The Color Red

I always wanted a fire engine red vehicle. The closest I ever came was my maroon stick shift sporty beretta back in my commuting days. I finally decided that color is the least important thing about a vehicle. Be content with...grey. or tan. So I was. Really. But can you believe that after 11 vehicles (including 3 pickups) we've finally got a red one! Hot Dog! Among all the cool things this came with is the "new car smell". An expensive perfume. Nice. So you'll see me in my red truck, tooling down the highway fiddling with satellite radio or onstar or the 6way CD player with playlists and wish for the good old days when you worried about people talking on cellphones! Gotta go... Need to break in that red truck!

A little coloring helps the workload along

I was doing a pretty tedious job at work today (you really don't want to know, but it involved adding tag lines to MARC records one by one). I had quite a bit to do actually and part of it involved using a yellow highlighter to mark off paper records as I finished them on the computer. One of my co-worker's little girl happened to be there and as soon as she caught sight of the yellow marker she stopped her skipping. She was immediately intrigued. Yellow, it seems, is among her "favorite" colors as is using a marker! She was jealous that I was getting to use the yellow marker! Her enthusiasm and excitement over my yellow marker made me re-examine my monotonous job. It had more excitement than I thought after all! We all need a little bit of "yellow marker" in our lives. Keep looking at things in light of the "color" that's there that we don't see anymore. Marvel at it!

Traveling light

I, as most of my community, family and friends would agree, am not a rich person. That, of course is all relative. Not rich by American standards anyway. But I have so much "stuff" I could supply a third world country with their basic needs just from my own personal second hand store-i.e. the things I use for camping! It embarrasses me to see my pile of camping towels, sleeping bags, cookware, seating, games, shoes, hats, and other gear. What I need to do is go back to basics...tent camping. I don't need all this to really enjoy the outdoors. In fact, if I didn't have to haul all this along I'd probably go more often.
Which seems to lead into something I've been thinking about for quite some time anyway-the "Traveling light" through this world I live in. What is the "stuff" that I have that keeps me from giving myself over to following hard after God? What is it that weighs me down - my own self centeredness that keeps me on payment plans for some new, bigger, brighter, better thing rather than throwing it all into serving. So many needs. Well, let's not get carried away. If I only worked on following God into one area of need I'd be doing better than I am right now.
So Goal 1 for 2007: Drop some of my load. Go light so I can serve better.

So some people post their kids and families and have beautiful tear producing music to go along with it. Here is our kid! And he's spoiled too. What a people dog he is, though! He knows he's a person, we're the ones who are confused. This probably isn't as cool as a grandson, but it's close! Ha.

New Year's Resolution at work...day 3

Early morning workouts have moved from my outdoor nature walks to stiff workouts with all the hardcore exercise people early in the mornings at the Wellness center. Yikes! They're running 6 or 7 mph on those treadmills. I'd be lucky to make it to 4.5! And I still haven't quite gotten the hang of that "move-your-feet-but-don't-jar-your-brains-doing-it" machine. (really, I can't remember what it's called.) I feel too tall. Or the machine is too short. And wow do I sweat! Am I supposed to be doing that? I managed a half an hour today and "went"("ran" "jogged" "ambled" pick a verb) two miles. That's an interesting statistic considering the scenery stayed exactly the same the entire time I was there...i.e. All I could see was the back of the treadmill runners' heads. Well, I hope that the workout at least took off the candy cane calories that I had later on in the day! At least no one is tempting me anymore with fudge, or cheesecake. I'm going to have to make two trips a day up there until this ugly 10 lbs disappears. It came on pleasantly enough. Taking it off is going to be misery. Anyone else want to join me? I'd be glad for the company. After all, you know what they say about that "misery...." (Oh yeah- It's the eliptical machine!)

Filling in empty spaces

So have you ever had long stretches when there is absolutely nothing to do but sit with yourself and think? No TV, Radio, books or other distractions to occupy the moment, and what's more, no way you're likely to get to them so you're literally stuckwith yourself! I had one of those moments today. 45 full minutes of being in a small space, eyes closed, wide awake, all alone, have to think about something other than what's going on around me, time. Options: take a nap (in a loud confined space. Not likely) Think. Guess I'll have to try that one out. I made lists. Alphabetical too. First, recipes. I made a mental, alphabetical list of pies and the recipes that go along with them. I got through about G. (Can you think of a pie that starts with F?) After giving up on that absurd list I made a list of all the relatives on my side of the family including cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents to the 5th generation. Don't forget alphabetical. (I'm an amatuer geneologist. That was too easy) My mind began to muddle after this, my hand was falling asleep, my neck was beginning to ache, and I started wiggling a bit. That wasn't good because it increased my time in my empty space. Phooey. Next I tried out naming all the books of the Bible in order. Once I get to those minor prophets I have trouble. I always miss someone and come up short at the end. Oh bother.
Needless, to say, I didn't fall asleep though I heartily wished for it. I must say this isn't my favorite way of getting out of work and I don't hope for another round of this any time soon. But offer me some suggestions for my next enforced quiet time alone session! Thanks.

Sunday afternoon naps

Naps are lovely things. I have been indulging in the Sunday afternoon variety for more than 35 years now (with a few misses for important things). "research shows that you can make yourself more alert reduce stress and improve cognitive functioning with a nap. Mid-day sleep, or a ‘power nap’, means more patience, less stress, better reaction time, increased learning, more efficiency and better health." -according to stress management experts. Ha! They've probably earned big bucks to come up with what I could have told them ages ago. When our kids were small we enforced the Sunday afternoon nap rule, but eventually it became a ritual they knew we would observe. I remember often being between waking and sleeping and hearing kids outside the door shushing each other, giggling or fighting. They had free time without their parents for an hour on Sundays. Every one was happy. If we missed the afternoon nap time because of other commitments or activities it was a poor Sunday indeed! Our kids were quick to understand that their parents were much happier with the nap under their belt. As the years have passed the nap is now taken on the couch and the length of time has to be much shorter-no more than an hour, sometimes less. Any longer than that and sleeping at night becomes problematic. That's not good. But napping and watching football games are even better. Two things accomplished at once. It's funny how you really don't miss too much of the action of the game by napping too. Other days of the week work for naps too. Those opportunities are less, but the nap is no less enjoyable even if it's only a 10 minute one. So. Long live naps. I think a new year's resolution works here, too: Nap more. Dreams are important!

Happy 2007!