Saturday, August 27, 2011

Misc. Afternoon Ramblings at Night

Priorities:  I have had really good intentions to blog all week.  I constantly am thinking throughout the day about things I could blog about.  And while I feel this blog (and about a dozen other items on my "To-Do" list) are valid and good things that I'd like to do; ultimately I have to weigh things out and prioritize.  I think "Priorities" is sometimes an overused catch-phrase.  I've come to realize lately that personally MY priorities boil down to basically 3 things:  1) My marriage and relationship with J.Crew.  2) The unity of our family.  3) Raising our children to be honest, hardworking, upstanding and positively contributing members of their community.  When I look at my list of things I feel like I "should" be doing, "would rather" be doing, or just feel need to be done I realize that at some point they will either fall off the list or meet one of those three priorities.  With that being said maybe J.Crew is right, now is not a good time to get a dog.

hot-Hot-HOT:  Holy cow!  It has been so hot around these parts lately.  As I was walking today I saw several poor inch worms just inches away from grass and soil that were literally scorched to the sidewalk.  Apparently nobody gave them the memo that it was a kamikaze mission to approach the blazing sidewalk- let alone attempt to cross it.  It's a little ridiculous!  I literally was laying in bed at around 3 this afternoon because it was just too dang hot to do anything but lay in bed and enjoy the cool air circlimg around me courtesy of the fan.  The minute I got up to do anything productive (believe it or not laundry, floors, and cleaning the kitchen finally made the priority list after almost a week of doing just enough to get by).  I can't wait for the fall to finally decide to show summer to the door.  Mark my words I'm refraining from turning on the heat until absolutely necessary this winter!

You Get What You Get:  I was at a gathering of girls the other night and one of the girls was talking about a particular struggle her family is going through.  I was familiar with this struggle because I've dealt with similar circumstances.  As I listened to her vent (which we ALL need to do at some point) it hit me that we as humans are always looking at the grass on the other side.  I realized that when I've gone through particular struggles whether they be financial, emotional, relationship, social, educational, etc I've always just wanted it to be done.  I've always thought, "Haven't I learned my lesson yet?!  Can't I get on to my real life?!"  As I listened to this friend talking it hit me, There is always going to be something.  Not in a depressive-hopeless-throw-in-the-towel kind of way.  But honestly we are always dealing with some kind of difficulty.  That's how life is, anyone who says otherwise is probably trying to sell you something.  After coming to this realization I began reflecting on some of the difficulties in my life.  And sure enough in hind sight it could be looked at one of two ways; A) Life is the gaps between the problems or B) Life is the problems and growing and learning from them and becoming stronger for whatever comes next.  But in reality even when you're going through challenges there's always something worse.  Yes, that's a bit "Pollyanna" but it's also true.  I remember going through a time of unemployment and just wishing that we could find a job so we could get on with "REAL" life.  Well we found a job and then about two or three months later were hit with other challenges.  Those were overcome with other challenges shortly following and so on and so forth.  But again in hindsight I realize that from each of those challenges I learned something about myself, or about human nature, or about life that helped me deal with the next challenge.  As I deal with my current challenges I realize that I'm fortunate to have a husband who is loyal and faithful to me and our family, to have friends who stand by me and carry me through difficult times, to have my children who bring me SO much joy (and frustration) but allow me to see what matters in life, that our family has good health and to have a faith that helps me keep things in perspective.  No life isn't always fun, sometimes things are difficult and I have to have a good cry and stomp my feet and have my tantrum so I don't waste anymore time on focusing on things that I can't change.  I've spent a lot of time in the past spinning my wheels worrying and being angry or defeated about things that were out of my control and lost a lot of time in the process that ultimately didn't change the situation or help me deal with it and left me in the same condition or worse.  So the old adage children quote to each other is very well applied to life; you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.  (I have no idea if the message that I formed in my head translated and will come back and read this at a later time when my brain isn't half asleep but I hope it makes sense.)

Bobby-Pins:  A friend of mine recently shared this with me and it literally left me so excited!  (After reading this you will realize that maybe I'm a little dull that this should cause so much excitement.)  I found out that I have been using bobby-pins incorrectly my entire life.  I have always used them with the wavy side up but in fact they are intended to be used with the wavy side down against the scalp.  Of course after being thus informed I had to try it and was AMAZED at how well they held in this fashion.  Phenomenal!  So there's a little tip from the clueless and bland.  =)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Don't do it, you do not want a dog!