day-shza-BOO (okay, that's a play on words!)

Normally, the third time's the charm but sadly, it took me until the fourth time to divulge this un-important blog post.

Ok. I am an observant person, especially while driving. I drive the shuttle back to the church on Sunday mornings after we pick up all the kids and they get on the bus and we're headed to church. Ok. And (basically) every Sunday morning for years, I have passed a family in a green minivan headed to church in the opposite direction. Now you might think that it is weird that I would notice. But they're just a distinct family in a green van. I don't want to bore you with the details of why they're distinct, just trust me, it's distinct.

So about a year ago, I'm in Target and I see a lady in a long skirt (clue: Christian) and her daughter in a long skirt (clue: Christian) and her son. I'm like.....oh....I bet they're Christians. Well, they noticed me, too, because I was wearing.......a SKIRT! I smiled politely in a small acknowledgment of, "Oh yes, I notice that you're a Christian. Incredible!" I go on my merry way. I notice, while I'm in the toothpaste aisle some people peeking around the corner to look. When I turn my head, this same daughter and son combo walk hurriedly past like they weren't lookin' at nuthin'. Ok. That was really weird. And it happened a couple of times. Then, I actually start to look at these people and I realize, they are the people I pass in the green van every Sunday morning on the way to church. So weird!

I can't remember the second time I saw them.

But I definitely remember the third time. I'm standing in line at Wal-Mart, waiting while a (dear) old couple insists that this particular Valentine candy is not the price that's being rung up on the screen. At 5:07pm when everyone and they brother, mother, and sister are picking up dinner ingredients. I tried to hide my irritation because they were (dear) old people. Anyways, I look across the aisle, and who do I see checking out in another line? You guessed it! This time, it was the mother and the daughter, sans the son. By the time they were done checking out, I was done purchasing my few items. They were about 10 feet in front of me as we're walking to our respective cars. I am not lying when I say that the daughter turned around at least 5 times to stare at me. I'm like....YES!...I wear a skirt. There are other people on this planet that wear skirts!

The fourth time was tonight. I'm in Walgreens and in walks a man, his son, and a lady in a skirt. I"m like...oh!....those people must be Christians. And, boy, do they ever look familiar. As I'm walking out of the store, I realize.....IT'S THE PEOPLE IN THE GREEN VAN!!

Next time, I'll have to introduce myself.

may I be an encouragement?

Sometimes, I feel like I give-give-give of myself in areas and see absolutely no return. It can be discouraging. I don't know if any of ya'll have ever felt this way before.

But don't forget, "...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." (Galatians 6:7)

I was reminded of this last night after my cello lesson. My cello teacher is AWESOME!! And I was so blessed as I left my lesson last night. I was her last student and she could have easily packed me out the door at 8pm sharp. But she didn't. I was there at least an extra 10 minutes. It may seem like a small thing but she had been teaching since 3pm and she simply took extra time with me. And she said that she was glad to end the day with me. Wow! She is such a blessing to me. (And I do believe that she is a Christian!)

So as I was walking to my car, I was reminded that I do get blessed for my efforts. Even if it's not necessarily in the direct capacity that I have given of myself, I am still rewarded.

"...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

garden update

The radishes are doing pretty fab. My Mom and I get a chuckle out of the "radish patch". We planted the radishes from seeds (compared to almost everything else with starters). When Mom planted the seeds, she just pushed back the dirt in a small square and scattered the seeds in the little patch. So when all the shoots came up, they were really close together. We didn't get around to thinning the radishes until they were pretty big. So we're going to have a lot of radishes this year! Have you ever tasted a homegrown radish? Delish! Very intense flavor. And very crisp.

On to the broccoli. We didn't cut it soon enough. I asked a lady down the street (who has a garden) when to cut our broccoli. She said that if you wait until it has flowers, it's too late. Ours has flowers. It's kind of a bummer, too, because it takes up so much room but there's not very much yield.

Everything else seems to be coming along splendidly. I did read on a gardening website that lettuce can be sown for a fall harvest at the beginning of July. So we plan to harvest our Romaine lettuce and sow more seeds. That will be fun!

How is everyone else's garden doing?

wastefulness

Here's a mumble-jumble of thoughts in my mind on wastefulness.

#1 - I clean houses for people. The thing that I have observed the most is the quanity of things that people have. It truly amazes me. As I clean, I think, "One of the downfalls of America - commericalism". American people have to have just to....have. (Does that make sense?) I'm not talking about a shelf full of books. What I see is just stuff. Stuff that's not used. Stuff laying in piles. Just stuff, stuff, stuff. Sometimes after work, I want to come home and purge my bedroom. I am just reminded not to be consumed with having things. People have things and are not happy. It's so wasteful to have too much stuff.

Which leads me to my second point.

#2 - I believe that sometimes, Americans are too busy. Disclaimer: I know that there are seasons in time when we are busier than others. However, I think because we are too busy, we waste money. Example #1, if someone is constantly running helter-skelter, the tendency is to continually eat out which equals extra money. Example #2, if we're too busy, we tend to waste money by carelessness such as misuse and misplacement. I think about a family that I work for. They are so busy with activities, they don't have time to care for their things (ie - in laundering, in use). Things get thrown around and beaten up so much but because they have the money to replace, it doesn't matter. That thinking is so wasteful, it makes me sick. We don't need a lot of things to live. My opinion is better quality, high price, and smaller quantity is more efficient than poor quality, low pice, and big quanity. By not taking care of things that we have purchased with the money that God has allowed us to have, we are displaying an attitude of wastefulness. Ok, I'm not saying that we need to live in a hole and eliminate our activities just to take care of our things. But I contend that, at times, there are things in our lives that can be eliminated so that we are not constantly running about hurried-scurried with our brains fallin' out. I've just been irritated by some things, as you can tell. I typically only write opinion posts after I've been irritated.

Which leads me to my third point.

#3 - No, I am not an environmentalist. No. No. No. However, living like the typical American is wasteful. Think about all the plastic that has been thrown away. Think about all the paper we consume. Think about all the extra stuff we have. Think about the time and energy we waste running frantically from place to place because it's required by society. YES, I know that the earth was created by God for us to use and enjoy but that doesn't mean that all of sudden, we just spend, spend, spend and waste, waste, waste. That's not being a good steward.

I just think it's better to live a simpler life. It's good to drive places and enjoy the things that are around us. It's good to try to grow (some) of our own food. It's good to recycle (to an extent, not overboard and weird). It's good to give away things that we don't use instead of throwing them away. It's all good.

It's all good.

Was that a mumble-jumble?

yes...no...maybe so???

These are silhouettes of my Mom when she was a little girl. I thought they were beautifully, wonderfully vintage so I snagged them before she could say no! :) I hung them on the end of my four poster bed for a bit of whimsy. However, ever since the bathroom was remodeled and my bedroom repainted, I've had hardly any decorations up on the walls.

Here's a "before" picture of my dresser with nothing above it.

Here's the "after" picture. I still think the top of the dresser is a little cluttered. But since I only have a bedroom to decorate and not an apartment or house and there is not much flat space, I kinda have to go with a bit of a cluttered look if I went pictures and knick-knacks out.

What do ya'll think?

bus decorations

Our new memorization is Psalm 23. I'm bragging just a little but here's a list of what the kids have memorized on our bus: the books of the Bible, 10 commandments, days of Creation, they are familiar with the Beatitudes, Psalm 100, plus the regular Bible verses they learn each month on the bus and weekly in Sunday school. I am so proud of them! And I pray that some of these kids will grow up to be future pastors, missionaries, and laymen in the church.

Here is where each car starts.

Each kid has a car with their name on it and they will move from sign to sign as they complete each sign.

The cutest little decoration ever; but because it is HOT outside and the windows have to be OPEN, the poor little guy had to come down. I'm still pondering what to do with him.


the new welcome sign

yes, I still love you!

So sorry that I haven't been blogging regularly. Now as I type this, I think of others who take their lack of bloggging with wonderful stride. No apologies from them. But I have noticed a few other gals my age that haven't been blogging as much either and they apologized. So my apologies. Life has just taken over.

I guess I'll write about what has been consuming most of our time and energies these days and that is my Granny. I spent the night with her last Thursday night which was the same day that she was released from the hospital. I thought I would get intermittent sleep. Are.you.kidding.me.?? Right!! Basically, I slept from 10:30-11:00PM and 4:45-6:00AM. Goodness! It was a really rough night. My term: the mother of all nightmares.

The good people at her assisted living center said (all of a sudden) that she would need 24/7 care. Oh, okay! After they had said that she would be just fine living at the assisted living center and that they could handle her just fine. My poor mother. She has been running helter-skelter since my Granny broke her hip almost two weeks ago. After that proclomation from the fine folks at the assisted living center (hereafter: FFALC), my Mom called around and hired a care giving service to come stay with Granny for two nights in a row. She was supposed to be transferred to a rehab center on Monday (yesterday).

Since that didn't happen, I decided to stay the night last night to keep in the good graces of the FFALC. Last night was marvelous compared to Thursday night. I actually did enjoy intermittent sleep. My Granny is doing better (said hesistantly). We're moving her to the rehab center because she gets more therapy there. At the asssisted living center, the therapist only comes three times a week. At the rehab center, she'll receive therapy twice a day. The rehab centers around here is a nice name for a nursing home. And we have always said that a nursing home is the very last resort. But that's what we're gonna have to do. I honestly believe that my Granny will be able to make a speedy recovery. She is in excellent health except for back problems and now this hip problem. The goal is to get her back to her assisted living center soon! We're even reserving her room for a little while until we can gauge how quickly (or slowly) her recovery is going.

So there you have it. My update.

I did some re-decorating on the bus we use for Sunday school pick-ups. Pictures will be posted soon!