Thinks By Me

We arrived home from camping last night around 8pm (lots to tell!!), unpacked what we absolutely had to, crashed into bed about midnight and we're up packing to leave for NC in another hour or so. This is just a status check to say that I survived famously out the wild blue yonder. When I get back home, my status will be updated to reflect step-daughter twice over. Ta-ta for now!

This is going to be interesting. We are leaving for a 5-day camping trip...my first ever experience tent camping. Hero Guy has been a die-hard backpacker for years, and after getting coerced into one backpack trip, I had my fill of lugging my 35-lbs of housekeeping stuff around like a hermit crab. Thus, the fam has never experienced camping together until last summer, when we borrowed a camper. Surprisingly we all loved it. The kids had a blast, I have to say that I actually enjoyed it since my expectations were low and Hero Guy relented and had to admit that he actually had fun at a campground community rather than being deep in the wilderness. But I've never done the tenting thing and neither have the kiddos. We'll be gone for five days, and we're talking the real deal....the heart of the Adirondaks. We are at a state campground, so there will be toilets and running water, but we will be repacking the truck every single night with every morsel of food to keep the b...

I do not tend to be brand loyal, I'm definintely a gadget girl, and I love trying any new product that comes on the market. BUT I have a few tried and true items that I never substitute. I use them every day and when they are used up or out of shape, I go buy the exact same product without exception. Here's what I love and I won't replace and if I can't get it for some reason, I just go without. 1) New Living Translation Bible 2) Financial Peace money wallet 3) Carmex lip balm 4) Lavender Vanilla pillow spray 5) Mom's Plan-It calendar 6) EXTRA Polar Ice gum 7) Purex Lavender Fresh laundry detergent 8) Dixie PerfecTouch Grab 'N GO coffee travel cups 9) Avon Silicone Glove hand cream 10) Arm & Hammer PeroxiCare toothpaste And, those are a few of my favorite things!

It's amazing how much a decade can change a person. I was thinking yesterday about my life ten years ago, and I hardly recognize the old me. Practically every element of my life is different than it was just a few short years ago. Here are some of the things I recognized: 1) Then I thought I didn't want to be a mother. Now I'm so happy God trusted me to be the mom of a 10-year-old boy and almost 9-year-old girl. 2) Then I was quite private and dignified about bodily functions such as using the restroom or adjusting my underwear. Now terms like "fart, wedgie and poop" are completely normal everyday language. 3) Then I was lonely a lot. Now I can't even remember the last time I was lonely. 4) Then I had a career that consumed my life and I loved it. Now I can't imagine returning to the job that required so much time and energy for something so insignificant. 5) Then I didn't have very many close friends because I worked too much and they all had k...

"When life whacks you so hard your head flies off, sew it back on and keep going."~ Mary Pierce There have been several times in my life when I felt like life had whacked me a good one. One of the first was when newly married, my adventure-seeking hunk of a husband decided electrical engineering wasn't enough of a thrill for him, and a quick tour in the Air Force would be a lot more intriguing. Being the thoughtful planner that I am, I had intentionally not married a serviceman, a traveling salesman, a professional athlete or any other person of such vocation. I wanted stability and sameness. Instead I got the opportunity for my faith to grow. The second was when I found out I was unexpectedly pregnant. I had married with the full intention of never having children and seven years into my marriage, I was still resolved. I was shocked, frightened and in total denial as the news sunk in. I gave myself a weekend to get used to the idea of having a life I never intende...

Dreams come in all forms, from thoughts about how your life will turn out, to wishes about what type of car you'll drive one day to having your perfect house and so on. I would say that typically I'm not much of a dreamer. I tend to be more of a realist, certainly looking forward to things to come, but generally living practically, in the moment. I'm noticing as I grow older though, I do seem to be developing a dream of sorts--one that would become a mission, one that would recognize a passion, one that would establish a sense of purpose. I'm finding that as I live my day to day experiences, although I'm happy and content, I'm also ready to find that sense of purpose in life, the thing that makes me jump out of bed in the morning ready to dig into the job that is custom-designed just for me. I realize that I have a set of strengths, talents, gifts if you will. I'm at the point in my life where my children aren't quite so dependent on my help, my resp...

Little Chic and I participated in the first meeting of our Mother Daughter book club. It was a thrill for Little Chic because she loves belonging to any type of group or team, but this was the first official 'club' she's ever joined. We had run out to our favorite Barnes & Noble the day we found out the book selection we'd be reading, and we started right in when it arrived from special order. We took turns reading aloud to one another and finished within two or three evenings. We've been waiting impatiently ever since for the book discussion date to finally come, and we were the first to show up at the doorstep of the discussion leader Thursday night. It was pretty impressive to see a group of 8 to 11 year-olds talk intelligently about the book's themes including friendship, courage, self-doubt, insecurity, peer pressure, etc. The moms sat back and listened just interjecting enough to keep the conversation flowing, but it was really neat to see mature ...

I just can't seem to help myself. I'm a die-hard list girl, calendar keeper, scheduler of activities--I think I was born to be a concierge. I just can't seem to let the days of summer laze along without knowing what is supposed to be happening. Even if we aren't running ourselves ragged with outside activities, I'll resort to lists like "bathroom cleaning day" or "mopping floor day". Today was "Friend Day" the weekly event that we have in summer among all the other scheduled activities I make a regular practice like "Library Day" and "Park Day". It is always enlightening to have somebody else's kids in your house. You never know what type of impression your house will make on them, and they are sure to let you know whether you live in a hovel or a mansion compared to their own abode. Today Little Chic had "Best Friend Forever" from school and Brainy boy invited "Cool Kid" from church. B...

This is the scene beside my bed. The mess is a little embarrassing, but the point is that I always have lots of books sitting in that spot because I love to read, especially before falling asleep. I've read at least part of each one pictured this week, plus others that are sitting other places (neatly stacked of course). Today was the first of our weekly summer treks to the local library. One thing I can say for myself is that I have passed down a genetic love of books and reading to my children, an obsession that I received from my own dad. Since my kids were crawling, I've been taking them to the library, and they would beg to visit Barnes & Noble long before they ever knew that Toys R Us existed. Luckily we have a very family friendly library in town with its own kids room separated off from the adult area, stocked with toys for the babies, coloring supplies for the toddlers, besides the regular library goods. Brainy Boy and I have always been habitual readers, taki...

"Once in a while you have to take a break and visit yourself ." - Audrey Giorgi I always considered myself a "people person". Being a loner-type was not an attractive quality to me. I thought that my happiest environment was to be surrounded by a multitude of friends or family or even people I didn't know--any living body would do, every waking moment of the day. I eagerly accepted party invitations, would show up at events even if I didn't know another soul and would quickly mingle with the crowd and make new acquaintances. I felt that I needed human interaction pretty much on a constant basis. Once I had kids, I began to crave something different. Quiet, solitude and time outs became a staple of my daily time diet. Days where I had constant company, sweet little voices waking me up in the morning, accompanying me to the toilet, helping me grab the mail, contributing to my telephone conversations, clicking the "Reply" button over my shoulder...

Summer life is about to get interesting. We have a myriad of personalities living at this address, and I'm getting stretched from stem to stern in an effort to keep the world harmonious. Little Chic is an on-the-go kind of girl, needing some type of project, activity or schedule to look forward to in order to avoid the depths of despair induced by boredom. Brainy Boy is the quintessential homebody, having the dream of staying home absolutely every day, not leaving the house (or at least the yard) for any reason whatsoever, and going to bed at night without ever setting foot off the property lines. I am somewhere in the middle, going a bit stir crazy without some variety, but needing some time at home base to keep life organized and running like a fine-tuned instrument. In an attempt to keep things as balanced as possible, I've lined up a variety of free or low-cost activities for Little Chic. Brainy Boy won't have to enroll in any summer camps or team sports, but he wi...

See Me Here on Sunday!

Little Chic is a team-type girl. If you can play it, join it, sign up for it or compete in it, Little Chic is the first participant. Today Little Chic played her first soccer tournament. She has been playing recreational soccer since she was four, but due to our steadfast determination not to drag the family all over creation, we've declined opportunities to play competitively at this point. Since recreational leagues don't generally participate in tournaments, this was a new experience. Little Chic is used to being on the best team in her current league. She has had the same coach for four years, he plays competitively himself and is the varsity coach for our high school team. The consistent coaching combined with playing with the same teammates every season has turned her team into one with decent skills for their ages and experience. As a result, Little Chic's team generally wins their games easily. However playing against traveling teams, even with players of t...

I witnessed an amazing thing last night. Little Chic was invited to sing at our annual church family camp which is about a 45-minute drive from our church. That's a big undertaking for an 8-1/2 year old girl, but being the aspiring American Idol that she is, it is also right down her alley. She has looked forward to it for weeks now, and she drove us all nuts rehearsing her rendition of Amazing Grace with the performance track about a gazillion times since Sunday. As yesterday approached, her nerves set in a bit, but excitement was still the dominant emotion that exuded from her. For some reason, Little Chic had her heart set on Hero Guy making the show even though we'd all seen it performed at church and a school Talent Show already. Because of logistics of getting us all to the destination on time, I took Brainy Boy and Little Chic myself and Hero Guy drove directly from work. To complicate matters, Hero Guy needed to leave directly after the 3- minute performance t...

My July 4th evening ended with a 9pm call from a girlfriend suggesting that on Wednesday, we take the kids to a beautiful county park nearby. I readily accepted her offer and we headed there around 11am to enjoy the sandy beach and small lake (or big pond, whichever way you want to look at it). The weather was fantastically perfect, and it was a little eerie realizing that less than 10 miles away FEMA is visiting the flood zones created by the storm last week. We dragged ourselves out of the park at 4pm to make it home in time for Little Chic's soccer practice. On a funny side note, while there, I was snapping pictures left and right, attempting to properly document our first calm summer day since school has been out. I was standing by the lifeguard chair when I heard a teenage voice asking "Excuse me, but how much did you pay for that Canon body?" My mind started whirling in confusion, thinking, "My 40-something husband thinks I look pretty good, I do work out a...

I took this pic last week at Little Chic's Girl Scout trip to Darien Lake during the laser light show. I don't consider myself politically savvy or anything, but I am a die-hard patriot. If you have problems with our country and the way the government does things, my suggestion for you today is to find a nice military person and thank them for defending your right to state your views out loud without getting arrested. It'll seriously help your attitude. In any event, today's celebrations are not so exciting. I plan on recovering from the massive work I did yesterday helping Hero Guy unpack the doo-dads from his camping trip. You'll remember my groaning last week about doing so much to help him get prepared for said trip, of course. And a side note, is that I competely unpacked all my own stuff from my trek to the amusement park with Little Chic. On his behalf, I will admit that he was saving people from floodwaters while I worked on my own. At this moment, H...

Just another reason I love living where I do. I can make a bonfire (well, Hero Guy does it for me) and make S'mores any ole time I want. And I don't even worry about the field catching on fire because 1) It's been a flood zone around here lately and 2) I live with a real-live fireman who would probably relish the opportunity to put out yet another fire (as long as it isn't too serious). Brainy Boy succeeded in blistering his lip with the metal prong of the marshmallow stick. It seems during our many sessions of the roasting activity we still haven't trained our offspring to safely remove molten sugar from metal sticks with something other than their mouths. Brainy Boy is immensely interested to know firsthand whether sticking one's tongue on a metal flagpole in the wintertime will indeed attach the tongue permanently to the pole (he actually asked me today if I'd ever done it myself). Since I have forbidden him to experiment with the ice/pole thing, he ...

If you're not sure what a "Carnival" is, it's a group of bloggers who all submit a post and they get published together in one spot. The Blogging Chicks does a carnival every Sunday. It's an easy way to find some good blogs that you might not normally come across. I don't always submit an entry, but I did this week, so you'll see my name listed in there somewhere.

I was midly guilt-ridden today as I returned the babysitter home after she had spent the night at our house. Driving down the streets of our little town, the sidewalks were littered with carpets, furniture, toys, appliances--anything that stands within waist-height of an adult. These things all had to be discarded by their owners because of the massive flooding taking place on the east coast, some of which hit our nook of the world. The guilt wasn't due to me having my belongings preserved, but more for my lack of affection and connection to the things I own. I'm feeling a bit convicted that I need to appreciate the things that are sitting in their respective places from the dishes clean in my cabinets to the carpets that aren't swollen with sewage-contaminated mud. As I surveyed the mess around town, I reflected on how heartbroken I'd be if I had to discard my son's beloved Star Wars battleships or my daughter's collection of stuffed kitties that I routine...