift we got her were "lake shoes." They are fake crocs that are lined in fleece. We use them at the lake to walk around the woods, walk the dogs, and tramp through mud. Who cares if you ruin $8 shoes?
Our Thanksgiving day was so fun. We had friends over, drank wine, ate like pigs and spent lots of time outside at the firepit. We were exhausted by the end of the day but were ready at 4 am to go to Walmart. One of Sue's friends did something cute. Sue had to buy an item to prove she had been to Black Friday. It was a fishing lure. We loved the thought that we are planning for next year's item to have the badge of honor for going to the store and not hurting anyone but getting what you wanted.
Sue and I did so good that we had everything on our list at 5:12. Truth is, it was just luck that we started down the right aisle.

It was a fabulous week at the lake for us. I hope it becomes a tradition even though it wasn't very traditional.

Abandoning books!

2008-11-19T07:42:00.002-05:00

I hate to abandon a book I start. I can feel like such a failure. I read reviews, take suggestions, go to the library and am so excited when I find a book I have wanted to read. I start it and it ends up being a huge disappointment. I have to give credit to my friend Kelli. As a teacher, she has been a huge encourager to read what you love and not to feel bad about putting a book down. So I am returning A Confederacy of Dunces to the libraray. I don't care about the characters and am not the least bit curious about what happens. So there. Now if anyone tells me I just have to finish it, that it will change my life, I might reconsider.

I am moving on to another book I find more interesting. A Walk In The Woods is by Bill Bryson who is a travel writer. He writes this book about hiking the Appalacian Trail. Having grown up near these mountains and spending some time in them around the Gatlinburg area, I am interested to hear what he thinks of hiking the mountains. I remember hiking a few times in Tennessee but nothing more than day trips. As I read his account, I can pretend its an adventure I am not too old to take on!

Suite Francaise

2008-11-12T18:21:00.002-05:00

I finally finished this book. It has taken me over a month to finish. Not sure why, I guess there were too many nights I just went straight to sleep. Then I'd pick it up again and be totally lost and have to re-read passages to remind me of who certain characters were, etc. The cool thing about this book is it includes the authors notes in the back of the book. She died in a concentration camp and this book was just published recently. The back story of the author and her writing process was almost more interesting than the story. Although the book itself was good.
I look back at this past month and realize it has been very busy with sports, homework, scouts, afterschool clubs. Its finally calming down now. Soccer season is over, its the end of the trimester for the kids and flag football is over.
I have to give a shout out to the Upward Flag Football program. We have never done an Upward program before and it was awesome. I love the mission statement that every kid's a winner. The gospel is shared, the kids are prayed for and Jesus is always present at the games. Last night was the end of season celebration. Anthony Munoz was the guest speaker (famous Bengal football player) and there was a juggler. The juggler is known as The Juggler for Jesus. How cool would it be to have your mission to be a juggler? This guy was awesome at sharing the gospel while he did these really cool tricks. The best part was he had a very sarcastic sense of humor which I of course love. It was lots of fun and if you ever have a desire for flag football for your son or daughter (yes, girls play and are good, I can't recommend it enough!

No tricks, lots of treats

2008-11-01T20:19:00.003-04:00

What fun Halloween is when the kids are older! I sent Erika out with girlfriends. Ron went with Matt to Jake Bechard's neighborhood. Our neighbors put a firepit out in the cul-de-sac and set up tables. We had baked potato soup, hankie panks and lots of other appetizers. We had some Witches Brew wine. We sat, talked, and although warm at 6:00, it quickly got cold enough to enjoy the fire. It was so nice watching the other parents with their little ones. While we sat and chatted the night away without a care. It was great doing something that required little work and allowed everyone to be nice to strangers. The best part was that by 9:30 we were all tired enough to head inside. It was a very laid back evening.
Oh, the kids have about 30 pounds of candy. I am not kidding. There is no way the kids could ever eat all this. I am going to have to start throwing out a handful a day to get rid of it all. Well, after I eat my favorites!

Sleeping at the Zoo

2008-10-23T08:49:00.004-04:00

Tonight Matt gets to spend the night at the Cincinnati Zoo as a field trip. I think they are sleeping with Manatees. How cool is that for a field trip? I am very excited and wish I were there....sort of. Sleeping on the floor with 50 5Th graders who plan to stay up all night isn't exactly appealing. But I think it would be so cool to have access to the zoo at night and with no other visitors. Ron wanted to chaperone so badly but Matt didn't want us to come. It is hard watching kids want their independence. I think it hurt Ron's feelings. I wouldn't mind for Matt to have a little parental supervision. We have always been so involved in everything he does that maybe its time to let him do some things without us around.
I certainly do not intend to be a helicopter parent. But I am not sure I want to raise self sufficient children. Isn't it good to need others? I want them to have a reliance on God first but I also want them to know there is value in others. So, somehow I need to find that balance of not being a hovering parent but let them know that as a parent, I am available. I want them to know that our heavenly father is available always and eternally. He is faithful and will not make a mistake. As humans and as hard as we try, we will disappoint, make mistakes, etc but there is still value in relationship. I just pray God shows me the right amount of involvement.

Cool address stamp

2008-10-22T21:31:00.004-04:00

I was doing some Christmas shopping online. Yes, I realize its not time yet but I used to get mine done before Thanksgiving so I am giving it a try this year. I came across a great deal on those beautiful address stamps that I think look so elegant.
At www.expressionery.com they are having a 40% off and free shipping. I have always wanted one of those return address stamps. So I ordered one for me. Then it hit me how permanent that makes this address. Just one more way I am blooming. I am really accepting this is my home and am willing to pay to have it stamped on my mail!

corn maze

2008-10-12T16:44:00.003-04:00

This weekend we struggled to find a reason to get out and about. Although the weather was beautiful, the kids had already played soccer and football by Saturday afternoon. I suggested a pumpkin patch/corn maze. No one was really excited but we went. Stood in line for 30 minutes to ride a hay wagon out to the fields. I was getting cranky but we decided to do the corn maze. Its like a 9 acre corn maze. I have never done this before and was a little freaked out. Luckily my son the genius could just look at the map and had no trouble guiding us all through. It was really fun. The best best part was if you found some hidden spots, you could redeem a coupon for a free doughnut at the bakery. We skipped picking out our pumpkin from the patch and found one near the store. We bought our pumpkins, ate doughnuts and drank apple cider. The doughnuts were warm and cinnamon sugar, the best doughnuts I have ever eaten. It was a great day! They also had farm animals around including peacocks, emu, and llamas. Weird farm animals, huh?
Check it out at www.ironsfruitfarm.com.

Prep

2008-10-09T07:36:00.002-04:00

I just finished the book Prep. I bought it because it was cheap and looked like a book my old book club would have chosen. I loved that Arkansas book club. We had the best time when we first started many years ago and talked about food and Target. There were some who really enjoyed the reading and others who really needed to be around other adults. We had fun criteria for choosing a book- inexpensive, not too big and could pick it up at Sam's. Rarely did we actually order books from Barnes and Noble. I met and got to know women that I might not have met otherwise and certainly read things I would never have chosen myself. Sometimes it would take me a year or two to read the book (Lovely Bones) but I tried to read the books chosen.
Over the years, we spent a little more time talking about the books and got into some pretty heated discussions (A Million Little Pieces). We finally got our own Target so we didn't have to dream about it anymore. I have incredibly fond memories from that time in my life that include book club.

So back to the book. I had a hard time liking the character and really couldn't relate to much of her experience going to boarding school. Most of what she described happened maybe in college for me ( I guess I am that old). Certainly not my high school experiences at all. It frightens me for the kids going to high school now. They have so much more to deal with than I did. Does every generation say that?
I will remain in prayer through these years for my kids.

2008-10-07T16:36:00.002-04:00

So today is Tuesday and I had the privilege of spending an hour praying with a group of women. We are just getting started and I feel very rusty leading this group. Its almost comical how badly things can go, phone ringing, dog barking, forgetting to explain some details, etc. I am so glad God gives us grace. If his approval of me was performance based, I wouldn't have much to offer. So this morning we managed to get through the hour (plus a little)and prayed for our 7 children and Mason Intermediate 4th grade teachers.
The best part of the morning was actually after we were finished a few of us stuck around for just chatting. I got to know some lovely ladies a little better. I feel so blessed to be around some really awesome women.
So I have bloomed a little more in making an effort to make some friends.

The Shack

2008-10-02T07:44:00.002-04:00

I just finished reading The Shack by William P. Young. It was an interesting read and an unusual take on explaing God in terms we can relate to. Sometimes I wonder about trying to explain God. It seems as silly as searching for two matching snowflakes. No matter how we describe God we will come up pitifully short. Our language certainly lacks words that can explain I Am. But sometimes the search for the snowflakes can be fulfulling even if we don't find the two matching snowflakes. So maybe the point is to try. Enjoy the process of uncovering anything we can about God. Certainly we will come up short but won't we have enjoyed the process?
So back to the book....I am glad I read it. I didn't think the writing was fantastic but I surely loved the story. I have been reading lots of books lately so its always good to read one that is written by someone who loves God and wants to share a God moment.
I found this great website.. www.Goodreads.com. It is helping me keep track of what I have read. You can use it for book clubs, to promote your own book, etc. I just use it to keep a list of things I want to read and have already read. If you want to check my list out, look me up as shopper444@fuse.net under the friends section.

Have a blessed day!

Blooming?

2008-10-01T09:15:00.000-04:00

Although it is officially Autumn, I feel like Spring. In the last year or so, I have been in a "pruned" state of mind. I mean God really had pruned me down the the nub! I felt like I had to let go of nearly everything- my friends, my ministry opportunities, my credibility, my comfort. Not to mention a home I loved in a town I loved. Just like in creation, sometimes pruning is required to encourage new growth. I am feeling like I am showing some green! So I don't love my house and maybe that is a good thing. I would never have picked this town to live in but it is working out. I have had some opportunities to serve and meet some awesome people. Do I have new friends? Maybe not friends yet but I am finding lovely souls that could become friends with over time. I have a renewed passion for some things I took for granted. I may not be blooming yet but there is growth and it feels awesome!