A Few Thoughts Before I Leave

Just trying to chill a minute. I always get nuts before trips because there is always one more thing I should have done.

We're headed to Dallas this weekend and it's not for the football game. I do believe that a large part of the population of this area will be missing this weekend. Would be a nice one to be home. :)

My apologies to all my blogging friends for my lack of reading and comments. We're throwing together a party for my ds--graduation--and everything kinda fell together but for an earlier weekend than I expected--as in next Sunday. So I was busy yesterday designing and printing postcard invitations, and making list upon list of what is needed, wanted, etc. I'm so glad he's satisfied with simple things. A room, some balloons, lots of friends and his pictures from traveling Europe. I'll get a cake and arrange for some music and voila--party! But even simple takes time. I can't tell you the time it took just to get the invitations centered on the postcard pages...You know how it goes....

The other interesting thing is that in the midst of my oldest getting his wheels together and on the road, going to college, having his pary, in the center of all this come the clear reminders that his younger brother is coming into his own. It's been interesting to watch. Up till now Son #2 always wanted to copy Son #1, which annoyed older brother to no end. But not anymore. All of the sudden my younger ds cares about what he's wearing (before he'd match paisley with plaid and not understand why his brother didn't want to be seen with him), and he's standing up for himself more. He's been pestering me for a couple months for a desk for his room, found one on sale one Friday when I didn't have time to put it together for him, so he did it himself. All by himself. It was amazing and he was on cloud nine for the entire weekend. All in all I'm ready. I love infants, babies & toddlers, but I'm just not so good with boys from 8 to 12. It was my least favorite stretch with both of them.

At any rate, there's the ramble. I'm off to Texas and I will see you bright and early--or fried and late--on Monday. :)

Workshop Write

To my granddaughter, with love

You have reached a time in your life when everyone wants to give you advice. Not that we haven't before. But when a new life has come into the world, for some reason it releases a "sharing compulsion" in the rest of us--whether we've had children or not. We have a vested interest in this littlest of Stewarts, and all of us have just the bit of wisdom that will make you the perfect parent.

Not possible.

So let me tell you a story that will help you sort out all the bits of information that come flying your direction. Bear with me, because you know how old women love to tell tales.

It was the first time I tried to feed my inlaws. Now when I say inlaws, and you think of two people, you are short by about 50. Well, maybe 23.

I came from a large family myself, and my mother was fond of feeding crowds, so the dinner itself was not something that had me quaking in my Mason shoes. I was feeling pretty confident, actually. I had made up most of the side dishes ahead of time and had them in the freezer. My plan was mapped out with plenty of time padded in for emergencies. Exactly on time, the food was hot, the table was set--both for the adults and the children, whose table was usually neglected--they were both absolutely gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Everyone was seated and beaming and so ready to eat. And I was so ready to feed them all that I'm sure I had to be brought down a notch or two just to be human.

The Stewarts were well suited to the job and they didn't even intend to be. I served what I would serve my large Italian family. Only these folks were German.

Pasta with red sauce is not a good mix with children and a beautiful table. What was too spicy for one was too bland for another. There were requests for more of what there was none of. Large heaping plates of the most delectible items were left untouched. There were requests for things to be heated up; there were people blowing on things to cool them down. If I heard "What is this" once, I heard it a thousand times. I started with sliding down in my seat, and ended in the kitchen with tears sliding down my face.

That's when Great Grandpa Herman slipped in for a glass of water and pressed what looked like a fortune cookie slip of paper in my hand that said:

A single dish cannot satisfy the tastes of a hundred people.

He kissed me on my salty cheek and whispered, "Well done!" before he toddled back into the dining room.

I thought about it while I washed up a few dishes. He was right. I'd done my best. It's just impossible to please everyone. And no one was going away hungry. I was after the unattainable--perfection. When I let go of that ideal, then the meal was all-in-all less of a disaster. I knew I had figured it out when I walked back into the dining room, where everyone was smiling, and talking and laughing. It was good. Not perfect. But good.

How does this apply to you now? Honey, you can't use everyone's advice. Not when someone says you should feed the baby on demand and another says you have to put him on a strict schedule. You can't do both! In the end, some well-meaning giver of advice will be unhappy because you're not doing her best thing. But the unhappy person should never be you or your infant. So take all the advice you get, weigh it, and do what *you* think is best--go with your gut! And as long as that little one is smiling, "Well done!"

Today's Word

calefacient (cal-uh-FAY-shunt) noun: A substance (e.g. mustard) that produces a sensation of warmth when applied to a part of the body.

Interesting word.

But I can't manage calefacient today. Unless there is a calefacient substance that will loosen up my neck and make my sinuses stop hurting. :)

Today is a butterfly day!

They are everywhere! First of the monarchs are migrating and they come through here this time every year. But this year they seem to have brought friends, particularly little lemon yellow friends with black markings that look almost flourescent. They are so cheerful. I want to go somewhere where they gather--like the butterfly garden at the zoo, and take in all the flitting and flight before it's cold again and there are no summer noises or flutters. I do love fall, but winter is...is....ugg!

Oh, I'm not getting very close to my 1,000 today. Does the address on an envelope count? I have to send off the letter for my copywrite course. I'm going to tweak the thing to death. Revision is just another form of procrastination.

I am starting to like the idea of setting aside November to push through something completely. Annie keeps reminding us that we have permission to write just whatever comes through the pen. The more I think about it, the last time I really felt comfortable doing that was before I started school! As soon as we hit kindergarten or first grade, things start having to be "right" before you can get a good grade. We don't have permission to make mistakes, to learn through experience. Mistakes are "bad." Wrong answers don't get funded. And then the only place where this idea of learning as you do is allowed to live to a degree is in the arts, and what is the first thing to get cut when the school budgets are suffering? No wonder we're afraid to take risks.

There's all kinds of things that can happen when you don't limit yourself. My dh learned this early on, and I think he's one of the luckiest people I know. In his mind there is nothing that he can't do. As a result, he's tried so many different things. And he has unique thoughts all the time, because thinking liket he next guy is boring. It's one of the greatest things that came into my life with him--that idea that not all risk taking is bad. There's the type that's fruitless and dangerous, but playing it safe can really set more limits that anyone needs or should want.

So here's to the excitement and the energy of taking a risk. Writing it down. Then later--making it work. Or being blown away that it's more than we ever thought it could be because we didn't think it to death first or play it safe.

Goodness...only half the goal here. Let's see what the prompt does for me today....


Well, I'm not getting anywhere and I think my connection is about to blow. I'd better save the second half for later and do laundry.

Something for Today

This is how today has gone.

A new store called Aldi's opened in MWC last week. Their circular in Sunday's paper showed a television for sale. A 27". Considering ours is 17" and we bought it before my oldest son was born, we've been thinking it's probably time to consider replacing it. Not only is it poised to go out if someone sneezes hard, our eyesight has gone the way of most mid-40s adults and we find ourselves squinting too much, even with glasses. This makes us feel old. So we're thinking a new TV will make us young again. In a manner of speaking. Not to mention, it's embarassing when one of the boys asks dh what the score is on the football game and he has to walk up to the TV to be able to tell them. :) Sometimes I wonder if he's lost track of where the ball is altogether, but he'll never admit it if he does.

So I showed up about 1/2 hour before the store opened, at dh's request, figuring the ad was a lure and they'd not have very many. He was right. They had two. Thankfully there were only two of us there when the doors opened who were interested in the TVs. I staked my claim and 10 minutes later there was finally someone there capable of putting the thing on a dolly (it is quite heavy). I spent this time fretting about how it was going to fit in the car and then telling myself to lighten up because we could figure that out when we were at that stage and it was useless to worry about it beforehand. I'm learning. I was also quite fortunate that I decided to bring cash with me. I thought about putting it on a credit card. The conversation with myself (in my head) went something like, "I wonder if they take credit cards? Well of course they take credit cards. What store in their right mind doesn't take credit cards these days?" Answer: Aldi's.

Two pluses in my column--I got there in time to get the TV and I brought cash! :) (Aldi's takes cash and debit cards. That's it. In case you're ever here and want to go there. LOL!)

Well, getting it in the car was not a picnic. Finally the young man who was being so cheerfully helpful said, "When I worked at Best Buy sometimes we took them out of the box so they would fit in the car." Okay--that worked.

Understand that by this time it's 9:20 and I'm supposed to have my car at the shop to have it lubed at 9:30. But now I have a TV loose on the back seat that's just waiting to tumble about without box or padding. I know I have to go home. The young man must have sensed my urgency, so he collapsed the box and said, "I'll take care of this for you," and walks back to the trunk, shuts it for me while I pile in the driver's seat and take off.

I get home. Thankfully my oldest hasn't left for school. He carts the TV in and puts it on the coffeetable. I zoom off to the garage. Where I'm cheefully taken care of--no mention of my tardiness. Another plus in my column.

Feeling pretty good, and noticing that I'm childless for the moment, I decide to stop at Target real quick and pick up something on sale. Then I head home and remember that I'm supposed to have hot cooked pasta at the college for my ds's speech class. He's making his specialty pasta dish he loves so much. I'm running a little late at this point. But I keep my calm except to bite my younger son's head off a time or two because he's asking so many questions that if he'd just think about a minute he wouldn't need to ask. You know how it goes.

I arrive at school at 1:12--which is pretty dead in the center of "between 1:10 and 1:15" wouldn't you say?

Another plus in my column.

So I toodle on home and decide to get the box out of the trunk so I can get this crazy TV off the coffee table before someone's feet push it over, and guess what? The box isn't in there.

So I hope the TV works. I just have this feeling that all those little marks in the plus column are going to fall over when dh sees there isn't a box. Normally something like this would be a minor issue, but he's been so tired getting used to a new work schedule and all. I can just hear him--"What if this, what if that? And what will we do with it while I'm modifying the entertainment center so it will fit?" I'm not looking forward to it. I'm praying for the wisdom and self-control not to point out that it would be a larger obstacle in the box than it is now. :)

And I came home from pasta delivery with an awful, awful headache. But there were bills to pay, deposits to write out. I need to study my ASL lesson for tonight. The kitchen is a wreck, and here I am writing this. :) See ya--I have to play catch up and see how many points I can keep out of the opponent's column. LOL!

Till next time!

(916 words + letter for copywriting class=I have today's 1,000 word goal!!! Wahoo!)