Something To Think About

In addition to attempting to conquer a book or so a week, I've been picking up this book here and there...

A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works

It's set up like a devotional, a reading for each day of the year. You get little excerpts from C.S. Lewis' works. And trust me, each day leaves you with quite a bit to think about. I'm wondering if I ever attempt to pick up one of C.S. Lewis' weightier books whether my brain might explode.

So anyway, these bite size snippets are really good, and enough to get a busy mom thinking. Yesterday's reading really hit me. Here's a bit of it...

"We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven--a senile benevolence who, as they say, 'liked to see young people enjoying themselves', and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, 'a good time was had by all'. Not many people, I admit, would formulate a theology in precisely those terms: but a conception not very different lurks at the back of many minds. I do not claim to be an exception: I should very much like to live in a universe which was governed on such lines. But since it is abundantly clear that I don't, and since I have reason to believe, nevertheless, that God is Love, I conclude that my conception of love needs correction." --from The Problem Of Pain

Well, That's A Monday Alright

Monday hit me square between the eyes this morning. Still groggy from a night of painful coughing (getting better, but now my chest is bruised or something), I woke up to discover the clothes didn't dry last night. More importantly, the school uniforms. Once upon a time everyone had at least 2 school polos and 2 bottoms, but the oldest kids are down to one a piece, so this is not a good thing. Ash and Josiah could get along just fine, the other 3, not so much.

I decide right then and there not to stress. We are going to be late, it's ok. It's the first time all year. I'll just let the kids sleep a little longer. Unfortunately, it still threw all of us off this morning. Add to that one missing uniform shirt (but 2 insisting they are 100% sure they put their uniform shirt in the wash) and having to make sure I was showered and halfway presentable as the repair man would be here anytime between 8am and 5pm, and it wasn't a good morning.

I always feel bad on these mornings. I don't want to lose it, and I didn't, but I was just generally snippy with the kids and I know it's wrong. Except for the missing shirt, it wasn't anyone's fault really. Just a string of not so great things happening all at once. The thing that really made me feel like a louse was when Sophia nicely pointed out in the car...."Hey Mom, you didn't pack me a sandwich." Ugh. Lucky for me I had money to give her to buy lunch at the school.

It's been better since I got home. Steve was still home, so I got to spend a little time with him while he finished getting ready. I made sure he had a sandwich. Even the fact that the repair man couldn't fix the dishwasher today (Heck, he can't even finish it tomorrow, he'll be back on the 20th) isn't getting me down. Of course, most of the dishes are clean. I'm sure I'll be a little bummed tonight when the sink is full again.

I've got a pot of "Poor Man's Stew" in the crock pot, even made some fluffy dumplings to go on top. I'm going to grab Vintage Jesus to read while sitting at the school waiting for practices to be over and tonight, Steve and I move on to season 2 of Mad Men. I'm so happy to be able to go from a season finale last night to season premiere tonight. None of that pesky waiting a couple of months pondering what is going to happen.

Sure, it wasn't the greatest Monday, but in the whole big picture, I'm still a very blessed person, so that's how I'm going to choose to look at it.

Lazy Saturday Ramblings

The kids had a snow day yesterday. It was only an inch or so. I'm sure that's pretty laughable to you New Englanders and Mid-Westerners. Yeah, we can't handle the snow around these parts. But I got to sleep in yesterday, so who's laughing now?

The school didn't cancel the homecoming festivities for last night. Which was fine with me. The roads were nice and clear by time we headed out. I actually remembered the camera. I was excited to take my first sporting event pictures since Steve gave me my new flash, a Speedlight SB-900. Sadly, I couldn't seem to get it to do what I wanted it to do and ended up taking most pictures without a flash at all. I really need to start looking for classes. I'm frustrated with having equipment that should take awesome pictures, only to take mediocre ones because I don't know what I'm doing. Steve did buy me these books....

The Digital Photography Book

Scott Kelby

The Digital Photography Book, Volume 2

Scott Kelby

It would be nice if I knew someone that used a Nikon too. It seems most of my photographer friends use Canons. But I'm going to figure this thing out this year. At least I remembered to change the ISO last night. One of my biggest mistakes, or one of the ones I'm actually aware of, is having the ISO on the wrong setting.

Anyway, the pictures from homecoming are ok. It is nice being closely involved with Yearbook. I know exactly what I need pictures of, and how they need to be taken.

As far as today, I stayed in bed til 11. I never picked up the 12 hour Delsym, so I would wake up every 4 hours needing to take more meds. But at least with the meds I was sleeping a good 3 hour stretch without coughing.

Of course, a sinkful of dishes was waiting for me when I got out to the kitchen. I stayed in my donut jammies most of the afternoon. Washing dishes and thinking about how much I am going to appreciate my dishwasher when it is working again.

I made a batch of these cookies after reading about them on Hannah's blog yesterday. I had been thinking about making them ever since I read about them. I love shortbread. I separated the dough and made half with just chocolate chips and the other half with pecans. Ridiculous. They just melt in your mouth. Pretty good straight out of the oven, and even better if you can wait long enough to let them cool down.

Now I'm just sitting on the couch with my favorite quilt, blogging and listening to our newest musical discovery, The Khrusty Brothers with Tori. Steve's at the mall with Alex, Sophie, and Ashley. I suspect we'll wrap up the evening with a little snuggling and an episode of Mad Men after he gets home. Not a bad way to end a lazy Saturday.

Resisting The Urge To Pat Myself On The Back

've finished two books already this year, Brave New World and The Great Gatsby. I'd say I'm on pace to read 100 books this year, but I'm sure there will be weeks or possibly even a month or two when I don't crack anything open but my Bible. I figure I'll just read as much as I can while I'm motivated, to make up for those times when I don't.

Brave New World

Brave New World was surprisingly good. Not a "classic" I would've picked up on my own, but once I picked it up, I couldn't put it down. Aldous Huxley's take on our possible future is disturbing and intriguing. Things that may have seemed like they would never be possible when it was written in 1932 now are within our reach, scientifically. I knew nothing about it going in. I kinda like reading books or watching movies like that. All I need is a good recommendation from a friend.

The Great Gatsby

As for The Great Gatsby, it has always intrigued me since my big sister, Nicole, brought it home in high school.I tried to pick it up back then, but she told me not to touch it. And trust me, you didn't want to touch Nicole's stuff! Not that she ever really did anything to me, but the threat alone was enough to keep me away from her stuff......most of the time. Anyway, It didn't suck me in right away, but once it did, I quickly finished it.

Now I'm onto The Hunger Games (for real this time Kelly). I'll probably have it done by the end of the weekend. If not, but Monday afternoon. The kids have 4 days of practices next week, so plenty of time for reading. At least something good comes out of having to wait around for them!

So That's How It Works

I'm still fighting this horrible cold. I woke up at 3am last night and pretty much coughed on and off til the alarm went off. I even kept Steve up and he's usually a sound sleeper.

So this morning I decided to declare war on the horrific coughing. First I looked up my symptoms. Dr. Google consulted with the Mayo Clinic and we all decided I have bronchitis and just have to wait it out. There were some things I could do to help it along. Like take vitamin C, a cough expectorant, and a cough suppressant.

Off to Target I went to pick up Emergen-C and something that would offer some relief. I decided on Target's off brand of Mucinex DM. I'm cheap and the meds are the same. I don't need to spend $5 more just for a name and a fancy box. And bonus! Target sells their own brand of Emergen-C now for $3 cheaper than the real stuff. I hurried up and checked out before another coughing fit came my way. Hopped in the van and popped the pill hoping I would get some relief.

Well, I had to go to Costco. I will say the meds did take the edge off the need to cough. I was only coughing half as much as I was before, which is still a lot, but also a big improvement.

I'm the kind of gal that reads all the labels, so I was wondering what the possible side effects and precautions were. Nothing really on the box or bottle, so I consulted Dr. Google again. And I found out something very interesting about my friend, Dextromethorphan, otherwise known as DM on a lot of medicine labels. DM is the cough suppressant. How does it suppress your cough one might wonder? It acts on a part of the brain (cough center) to reduce the urge to cough. Maybe I'm a bit of a nerd, but I really thought that was interesting. Although, now that I know that, the medicine seems to not be working as well. It's like I've let my brain in on DM's little secret and it's having none of that anymore.

So hopefully tonight will be a restful night for Steve and I. If not, maybe I'll relent and actually go see a real doctor like Steve told me to do in the first place.

One Very Expensive Drying Rack

I'm beginning to think dishwashers don't like me. I mean seriously, all the attention they get around here. I use mine at least one, sometimes twice a day.

Well, my 6 month old dishwasher decided it wanted to stop working right before everyone arrived for my New Year's Eve party. The party where Gary was making steaks and I decided you can't eat steak on paper plates so I'd use regular plates because I've got a dishwasher, so no big deal. Heh.

It wasn't so bad, washing them all by hand, but add a chest cold that set in right after everyone left and a water problem yesterday afternoon, well, the dishes are piling up. I took the time to lay down this morning, even though I hate doing that even when I'm sick because Steve doesn't get that luxury when he's sick. He just sucks it up and goes to work. And the kids hate to miss school, so they just deal with it. I do feel better for it, a little guilty, but better for it.

So now, I'm going to attempt to get that sink emptied before I have to run and pick up pictures for Yearbook this afternoon. That Yearbook is going to be the death of me. It's turning out to be a real mess. I'm going to call the former Yearbook lady to take a look and tell me what I need to do. The final copy has to be in by March 22. I just feel the time ticking away. I think about it all the time. Doesn't help we had some newbies that messed up some pages. And one girl did two pages completely upside down. They looked great otherwise. But we are going to have to fix them. I think I might bring it home and make Tori, Alex, Sophie help me this weekend. They are in Yearbook so it's not going to hurt them to help me out.

Time to wash my dishes and let them dry in my fancy drying rack.

Things I Want To Do

I feel like I've been caught up in the daily humdrum of life lately. Laundry, dishes, laundry, driving kids here and there, laundry. I'm beginning to feel like nothing more than a mom again. Not that being a mom is a bad thing, because it's not. I'm honored that God entrusted these 5 children to me and I take that job very seriously. But there are some things I've been wanting to do that I've been neglecting. So I'm not going to neglect them so much anymore. I know I have time to be a wife and mom and work on these things. Just takes a little more organization on my part, but I know it can be done.

Unity, I feel like I've lost this connection with so many people. Once again wrapped up in daily life and failing to reach out to others beyond Facebook, blogs, or Twitter. I want to extend Christ's love beyond cyber-hugs to my friends. This quote, ironically found on Mark Driscoll's Twitter recently, really struck me...

"Unity is gained slowly and lost quickly and therefore must be labored for continually."

Reading, which I talked about yesterday. I've already finished "Brave New World" and picked up "The Great Gatsby". "The Great Gatsby" will be my at-home reading. "Hunger Games" is in my purse. I'm going to start that this afternoon while I'm at the kids' practices.

Photography, I want to take more pictures and actually learn to use my photo-editing software. I love taking photos and it kills me when my pictures don't turn out any better on my newer camera than they did on my old cheap point and shoot.

So as the year progresses I pray my friendships will be stronger, my pile of "to-read" books will be smaller, and my pictures will get better. As for the laundry, that pile isn't getting any smaller so I'm going to tackle a load while I have the chance.

Just Because I Enjoy It

I like to read, but I don't. I feel guilty sitting down and reading when there is always something to do around here. So I've decided I'm going to work hard, but I'm going to find some time to actually read. I've started with one of the books that Steve gave me for Christmas...

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

So far, it's mostly disturbing and very intriguing. I'm only a chapter and a half in. I'm also surprised it was written in 1932. According to Steve, it's a classic, but I had honestly never heard of it before I opened it on Christmas morning. It might take me a month to finish it, but I'm going to read it. I think each day I'll also sneak a page of the book I bought Steve for Christmas...

A Year with C. S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classic Works

C. S. Lewis

And I'm sure I can find a couple of hours to devour this book that Kelly let me borrow...

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

I keep hearing such good things about it. I'll keep this one in the van with me to read during those 3 hour long basketball practices down at the school.

So this year, I'm just going to read for me. I'm going to read because I love it.

2010, The Year I Don't Procrastinate

Or at least, that was my plan. I was going to blog or at least post a picture to my blog every day. Yeah, didn't happen. But today is a palindrome. And that makes me really happy. Happy enough not to worry about starting a bunch of sentences with conjunctions. Although, I like to blog like I'm just kinda talking and I start a lot of sentences with conjunctions when I am talking, so I've decided I'm not going to worry about it.

I do plan on reading more. Kelly brought me another stack of books which look very good, but I'll probably watch The Omen first. She and Sam joined us for New Year's Eve. I'm so glad she came. I'd like to think it's because she likes hanging out with me, but it may have been Gary's steaks. We played Tori's "New Moon" board game while waiting for the rest of the guests to arrive. It was ridiculously good fun. The rules were complicated and confusing, but that ended up being part of the fun.

Sam, the cutest dog ever

I had quite a houseful for New Year's Eve. Nicole, her family and her best friend/good family friend, Tammy stayed with us in addition to Kelly and Sam. 3 of Steve's brothers and their families were here too. What a blessing to be surrounded by such a large group of friends and family, just laughing and enjoying ourselves. I really am blessed to be so loved. I am thankful for God's grace of a house that although small, was able to accommodate all of us. I'm still hoping to be able to turn half the garage into a bedroom for Alex that can double as a guest room by this time next year. We pretty much use the garage for storage any way. Never have had the room to park a car since we moved in.

So Happy New Year to you all. Take the time to enjoy the many graces that God gives to us. May it be filled with the love and laughter of your family and friends, like mine has been so far.