Garage sales, schedules and other things

I am having a garage sale. Thursday and Friday. I don't want to do it Saturday, but I just might.

So far, I am negative $4. I paid $29 for my classified and then sold my two car seats for $25. Yeah.

It's hard not to look around and see "STUFF" that you would like to banish from your life. It's hard to imagine the variety of people one needs to attract to a garage sale in order to sell all your stuff.

And, my schedule sucks. Or rather, I suck at my schedule. Or I can't manage to schedule myself. Whatever it is, it SUCKS.

Other: I HATE TOADS. Am desperately afraid of them actually. And, twice this month I have seen one in my yard. In TOWN. Completely unacceptable. I already hate being outside, now who will protect me from the scary toad? Gene already grows weary of the post.

Why tornados and the media are not a good mix

Last week, the "media" (yes, I do train aspiring young journalists as part of my job in higher education, but let's not stray from the point here). OK, so "the media" goes on and on all day long about a storm to end all storms. Everything is in place for one heck of a tornado. Whatever a storm needs to be a BIG concern, well as far as the media was concerned it was all there.

And, what happened, exactly? NOTHING! I'm all for advanced warning, but not the all-day, play-by-play weather. As if sports are not already out of control in our society, we are now turning our weather casting into a sporting-like event. Yuck. We get the before the event, the event and then the wrap-up of why the before the event stuff was WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

I have to think God gets a good laugh out of the the people on the media's weather team, especially ones who work for TV.

So then a few days go by and a serious storm pops into Kansas again. Not so much hoopla, but I guess the storm got the last word after all.

Freedom!

To do what I want and when I want. Ha. Like such luxuries actually exist.

I want to enjoy a 3-day pleasure trip where I have nothing to do hanging over my head. Hanging over and sucking the very life from my body.

Clearly, it's time for a Coke : )

Jury Duty

So, I've finally been summoned for jury duty in my 34th year of life. So far, this has meant having my schedule held hostage. Trials for Monday and Tuesday have all settled out of court, leaving me to check the schedule come 5 p.m. today.

I would rather know, yes I am serving or no, I am done with this. I have things to schedule.

Oh, well. I would love to tell you what my week looks like, but I do not know. I do know that I had better finish up a project I have been putting off.

Cheerio.

My fellas

Bubbles

June 2, 2008

I am sitting here in my office looking out my big windows. It's a dark day in the capital city, storms a coming. The lights have flickered. Some counties have reported baseball-sized hail. A good way to start the week, eh?

Well, it's been awhile, dear friends. Give me some love if you read this : )

Yesterday our pastor shared with us a 14-day challenge. Our goal is to live with these three truths in mind.

1) Each second of each day is a precious gift from God.
2) All of my abilities and talents are from God.
3) Everything I own belongs to God. I am the manager, not the owner.

Well, this manager likes to blog. And it makes her happy. And God has given her the talent to blog, and so she must.

My poor, neglected blog

I miss you, dear blog. Perhaps we can reunite in May?

A Servant's Heart

In the middle of any crisis friends can fall into a variety of categories. First there is the one, typically like myself, who care deeply yet stand around not really knowing what to do and often, not always, end up doing nothing. Then there are friends who completely vanish until your life is back on "track."

Finally comes the friend who rolls up the proverbial sleeves and comes to work. Suddenly, it's like Jesus himself is ministering to your needs in a very tangible way. I love the idea of being Jesus to someone. Now, not to confuse the issue. Jesus is always King, Lord and God. There is no equal, but He does share his glory with those who choose to plug into his life code.

I have been having a horrible few months. Emotionally I am battle weary and my heart has been broken. There have been times when I needed a confrontation, and I have received it. Times I just needed a listening ear and I got that, too. This week though, I really needed something I can't even name.

Tonight I got it and I feel like I glow with blessing. My troubles are far from over and my life is just a bit messy right now. But, I have a wonderful friend with a servant's heart. And, oh, what a difference that makes.

Experiment

This past Sunday my husband and I decided to "fast" from the television for one whole week.

The ban was family-wide, and we had explained to Jacob that sometimes God asks us to do things and we have to be obedient to him. I told him we wanted to spend more time as a family, thinking of our blessings and what God has planned for us. He was agreeable and has not asked to watch TV all week.

We began this journey Monday, not knowing Wednesday would bring a snow day and a day home in the middle of the week. Instead of watching movies, we constructed blanket forts in the living room.

On Friday night we had some friends come over for dinner. Jacob was eager to greet our guests, so he yelled "Hi!" from the front porch. And then, "We can't watch TV because we are thinking about God."

I love my son so much, and I realized that if you ever really want to keep a promise you've made, tell a preschooler because there is no going back.

1,000 Words

My husband, my hero

It is 12:15 a.m. and my husband is at work. No, tonight it's not sports-related. My husband is at work because I managed to jam the copier pretty badly at work or I was rather the unfortunate soul who happened to be making copies during the copier's meltdown.

And, because I have class at 8 a.m. and am generally freaking out about the whole thing, Gene took my copies to his office to copy.

I love this man for so many reasons. We've been married almost 11 years (Gene says it rounds up to 11 as we're past the 10.5 mark.

Thank you God for such an awesome spouse.

On Simplicity

For years, I have been promising myself a leaner, meaner schedule, all the while coming up with several new and better things to do.

I teach three classes this semester at work and advise two award-winning publications. My days are filled with meetings, mostly with students. We are revising our curriculum and trying to hire a new faculty member, both of which mean more meetings. I am the second vice president for the Kansas Associated Collegiate Press, which means I have to plan the conference in April. Early April. I will be in New York City for one week this March working the registration area for the national College Media Advisers group.

I am the 2008 VBS coordinator at church. Let the countdown begin. I also teach a 13-week block of Sunday school and semi-facilitate a weekly women's Bible study.

I am a member of the Shawnee County Reserve Medical Reserve Corps because I have this idea I should contribute beyond my church and work duties.

I freelance for the Topeka Capital Journal, which you can visit and search for my name if you want to see what I have written for them.

I am a wife to a man with a crazy job and we have two boys who are 4 and 2, close to being 5 and 3. Our youngest sees a wonderful speech therapist twice a month at 8 a.m. I took him to the doctor six times in a month and a half before the holidays. (Please note this list is not in order of importance, obviously)

I am also a child of God. He loves me and wants me to spend my life loving him and allowing him to love me back. He wants me to be FREE, even though this control freak (me!) is not allowed to be in control. Nope. That's God's job, too. Love him. Spend time with him and his Word daily. Love his people as myself. All people.

My friends also insist that I must give up control of certain things around my home, too. If I give a job to my husband, I thereby relinquish all rights and control of said job. As another one of my tasks is to maintain our home, I must honestly say giving up all control of any household tasks just isn't on my to-do list today. Don't I have enough to do already? Geez! : 0 )

The Naughty List

I am pretty sure my pastor does not read my blog, and that is fine by me, especially today.

I am a multi-tasker, so today as I semi-listened to his sermon intro, I began to think about my faith in Jesus and my life in Christ. Our church is on the move and believe movement happens when fellow believers start by living revolutionary lives for Christ. As he marched through his intro, I was thinking about my current Bible school lesson and my women's Bible study. On a tear of some kind, I began rewriting some of my notes.

As he approached the meat of today's sermon, I did check in and gather the highlights. In case he does read my blog, today's sermon was from Joshua 24 and pastor calls this chapter a call to rededication. Joshua is addressing Israel and imploring the people to embrace God fully — heart, mind and soul (my words, not his). He goes on to suggest that he would rather they choose God completely or at least be honest about who they will choose to serve. In other words, if they won't agree to his terms, just say so and move on. Note that this is not what he desires for them at all.

As soon as we got there, I was really excited because it matches up so closely with the various verses I am trying to memorize for my other study. So, I began writing out each of the verses in my new notebook I have placed in my Bible bag.

I finished writing them all out as I sat in the bathroom while my youngest was in the tub. He's only 2, but as I read each of these verses aloud to him after I had scribbled them down, he locked his sweet baby blue eyes on my face and gave me his complete attention each and every time. Then he would give me a big grin and continue splashing around in the tub.

Just wait until he can understand what these words mean.

Frazzled

I absolutely resolve to stop writing phone numbers down on small pieces of paper that I proceed to lose on a very regular basis. This will save me a lot of stress, I think.

Just think, I won't have to rant and rave for however long it takes to find said piece of paper how irresponsible I am. Or how much I just want to jump off a building for such irresponsibility. (Yeah, I have a small flair for drama.)

My poor husband will be spared the rantings of a lunatic as well. There's no good place to stand when cornered by a ranting lunatic, especially if you had the misfortune of marrying her.

I've asked Gene to come up with five things he wants to change or think about changing in his life this year. They do not have to be earth-shattering things, but I want to drag him along on the ride. We've been married 10 and a half years, so it's not like my behavior is all that shocking to him, I suppose. One of mine is absolutely to stop writing things on those darn pieces of paper.

I suppose if I knew where my cell phone was, I could always plug numbers into it …

Quotables

From a sign my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas: "Mothers of little boys work from son up til son down."

From my oldest son after hearing a short kids sermon on how God does not take problems from us, but he walks us through them. When asked what he learned, he says, "God lets us keep our problems."

From Jared every night as he does his breathing treatment, "Bob. Bob. Bob. Bob. Bob." We've watched the same Veggie Tale show for five days now.

From me as I realize I am going back to work tomorrow. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

the doctor's office

Jared and I have spent a lot of time in the Doctor's office lately. I do with this were not so. Check out this schedule:

Wednesday, Nov. 14: We see Dr. L for an ear check up. All is OK with ears and tubes.

Thursday, Nov. 15: Jared has a temperature and is coughing himself silly

Friday, Nov. 16: We see Dr. P to see what's going on with the continued fever and coughing. Chest is clear. No redness in ear. He wonders if ear tube in one ear is still working. No drugs. We think it's viral.

Monday, Nov. 19: Jared OK in the a.m., goes to daycare, has fun, wakes up with high fever.

Tuesday, Nov. 20: Back to the doctor's. Now we see Mrs. B (nurse practioner). She says definite ear infection. We get 3-day Z pack.

Friday, Dec. 7: We go back to Dr. P for a recheck of ears. All is fine.

Thursday, Dec. 13: Another fever at daycare. Coughing persists.

Friday, Dec. 14: Back to Dr. P. We have a new ear infection. 10-day antibiotic.

Monday, Dec. 17: Jared coughs pretty much all night long. And, I do mean all night long. Scary stuff.

Tuesday, Dec. 18: Mom calls Dr. P AGAIN. I love his nurse, Candy. She recognizes my voice. We think maybe he has asthma? We start taking a steriod twice daily for five days.

Thursday, Dec. 20: Back to Dr. L for the ears. He thinks ears look fine. It's the throat that is terrible. Jared refuses to cooperate at all with hearing test. This is problematic. Dr. L wants to continue antibiotic for 20 days total.

Gotta love this ride we are on!

Christmas Joy

As I was in worship service today with my son Jacob, we were singing Christmas carols. I always try to tell him as many of the words as I can so he can learn them.

The Bell song is waaay too fast for that. I was singing "merry merry merry Christmas" at mostly the right time. And Jacob was singing "give a give a give a 'garden.'"

I was trying to figure out why as I'm telling the story to Gene, who immediately realizes Jacob is singing the commericial for the Garmon, that new GPS thing.

Now he's walking around my front room saying "Every kiss begins with Kay."

No Christmas cards

There's absolutely no way I a going to even get them started before Christmas.

How does everyone feel about Valentine's cards? (And, yes, I know that's a question.)

In case you care …

I am done grading the content of the blogs. yeah! Only a few students lacked the magical 16 posts. Come great posts out there. All in all, I would like to give some shouts out. I will keep their blogs linked on mine until January or so. After that, anyone who stops posting gets cut.

My favorite overall blogs: Josh R., Jeannine and Josh N.

My favorite off the wall posts: Brandon

Poets: Danielle, Christie

Best mom stories: Tricia's messy milk story and Michelle's battle of the language

Most news: Nick

Most like fiction: Caleb