Small things

Today's subject is "small things". Small things are often small. How is that for insight?! Pretty good after only one cup of coffee. But....small things can be big as well. Here is an example.

Once upon a time a very nice girl was eating a sandwich which she ordered on 9 grain bread because she read online about the health benefits of whole grains. One of the tiny healthy grains in her bread became lodged between her teeth. She tried to swish it out with mouthfuls of her iced green tea, but it wouldn't budge. Finally she excused herself, went after it with some dental floss, which resulted in a broken tooth. This lead to a mandatory dental appointment and a new crown, costing this health conscious girl $800. Because of this expense she was unable to pay for her college classes where she was studying to become a teacher and change the lives of the children in her class, one of whom was little Billy, who was destined to become president, but because of the stupid grain in the 9 grain bread, is now bagging groceries at the Food Mart.

I have struggled with the small things lately. Somehow they weasel their way into your thoughts and change your whole frame of mind. This is not good. One of the biggest small thing that gets to me is when people misrepresent the truth. Those words find their way into my brain and then make their way to my belly where they tie my stomach in a knot.

So today I say loudly and with a relatively decent amount of confidence, "I WILL NOT LET THOSE LITTLE THINGS GET TO ME ANY LONGER. LIFE IS SIMPLY TOO SHORT AND IT JUST ISN'T GOING TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING" (loud cheering)

So my fellow blog readers, follow me to a land of freedom from small annoying things bothering you. Step with me into the land where only big things bother you and hopefully sooner rather than later we will step out of that land and into one where nothing bothers us because my dear readers...WE ARE LOVED! (giant cheering sounds including whistles)

Oh Canada

Hello eh? We are back from our great girls get-away. Three generations of women have recently arrived home from some footloose fun in Victoria,BC. The weather was spot on as they say. We did just what we wanted to do and it was simply delightful.
How often do you get to do just what you want to do? I would say not very often. My guess would be a small-ish percent. So we all took our small-ish percents and squished them together into 3.5 days and had a brilliant time.

Included in that brilliant time was High Tea, castles, delicious meals, stunning views, British accents, shopping, soaking in the sun and atmosphere, walks by the bay, gifts for those we love, wax, wrong turns, right turns, makeovers, flowers, peanut butter and jelly, laughter....and the list goes on.
The most beautiful thing about this trip is that nothing will ever take away the beautiful memory so we will be able to take this trip over and over and over again. That is a very happy making thought, and a cheerful heart is very good medicine.

"Soree"

I haven't written in a few days because I have been oot of the country
I am soo glad I brought my runners..because we have been oot and aboot a lot.
Talk to you soon.

I don 't want to

We are all humans right? We get up in the morning, use the loo, brush our teeth (hopefully) or at least use mouth wash...please? We bathe, get dressed and plan our day. "First I am going to do this, and then I will do this, and then after that I will go there, and then I have to have more coffee, and then I will....

We logically plan our day. Makes sense. It is essentially the way we look at everything...with brilliant logic if we do say so ourselves. Most of us reason that way as well....sorry, can't include everyone in that category...we use the "transitive theory".
DEFINITION OF TRANSITIVE THEORY:
In mathematics, a binary relation R over a set X is transitive if whenever an element a is related to an element b, and b is in turn related to an element c, then a is also related to c.
Or for the mathematically impaired, of which I am the class president, A=B=C=A.

All that to say that I am continually learning that logic confines us into thinking only one way...and that things must happen logically or they are all wrong...and when things don't happen the way we think they will, we stomp our feet, cry, yell, eat quarts of Ben and Jerry's and snap at everyone who dares to speak to us during this catastrophic time in our lives. Can't they see that things did not work out logically ? How can they NOT know your pain?! Geez!

So even though I don't want to, I am beginning to learn that things can happen differently and STILL work out. I am seeing these strange yet amazing things happening in my life now almost every day.

I like logic..it's clean and neat and predictable...but illogical can be surprising and fun and often a huge blessing in disguise.

Hello Goodbye

Today I had to say goodbye to my sister. We had a good time together, playing games and going down memory lane. We shopped and went to dinner and had good talks. I am glad she came for her reunion and a trip to Lynden!

I also said goodbye to my Uncle Bill. It was so great to see him and thank him for all his help. He is an amazing helping Uncle. He is off to span the globe, and I hope to see him again soon.

But...I was able to say Hello to my Aunt. She is an amazing helping Aunt. She and mom should go on the road. Neither can hear the other and that makes for good comedy.
I am looking forward to spending a few days with her.

In 3 days I will be saying Hello to my cousin and her daughter. These next few days are devoted to...well, I will let you know when we get back.

Today I said Hello and Goodbye to my Dr. After all, that is the polite thing to do.
My appointment went well for the most part. Good blood work but we scheduled a scan for next month. Just a few questions we want to answer.

So it was a day full of Hey there's and See ya's. :) :( Each one chock full of meaning.

Faithful Blog Readers

Dear faithful blog readers,

Thank you for your faithful faithfulness as you faithfully read my blog.
Over the next 3 days I am not touching my keyboard. My fingers are going to be out of town.
I would love to hear from you anyway. You see, my ears or is it my eyes...either way parts of me, especially my heart will still be with you!!

Happy hot weather.

Dragonflies

I love dragonflies. I used to hate dragonflies.
The End
Just kidding. I used to think about dragonflies the way I thought about myself. My impression of them was that they had no real purpose, that they were ugly, they had no sense of direction and they were more of a bother to people than anything else.
Wow...that was a big fat assumption on my part....and you know what they say about assumptions....they say that assumptions make....well, yeah. That's what they say.

But today is a new day and I love dragonflies...I love them for many reasons.

Dragonflies feed on mosquitoes, and mosquitoes are bad. They rob you of your blood and carry disease. Each dragonfly consumes 50 or more mosquitoes per day. (wow, this is beginning to sound like a report I wrote in Mr. Hart's class)

These precious insects also indicate good water quality as they only thrive in unpolluted water. That there is a metaphor for life I think.

They also have 360* vision...yes, I said 360*

Dragonflies represent maturity and depth of character, power and poise sayeth the purveyors of intellect. The Dragonfly accomplishes it's objective with utmost simplicity, effectiveness and with 20x's as much power in each of it's wing strokes when compared with other insects. Bazinga! I say. Above all that, they do what they do with the elegance and grace of a veteran ballet dancer.

Finally, the dragonfly, to this day, is considered an agent of change.

Seeing these beautiful, graceful, purpose filled,amazing, talented insects now bring me joy. They remind me that I am loved and I have a purpose.
I believe that God made the dragonfly just for me...not really, but maybe. So assuming that He did, I would like to share them with you.
You're welcome...even though I had nothing to do with it.

Writers Block

With all that is going on, you would think that I had a plethera of things to write about. (Now is when I would usually make a comment to homeschooling moms about using the word plethera as a vocabulary word. But it's summer and school doesn't start for a few weeks.)

Anywhoooo, I have not written anything in the last few days due to writer's block.
"Writer's block is a condition, associated with writing in which an author loses the ability to produce new work. The condition varies widely in intensity. It can be trivial, a temporary difficulty in dealing with the task at hand."

So here are some suggestions I found online to overcome writer's block.

1. Talk to a monkey - Explain what you’re really trying to say to a stuffed animal or card board cutout.

2. Take a walk - Get out of your writing brain for 10 minutes. Think about bunnies. Breathe.

3. Do one chore - Sweep the floor or take out the recycling. Try something lightly physical to remind you that you know how to do things.

4.Make a pointless rule - You can’t end sentences with words that begin with a vowel. Or you can’t have more than one word over eight letters in any paragraph.

So here is my plan for today. I am going to take a piece of cardboard, cut it into the shape of a bunny. Then I am going to talk to it for a while. After that I am going to try and sweep the floor with it, which I think is pretty pointless, but never say never. Then I will take it to the garage and put it in the recycle bin restricting myself to only 35 steps, repeating to myself that "I know how to do things!" I really think this will do the trick.

So hold on to your hats because tomorrow's blog entry should be amazing.

Weekends

Weekends look much different at our house these days. This past weekend Joe was escorted by his Grandfather and a retired NFL player, who played for both the Miami Dolphins and the Seahawks, to the Seahawks new facility. With his VIP pass he was able to watch practice down on the field, he met some great guys and had a great time minus the rain. Joe even ended up with and injury on the sideline but I will let him tell that story himself...

Then it was off to Five Guys Burgers and Fries for dinner with said escorts. "It's like being in New York" Joe said, even though he has never been to New York. The line was long and you yell your order from the line to the guy at the counter who then yells it to the cooks and then you sit and hope for no cheese or tomato.

So this weekend's silver lining is.....learning to hang on to the good times, Five Guy's Burgers are huge, and be careful with that umbrella.

It's a sunshine day

Stepping a little outside the box for a little pick me up today.
I dare you not to smile! I think I wore the same outfit Jan had on.



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Is it always logical to be logical?

I spent some time thinking yesterday...I think thinking is good. Not thinking I think is not good most of the time.
So while I was thinking I had a thought. I thought about the number of things that have happened recently that seem to defy logic. Several of these are very good things and a few are bad. I was thankful, very thankful for the good ones, and bewildered and a bit angry about the bad. Ok, maybe more than a bit.
I am not just referring to my own life, but to the lives of others too. I can't tell you their real names because they might get mad, so let's just call them Betty, Veronica, MaryAnne, Ginger, and Elle May. oh yes, and me. We'll call me agent99.

So agent99 was thinking about some of the current mysteries that were assigned by the Chief...and she has decided to quit trying to always be logical. She decided that illogical solutions could possibly be the more effective way to think.
What do you think?

Caught some fun today

I love Deadliest Catch...whose with me?!
Several of the deckhands on the show, live in Anacortes.
Today Joe and I headed out to have lunch and run a few errands. On the way home we passed Edgar Hansen waving a sign for the Deadliest Catch car wash. It was to raise money for one of the deckhands who's father went missing in January.

So the three of us, Joe, Olive Oyl (my car) and I, went through the wash. So many friends and family members sprayed and scrubbed and rinsed and dried. It was so great to see the families all smiling and laughing.

As I pulled the car around, Edgar climbed up on the hood and I snapped his picture.
Joe was a bit embarrassed and I drove home with a clean car and a huge smile.