Category Archives: Family

You choose. Be happy.

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So I haven’t been here for a while. But this was too good not to share.

Warning: This is about get a little preachy.

Life is all about choices. Whatever you do, whatever happens, you can choose happiness. It may be harder at times than others – I know that firsthand – but you can still choose. My favorite line of the whole thing?

“Enjoy  your relationship with yourself, and then anyone who comes in will enter into a party you already started.”

I got a party goin’ on. I love that.

Oh, another favorite: “If you don’t see yourself as valuable, nobody else will.”

And: “If you don’t like you, it makes it hard for me to like you.”

And my final favorite is: Relationships – with God, your spouse, your friends, your kids – are important because, “You can’t be fruitful by yourself.”

But stop reading. Go watch the video. It’s way better than I could ever say.

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Sunrise to sunset

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Last weekend, we headed out to a show just as the sun was coming up.
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And arrived home just as the sun was setting.

I’d be hard pressed to think of a better way to spend the day than sharing an entire day with family. Beautiful photos courtesy of Kansas.

‘Tis the season of the UPS man

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You know you do a little too much online shopping at Christmas when your husband says, “I really wish we  could have gotten the driveway graded before UPS man comes every day for two weeks.”

And I agreed.

I’m not so much worried about the pothole for our vehicle, but I have nightmares about a top-heavy brown truck overturned at the bottom of the hill. Somehow, I don’t think Amazon Prime free shipping covers that kind of damage.

Which brings me to my current game. I log on to my computer every morning to track where various packages are en route to my front door.

And this is what I saw this morning.

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My package made better than expected time last week and arrived in Wichita on Dec. 5. This is where the problem begins. Instead of my friendly UPS man delivering to my door, they transferred the package to the U.S. Postal Service. Mistake No. 1.

USPS transferred my package to Lincoln, Nebraska. Umm. That’s the wrong direction. Mistake No. 2. The USPS folks in Lincoln took one look at the western Kansas address and sent my package east to Omaha. The N on the side of those Nebraska football helmets is for “Knowledge,” you know. Mistake No. 3.

Luckily, the package has now arrived back in Wichita, where it was originally delivered five days ago.

There’s a reason the U.S. Postal Service is going out of business, people. And there’s a reason I pay to see the UPS man. But now instead of worrying about the brown truck overturned in the driveway, I have imagined a red flag pops up when a package comes through.

“These people need to work on their driveway. Pass it off to USPS.”

I really hope not, though. I’d like to get my orders before St. Patrick’s Day.

35 years of patience

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My mother-in-law has driven the school bus for 35 years. God bless her.

There are gold stars for people like that; special places in Heaven for that kind.

She retired today. She deserves a few lazy mornings. And my son thought she deserved flowers on her last day.

 
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Pinterest made me do it

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I love Pinterest. You can see that here.

Just the other night my husband asked, “Is Pinterest the reason we can’t have normal food anymore?”

Isn’t he just hilarious?

But he won’t be laughing tonight because I’m making this.

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They love Lasagna Soup and the weather turned cold enough that it just seems like the right thing to make tonight.

Speaking of Pinterest. . . did you know that just “pinning” something doesn’t actually make it magically appear in your home? Someone should get on that. It would be so much easier.

So, I saw this pin recently. Iheartorganizing.blogspot.com is a great blog. I’ve read her blog for a while now because maybe there’s something to this learning by osmosis thing. If she’s organized and I read her blog then I’ll be organized too, right? Right?

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Back to this photo. If you saw underneath my bathroom cabinet, you’d cringe in horror. I took the plunge and bought a couple of plastic drawers. Now, to actually have the time to go through my stuff and see if I can make some sense of organizing that one tiny little spot in my home. I’ll keep you posted, but a word to the wise – don’t hold your breath.

A bittersweet Halloween, and why I kicked my son out of the car

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Yes, I realize Halloween was a couple of days ago. But if you haven’t figured out by now that I’m not organized enough to post things in a timely fashion, then well. . . you haven’t been reading long. That’s how I roll.

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We had a hunter this year. This has to be the easiest costume we have ever had. Mostly because my mother-in-law did it all. She found the camo pants because he had outgrown his old ones and during a trip to Tractor Supply she bought the vest and hat.

And this photo of my boy and his dog? That’s the bittersweet part. Last night Dixie was run over. So when I look at this and her looking at my boy so intently, it makes me sad. The life of a farm dog is a good, good life, but sometimes it is way too short. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

My husband helped with an FFA Haunted House so he couldn’t go trick-or-treating with us this year. And even though my oldest boy was “too old to dress up” I made him go along. He was thrilled. Eye roll. But the experience definitely took an upward turn when he realized if he walked his little brother to the door of the house of people we know, they gave him candy even though he wasn’t dressed up.

The highlight of the evening was this conversation with my oldest son:
Him: Can we listen to music?
Me: Sure.
Turns on his iPod to one of my favorite songs.
I sing.
He changes, mid-song, to another song.
Me: What? I love that song.
Him: Yeah, we’re going to have to listen to the radio a lot louder if we listen to that song.

Apparently, the extra volume was needed to cover up my singing. The nerve. That’s when I made him get out and walk.

No, not really. Really, I continued to sing and there was a lot of eye rolling. It was fun. Isn’t that what parents are for? To make their children learn to roll their eyes?

Near the end

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It’s about time to go to our last show of the year. I love showing. Really, I do. But I can say that I am going to be glad for a little break. Here’s where I should probably talk about the fact that I don’t have to do chores, but rarely do they trust me to do chores. And perhaps that has a little to do with the few mornings when they have asked me to feed and I get busy and forget. Until the next day. Not good. Not good at all.

Or maybe I should be saying that I be glad for the break on our bank account. And that’s real. This showing stuff is expensive.

But really, what I’m most happy about is that I won’t find this tracked all over my entire house.

 
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We bed on wood shavings and they stick to everything. Ev.ery.thing.

So next week when I’m sad our show season is over, (or maybe it will take until the week after that) remind me that I’m not constantly vacuuming, sweeping and picking up shavings. That should cheer me up.