Long Hair- I long for it...

So sometimes it is fun to wonder about the superficial… Yes I’m blogging about hair again. This time it is because I am so motivated to growing it out. By chance Becster happened to lean into me when we were taking a picture and I got a glimpse as to what I might look like with light colored long hair. I like it. I’m going to miss my short cut though, it is sooo easy and I hope somewhat unique. Still, now that I just had a birthday- guess I want to hold onto whatever youth I have left. That or I just like the idea of having a different look. Here’s some pictures for fun (if I wasn’t so cheap I’d get the program out there that shows you what you’d look like with different types of hair cuts/colors but…). This is it for now.

Proverbs 16:31 (NIV)

“Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained by a righteous life.”

CHANGin' my Bloggin' Ways

I use to spend my breaks at work blogging but that is no longer permitted. This will mean that I will be posting less (but not all together).

It might be for the best- blogging can get very addictive and refocusing on other “stuff” is probably advisable. It was great though, it gave me an outlet in this time of my life when I really needed one but I have to say- I am almost done now. I have great friends and family to talk to when I need someone to listen and maybe I don’t need to talk as much as I use to. Besides I should work on getting more personal- email and blogs have their place but relationships need more meat than just that. Still, I’ll never be a phone person and with lil’ ones running around- I probably never will be so while we may interact less, hopefully it will mean more when we do.

Wish blogging at home was easier- it always seems like my internet connection is lost and the time it takes is more cumbersome in general. Lil’ ones and hubby in all their love require a lot of my time so when I try to take time for myself… that and my mind is mush first thing in the morning and in the evening, work gets my best.

Sites I won't neglect are my POSC and Family ones. I love my peeps and my pics too much to let them go.

Do a Dirty

Today, this Saturday, we WILL get ALOT done. Today, the schedule is wide open. Today is the exact type of day we shouldn't squander because we've got plenty coming up and I want to enjoy all of our activities, not stress about what work I need to do.

Today I get up, eat and head outside. I rake and rake and I get it all done. This is probably the 4th major raking attempt I've undertaken and well, I left the worst for last. I had to do the poop section. That's right, I gave up control of this issue months ago. I have plenty of other concerns and I just can't do EVERYTHING so the poop issue stopped being my issue. Now by poop issue I'm referring to the poop that the dog leaves behind in a designated area of the yard.

Got the section bagged and while it was probably one of the more disgusting experiences I’ve endured, it could have been worse. Most of it was not "fresh" so I was grateful for that.

Then to the side of the house, the last portion to do. Oh my, that is the NEW poopin' place. My gut is in knots, I'm totally grossed out. The anger is swelling, I don't want to do this, I don't want to be the ONLY one doing this. Oh well. I get through it.

Now for the fun. I get the shrub trimmer out. I go to town. All those nasty vines plaguing our fence are gone. Gone and bagged. I even sprayed the area to to ensure they don’t return. YIPPEE. But I'm not going to stop there- I want to trim to size those 4 six foot bushes along the fence. I do and they look so much better. Now to bag them.

Ahhh... but the kids are hungry and hubby's not back yet. I feed them and head to the bathroom. I notice the water level is not right. I flush the toilet and it fills to the top. I decide to checkout the other and while I'm gone, lil' guy lets out a blood curdling scream. What happened? Oh my. I RUN. The bathroom is flooding, big kid says he told lil' one not to flush but...

I get every towel, EVERY towel and get the situation under control. I make various attempts to contact hubby and finally he makes it home with the Drain-o. We do our best, the problem is not going away and is in fact coming out of the tub now. Drain-o is on all the toys in the tub- toys have to be thrown away, we make plans to sleep at my brother's and try to wrap things up.

But in the meantime I still had those branches, somewhere among all of that- I bagged all the shrub cuttings and cleaned-up the backyard. We still have to clean-up the house (the kids had free reign while I was working), cook the defrosted dinner, push through the load of laundry that was in process (praying that doesn't become something we regret plumbing-wise and then the phone rings). It is a trusted friend who knows a plumber. I call and get voice mail. We decide to head over to brother’s once a few more tasks were handled (vacuming, etc) and I feel awful. I stink and I don't want to do anything but crash in my bed. Gathering up all our necessisities, my allergies are kicking in and headache is ensuing (a headache that plagues me today).

Next day the problem resolved itself. Yeah. Then lil' one went and did a dirty after Church (when guests were over and right before we were heading out the door) and the problem reared its dirty face again. There are bigger problem now to fix- yuck. We call the contact again and find out we can save $100 if we wait for them to come the next day. Well.... $100 is $100. We continue to do our business in the yard (it was clean, was being the key word). Oh well, we bagged the gross stuff....

Would you have waited another day for a $100 savings? Would you have tried to resolve the issue yourself at the first sign of problems?

Not that it is all over with- I am happy and relieved that it only costs $100 (+ the drain-o) and that now our pipes are clean.

Laugh

We’re driving in the car, good moods all around. We are looking forward to our Small Group meeting and begin to discuss it. I mention that I felt sorry for a friend whose husband won’t be able to make it. We’re studying Marriage and that just seemed a little unfair. My husband replied that her husband was doing what he needed to be doing (working late) and that at least he was bring home bread. I said yeah and money. Ha ha ha ha. I start laughing, I can’t stop. Man I’m funny (really I’m not but I do amuse myself). Husband doesn’t find my comment that funny but is getting tickled at just how tickled I am. We are happy, good laughs are fun. We rehashed the story for our group and I start laughing again. I love to rehash a good laugh.

When was the last time you laughed really hard about something?

Child Support or Death?

Today in the news I heard about a guy that “disappeared” for 25 years after faking his death to get out of paying child support. Child Support? Child support is so hard to pay that you’d fake your death for 25 years to get out of it? Can you imagine being that “child”- WOW. Some people have issues (and those people shouldn't be able to procreate).

Priorities (why have them?)

There are the basics- God, family, health, work, friends, house, projects, activities, rest/leisure, etc. But out of the basics it is important to pick out where you’re lacking and have a plan on how to improve the situation. For a long time I was lacking the God department. Having attended Church my whole life, this shouldn’t have been such an issue but I knew I was falling away. Basically I was making decisions that were preventing me from making God a priority. I knew I was living outside of his will for me but I resisted changing because I was afraid (the fears are too numerous to list here- that’s for another blog another day).

To focus on this priority, I had to make some changes. Among the changes required, adjusting my Saturday night routine was IMPERATIVE. I love to be social and spending time with friends is always fun and my friends loved to burn the midnight oil well into the evening and so… I in return would also. But something wasn’t complete.

I knew God was tugging at my heart, expressing disappointment with the decisions I was making, and so I decided to make those changes I had resisted for so long. The changes were small at first but they progressed.

First of all I decided that NO MATTER WHAT I did on Saturday night, I would go to Church on Sunday. Now that led to some pretty rough Sundays but what the heck, I made it. The second was to stop with the excuses- the kids were a creating too any distractions during service, the Hubby didn’t want to go, I don’t feel well (but well enough to do other things later). When tough Sunday after tough Sunday started to become more trouble than it was worth, I started adjusting my Saturday night activities so that I would be in better shape for Church. See, I started to realize that 99% of the time the benefits of what I get out of my Sunday mornings versus the good times on Saturday night were always in God’s favor.

What you do today does impact tomorrow and if tomorrow is important to you, make good choices now. That and sacrificing can be a privilege; there is no better way to learn life lessons. Now I try to put myself in a position to succeed, so that my choices line-up with my priorities and it feels good. I fail all the time and if you’re reading this and know me well (or at all), you probably have some examples ready to go about how I fall short but that doesn’t stop me from trying (not anymore anyway).

Sure I’m still silly, I have a sarcastic side and I’m sometimes too (fill in the blank) but I like that I’m me/a work in progress.

Does anyone else have a story to share about a change in priorities? I know this is a deep one but sometimes life should be- it can’t all be sound bites.

Tools are GREAT

Have you ever used an adhesive dispenser? Oh my gosh- they make life sooo much easier. I have not entered the cult (I mean world) of scrapbooking but after having attended a number of very fun parties, I have to say there are some neat products. One that comes to mind is the tool they have to cut perfect circles, ovals, etc- I don’t have this set but I do love it. The second thing that comes to mind is the adhesive dispenser that I bought. I was looking for something inexpensive and practical to buy and boy did I find it. Actually, I don’t think it was inexpensive but it is worth it’s weight in gold (well it is pretty light but gold is somewhat costly so I suppose that’s a good comparison).

Anyway, I had a project to do for my son’s school (long story, we had company, no time, etc). The project went well and the dispenser made it look so nice. I know I can trust that my pictures will continue to stick and that is important too. I mean who wants to go through all that work for a project that isn’t going to last?

So there are 2 tools I might not have heard of otherwise except that I came upon it by chance. You may not have been aware that they exists but boy can I tell you that they make my life A LOT easier.

Do you have any wonderful "finds" to share?