Be Here Now

Don't be afraid to do something wacky with your hair. It's hair. You can change it. Put in a pink streak, cut it all off, wear a rhinestone barrette. It is you that is beautiful, not your hair.
Put orange and yellow and pink together somewhere in your life. If you like it, it will lift your spirits. If you don't like it, it will be a silly spot in your controlled life. it's win-win.
Eat a delicious dessert with full-caff coffee after dinner once in a while. It does not make you bad or weak. It does not make you foolish because now you can't sleep. Stay awake and think about how lovely it is to be so sweet to yourself.
Wait until one of those inevitable moments when you say or do something mortifying. Look forward to it. Know that it is coming. Welcome it. When it finally arrives, look it over, examine it, think about it and realize...nobody died. It's ok.
Wear giant fake diamond earrings. Unless you're a man. Never mind, go ahead regardless.
If you get dressed and find your jeans are too tight, put on some sweatpants and realize that you can reverse the process. But only if you want to. You can also buy bigger jeans. Either option is acceptable.
Wear comfortable shoes that are not attractive. Wear fabulous uncomfortable shoes. Decide every day which one you want to do. Don't let anyone tell you which days are which.
If you need something from God and have not prayed or studied your Bible lately, ask him for it anyway. Be bold. Be brave. Be sure that he is not a distant relative who is angry that you haven't called lately. Consider it a moment to realize your faith still drives you back so it is still there. And realize that his love has held him close anyway.

Just Shopping In The Basement

Well I'm still working with my mom's laptop so bear with me. The link below again takes you to my mom's photographic memory lane.
Being a homebody at heart, it's really hard to haul myself off to work each morning when I really want to stay here and enjoy my new nest. I want to cook dinners and cookies and be June Cleaver but in order to buy a new house, one must have a job after all.
The Mr. and I are fortunate that not much will need to be done around here to make it finally ours. Whether he likes it or not, the Mr. seems stuck to live in a house where I am surrounded by the furnishings of my childhood. "Do we need to keep this?"
Yes it was on The Farm.
"What about this?"
Yes it was in the bedroom when I spent the night.
"We don't need one of these."
I need that. It smells like my gramma.
You get the idea. I keep telling him how grand it is that we don't need much new stuff. He is actually lucky I keep him around, he's the newest thing in this house!
As I've rearranged and "decorated" I have not spent a dollar. You see, I shop in the basement. My grandparents moved most of the furnishings from The Farm back to this house and simply set it up in the basement. So I just wander downstairs now and again when I feel the need for a basket here or a quilt there. New entertainment center? Hand on a minute. Clomp clomp clomp downstairs.Nah, we don't need a new entertainment center! Look what I found!
And so it goes.
I will admit that I am not entirely trapped in 1974. No, I have retrieved my beloved Bundt coffee pot! And my favorite mugs. And Lord knows my cosmeteticals had to be moved over immediately. It's not about going back in time. It's just about coming full circle. Suddenly, The Farm isn't gone. It makes sense to me. Just smile and nod your head.
Really, you should be jealous. While you're standing in line at Ikea, I just walk downstairs to my own Pier One and think of ways to put a funky spin on some old stuff that my grandparents probably forgot they had.
The Mr., my Bundt, Donny and Pier One all under one roof. Oh, and daboyz still manage to find their way "home" quite a lot.
Gotta go. I need a little something for that corner in the kitchen....

Kodakgallery.com Slideshow

Welcome Home!

cKodakgallery.com Slideshow

Here we are, home at last!
I have borrowed my mom's laptop and have no idea what I'm doing so let's just hope for the best. The slideshow link above is also courtesy of her photography a few days go. I attempted to put comments on each picture to give you some idea what you're looking at.
We are settling in happily and starting to feel more at home all the time. It's a slow but sweet process combining our stuff with that of my grandparents. Much of what will be given to others has already been removed and what remains we will decide over time. A few items are furnishings from The Farm saved for all these years. I have been claiming them for as long as I can remember and they will stay. The farm table upon which you will see our television was in the kitchen at The Farm. The pie safe with the tin front was there too. There's a fireplace mantle surround in the basement from the living room at The Farm.
Of course, there are other items representing that man that lives here, including his new television. I just wish it was bigger.
We are starting to figure out how we want to decorate and I'll share that as we get going. I have already rearranged quite a bit and I am happy with how everything is starting to look.
Donny is enjoying the yard and spends most of his awake time out there. As usual, with some item in his mouth and often laying in the snow. When he finally comes inside, he tends to lay directly on the hearth in front of the fire. I feel this is ill-advised as I've visions of hound tail flambe'. The Mr. thinks I worry too much. He has also brought many sticks onto the deck where apparently we are storing them. Perhaps to build a dam as the Michigan snow melts. Donny I mean, the Mr. rarely builds dams.
Speaking of the deck, I cannot wait for warm weather because on those mornings you can meet me out there for a cup of coffee. My grampa always had flowers hanging around the deck and I intend to bring his influence back by doing the same. Pictures of that to come.
So the long and short of it is that you can expect to see quite a lot of pictures of the place including this weekend's Easter dinner which we will be hosting. Appropriate I think, a day to celebrate new life.

March10, 2008

Deuteronomy 11: 19-21 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.


Yesterday the Mr. and I started the BIG MOVE to gramma's house. A very busy good day, as predicted. We did some moving in of Smith Stuff. Some storage of gramma & grampa stuff and a lot of blending of the two. Rearranged furniture that had been in the same location for twenty years and patted ourselves on the back for our cleverness.
Naturally, I went without my camera so day one is left to memory and description but I am packing it up today. The only room that is finally done to reflect us is our bedroom so maybe that will be the first to make the blog!
This morning I am sore from moving and rearranging, and rearranging, and rearranging again. But I feel good. At some point in the long day, we crossed a thresh hold literally and symbolically. We walked in to the home of my deceased grandparents. More than once there was a catch in my heart that if I settled in and truly moved them out, it meant they were dead.
Another thresh hold was just beyond the sadness and that was a feeling of inheritance. No, I am not inheriting the house. We are not the Kennedys after all. I am buying it from my mom and uncle. But I am buying my inheritance. And with it I am claiming it as my own. If my gramma and grampa convinced me of anything, it was that whatever they had was mine as well. Not in an entitled and spoiled manner but in a blessed and grateful manner.
I think the house needed to sit, frozen in time for a while for me to be ready for it to be no longer theirs. I wonder if anyone else felt the same way.
So it has been a time of crossing over thresh holds of homes and of hearts.
I promise to take you along via photographs, be warned that some will be forty years old and some hours old. This is part of my journey. But I think the tears have given way to delight as I embrace the whole of life. Puppies and houses, antiques and new televisions. Living and dying. And being fully alive. Just like my gramma and grampa are.

Busy With Good Things!

1. Starting the move to gramma's.
2. Dreaming about decorating.
3. Planning a barbecue.
4. Donny has school.
5. Need groceries!
6. Looking for a beautiful picture to go in my new beautiful green bedroom.
7. Loving my job and moving from "new co-workers" to "new friends."
8. I hear the Mr. loading the dishwasher, one thing off the list!
9. Feeling so wacky I think I might plant a garden!
10. Rested, happy, hopeful, joyful, silly, peaceful, grateful, BUSY!

Say Cheese!

Dear People,

Hats off to those of you who allow your picture to be taken and those who take the pictures.
I love photographs. I like ones of strangers that are just beautifully done and I love those of my friends and family even if they are out of focus and goofy. I am not such a fan of posed studio pictures.
Barry takes tons of pictures. And Arlene let him. So there are tons of pictures of her now for them to enjoy and remember her with. They were generous enough to share those at the funeral home. I wonder if they know how that soothed me?
It made me realize something. There aren't all that many pictures of me. Sometimes because I duck out, vanity~vanity. Often because I am the picture taker. Which leads me to believe my husband does not necessarily want pictures of me. I didn't realize that until just now. Clearly, I need to be hurt and perhaps devastated. Will work on that after I finish washing towels.
I was writing a post that would've done nicely with a current picture of me. I don't have one. I have just a few that I keep recycling and upon checking, I think they are all at least a year old.
T~'s mom, Sister Maryann, takes pictures of everybody. Constantly. I am convinced she takes pictures of strangers while grocery shopping to remind her to pray for them. She probably has a recent picture of me now that I think of it. The only way she could have so many pictures is that she obviously hides in shrubbery and snaps them. She is like a Baptist Paparazzi.
Arlene, Barry and Sister Maryann are right. As is Kellerbell although she too is the face behind the camera too often. I don't care if you're having a good hair day or feeling bloated or prefer that people use pictures from 1983 and pretend you have not aged. You are not Rick Springfield and you are not performing at the county fair. Nobody believes you haven't aged. Let us take a picture of you.
I was thinking that if I passed away, the Mr. would have to display pictures of me that would cause people to say, "Who's this chick?" Silliness. Not letting someone take your picture is selfish. I should be honored that someone wants a picture of me. After all, it is no secret what I look like anyway.
Having said all of this, I have nothing wise to conclude with other than photographs are awesome.

Quotable Quotes

BRING ON THE BELLY BUTTONS!

sorry, slow news day.

Rescue

I was reading an article about medical malpractice the other day that involved a bunch of different professionals. One phrase kept being repeated, "failure to rescue." As in, "Dr. John Doe's failure to rescue the patient resulted in permanent paralysis on the left side." "Nurse Nancy's failure to rescue the patient resulted in..."
You get the idea. A medical professional puts eyes on a patient, doesn't see what needs seeing or do what needs doing and it is considered failure to rescue that person from danger.
As a medical professional, I can tell you that what makes someone a good nurse or doctor is their inability not to rescue. It's in our blood. We can't walk away.
As a Christian, I am ashamed when the same instincts don't drive my behavior. I would not turn my back on a patient who had fallen. I'd run across the Target parking lot if someone was in distress. I'd do CPR and mouth to mouth on an accident victim covered in blood. No second thoughts. But do I feel the same urgency when the injury is buried deeper?
I confess to you that I have walked away from people in imminent spiritual danger. I've thrown up my hands and decided that nothing could be done. Including, apparently, praying. I say this because sometimes you can't talk someone into heaven but you can pray them there. I tend to stop talking and praying at the same time.
I'm not just talking about Bible-thumping. "Do you know Jesus as your own personal savior?" "If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?"
No, I mean redemption by example. Jesus loved people into healing. It was urgent for him, he couldn't not rescue.
Would I put my bare mouth over yours knowing you had HIV if you stopped breathing?
Would I keep calling if you kept lying to me, deceiving me, playing games with my trust in you?
Yes to the first. Probably no to the second.
Will there someday be a malpractice case against me?

1 Corinthians 12:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Things You'd Rather Not Know About Me

1. I have perpetually sweaty armpits.
2. My bedroom is a disgusting disaster.
3. I had a mole removed under my jaw but the scar still sprouts hair which I pluck regularly.
4. I know all the words to "The Devil Went Down To Georgia."
5. I am easily bored during sermons.
6. My car is full of stuff that should've been cleaned out months ago.
7. My kitchen table is piled with additional stuff forcing us to eat on the couch.
8. On a regular basis I attempt self-portraits with my camera and immediately delete them shocked at how ugly I am.
9. I have vericose veins in my legs.
10. I have a re-occuring wart on my right thumb that has been removed approximately 600 times. It is not currently there although that thumb is so scarred it no longer has a finger print. Also, I used the knowledge that the wart was on the right thumb to learn right from left in the first grade.