Is it Christmas yet? no wait, I mean Easter? what? That was last week?

I didn't really mean to skip yesterday's post. Though I know not too many of you are following this, I still try to write something everyday. But what a frustrating day it was mentally. I struggled at work with a relatively new routine, not one I do everyday. I couldn't remember the steps to take to get everything done. I had to do things twice. Then when printing from the computer I got the wrong pages started and printed about 50 unneeded pages. ARGH! Once home, I started supper and then forgot. I burned it up good. But worse, when I realized something was burning I couldn't remember even starting the burner. I really felt like I was losing it! But the cake topper came when, after cleaning up in our yard and putzing around after supper, feeling all the while that I was missing something....hmmmm, we drove over to church to drop off some stuff it became very apparent that what I had forgotten was a very important baby shower. OhNO! I was in jeans and a sloppy sweatshirt. I peeled off the sweatshirt to my long sleeved baggy, dirty T, sent Ron home for something clean and went in feeling very foolish. Not to mention, late. Really, no one noticed but me. And it was glaring. What is going on with this brain of mine. I know, I know, I'm supposed to have the important events written down. Well, I did! I think back and marvel at how easily memory work came to me when I was young. Not so anymore.
All that I memorized when I was young is still up there...somewhere. If I could only organize those "drawers" more easily I'd get in there and do that! I remember wondering when I thought about my grandmother and her dementia or my mother in law and her congestive heart failure that led to being homebound which one would be worse... Good health and a mind that's gone, or poor health and having your wits about you? I don't think knowing the answer would help.

Pre-camping

This coming weekend will be a 'pre-camping' weekend. We are going to practice our pudgy pie receipe, our s'more making techniques, building fires along with the roasting of marshmallows and hot dogs, and other such fun camping practices without actually putting up a tent! Why is it camping always comes with such odd eating habits? We went camping with a group once and Ron concocted a breakfast meal that they labelled "the coffin". It had eggs, hamburger, bacon, cheese packed between two pieces of bun. When actually camping we eat such delights as fried eggs and bacon, fried potatoes, or eclairs on a stick. We load the table with things beyond our ability to consume or if we did the need for a diet would be even greater than it is now! Even when we do boundary waters camping we eat wierd meals. (Believe me, reconstituted beef stroganoff is wierd) Eating is such a social thing for us. What could be better than a meal with family or friends--especially cooked camping style! Can you tell I love to camp?More on this one later.

Is it spring?

It was an absolutely gloriously beautiful day today. And there's no doubt that everyone else thought so too because everyone, everywhere was outside. I took a long walk with a friend this afternoon and we saw golfers, bikers, walkers, runners, rollerbladers, dog walkers, baby pushers, fast walkers, slow walkers, cars with their tops down and the sun streaming in! This butterfly really surprised me, though. There he was sitting in the sun shine on our truck just waiting for his picture to be taken. Though it only got into the upper 60's it was a day worth having....especially since I got a nap to boot!

South Beach

So, Ive been reading labels very closely lately. How many carbohydrates... Mostly I want Ron to diet because he REALLY needs to take off a few pounds. It's so surprising how I don't really think about what I'm eating. What fats, cholesterol, carbs, sugars etc are in each bite. How big is a serving size? But we are doing the cross between Atkins/ and South Beach: eliminate carbs for a couple of weeks then, add them back in in the form of fruits and some pastas. I miss the fruit. I used to eat an apple at lunch. Now I'm eating carrots, cauliflower, some almonds, and green peppers and 1 hard boiled egg. It does fill me up, but I have such a craving for...I'm not sure what, but I think it's an apple! Ron, I have to nag every day and tell him what he may eat and remind him of what he needs to avoid--Taco Johns, Pizza Ranch, Hardees, Chinese, Pizza Hut. etc. Then I have to quiz him every night on what he had for lunch. So far so good. 1 week down and ??? to go!

Dull day at work

This is my kind of day! It's cold outside, so being in is not a chore. I didn't have to be to work until 10:30 so I could linger over my coffee with a friend. Exercise was later than normal (6:30). I didn't have to fix supper because I was working late. Even after getting to work I did some fun things, i.e. work in the children's area; put in a few book orders; do some cataloging; work on the website! These are a delight. What a blessing. To have a job that I look forward to every morning, that gives me energy and a sense of belonging. Now if I just had time to read the list of books I have. There are so many!

Horse and pony tricks

Back in the day, as they say, I was fearless on top of a horse. My horse, Lady, was tall, probably 16 hands high. She could be, and often was mean if you wandered by her on the ground, but once I was on top of her...well, I was the boss. I loved that feeling, too! She did what I told her to. I loved to ride her, fast. I could never beat my friend on her Arabian, but that didn't ever stop us from trying. We would race down the road or through the fields as fast as we could make the horses run. You've seen old westerns where the cowboys are running away from the posse? That was us. Flat out galloping with my face in the horse's mane urging her on.

One of the things that I loved to do was put the saddle on and barrel race in the pasture. Too bad I didn't officially compete because then I might have proof of how good (or really bad) I was. As it is, you have to take my word for it! On summer evenings I would saddle up and wait until our one rooster went off to roost then I would sneak around behind the chicken coop and with a large stick I would beat on the roof knowing that in just a few seconds that chicken would be out. Sure enough, he would come flying out the door with his wings spread wide and head straight for me. I would kick the horse into a run and we would fly down the pasture with that dumb chicken chasing us for all he was worth. I would do that over and over until he figured out that that was exactly what I wanted him to do, he couldn't catch me and he wouldn't play my game anymore. Not quite as good as having a posse chaing me, but close! Of course that rooster had his own way of getting even. He would chase my sister when she got off the bus at night. That was pretty funny, too. Watching her run screaming into the house with the chicken chasing after her! Don't ask her, though what she thought!

War on the home front

I am reading these days from "Searching for God knows What" by Donald Miller. I have to read with pen in hand anymore. There is so much I don't want to forget, and I am so prone to forgetting. I want to wrap my life around a God who is more than some sort of genie who will grant wishes if I can only figure out how to rub the bottle correctly. He is so much bigger than anything I can possibly imagine and I have only begun to scratch the surface of who He is! I want to have a faith that absolutely makes a difference instead of just moving through days. Miller describes a child born after the Chernobyl accident. He describes his grotesqueness and his constant pain. Then he compares us to this child, disfigured and in pain. Though we were not meant to be this way, He says we are incomplete creatures outside the companionship of God and our souls have been distorted and ravaged. We are the wreckage of a war, a kind of Hiroshima, a kind of Chernobyl with souls distorted like the children of Chernobyl. It was the fall that drew us into the war and because of that we miss understanding the love of God and his voice and his presence and the freedom that that brings to love other people. I am so struck by the truth of this that I have to look around me and wonder at what I think is important these days...things.. instead of people. Oh my.