Day !

We really wanted to go on a vacation this summer.  If we don't get off sooner rather than later, we usually don't get to go at all.  I was a little worried when we didn't leave as we originally planned, but it worked out okay.  My teacher husband got his contract signed for a school in the fall and that is just fine to delay for.  We got some of his pictures hung in his room and some of his school stuff out of the garage and up to the school!  He is looking forward to having just one subject to prepare for instead of five.  It may be a blessing in disguise that he was downsized out along with others due to funding issues at the private school he was at, though it made him sad.  But that's a ways off...for now we are on the road!
We are headed to New York to see one of our daughters.  It's been a year since we last set eyes on her and her family, way too long!  We have over 1700 miles to go before we get there, so there's time for some adventures along the way.

We paused at a rest stop in Oklahoma near Erick.  A man who worked there told us about a local photographer and showed us a book by him; we were admiring the pictures he'd taken that decorated that rest stop.  So I'm giving a shout-out to him: http://themasterslightajourney.com/ .  It's a website to buy his book that we looked at, but one of his photographs is featured on the cover.  He likes reflection photography and does some really good work.  Some of his photographs are also featured at http://www.classicoilfieldphotography.com/1/cb86#/gallery/western-photography/ : look for pictures by Sam Hagen.  I always enjoy finding others who see the world the way I do.  

A Day's Work

We have a corner of the yard that never grew grass well, so years ago we decided to put in a container garden with a fountain.  It takes maintenance over time and some years I've been better at keeping it up and other years, not so much.  I always put plants there, mind you, but I don't always work on the upkeep.  We originally laid down so-called weed cloth which has bio-degraded itself into scraps.  The grass has merrily grown on top of it, which at least makes it easy to pull, but is frustrating.  We had laid down a good bed of wood chips originally - not the bark kind from the store, but some from a tree lot where people take the trees they cut down and the city chips them into mulch.  And it's free!  This was very important when we set this up.  Not the prettiest of mulch, but free is good!  Over time, this kind of mulch turns into soil, hence the grass.  My dad one year, being very helpful, got rid of the ugly stuff in our corner garden, which was the remains of our wood chips.  This left pretty much just the scrappy weed cloth.  Now what?  So, we invested in store-bought bark mulch, much better looking than our wood chips and not overly expensive, no bigger than the area is.
I've been planning on working on that garden and had gotten all the needed materials: bags of mulch and a new fountain pump, but hadn't gotten around to actually doing it.  The weatherman was making dire forecasts of "These are the last cool mornings we are going to have for a while" and "Chance of severe storms" (Ha), so I decided I'd better get busy.  My little project ended up lasting all day......and the plants were already potted (the work of other days).  It takes an amazing amount of time to unload a fountain of all its goodies and clean it out and change out the pump and put it back together (making sure it works before you load it back up!).  I had to wash off all the rocks because they were covered in mulch silt and we have a LOT of rocks on that tiny little fountain.

Then came the laying of the new bark mulch, which involved moving all the plants previously potted and placed, removing mulch silt where necessary and then decoratively distributing said bark mulch.  I added some stepping stones to hopefully keep mulch from being redistributed to the yard and re-placed all the potted plants and rocks and other things I have except for the garden critters (decorative animals and such I've collected over time) because I pooped out.  Still, it was a good day's work.

Time Management

This is something I'm fairly abysmal at, time management, which is funny considering I have a degree in Business Management and you would think the two would go hand-in-hand.  And I did manage time well when I was in college. I had two young children in grade school, two all grown and out on their own; I was in PTA and kept up with everything pretty well.  But, as time has gone on, something has slipped.  I have a long, long list of things-to-be-done and a somewhat (okay, much) shorter list of already-accomplished.  Of course, big additions to the list were aging parents and grandparents and also health issues and me going back to work.  All of it combined to undermine my time management, though I needed it more than ever.
I read a blogpost by Peter Bregman titled "Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning" where he talked about a Focus list and an Ignore list.  I think these are  the things I've been working on, basically, but I take too much time to make my lists!  I get caught up in what I need to do, but then also "What do I really NEED to do today?" and then "What I need to do sometime" and "What can I put off today, but that needs to be done fairly soon", etc.  It goes on and on.  I waste more time making my lists to help me stay focused....hmmmm.  
Things happen to sidetrack me that are unplanned, but necessary.  I just need to learn to accept what I can do and not stress over what I can't get done.  The Focus lists and the Ignore lists are important, but I need to keep them shorter and more to the point and not worry so much about the lists! Though writing-things-down-so-I-won't-forget-them is another whole blogpost, writing things down does help me to not waste time worrying about what I've forgotten that I wanted to do!  Sigh!

Happy Anniversary!

Because there is so much out there that is negative, I want to say that today we have been happily married for 29 years!  I think so many people think if you ever disagree that there is something wrong.  We are talking about the blending of two individuals with different ideas and different backgrounds that have to meet in the middle somewhere.  This requires a lot of communication and too many people don't talk with each other.  We have told all of our kids that marriage isn't 50/50 - it's 100/100, two people both working very hard at making a marriage succeed.  Things have not always been perfect - sometimes it's me and sometimes it's him and sometimes it's both of us - but overall it's a successful marriage.  It doesn't seem like it's been 29 years!  We are closer now than when we were first married;  there is an understanding that grows over time with two people who commit to each other and commit to the relationship.  I'm very happy to celebrate another year with my best friend!

Time

Why is it that we think up these wonderful projects to do early in the year and then realize all of a sudden that it's the end of the year and we don't have much time to finish them?  My friend and I teach an AWANAs (Bible learning) class at church on Wednesday nights.  We have the 3-to-4-year-olds, sounds daunting, doesn't it?  They are actually pretty fun at that age.  Their minds are going all the time and they want to know everything!  Once they settled into the routine, they've behaved pretty well most nights.  When they were bouncing off the walls, it seemed all the AWANAs kids were (through 5th grade), like it was weather-related or something.  It will be sad to see the end of the AWANAs year - and a relief - but we're leaving them with something to remind them of the past nine months.  The coloring book has all the Bible verses they've learned in it.
I only remember bits and pieces of what went on when I was three or four, but all my memories seem to be happy ones.  Hopefully, we've added to their happy-memory stockpile; they enjoy the crafts we do and they even remember some of the verses, which I think is pretty impressive considering that they're not reading yet.
Here is a picture of some finished books:

We got them done in time, so they can get them next week at the Awards Ceremony, along with the patches they've earned this year.  The kids have been working on the covers for them off and on the last few months, when we had a few extra minutes here and there.  This is officially our last project of the year.

Bit of Wisdom

My bit of wisdom on my birthday:
I know enough to know that I don't yet know enough and that I still have a lot to learn!

Point of View

I think most writers write from their personal viewpoint. Our experiences color what we convey to others. We share what we know. The gift is in being able to have your own point of view, but being willing to listen to others' points of view, maybe even seeing the point they are making whether you agree or not.  

Que sera sera

There was an old song back in my youth
Sung by Doris Day
The sentiments expressed in her song
Are still relevant even today


Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be


We think we're in charge and
We have all these plans
But what we forget is
Time's in God's hands


It's hard to let go of pride
And trust in His guiding hand
But we know we will be alright
If we just go along with God's plan


Misty Dawn Pierce 5/16/2012

Where Are Your Thoughts Today?

An article by Joyce Meyer got my attention.  She was talking about the idea that we become what we think about, so if we focus on negative things, then we become negative people.  Too often in the last couple of years, my thoughts have gone down negative paths, fueled by stress and grief and being overwhelmed.  This article really hit home: I've been working on tackling each issue, but it always takes more time than I think it will to come to a place of understanding and learn how to cope or change my life.

The Bible teaches us to focus on what is right, pure, lovely, admirable (Phil. 4:8), clearly positive things.  I  strive every day to find the blessings and to turn away from negative thoughts.....it's an ongoing battle, but one that I think is worth fighting....one step at a time.

Mother's Day

Mom - I’m proud of who you are and the love you have for others.  You are such a giving person and you are always thinking of others and how you could make them smile with your thoughtfulness (not that you think of it that way! J ).  I’m glad you’re my mother and the grandmother of my children.  You have taught me a lot about thinking of others and paying attention to what they’re thinking about.  And you’re a wonderful prayer warrior!  I know that I don’t know how many times you have prayed me to safety and good decisions and better situations.  I appreciate your prayers and your love.  You are much loved!

Small Stuff

I was reading an article by Myrna Raffkind in our local paper.  She was saying that what is of great importance to us at one stage of our lives changes as we reach another stage.  Each age has its definition of what's "big stuff" and "small stuff", but that at every age we need to look at what's going on framed by how relevant it is to the grand scheme of our lives.  
I think that is the theme of the last couple of years of my life.  I have been looking at what seemed so important (my work) that it took precedence over other things and realizing that wasn't what I wanted to define me.  I was good at my job, but I had let it start running my life instead of it being just a part of my life.  I think this can happen with any number of things in our lives: kids, sports, school events, even church or caring for parents or relatives; none of these are bad things, they can just become so overwhelming that they become the main focus of your life instead of being a part of a balanced life.
It's taken me almost two years to reach this point in time and I'm still not there yet.  I still sweat the small stuff too often when I need to step back and say "This really doesn't matter in the long run!".  Balance has still not been achieved!  But I'm working on it........

The Beginning

I have hit the midlife whatever!  It's not a crisis, really, more a realization that time has come for a change.  There have been a lot of changes in our lives over the past decade and beyond and as my title says, I feel mostly as though I'm blowing in the wind most of the time.  Whatever the direction, that's the way I end up going.  And, around here, the wind blows from all directions!