bensrib

P52 Week 4: Self-Portrait

2012-01-27T08:44:00.001-05:00

Really? Really, Darcy? What were you thinking?

I fretted about this all week and finally decided to catch myself as I really am: sweaty right after a run. So here I am in all my wind-tousled, red-faced, no-makeup, sweat-in-my-eyes glory.

Complete with the sunspot near my chin. I'm glad this is over with. Can we move on to next week's theme now?

To see more P52-ers, go here.

Be thankful ~

A picture is worth a thousand words, right?

2012-01-23T21:26:00.000-05:00

I hope so, because my brain is ready for bed, and yet my public (all six of you) calls. Here's a roundup of the last few days.

I think I already told you about the card-making party Saturday night. While everyone was here, I mentioned that Man-squared had awesome dice-stacking skills. So, not to be outdone, Tony had to prove he could out-stack him, and he is now the reigning champ.

And then, as if stacking 3 dice weren't enough, he proceeded to build a house of cards around them. The competition around here is fierce.

Sunday we drove to Drenchburg to cook dinner for Abbie's "family" for her birthday. We fried turkeys and made mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, and rolls—Thanksgiving in January. Here are Kim, Abbie, and Marly waiting for the turkeys to be carved.

The master turkey cooker/carver in action.

When it was time for cake, everyone piled in the teeny kitchen and sang a most epic version of "Happy Birthday." You can't tell from these pictures, but I would guess there were 20 people in this itty-bitty apartment.

And I'm pretty sure it took her two blows to get all 22 candles out.

Abbie's birthday present (in addition to one more semester at her very expensive school) was a ukelele. Man-squared has one and she steals it every time she comes home. Here they are having a kum-bah-ya circle in the kitchen and learning how to play "Pricetag."

This might be my favorite picture of the day: Abbie and Erin. I just love those two!

Happy birthday, Baby Girl!

Be thankful ~

A whole lotta nuthin'.

2012-01-21T22:48:00.000-05:00

Even though I am suffering from "Housemaid's Knee," otherwise known as pre-patellar bursitis, I made myself go run 2.5 on the dreadmill today. And then instead of doing abs, I stood around and shot the breeze with Tony and Cori just so I could say I spent an hour at the gym. I'm not the only one who does this though. I once watched a woman come in the gym, walk around with a water bottle, spend 5 minutes on a bike, go to the bathroom, do 3 minutes on an elliptical, talk to a trainer for a while, then get a protein shake at the cafe and leave.

Then we had a bunch of people come over to make Valentine's Day cards for the nursing home residents for February. We also ate a massive pot of chicken chili and Kelce's homemade cookies, then stood around watching Tony try to figure out how to use his new iPhone. I'm not jealous. In the words of Melinda, I like my buttons. Whose idea was it to make a touchscreen phone where the "keys" are 1/8 the size of the tip of your finger? Anyway, we also practices stacking dice, and if it weren't so late and I weren't so lazy, I'd get a photo up here. Tony built a dice tower with one flat, one on its corner, and another one flat on top of the middle one's corner. And then he started building a house of cards around it, but you know what happens when you get greedy for awesome tower-building glory? That's right. It all comes tumbling down and you go back to fighting with your iPhone.

Now everyone has gone home, Ben has gone to bed, Man-squared is still at work, and I am sitting here enjoying a cozy fire.

Happy Saturday!

Be thankful ~

P52 Week 3: I Dreamed a Dream

2012-01-20T05:00:00.002-05:00

I had a very hard time deciding how to represent this week's theme. For the last 27, almost 28, years I have been living my dream of being a stay-at-home wife and mom, and that was the first thing that came to mind when I read the theme. But how do you distill all that is entailed in being a full-time wife and mother into one photograph? (I'd love to hear your suggestions; I'm short on creativity.)

In the end I was limited by my own shortcomings, so I settled on a much smaller, more recent dream—that of being a runner. I had the thought that maybe I could do a little running about a year ago, not thinking it would turn into anything of substance. Then when I broke the 3-minute mark (that's 3 minutes of running without stopping), and saw that I really wasn't going to die from it, I decided to aspire to the lofty goal of running a 5K in this, my 50th year. I did, and wound up winning my age group. It helps to wait until you actually turn 50, thus putting you in the next group up, wherein you are the youngest. Then I ran another, and now I'm looking forward to running my first half-marathon in May.

For more "I Dreamed a Dream" interpretations, check out My 3 Boybarians.

Thankful I'm healthy enough to run ~

There's really nothing to report.

2012-01-17T20:24:00.000-05:00

Still agonizing (as if it's really that dramatic) over how I'm going to represent "I Dreamed a Dream" in a photo, but in the meantime, I took this one of Man-squared's awesome dice-stacking skills, and I kind of like it.

I spent my day editing, doing laundry, making butter for the first time (unless you count the time in kindergarten when we opened a little carton of cream, dropped in a marble, and shook until our shoulder muscles seized up), and working on a surprise for someone who may or may not read this blog so I can't actually say what it is. But it included a vanilla latte and a lot of laughing with a friend, so it was fun.

Tomorrow looks to be about the same with the addition of a trip to the gym and minus the latte.

Be thankful ~

A pictorial essay of today's highlight.

2012-01-15T21:08:00.000-05:00

Subject: the fabulous Cori, girlfriend of Tony (the trainer who trains). Cori's little brother calls this her "bath-tism."

Cori and her mom.

Be thankful ~

PS. I'm having a hard time not coveting that camera in the last photo. Just keeping it real.

Saturday news update.

2012-01-14T21:21:00.000-05:00

So, today was a hodge-podge of stuff. Abbie and Cesia and I went shopping this morning for, uh, necessary things, and also for Farkle. If you haven't played Farkle yet, please go buy 6 dice and read the very-easy-to-understand rules here. Don't spend $10 like I did on the official Farkle game at Books-a-Million, because it's nothing more than an oversize box containing a fake-leather-covered cup, 6 dice, and a single sheet of paper with rules in English and Spanish. Totally not worth $10. If you go to Target or Walmart, you can get a package of 10 dice for $2 and download the rules. Much better deal and you can afford to lose 4 dice and still play the game.

I bought Dockers and a sweater for Ben, then went to Target for another black shirt for Man-squared and some food, and also stopped at the dry cleaner's to pick up Abbie's skirt.

This is better than reality TV, isn't it?

Anyway, I also made a big dinner, which included a hashbrown casserole and two coconut custard pies. I know what I'm having for breakfast, and it's not oatmeal.

I'm going to watch the ~~Tebows~~ Broncos and cheer them on.

Be thankful ~

P52 Week 2: Made with Love

2012-01-13T08:23:00.000-05:00

One of my goals for the year is to remember the camera I have sitting on my desk and actually use it. With that in mind, I've committed to participating in Darcy's P52 project. The weekly themes help me think about the photos I take, and this one was especially easy since I just spent a week with my grandbabies. Here's my take on Made with Love:

Why do boys get the long eyelashes?

Check out more P52-ers here.

Be thankful ~

The rest of the visit.

2012-01-12T20:37:00.002-05:00

For the last few days of our stay with the grandbabies, we hung around the house baking and eating (pumpkin scones recipe is coming) and playing. One night Abbie sat on the couch reading Bean a bedtime story. Unfortunately, he was more interested in taking a picture of himself with her phone. She tried to get him to turn it around, but he just wouldn't believe that was going to work. He got lots of pictures of the staircase.

Then another afternoon, I was sitting on the couch with Button and Abbie grabbed the camera and started taking pictures.

You know a baby is teething when he chews on the hard plastic side of the pacifier.

Playing makes us sleepy.

Every time I look at those photos, I yawn too. Did you?

Be thankful ~

More from the grandbaby visit.

2012-01-10T21:04:00.001-05:00

I was just sitting here going through all my pictures from the trip and realized I'll never get them all in one post. It's so much cuteness the Internet would explode.

As usual, our trip began with a few hours of driving through the mountains of western Virginia, complete with snow blowing in sideways. I'm betting the weather's even like that in July. It was still snowing and blowing when we drove home seven days later.

As soon as we got there, I started snapping pictures, hoping to get a few that were blog-worthy. Few is the key word there. Here's Button with his big eyes and adorable heart-shaped face.

Sticky Bean wants to rough-house all. the. time. But we did get him to sit still twice while we were there for pictures.

Abbie worked on figuring out how to use Deb's camera so we would get more photos of the boys.

And we drank coffee. Organic coffee. With fresh-from-the-cow cream. There are advantages to living among the Amish.

Button is the opposite of Bean. This baby is snuggly and mostly happy. And did I mention the huge eyes and precious heart-shaped face?

I can feel the Internet getting close to terminal cuteness threshhold.

Sorry. One night Abbie and I got out the Play-Doh with Bean. I made a taco. Bean made a spoonful of sour cream to put on it. Abbie sculpted Hitler.

Show-off.

Bean loves food, so Play-Doh creations are always edible things, even though they're not.

Putting sour cream on a hot dog.

Making peas.

Deb and David recently rescued a litter of kittens that someone left by the side of the road. They found homes for all but two, who are now members of the family. They had not yet named the kitties, so Abbie did. This is Beyoncé. Jay-Z is playing in the woods.

And that's about halfway through the week. More to come tomorrow.

Be thankful ~

Home again.

2012-01-09T21:03:00.001-05:00

We got home today from visiting the grandbabies after an 11-hour drive, the last 4 hours of which were through snow blowing in sideways. And that sentence sounded like my brain feels right now. Please forgive me. This will be short so I can catch up on the sleep I lost somewhere between here and my daughter's house.

Every night, Deb and David read the Proverb of the day to Sticky Bean after Button goes to bed. For the last few nights, it was my privilege to do the reading. Then last night we got out a few story books after our Bible reading time. Bean's favorite was Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever, which I remember my mother reading to my kids when they were little.

(Raise your hand if you remember Lowly Worm, Bananas Gorilla, and Able Baker Charlie Mouse.)

Anyway, we read and laughed and Bean loved the stories. Then this morning on our ride home, I got this photo from Deb:

I'm thrilled to be the Grammy who's known for reading stories.

Be thankful ~

P52 Week 1: Resolution

2012-01-02T14:50:00.003-05:00

One of my goals for this year is to keep up with Darcy's Project 52, which means in order to post my favorite photo of each week, I'll have to, you know, actually take photos. Since I got a new telephoto lens Friday, that should be easy. Haha.

Anyway, because I like to be consistent, I'm going to start by posting the first week's photo on the wrong day. But I have a good excuse: I'm heading to see the grandbabies tomorrow and I'm not sure if I'll be able to post this on Friday. (Grandbabies are always the perfect excuse for everything.)

So here it is, week one:

Another one of my goals/resolutions is to complain about the dog hair less and love the dog more. We'll see how long that lasts. This photo was taken by Abbie, playing around with my new lens. I promise I will take the other 51.

Be thankful ~

The annual New Year's post.

2011-12-31T05:00:00.002-05:00

At least I think it's annual. I just don't feel like going back to look.

If I could say one thing to 2011, it would be this: Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

While there were some fun highlights, it was a rough year for us health-wise. Ben went through a colectomy in May, lived with the colostomy for 7 months, and finally had it reversed (snap & cap, as he calls it) just a few weeks ago. He's finally feeling normal again, and looking forward to getting back in the gym.

Our second grandson, Button, was born. Abbie got her truck. My 21-year career as a homeschool mom came to an end. I started running. We gave away the Rib-mobile. We experienced our first big earthquake and responded with typical eastern panic. We met Henry, our neighborhood bear. I discovered Georgetown Cupcakes. Turned 50. The Man-mobile got a motor.

It wasn't a bad year, just not the best one we've ever had.

So I'm looking forward to regaining the positive momentum in 2012. And since I'm nothing if not a glutton for punishment, I'm going to put my goals for the coming year right out there in the very public blogosphere.

1. I'm going to read through the New Testament (and parts of the Old), concentrating on the red parts (the words of Christ while he was on earth), and doing a study of every verse that refers to the Word of God. Last year I read through the whole Bible, and while I never regret doing that, I just want to concentrate on a theme this year.

2. I'm going to run a half-marathon. And then I'm going back to running the way I really enjoy it: five or six miles at a time. Maybe find a 10K or two. I'd like to run a 5K in 30 minutes.

3. I'm going to publish my favorite photo I take every week at Darcy's P52. I'm starting the year with a new lens, so I have no excuse not to keep up with this. Really. Hold me to it.

4. I'm going to complain about the dog hair less and love the dog more. This may be the hardest one.

Here's to a clean slate, a new year full of opportunity, and 366 days in which to

Be thankful ~

Weekend in review. Oh I crack myself up.

2011-12-29T17:33:00.000-05:00

So what is this, Thursday? Yes, Thursday. And now I'm going to post pictures of last Sunday. It's a good thing I don't try to pay the bills with this blog.

Last Sunday we went to have the big, festive dinner with most of my family. We were missing one brother, two nephews (and one wife), a great-nephew, and two of my daughters, but we had fun anyway. My brother grilled the most amazing ribeye roast and we cookied ourselves to death with a lot of these

which we also decorated, and some of these.

Bess was her usual tolerant self, probably because she's so arthritic she requires help getting on her feet.

The nieces.

The nieces and their mom just before they all burst out laughing. I think this was before the food coma set in.

Abbie playing with bokeh. Good thing she has a generous mom who lets her use the good lens.

And the GRANDparents looking young and chipper as ever.

Ben made it through almost the whole day before he had to catch a short nap, and this week he's feeling a lot better and going back to work.

The rest of the week has been eaten up with editing, building a tool shed out back, and babysitting. Next week Abbie, Man-squared, and I are going to visit the grandbabies (and their parents). I'm taking the week off from the gym and running, hoping that will cure my recent case of burn-out.

Be thankful ~

The Man-mobile.

2011-12-24T08:51:00.002-05:00

If you've been reading here any length of time (bless your heart and thank you), you might remember way back when we bought what the girls in our family affectionately refer to as "the purple truck." On April 18, 2006, we bought the 2001 F-150 4x4 from my brother's company when his boss decided he didn't want to put a timing chain and new clutch in it.

In his ever-optimistic-when-talking-about-rebuilding-vehicles mind, Ben just knew he could do the repairs himself and have a great truck for a pretty low price ($1100). So we bought Big Barney, and Ben drove it home, hiking himself forward on the seat so he could reach the pedals (it's a pretty big truck).

Man-squared was twelve years old.

The boys immediately started tearing it apart and bought a timing chain kit and clutch ($400). The details are foggy (that happens with the passing of large quantities of time), but at some point, a problem beyond our capabilities was encountered, so arrangements were made for Barney to be transported to the truck doctor to have the timing chain repair finished by the professionals with the fancy (and expensive) tools.

When the fancy-tool guys tried to put Barney back together, they realized that somehow the cam had shifted, rendering the motor useless. Kaput. Done. Finished. Never to run again. But at that point, they had spent many a fancy-tool-using hour working on it, which meant that even though we had no truck to drive, we still had a huge bill ($1200). Barney was transported back home, where he sat for several years.

Until one bright, hopeful day when Ben had the idea to take the old motor out and put a new one in ($700, 2 weeks, tops—but that's a totally different story that I may or may not tell someday depending on the reaction I get to this one). I raised an eyebrow and looked over the top of my glasses, but wisely kept my mouth shut. And thus began the process of taking the old motor out, an evolution that began several years ago, maybe in 2009?

Truck parts began to be strewn about the property. Some were in Barney's bed, some in 5-gallon buckets in the garage, and a few in the creeping junipers on the hill next to the driveway (I think those are still there, now covered with three years' worth of fallen leaves).

More time passed. Ben began working on his MBA. Then he got sick. Had surgery and recovered. At some point Ben decided when they got the truck running it would be Man-squared's (who at this point is 18 years old) since he is now 6 feet tall and can reach the pedals. Finally a new motor was delivered ($1300) last summer, and the rebuilding began in earnest.

Now I'll make public the confession I shared with Ben yesterday: I never in my wildest dreams thought that truck would run again. I viewed it as a very expensive bonding experience between father and son, even when the three-times-daily trips to Auto Zone were occurring in the last few weeks.

So imagine my shock and awe when I was sitting at my desk working a few days ago and I heard the roar of Barney come to life! I ran out with my camera and videotaped the sound so I could prove to my brother it was true:

Elijah's truck 11/14/2011 from Karen Sargent on Vimeo.

All that was left was getting it registered and insured, and Man-squared now has his truck, which has been renamed "the Man-mobile."

The Man-mobile also has a new exhaust, because what 18-year-old can drive a quiet truck that sounds like his father's? Man-squared chose larger pipes and something not quite as obnoxious as flowmasters, and Ben and I actually like it. It has a deep, manly rumble. And that's important.

So we have Abigail's girly truck and Man-squared's man-truck, and of course, old Blue-and-White. All's right in the world.

Be thankful ~

Thoughts for the day. Unfortunately, there aren't many.

2011-12-21T21:45:00.000-05:00

Only in Virginia can you sit next to an open window listening to the river babble quietly and enjoying the warm breeze on December 21st. Ben likes it here because he says we have four distinct seasons. I think we have nine or ten. I'm not complaining though. It makes running in the dead of winter much more pleasant.

I am in the process of increasing my weekly mileage ever so gradually. When I do my "long" runs, I try to run them very slowly. They (whoever they are) say that if you do a weekly LSR (long slow run) it helps increase your endurance. Yesterday I ran a 6-miler (yes, I know I've done that before, but then I missed two weeks and had to regress) (sorry for all the parentheses), constantly reminding myself to slow down. I really felt like I was crawling, but when I got to the halfway point, the stopwatch on my iPod said 30:02 (as in, 10-minute miles). That is not slow for me. That's actually the fastest I've ever done 3 miles. So on the way back I made even more of an effort to run at a turtle's pace. I don't know the exact time because apparently I am technologically challenged when it comes to operating my stopwatch, but according to the clock in the car, the whole 6 miles took me 61 minutes. How it is that I can run 6 miles in 61 minutes and feel like a failure is beyond me, but I'm just laying it all out there tonight.

And I never thought I would hear myself say, "I'm excited to run a 7-miler next week."

Be thankful ~

Names have been changed to protect the ignorant.

2011-12-14T15:20:00.000-05:00

My daughter Leah works for a major publisher of Christian educational products, and knowing my editorial nit-pickiness, every so often she sends me examples of errors that might make me laugh (or cry). She told me once about editing a history text in which the authors referred to the "Hoover Damn."

Just yesterday she forwarded me this email, written by a student who wanted to thank her English teacher for help. It read:

Mrs. A:

Thank you for your help I didn't know about any, and I was thinking that I have been and I never know where different tenses.

S.

Her teacher commented, "Yeah, I still haven't figured out what she was saying. I quit."

Me too.

Be thankful ~

What didn't happen today.

2011-12-12T22:04:00.000-05:00

I finally got back on the hamster wheel this morning and I was surprised at how bad I didn't feel.

And then I did Strive and didn't die.

I showered at the gym and my hair didn't frizz out, and I didn't die of hunger before I got to Einstein's for a bacon/egg/cheese bagel and coffee. It was a good start to the day.

Then I went to the hospital to see Ben and he didn't sleep all day. Apparently he got some decent sleep last night, so he was feeling pretty good. We went for a couple of walks around the loop, had a chicken-broth-and-green-jello lunch date, and by the time I left, he was down to only one tube from a high of five.

When he started coughing, I sprang into action and his incision very thankfully did not explode.

I didn't get nearly enough work done. Tomorrow I will skip the gym in favor of a paycheck.

I didn't iron Mansquared's pants that he needed for work, so I tried to coach him through it over the phone. (Note to self: give ironing lessons.)

I didn't make anything decent for dinner. Tomorrow morning I'm going to cook a bunch of chicken so I have something non-toxic to eat when I get home from the hospital.

That's it. My brain is logging off.

Be thankful ~

I think it's time for the weekend recap.

2011-12-11T21:54:00.000-05:00

I only know this because I asked Abbie tonight what day we were in, and we determined that it is, indeed, Sunday.

Ben has been in the hospital since Friday morning having round two of the surgery merry-go-round that started last May. This is supposed to be the last of it, the surgeon's final answer. So far, so good. I'll spare you the gory details, but it appears that things will be fine in the end. (A few of you will get that. The rest of you don't want to know.)

After his surgery Friday, he was brought up to his room around four in the afternoon. I hung around for a while, making sure he had everything he needed, was comfortable, the nurses had him all settled in, etc., and I went home to collapse in bed. All that sitting around the waiting room is exhausting.

Saturday morning I was putting a chicken in the crock pot and getting ready to go for my weekly long run, when I decided to text Ben to see if he needed anything. I found out he hadn't slept at all, was in a lot of pain, and felt like he needed to get out of bed and would I please come help him because no one there would. I threw on my jeans and a T-shirt, grabbed my computer, and headed for the hospital. (I had visions of the time my grandfather was in the hospital and got sick of all the tubes, so he just pulled them all out, including the one that went clear down his throat into his stomach.) When I got to the hospital, Ben was sleeping (of course), so I stood watching him for a while. When he woke up, I got the rest of the story.

Apparently, the evening before, the whole here's-your-pain-button-push-it-whenever-you-need-it explanation got lost in the morphine drip, and he spent the night with no pain relief. He called the nurse a few times and she very sympathetically explained that honey, you've just had surgery (No! Really? Is that why I'm here?) and you're going to have some pain, completely ignoring the violent spasms going on from his ribs to his hips. When the anesthesiologist came to see him early Saturday morning, he took one look and said, "Okay, we're going to up your meds."

Thank you.

So they upped his meds and he slept all day. On the upside, I got a lot of work done. He eventually woke up and we bundled up his tubes and went for a shuffle around the 4th floor's west wing. Then he slept again.

But little by little, he's getting there, gaining some energy, going for short walks, sleeping it off, and today he even graduated from ice chips to chicken broth, and watched some football. There's light at the end of the tunnel.

In the meantime, I haven't done anything more than read about running. Tomorrow I'll try to change that.

Be thankful ~

I blogged, but it's not my fault.

2011-12-07T21:39:00.001-05:00

I am fresh out of blog topic ideas, probably because I'm busier than a one-armed paper hanger, and never stop to consider that anything I'm doing is blog-worthy. It isn't, unless you love hearing about the laundry, dog hair, cooking, errands, and trips to the gym. But the family is once again haranguing me about lack of new posts, so here I am trying to make something up.

It's not working.

I am currently waiting for my knight in shining armor to come home and rub the workout-induced knots out of my back so I can go to the gym tomorrow and regain them. I'm up to 14 miles a week running, and plan to stay at that level for a few weeks. My short runs are 2 or 3 (or 3 1/2), and my long run last week was 6. I'm getting there slowly but surely.

And I found another half marathon I might be interested in: the Dismal Swamp Stomp in Suffolk, Virginia, which is where we used to live. The selling point of this race is that it's FLAT, and that's my kinda running. But it's just a month before the Historic Half in Fredericksburg, and I'm not sure I can do two that close together.

(Feel free to beat my family for haranguing me into writing this uninteresting slop.)

In other news, Mike passed his checkride, so he gets to come home on leave for 2 weeks, and Abbie will pass her physics class, so we can all relax until next semester's crisis. I'm trying to figure out how to set Leah up with a great guy we've found her, and Deb has surprised us all by taking a computer programming class. Mansquared put the mud guards on his truck today.

Hey! Wake up!

(Is that enough? May I stop running off at the mouth and go to bed now? Thank you.)

You're welcome.

Be thankful ~

I keep finding pictures I forgot I had.

2011-12-01T21:27:00.000-05:00

About a month ago, Man-squared and I went to Lynchburg to visit Abbie for the weekend. That was the time I fed 20 college students a homemade spaghetti dinner and they expressed their thanks by murdering me in Mafia.

While we were there, Abbie asked a friend and wonderful photographer, Chelsea, to take some photos of us. Here they are.

This was just a quick, stand-in-front-of-these-bushes-and-I'll-snap-a-few deal. I love them! I wish I could have her around when all the kids and grandbabies are here! Thanks, Chelsea!

Be thankful ~

My day in numbers.

2011-11-29T17:18:00.000-05:00

1: The number of seconds it took me to look out the window, see the driving rain, and decide I wasn't doing my long run.

2: The number of donuts I ate. I do realize that running and then eating donuts is counterproductive, but they were calling my name and my willpower was having an off day. Tomorrow I will throw the rest of the box in the garbage.

3: The number of miles I ran on the treadmill (aka the hamster wheel). My original plan was six miles, but then I got up this morning and saw it was pouring, and I'm just not that dedicated. So why didn't I run six miles on the hamster wheel, you ask? Because it's just too dang boring. Three miles was all I could muster.

4: The number of loads of laundry I did today. In anticipation of the full-time job I still don't have, I've been trying to do things I don't normally have time for, like washing curtains. Today I did that. Four is also the number of times I swept up the dog hair in the laundry room. And if you go out there right now, dog hair tumbleweeds will gently roll as you walk past. I wish my hair grew as fast as Pete's.

5: The number of times I ran from the car to the gym, a store, or my house, wondering why I didn't bring the umbrella I just bought last week. I'm nothing if not consistent.

Here's hoping for a sunshiny day tomorrow.

Be thankful ~

The artist as a model.

2011-11-26T21:01:00.000-05:00

One of Abbie's classes this semester (Digital Imaging) had her making up a movie and then producing a movie poster for it. So she created this whole plot about a research assistant in time travel who doesn't believe the Rapture is going to happen, but then travels forward in time to after it has happened, and then comes back. But then it's too late because he's lost the opportunity to believe by faith. The movie is called Foresight, and she made this awesome poster for it, using her friend Ryan as her model.

Another guy in the class made up his movie and wanted to use Abbie as a model. Some girl did her hair and makeup, and while I don't have the final poster, here's the photo they used (by Nathan Rohrer):

While it's beautiful, it really doesn't look a lot like her. It's amazing how a little makeup can turn a lovely young lady into someone who looks like a villain.

Here's the real Abbie:

In another class (Art as Communication) she used Leah as her model for this project:

I love that she's so talented! And now you know where my tuition money is going. :)

Be thankful ~

Weekend recap. (Warning: graphic photos of chicken processing)

2011-11-21T18:23:00.001-05:00

This could be the longest post in history, but I'll try to keep it brief. (Edited to add: I failed.)

Saturday we had a planned appointment at some friends' farm to help slaughter chickens and turkeys. We'd never done it before, but we wanted to try some of their animals raised without hormones, antibiotics, and other stuff we'd rather not eat. If you volunteer to help with the processing, you get the birds for a good price. So off we went.

We were greeted by Olive the calf. I love calves. Olive has the most beautiful eyes and long eyelashes. And she's just so sweet! Until you realize you're standing too close and and she's nursing on your sweatshirt.

Mr. Farm Boss did the job of killing the chickens while we watched and waited for our jobs to begin.
Abbie's not sure she's going to Chick-fil-a ever again.

Once the birds are dead, they are scalded in super-hot water, which makes their feathers come out easier. Then they're tossed into a machine Mr. Boss made that gets out most of the feathers.

After that they go to the first table where any remaining feathers are picked off and the heads and feet are removed. This was Abbie's job along with Kevin, Cori, and two of the boss's boys.

They get rinsed and head to the gutting table. Here's Mrs. Boss giving us a gutting lesson. It's really pretty easy once you do a couple.

Then they get washed thoroughly and either wrapped in paper or packed in freezer bags. Nina was a champion washer.

We processed 90 chickens and then started on the turkeys. Same routine, bigger bird. Ben volunteered to gut the first one.

Noelle actually did one willingly. Doesn't she look like she's having fun?

I even put my camera down for a few minutes to do a few with a little coaching.

But the highlight of the day was the pair of kittens hanging around. Abbie and Man-squared: the children of the man who hates cats.

Sorry if that was all too much information, but at least now I feel like if I were lost in the wilderness I could gut my own food . . . if I could catch it.

Then came Sunday, when Tony (ze trainer who trains: name that movie) got baptized. I was allowed to act as the mom and go up to the baptistry for photos:

We invited Tony to church last spring, the week before Easter. He's been coming with us ever since, asking questions.

We've had many, many conversations with him over the past few months, and more people than I can count have been praying for him—people he will probably never meet until we get to heaven.

Tony trusted the Lord Jesus for his salvation a few weeks ago at our fall revival. He invited his family and all his old friends from high school to come witness his baptism.

Watching his conversion from start to finish has blessed me in ways I can't even put into words. It's like going back and experiencing my own all over again. God is so good to us.

Then Sunday afternoon a few people from our Sunday school class came over to eat lunch and make cards for the nursing home residents (we go the first Sunday of each month to sing and preach). My job was cooking grilled cheese and tomato soup, and blond brownies. Their job was making cards, which they did to the extreme.

It was a great weekend all around (aside from the fact that Ben spent Sunday with a nasty sore throat), and now we're prepping for Thanksgiving. Three turkeys, two cheesecakes plus pumpkin and apple pies, stuffing, potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans and Brussels sprouts, homemade bread, cranberry sauce, . . . I'm running 6 miles tomorrow in anticipation.

Be thankful ~

The new me.

2011-11-18T19:38:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a post detailing the history of Man-squared's truck, but I still lack a few photos and some inspiration. It's coming though.

In the meantime, Abbie and I got our hair trimmed today, and while I wanted to do something different, in the end I chickened out and stuck with the same cut I've had for the last 20 years. I've always envied Abbie's amazing curls, but never had the slightest bit of body in my hair.

On the way home in the car, Abbie said she wanted to experiment with my hair when we got home. She insisted she could make it curl, so I said, "Okay. Whatever." Enter curl cream and a diffuser.

Long story shortened here: It curls! I am absolutely amazed and I couldn't stop laughing! At first I thought it was ridiculous, probably because I've never seen myself with curly hair, but Ben likes it, so I guess I'll learn to do it this way.

Pardon the cell phone picture.

Thanks to the lovely Kim Wood for the great haircut.

Be thankful ~

Yoga baby.

2011-11-15T21:49:00.000-05:00

Just stopping in to share a picture I found on my phone today while sitting in a waiting room. I was scrolling through my photos, which are about 99.9% pictures of the grandbabies, and found this one of Bean doing yoga with his mommy.

Look at that flexibility!

I can only dream of getting my head on my toes.

Be thankful ~

It was more of a climb than a hike.

2011-11-14T19:12:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday a few people from our Sunday school class went to hike Humpback Rocks again, the same place we went last April where Man-squared gave my heart palpitations with his acrobatics on the cliffs overhanging a valley thousands of feet down (at least it seemed like it at the time). The weather was perfect.

According to tradition (ours), every hike starts here:

The trees up high were bare, but lower in the valleys, there were still some pretty colors:

My super-fantastic sun flare photo. I need some practice.

Heading back up after hiking D-O-W-N for an hour and a half. We got halfway up and had to choose between two sides of a loop back to the parking area. After much deliberating, Ben chose the long one. Yes, that's it. We'll blame Ben.

This is the view everyone goes for:

Even though he took us the long way, I'll keep him.

Be thankful ~

More on the cupcakes.

2011-11-10T20:21:00.000-05:00

Well, look at me, blogging twice in one week! If I'm not careful, this could become habit-forming.

Yesterday was my second trek into Georgetown, this time with my cousin Cathy, who lives in Idaho but comes to DC occasionally for business. Since she was staying in a different part of the city, we decided to meet at the Rosslyn Metro station and walk across the Key Bridge into Georgetown. It was kind of early for dinner, so we walked around the university for a while, gawking like the tourists we were and taking pictures.

Beautiful architecture.

Whenever I come across a statue, I stop and take a picture for Abbie's sake, but I stopped short of sitting down and playing a game of chess with him. This is Jan Karski, a Polish man who lived through the Holocaust and somehow is credited with helping the rest of the world understand what was going on there (the plaque didn't say exactly how). He spent the later years of his life as a professor at Georgetown.

After we had our fill of sight-seeing, we headed toward M Street, where all the food and shops are. We had a great dinner at the famous Clyde's of Georgetown, and then made a bee-line for you know what, where the full dozen sucked me in because somehow six amazingly incredible cupcakes just didn't seem like enough.

The first one didn't make it out the door.

Cathy and I in front of my favorite store on earth. What you can't see by this picture is that my bag of cupcakes is three times the size of Cathy's. Can I blame it on Man-squared?

In other news, daughter #4 was here last weekend (she of the beautiful brown eyes) for some babying and a fresh batch of granola. Here she is obeying Ben and keeping her foot up with ice on it (sprained ankle).

The babying thing worked really well until Sunday afternoon when we had a houseful of people who wanted blond brownies and Abbie called with a lost-in-Roanoke emergency that required my full attention and the help of GoogleMaps plus Mapquest, both of which were wrong, and Noelle wound up cleaning up from lunch AND making the brownies. I'm not sure that did her ankle much good, but on the upside, dessert was fantastic.

I'm sorry about the events not being in chronological order, but I have to deal with these things when I get the photos downloaded (or is it uploaded?), and that only happens sporadically. And now I'm going to turn into a pumpkin.

Be thankful ~

ABCs for today.

2011-11-08T21:26:00.000-05:00

I've been fussed at my almost everyone in my family now for not blogging since November 2. But I have great excuses. I've been working a lot, traveling some, having large parties of college-age people at my house, and trying unsuccessfully to keep the dog hair swept up.

Because of all the activity, all my RAM has been redirected, leaving none for the blog. So to help me out, I'm going to use the ABCs.

A is for the two apples that are drying into shriveled masses on my counter since we started using the woodstove and it's usually 80 degrees in here.

B is for bananas that I just bought when I went to Tar-jay after going to the gym tonight.

C is for cupcakes, which you will understand in a few minutes. I have cupcakes on the brain.

D is for dog hair. What else?

E is for Man-squared, whose real name is Elijah. He told me a few weeks ago after hearing some good preaching about Elisha, that I should have named him Elisha rather than Elijah. Either way he's an E.

F is for Franconia, which is the name of the Metro station I'm going to get on a train at tomorrow to go see my cousin Cathy in DC.

G is for Georgetown, where we will have dinner at Clydes and then visit the world-famous Georgetown Cupcake store, which will charge me $15 for six cupcakes and I will gladly pay it.

H is for huff and puff, which is what I did for 5.03 miles today. My first five-miler!

I is for something, I know it is. I just can't think of anything right now.

J is for Joy, who has pictures of last Saturday's firewood stacking party (which I could have blogged about, but I left my own camera at home), only I don't know where she has stored them. I'll try to find them.

K is for Karin (not me), the German lady in my Strive class who speaks English very well except for the word with. She always says mit, which is German for with. I love her.

L is for Leah, who danced at a wedding last month. If you went to BJU, you'd understand why that's such a problem.

M is for magpie, which is a bird that never shuts up. When we were kids, my two older brothers worked on my grandfather's farm. He called them magpies because he said they talked when they should have been working. Oh, the memories.

N is for Navy, which we spent 20+ years in, and now John McCain wants to take away the health care for life that we were promised.

O is for the oil in my car that I think needs to be changed. Or maybe I'm just using that as an excuse because I can't think of anything for O.

P is for Pettit (Steve), who we are going to hear preach Friday night. If you ever get the opportunity, go hear the Steve Pettit Evangelistic Team. The music is amazing and the preaching is super.

Q is for quit, which I would like to do right now, but that would be lame. (You thought I wasn't going to think of one for Q, didn't you? Come on. Admit it.)

R is for rebel, which I have just a teeny bit of in me. I won't explain, but I shocked my yesterday with it.

S is for supper, which, after a five-mile run and a Pitaiyo class, I would like to eat three of.

T is for truck, whose motor Ben and Man-squared are going to work on hooking up tomorrow.

U is for updog, which I did many of in Pitaiyo tonight. So many, in fact, that my upper back is sore.

V is for vote, which I did today. Did you?

W is for Wally, my youngest nephew whom I have not yet seen. I hope to be able to hold him before he's a year old.

X is for x-ray (you knew that was coming), which I had to research today (not the actual x-ray, but the word). Did you know that it used to be standard to capitalize the X, but in the 16th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, that's been changed, and now you lowercase the x? And also, when using the word x-ray in title case, you only capitalize the X but not the ray, because the part before the hyphen cannot stand alone as its own word. So now you know.

Y is for yogurt, which is my favorite breakfast with homemade granola in it, microwaved for 30 seconds so it's all warm. Y is also for YUM.

Z is for zero, which is how many letters are left. Amen.

And herein ends the reciting of my alphabet day. You're welcome.

Be thankful ~

The evidence.

2011-11-02T14:57:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but we have a neighborhood bear. I'll call him Henry. He's been making himself known more and more over the last few weeks, beginning with a daytime sighting by Pete and Man-squared in the backyard. Recently Henry's been visiting at night, leaving a trail of trash that stretches all the way down the yard and into the woods.

A few nights ago he paid a call on the house across the street, completely dismantling their trash can enclosure, which was built of 4x4s and screwed together. Apparently Henry has been eating his Wheaties.

In the wee hours of this morning, around 1:30, Pete started barking, which is a rare event. (A while back we actually had a car stolen out of our driveway and he never made a sound.) I thought about going to see what Pete was upset about, but having a face-to-face with Henry in the dark wasn't on my to-do list, so I stayed in bed.

This morning we found our trash and our neighbor's distributed evenly across both yards. When I got back from grocery shopping, Man-squared had it all cleaned up, and I mentioned that I still wasn't convinced it was Henry. Maybe it was just a dog.

Until Man-squared held up this black bean can:

There is now a bounty on Henry's head, which Man-squared would like to have mounted. I just want the hide.

Be thankful ~

The weekend in review.

2011-10-31T20:32:00.000-04:00

What a great weekend! It began early Friday morning with me loading foamies, blankets, and way too big a suitcase into my car in the wee dark hours. I walked through the garage tip-toe-ing, listening for any sound that might indicate our neighborhood bear was lurking about. To say I was on edge would be an understatement. When I was sure I was alone in the dark driveway, I started walking toward my car and apparently hit the panic button on my key fob.

I've never come so close to peeing myself.

When I could breathe again, I finished loading my stuff and got on the road for Lynchburg. I got there just in time to hop on the LU bus with Abbie and Marly to go to convo (convocation = 3-times-a-week church with the entire student body of Liberty). When they're all there, the Vines Center is full. Can you imagine having church with this many people?

So fun! I wish I could go every week.

The LU praise band. They're awesome.

Abbie and Marly

I love being a college student for a weekend. You get to have all the fun and there's no homework.

After convo, we had lunch and got on the road for Greenville, South Carolina, and Leah. When we arrived, it was cold, windy, and raining. We were more than a little worried that Saturday would be the same and our race would be miserable. But we quickly got distracted by our plan to carb load at Chipotle, because we do our best girl bonding over burritos and guacamole.

Saturday was sunny and beautiful in spite of being 40°. We dressed as Super Homeschool Mom (me) with her two dorky homeschooled children (Abbie, the boy; Leah, the girl).

They played their parts well.

Some of the other costumes were great, but we only had time to get this photo of the best mullet ever.

At the finish with our medals. We ran slow as molasses but had a great time in spite of the fact that when Leah threw up her hands and shouted "Yesssss!" she almost broke Abbie's nose. We're looking for a 10K now, but Abbie says she's not running next to Leah.

And the weekend post wouldn't be complete without mentioning that when I got to the gym this morning, I saw that the staff members were dressed in costumes. There were a cat, a mime, one of the X-men (I think), and Waldo. I was riding the bike when Steve Urkel came around the corner:

After that I need a good dose of Monday.

Be thankful ~

Recap before the weekend.

2011-10-27T22:36:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I'm heading out for a weekend roadtrip with two daughters, but before I'm allowed to leave, I've been told I have to blog. So here's a recap of the week.

1. Abbie borrowed a white dress shirt from Dillon on Tuesday. Or is it Dylan? Either way, Dillon/Dylan had this new shirt which had not been washed yet, and Abbie borrowed it. I can't begin to explain the intricacies that led to the borrowing of this shirt, but it happened. A short while later, Abbie noticed she wasn't feeling quite right. Then she looked down and saw that she was covered in hives. Proof that even at college age, boys still have cooties.

2. Man-squared was driving to work last night and was pulled over for speeding, but only got a verbal warning, not a ticket. This is significant for two reasons. One, he was driving the car that Ben always gets tickets in because the speedometer has been off since we had the transmission rebuilt several years ago, a fact that everyone in the family knows to be true except Ben, even though he's the one who gets the tickets. Two, Ben never gets warnings. If he sees the blue lights, he knows the ticket is coming home to Papa. Everyone else in the family gets out of tickets either by crying or saying, "Yes, sir" four thousand eight hundred seventy-two times.

3. Our renter called to say she is moving out. We gave a car away. I applied for a job with the Virginia General Assembly and the wait is killing me. I was told for the third time that runners are made in the pool.

Saturday is my second 5K race, this one with daughters 2 and 3. I'll be back Monday, hopefully with photos.

Be thankful ~

The good thing about turning 50.

2011-10-22T15:14:00.000-04:00

Daughter #4 came for the weekend yesterday, which she does from time to time. We were standing around the kitchen bar waiting for dinner to cook when she mentioned that there was a 5K race at the college in our town Saturday morning, and she was thinking about running it. I got excited and said, "Oh, cool! I'll come take pictures!"

So while we were reading about the event on my laptop, Ben came around the bar, put his arms around my waist, and whispered in my ear, "I think you should run it."

Noelle looked hopeful and I looked scared to death. But I figured I'd run 3.5 a couple of times, so there was no reason I couldn't do 3.1 (which actually turned out to be almost 3.2), so I agreed and immediately registered online so I couldn't back out.

This morning at 6:30 when we left the house, it was 41° and we screamed when we hit the leather in Noelle's car, but praise God for seat heaters. Amen. When we got to the race site, it was still 41°. An hour later when the race started, the temperature remained the same balmy 41.

I knew enough to line up toward the back of the pack, and when the gun went off my first thought was, "Why do we pay money to do this to ourselves?"

I was quickly passed by a LOT of people, but fell into a good, slow rhythm with a guy who looked to be about my age. He didn't know it, but he kept me going through the entire race. About a half mile in, we went down a long, steep hill and all I could think was, "Dang, we have to come back UP sometime."

After that the course was pretty flat, winding through old neighborhoods where most people were still snug in their beds.

At 2.5, we turned a corner to come back toward the campus, and my earlier prediction hit hard: the dreaded UP. My race buddy ran partway up and slowed to a walk, so I followed suit, gasping for air. After maybe 25 yards, he started running again, and if I'd been able to produce sound, I would have yelled, "NO! Not yet!" But I took off after him and almost caught him on the downhill past the dining hall.

At 3 miles, all of the university's athletes lined the sidewalk leading up the last hill, clapping and cheering for those of us still crawling to the finish. By this time, Noelle had finished and come back to run the rest of the way with me. What a huge psychological help! As we came to the finish, she yelled, "Look at that time!" Under 35 minutes, which was my goal.

After the race, we waited for the results to be posted. Noelle was in the first group, with a time of 26:20. We waited for a while for the next bunch to be posted, but got tired of standing in the cold (now 47°), so we left for hot coffee and home.

We'd been home a while when I received an email from the race folks. They informed me my time was 34:22, and I was stunned to read I was the first finisher in my age group. Wonders never cease.

Not bad for my first one. Next week I'm running another 5K with Leah in South Carolina. I've never been happier to be in a higher age group.

Be thankful ~

You can't make these things up.

2011-10-21T19:50:00.000-04:00

Today as I was walking out of the gym, my phone buzzed. There was a text from a phone number I didn't recognize:

I'm having a party Saturday night .. wanna come?

I tried desperately to figure out who would be inviting me to a party while falling short in the ellipsis marks department, but couldn't. So I replied:

If I knew who you were, I might . . .

His/her answer:

I can't believe you forgot! Haa Sam.

Me: Haa Sam who?

Sam: Costa!

Me: Sorry, Sam, but I have no idea who you are.

Sam: OMG .. ha make me feel like a complete retard .. look on Facebook ...

At this point, all I wanted to do was point out that ellipsis marks come in threes with spaces fore, aft, and in between, but I don't text that fast.

Me: OK, I've looked on facebook and still have no idea who you are.

Sam: OMG I feel like a total freak. . I'm not even going to both you nomore!

I think that's a good plan.

Be thankful ~

The grandbabies.

2011-10-20T18:45:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago (Yes, I'm behind.) Abbie and her friend Cesia went to Deb's for their fall break. It was somewhat of a culture shock to Cesia, who is from LA and has no experience with country living. Having to watch out for snakes has never been part of her thinking. But they had fun with my grandbabies and sent me a few photos.

Button loves Cesia.

Friday night is homemade pizza night, and Bean loves to help. Deb gets all the toppings out, and Bean eats the olives while she's making the pizza. What two-year-old eats olives? And with such gusto?

Honestly, do they get any cuter than this?

Aunt Abbie reading Button a story. Or maybe trying to coax him into taking a nap.

If I've learned one thing being a grandmother, it's this: the rate at which babies grow is directly proportional to the distance between Grammy's house and theirs.

Be thankful ~

Definitely a Monday.

2011-10-17T16:55:00.000-04:00

Yesterday my car had a temper tantrum. It would start and then immediately die. So today I called our mechanic-y place and had it towed in. They called a while later with a bill of $761 for an air flow control motor and an induction service.

Not too long after that, Man-squared's friend Jeremy called to say he had fallen out of a tree this morning and landed on his head/neck/upper back. He was in the hospital in a neck brace, had a concussion, and they were checking for internal bleeding and broken bones.

Then Leah called and said the friendly folks at Bob Jones University's Public Safety office informed her that her right rear tire was completely flat in the parking lot. A couple of guys offered to put the spare on for her, but they weren't sure where to put the jack under the car. She called home and Ben talked them through it. She'll be buying tires today. Also, when she was putting her violin back in its case, she noticed a joint had come apart and her bridge is cracked. She'll also be buying some instrument repairs.

Then I got this text from the normally easy-going Abbie:

Man, I am so mad at the world today!! I haven't PMS-ed like this in a long time!

I wrote back that we needed to hurry and go to bed so it could be Tuesday, and she replied:

Tomorrow I have a physics test. Not any better.

I'm really hoping we won't have two Mondays this week. Leah and I can't afford it.

Be thankful ~

Why they really come home.

2011-10-14T16:57:00.000-04:00

Abbie brought two friends home from college for the weekend. She assured me it wouldn't be wild because they had a lot of homework to do, and sure enough, as soon as they had eaten lunch, the computers and books came out.

Here's Erin working hard on facebook.

Marly concentrating on a text.

Abbie might actually have been working on a paper here, though I'm sure Pinterest isn't far away.

But the real reason they came home lies in the bedroom. See all those lawn & leaf size garbage bags? They're full of dirty laundry.

And enchiladas are in the oven. Smart ladies.

Be thankful ~

Deborah's 25th

2011-10-12T15:06:00.000-04:00

The older I get, the more I struggle to remember birthdays, even those of my own children. I know when they are, I just can't seem to get myself in gear to remember a card or gift or anything. So here I am a day late with Deb's happy birthday post.

Deb is our second child, first daughter. She had dark brown hair and big brown eyes from the start, and I have pictures to prove it. I just have no idea where they are. She's maybe 18 months in this photo.

About 2 years old.

Sorry for the massive jump over the years here, but by the time Deb was 19 months old, I was having my third child, and then my fourth 19 months after that. The camera got lost in the shuffle of three kids in diapers and apparently didn't get found until Deb's 16th birthday party, when we were safely past that stage. Funny how we missed her dorky, early-teen years. During that time, she insisted on cutting her bangs again, and then having no idea what to do with them, she overused a curling iron. She also had braces. That may be why all those photos are missing.

By the time she was 18 years old, she was a lovely young lady. She loved to sew and cook, had begun an in-depth study of nutrition and medicinal herbs, and knew she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. That year she was an assistant leader on a Teen Missions trip to New Zealand and Australia. (Abbie will kill me for putting this picture up here, but Deb's the birthday girl and at least it's a good photo of her. Abbie was sick unto death while they were touring the Australia Zoo. She was just glad the koala didn't pee on her.)

By the time Deb was 19 she had her man picked out and he was buying land and beginning work on their house in Tennessee. They were married September 23, two weeks before her 20th birthday.

Just a few years later they had Sticky Bean, and Deb is an amazing mama.

Every once in a while the girls get together, which is especially hard now that their lives go in three different directions, but they are closer than any three sisters I've ever known.

This is my favorite picture of them, cutting up and laughing together.

Deb still loves to sew and bake. I think she's making pancakes in this one. And baby #2.

Deborah, you are everything two parents could ever hope for in a daughter. We are incredibly proud of the amazing woman you have become. Happy 25th birthday!

Be thankful ~

The fam.

2011-10-12T13:38:00.000-04:00

Back in June we had all the children home at one time and took the opportunity to take a family photo. Unfortunately, it was right after church but before dinner, so everyone was starving and we were moving a little too quickly. We got everyone arranged on the couch and snapped a few, then got to the important stuff: food.

When we uploaded the pictures after the children were gone, we realized there were two huge windows right behind us, so the faces were dark.

Abbie + Photoshop to the rescue. She had to make it black and white in order to get rid of most of the highlights, but here it is:

When did I become the mother of five adults? And a mother-in-law? And a grandmother of two adorable boys? I'm not sure, but it's more fun than ever and I'm so thankful for each of them and for God's continued blessing on our family. Thankful for our great health and that each one is happy and successful in his/her own way.

Be thankful ~

2011-10-09T15:49:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went to my parents' house to see them and all three of my brothers. Two of my sisters-in-law were there, as well as my niece Anna and my "fourth daughter" Noelle (of the beautiful brown eyes). The occasion was that my baby brother Tom is home from Vietnam, where he currently lives, for a month. So of course we had to get the obligatory family photo:

We had a fun time laughing about lack of hair, tuition bills, and the fact that when we get together, we talk mostly about food. Because we have priorities.

One sister-in-law made a cake that was bigger than a bowling ball and included a carrot cake mix, spice cake mix, a can of pumpkin, and cream cheese icing. Really you could put cream cheese icing on a bowling ball and I would love it. Between the cake and the pulled pork and cole slaw, I went over my calorie limit for the next two weeks all in one afternoon.

So today I compensated by eating a Chipotle burrito for lunch. Why diet today when you can start fresh on Monday, right?

Tomorrow it's back to reality.

Be thankful ~

In memory of Steve Jobs.

2011-10-06T21:06:00.000-04:00

MacBook, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

1. I love that when I shrink a window, you make it look like it's being sucked down a drain. So cool.
2. I love that I can toggle between two windows with one click.
3. I love that your battery lasts 6 or 7 hours.
4. I love that everything is so intuitive even I can figure it out. And that's saying a lot.
5. I love that when I get mail, you make a little sonar ping.
6. I love that you don't weigh 20 pounds like my daughter's laptop.
7. I love that I can swipe with four fingers and see everything I have open.
8. I love two-finger scrolling.
9. I love that your plug is magnetic and so easy to disconnect.
10. I love all the cool gadgets on the dashboard, especially the sticky notes.

I'm sure there are more, but it's past my bedtime and I'm powering down.

Thanks, Steve, for hooking us up.

Be thankful ~

Random thoughts for the day.

2011-10-05T15:42:00.000-04:00

I was just standing at my bed folding laundry (aren't you glad you know that?) and thinking about a time many years ago when I was a young mom. Our family was part of a church that met in people's homes, and most of the families had little children. Inevitably at some point, a few of the moms would wind up outside with babies who were fussy. One early summer Sunday, I was outside with Mike, my oldest. He was about 5 months old. That's where I met Kelly, who was outside with her oldest, David. We sat and got to know each other, and made Sunday get-togethers a regular occurrence. Twenty-two years later, David became my son-in-law, and now I am so thankful for all the work and prayer Kelly and her husband put into raising him. We should bring up all our children with the thought that someday they will be someone's spouse, someone's son- or daughter-in-law.

David and Deb, Sticky Bean, and Button.

Then I was thinking about my younger brother who lives in Vietnam. He recently became a first-time father, which makes me a five-time aunt. His son's name is Walter, a family name, but the Vietnamese have a hard time saying that, so they call him Wally.

I have no idea when we'll get to meet Wally, but I hope it's soon. Look at that face!

Then I was thinking about the conversation I had with one of the trainers today while I was on the treadmill. He knows I'm trying to improve my running, such as it is, so he keeps an eye on me and gives me pointers. I was jogging along at my usual turtle's pace, and he came over and told me I was running too fast. He said I should be able to carry on a normal conversation, and if I can't, then I'm going too fast. (I think this means I need to walk.) Honestly, I can't imagine how long it's going to take me to run a mile if I slow down any more, but I'm going to try. I don't guess at 50 I can expect to win the speedy award, so I might as well enjoy myself, right? Then I got home and watched a video of an 83-year-old woman who just finished her 53rd marathon. MARATHON. It took her a little over 8 hours and there was only one person left at the finish line to give her the T-shirt and medal. But you know what? She did it. Got the T-shirt. *sigh* I'm such a whiner.

And then I thought about Doug Vitale, a young married Marine, who was devastatingly wounded in Afghanistan about 2 weeks ago. He will lose at least parts of both legs and has already undergone several surgeries. He has head trauma, brain swelling, massive injuries everywhere else, and is in a coma. Would you pray for him? For his wife? His parents? What an incredible sacrifice for my freedom.

Be thankful ~

The Trashy Heart

2011-10-04T12:33:00.000-04:00

Abbie's sculpture:

Here's the artist's statement at the bottom:

When all you put into your head is bad music, bad TV, bad movies, and bad conversation, eventually that's what you're going to be made of. I wanted to show a sort of "garbage in, garbage out" type thing. The Bible tells us to guard our heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

So proud of her!

Be thankful ~

For once, Pete did the smart thing.

2011-10-03T18:04:00.000-04:00

Today when I got home from the gym, Man-squared told me this story:

He had gotten home from class and was sitting at the bar in the kitchen doing his math homework. The dog was acting antsy, so Man-squared opened the door to the deck and let him out. Pete shot down the stairs like he was going to chase the ever-present groundhogs but stopped short at the bottom, looking out into the backyard with his hackles up. MS wondered why he wasn't chasing like he usually did, so he walked out to the edge of the deck.

And saw a huge black bear looking at Pete from about 15 yards away.

MS ran back to the door yelling for Pete, who came tearing up the stairs and into the house like a scared little girl. Apparently he has some sense.

Be thankful ~

Weekend wrap-up.

2011-10-02T14:18:00.000-04:00

I think I have sufficiently recovered from my college weekend to share a couple of photos. The main reason Man-squared and I went down was because Abbie had tickets to see Oklahoma!, which was fantastic. The girl who played Ado Annie was the best I've ever seen, even better than in the original movie—so much so that I was still humming "I'm just a girl who cain't say no . . . " in Sunday school this morning, and that's not exactly appropriate.

But another reason for our visit was to see Abbie's first sculpture, which was supposed to be on display. Unfortunately, because Michele Bachmann was visiting campus, the display was postponed until Monday. I'm not sure what Ms. Bachmann had to do with life-sized packing tape sculptures, but that was the official word.

We did get to go into the depths of the art department to see Abbie's work though. Do you see the iPod on the guy's lap? I'm not sure if you can tell from the photo, but it's full of garbage. And so are his head and his heart. Garbage in, garbage out. Of all the sculptures I saw, hers was the one with real meaning. And it's not like I'm biased or anything.

The artist with her work:

Abbie took us to a cool place called The Farm Basket, which is a little gift store and sandwich place where all the food is organic. There's a cool little veranda overlooking a backyard with big trees and a little stream where you can sit and eat.

And of course there was the spaghetti dinner for 20 in a tiny apartment. Cooked on a miniature 3-burner stove in itty-bitty pots.

Marly and Erin danced for us, as well as Kim and Abbie. And if I were any kind of photographer, I would have pictures to show for it, but they're all blurry so I'll spare you.

This afternoon I'm paying bills and doing laundry and trying to talk myself into running in the morning, so far with little success. Hope your weekend was happy.

Be thankful ~

A note from college.

2011-10-01T12:02:00.000-04:00

This weekend I am a college student once again, except that the others call me either Mrs. S. or Mama S and thank me profusely for the dinner of homemade spaghetti with sausage and garlic bread. One of them said (while stuffing his face) "I miss my mom." Twenty people in that tiny apartment last night, and once dinner was served, there was complete silence. That was the highest compliment.

But none of this stopped them from killing me twice in three rounds of Mafia, even when Abbie threatened them.

And then I slept until 9:11, proving that you can take the girl out of college, but you can't take the college out of the girl. I'm glad to know I've still got it.

Today we're going to see Oklahoma! and then driving home. I'll be back tomorrow with photos.

Be thankful ~

Yes, it's been a long time.

2011-09-29T14:58:00.000-04:00

Eight days since I've blogged. Where have I been?

Editing a book. And a website. Running and training and doing Pitaiyo and Pilates. Cooking and doing laundry, but unfortunately for my house, no sweeping up of dog hair. Arranging doctor visits for the daughter who gets bronchitis EVERY fall at Liberty University. And making plans for my visit and race with Leah, which is exactly one month from today. Every time I think about it, I dread that mile-long hill. *shudder*

This weekend Man-squared and I will be visiting Abbie at school to see the university's production of Oklahoma! (That exclamation point is not the end punctuation of my sentence, although I AM happy to be going to the musical. It's actually part of the title of the play. That's why it's italicized. If it weren't italicized, you'd know it was the end punctuation of the sentence. Just wanted to clear that up.) There are big doings in the works down there that I can't tell you about yet because some of her friends read this, but I'll come home with pictures.

Be thankful ~

"A friend loveth at all times . . . " Prov. 17:17

2011-09-21T16:07:00.001-04:00

Remember last week when I went to Georgetown to see an old friend and I said I wasn't going to put the dorky picture up here?

I lied.

I actually just got the dorky picture yesterday and now I feel that in the interest of full disclosure, it must be made public.

Picture the two Karens at their eighth-grade graduation in this very pose, and you'll understand our level of dorkiness:

Does the fact that we're still posing like this at the age of 50 tell you anything about the kind of friends we were (are)?

Karen was the person I told EVERYTHING, including the fact that I wanted to be the president of Chase Manhattan Bank someday. That little tidbit slipped my mind while I was spending 21 years homeschooling five kids, but she reminded me. It's not looking like that goal will ever be realized, and at this point, I'm okay with it.

Karen was also the one whose house I spent many a night at, hiding behind the false wall in the basement smoking cigarettes (my mother will kill me), and who lived right down the street from the water tower that we climbed (my daddy will help). Yes, we were partners in more crime than I should admit in a public forum. Thank God for the statute of limitations.

And now that we're 50, the second-least-athletic girl in school is training for a marathon and kicking the least-athletic one in the butt while I try to run a 5K.

Do you have an old buddy you haven't seen in 27 years? Don't put it off any longer. Life is short; celebrate friends.

Be thankful ~

I made it there and back. And gained five pounds in the process.

2011-09-16T16:37:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I drove up to Georgetown to see an old friend. Well, she's not old, she's just a friend from a long time ago. We figured it had been about 27 years since we'd seen each other, and a lot changes in that length of time. People get married, babies are born, careers are started, families move, but some things never change, and we picked up right where we left off, except that I'm running 5Ks and she's running marathons. Show-off.

Karen and I were best friends in middle school and have the dorky pictures to prove it, although I'm not going to share them here. We tried to re-create one of them yesterday, but it's on someone else's camera. That's probably for the best—it would be just as dorky as the original.

The first thing we did was head out into the cold drizzle to get some dinner. I had read reviews of The Tombs and it sounded good, so that's where we went.

I wondered why it was called The Tombs until we got there. It's in the basement of a very old building. All the walls and columns are old brick, floors are ancient-looking, worn wood—it's like the dungeon of a castle. But it was dry and warm and the food was fantastic. One of those quirky college-town restaurants.

When we emerged from the depths an hour or so later, the drizzle had stopped and we decided to go walking. We were told the nicest part of the city was along M Street, so we headed in that direction.

The streets are made of this uneven cobbling which is lovely to look at but not so fun to walk on.

I loved the old row houses

and the steep streets.

We were enjoying just walking along, looking in the shops and talking, when we stumbled upon this:

Yes, that's the one and only Georgetown Cupcake, where the show DC Cupcakes is filmed. And you KNOW we had to have one just to see if they're as good as people say. Lucky for us there was only a short line. I really intended to get just one, but when I started looking at the flavors, I knew I was in trouble and figured I'd better take some home for the men.

Yeah, that's it. For the men.

I walked out with a half dozen, only because I couldn't afford any more than that. This is what $15 worth of cupcakes looks like in Georgetown:

Clockwise from top-left: apple caramel, pumpkin spice, red velvet with cream cheese frosting, chocolate squared, chocolate peanut butter swirl, and happy birthday milk chocolate.

Be still, my heart. These women speak my love language.

The cupcakes are every bit as amazing as all the hype makes them out to be. I'm already trying to figure out when I can go back.

Armed with enough sugar to keep me high for the next six weeks, we continued walking toward the waterfront so my friend (and her friend) could find the Crescent Trail where they would be running 13 miles this morning. (Where does dedication like that come from? Certainly not Georgetown Cupcake.)

I got this shot of the Key Bridge in the sunset. See the traffic sitting still on the bridge? It was like that three hours earlier when I crossed it. Some things never change.

On our walk back to the hotel, I spotted the RHINO headquarters right there on M Street and had to have photographic proof for Leah.

And to cap off a perfect evening, we turned around and saw this beautiful rainbow. When we first spotted it, it looked like it was coming out of the smokestack on the lower right. I really wanted to get that perfect shot, but people wouldn't stop honking their horns at me in the middle of the intersection. (Just kidding, dear.)

Have you ever been to the Georgetown University campus? It has some of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. No wonder they pay so much to go there. I could just walk around looking at the architecture all day.

Obviously, I did make it out of the city just fine. Once I crossed the Key Bridge, I kept my eye on the Pentagon, knowing 395 was just on the other side of it, and it turned out to be easier getting out than getting in.

Great day with great company. Here's hoping it's not another 27 years until I see Karen again.

Be thankful ~

And there was no long line!

2011-09-15T23:02:00.000-04:00

I made it out of Georgetown. But not before I was sucked in by this place. Do you recognize it?

More on this tomorrow after I get punished in the gym for my lack of sleep.

Be thankful ~

Grammar Lesson of the Day: Pronouns and Their Antecedents.

2011-09-14T15:48:00.005-04:00

When I was homeschooling my children, I made them learn and chant the subjective case pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) and the objective case pronouns (me, you, him, her, it, us, them) and learn when to use which ones. I bet they can all still do it. (Bonus points to the child who can also chant all the helping verbs.) You use the subjective case ones when the pronoun is a subject or a predicate nominative, and the objective case ones when the pronoun is an object (either direct, indirect, or the object of a preposition).

Everyone knows what a pronoun is. It's a word that takes the place of a noun, so you don't have to sound ridiculous like this:

          Bob rode Bob's bike five miles to Bob's house.

Instead, you can sound intelligent and say:

          Bob rode his bike five miles to his house.

In the second sentence, his is the pronoun, and Bob is what we call the antecedent, or the noun to which the pronoun refers. I think Bob needs a car, but that's another story for another day.

The funny thing about pronouns and antecedents, though, is that they must match in number. Singular antecedent, singular pronoun. Plural antecedent, plural pronoun.

You wouldn't say:

          Bob rode their bike five miles to their house.

would you? It doesn't even sound right. Yet I see this error all. the. time.

Take the letter I got from Liberty University (the school I am currently paying $25,000 a year to educate my daughter) today. Here's how it begins:

          Dear Parent/Guardian,
          Over the years, you have invested in the life of your child. As the time comes for you to guide them . . .

Wait, what? THEM? I thought we were talking about my CHILD (singular). Why would we use a plural pronoun?

The $25,000 answer is: we wouldn't. We would use one of the singular pronouns, her or him. Since this is obviously a form letter, we would say, As the time comes for you to guide him/her . . .

Unless you are the parent of twins, in which case you would be out of your mind sending them to Liberty anyway. That would be $50,000 a year.

Go forth and speak correctly.

Be thankful ~

Randomness.

2011-09-13T20:41:00.000-04:00

Blogging four days in a row one week has no bearing on what will happen the following week. Just so we're all clear on that.

Abbie came home last weekend and Noelle (of the beautiful brown eyes) was here, so of course we ate too much and had a baking marathon, but that's what we do when we're together.

Abbie spent time listening to Ben tell stories, which he is famous for, and I forgot how to focus my camera.

We started our Saturday by rolling three very large logs up onto the trailer. I wanted to get pictures of the event, but something about 800 pounds of oak rolling back over my family kept me pushing. What, you don't keep stacks of logs in your front yard waiting to go to the sawmill? We do, along with the Y from a large tree (hickory, maybe?) standing in the middle of the driveway. It's like a sculpture. Our neighbors love us.

Anyway, after the log rolling, we went to the gym, then came home and made the brilliant decision to cancel out all our hard work by baking The Pumpkin Bread. With chocolate chips. And two batches of Deb's Granola. And a pork roast, mashed potatoes, and asparagus for dinner. And then after dinner we made a second batch of pumpkin bread because we believe in overdoing everything food related.

Sunday morning I woke up with a food hangover, and what better way to fix that than having a football-sized burrito from Chipotle for lunch after church? Then Abbie left for Lynchburg, Noelle left for wherever it is she's living for the next four months, and Man-squared and I came home to sleep it off. But first I had more pumpkin bread just to see how much I could cram into my stomach at one time. Then I slept it off.

Which brings us to this week.

Monday was just a normal day of gym, work, laundry, make dinner. (Are you still here?)

Tuesday I made up my mind I was going to run 3 miles, since I haven't done that yet and the 5K in South Carolina is just six weeks away. So I went to the gym, got on the treadmill, and actually did it in 31:55. Yay, me!

This afternoon I was sitting at my desk when Man-squared came tip-toeing through my room, quietly unlocked the French doors, and went out on the deck with his gun.

It's a constant war with groundhogs here, and Pete is all but useless now that he's gotten a taste of chasing deer out of the tomatoes. He doesn't even look for the small animals anymore.

Now you're probably wondering why you stuck around for all that, and I can't say I blame you. But Thursday I'm driving up to Georgetown to meet a friend for dinner, so that should be good for some stories if I live to tell them.

Be thankful ~

I look like who?

2011-09-09T05:00:00.001-04:00

Wednesday night at church a guy told me he thought the girl sitting with me Sunday night was my sister. He said we looked exactly alike. While he was talking I was trying desperately to remember who was sitting next to me, and finally figured out it was Noelle, she of the beautiful brown eyes. She's the one on the right.

And I went, "Huh?" If at 50 years old I looked just like Noelle, I could make a lot of money. But I'll take the compliment anyway.

Be thankful ~

I really tried to teach them to behave.

2011-09-08T12:00:00.001-04:00

Also unearthed in my photo searching the other day were these from Boo's wedding last June, which Leah, Abbie, and Man-squared were all a part of.

I love the look on Man-squared's face.

Be thankful ~

Bean and his cookie discovery.

2011-09-07T12:00:00.000-04:00

While I was searching through photos yesterday, I also came across these from last December when Bean & Button brought their parents to our house. Of course we had the requisite cookie-baking marathon, which included rugelach, these little Jewish pastry things filled with crushed walnuts that are so good we only make them once a year lest we all wind up the size of a Mac truck. We made tray after tray after tray of them.

Look at that flaky, powdered-sugar-crusted goodness all wrapped around the warm, oozing walnut-and-honey-and-cinnamon filling. Mmmmmmmm . . .

Sorry. Where was I? Oh yes, at the time of these pictures, Bean had never had a cookie. Yes, you read that right.

But now we're at Grammy's house, and special things happen there. Mama lets us have cookies!

And you know what happens when Mama gives us a bite of warm-out-of-the-oven rugelach? That's right . . . we want more.

Oh, the pleading. The begging. The puppy-dog eyes.

It's a good thing Grammy's not in charge here. He would have gotten the whole tray.

Be thankful ~

Stuff.

2011-09-06T21:34:00.000-04:00

I might be the worst grandmother ever. Button is 3 1/2 months old and I still don't have a picture of him in my sidebar! I figured that out while I was getting rid of the dingy background and trying to decide what other changes I want to make, which turns out to be not many because I just don't have it in me tonight.

Anyway, I'll put this photo in the sidebar even though it's 3 months old because it's the only decent one I have. Ahem. This is in no way intended to be a hint to Button's mother who just recently bought a really nice new Canon camera.

While I was going through what few photos I have of the grandbabies (they never write, they never call), I also found this one of Bean. Playing in the sink was his favorite activity when he was here last. I think he would be willing to drive the 12 hours again just spend his days in the kitchen with Grammy.

I just love that look of concentration.

Then I came across this really cool photo. I don't know who took it, but I feel sure it was shot with my super-awesome 35mm f1.8 lens that now resides in Lynchburg, Virginia.

I love how it looks like the flower is floating. Honestly, if somebody's going to use that lens, it might as well be the person with photography talent.

So there, Leah. I blogged and it hasn't even been 3.4 days.

Be thankful ~

That's what friends are for.

2011-09-05T12:08:00.000-04:00

Yesterday afternoon we had a bunch of people here for dinner, one of whom is Abbie's friend Noelle, she of the beautiful brown eyes.

At some point I thought it would be funny to text Abbie and let her know some of her favorite people were here, so I did and we had our little joke. Then I asked her what she was up to and she sent me this message:

At the front desk wrapping Ryan in tape.

To which I replied:

Do I want to know why?

She answered that it was for her sculpture project, and a little while later sent me this photo:

It might have been just a little disconcerting to find out that I'm paying $25,000 a year for her to wrap her friend in tape, but I guess that's what art school is nowadays. Her sculpture will be on display later this month. It will be interesting to see this very expensive work of art. And also, isn't Ryan an amazing friend? I mean, when was the last time you let someone wrap you in tape and then cut it off? I only have one question for you, Ryan: Didn't the tape stick to the hair on your legs?

Be thankful ~

I'm always playing catch-up.

2011-09-03T19:57:00.000-04:00

So I haven't blogged in a while. I'm not sure how long it's been, but Leah can tell you to the tenth of a day (she reminded me a few days ago that it had been 3.4 days). Up to and including Wednesday, I was acting like a workaholic and just couldn't squeeze out the words. Thursday I went to the gym and then took the rest of the day off to go shopping. Sounds like fun, right? No. I hate shopping. The clothes are ugly and I have no idea what size I am anymore. I end up taking three sizes of everything in the fitting room and then hating them all anyway. Maybe in my next life I should be a designer.

Anyway, I did find a few things including a new cheesecake pan (priorities), so it was a semi-successful, albeit exhausting, day. Then Friday I went to the gym, cleaned my house, and made coconut custard pies—one for Tony, who had asked me earlier in the week to make them. That was day two of no working.

Today (Saturday) I made the monthly trip to the commissary, came home and put it all away, paid the bills, and went to the gym. By the time I got back I decided to spray the walkways and ditch with Roundup, then had to shower, and really, who can start work at 3:30 pm? So I managed to blow off three full days of work, for which I will surely pay tomorrow. I'm justifying it with the fact that I worked 13 days straight before that.

The latest news is that Abbie is now the reigning wall-sit champ, clocking in with an amazing five minutes. In case you don't know what a wall-sit is, stand with your back against a wall, walk your feet out, and slide down until you're in a sitting position, knees and hips at 90° angles. Keep the weight in your heels, not your toes, and no resting your hands on your legs. Hold as long as you can. When we first started doing these, one minute was a challenge. My best is 4:20 and that included a lot of moaning and screaming.

In other news, Virginia is still enjoying aftershocks. The last one I felt was Thursday morning and it was strong enough to wake me up. At least when the hurricane's gone, you know it's not coming back. This earthquake stuff is getting old.

So now you're caught up and I have at least 3.4 days until I get reminded that it's time to blog again. Ciao!

Be thankful ~

Catching up.

2011-08-29T19:31:00.000-04:00

Ben just walked in my bedroom and said to Elijah, "Son, remember when Mom used to have a blog?"

What is with the pressure from my family? You'd think they all sat at their computers just waiting for the latest blog post!

So lest I disappoint my fans (all 6 of them), here are some photos to chronicle the last few days.

Man-squared with his new ukelele. He says all the cool people play them.

Pete, lusting after the squirrel he can't get.

At one point the squirrel turned and chattered right at him, and Pete tried to run through the glass. The stupid was bred into him.

Man-squared plowing up the backyard. The picture is fuzzy because I'm standing inside shooting through the window. It was pouring rain.

Man-squared showing off his mud-covered self after he laid the bike over twice. In the pouring rain. I'm not sure how different this is from Pete trying to run through the glass door, but I'm holding out hope for Man-squared.

Thanks to those of you who expressed concern about the earthquake and hurricane. The earthquake turned out to be much more traumatic (at least to my psyche) than the storm, which was nothing more than a little wind and rain here in Northern Virginia. The college Man-squared goes to sustained some damage, so his classes have been canceled until the 6th, but that's the only lasting effect other than the fact that I'm a little jumpy.

Here's hoping this week is a little less eventful.

Be thankful ~

Weekend recap.

2011-08-24T12:37:00.001-04:00

It's been a busy few days around here.

Last Friday I drove to New Jersey for my niece's bridal shower. What should have been a five hour drive took me seven due to the normal block party on the Capital Beltway, the five-mile-per-hour crawl through the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, the rain delay in Delaware (everyone knows you can't drive over 15 when it's raining, right?), and the construction-induced traffic constipation on the New Jersey Turnpike. When I finally got to my sister-in-law's house, we all hugged and the bride-to-be immediately said, "Okay, can we order the pizza?"

I've said before that one of my favorite parts of going home (to New Jersey) is the food, which always begins with Vesuvio's pizza. So I had my fill of that and good company that I don't get to see very often.

Then Saturday morning before I was even out of bed, my sweet niece was standing in line at our favorite bakery getting the best crumb cake in the world.

Breakfast of champions.

Saturday afternoon was the shower, where I got to see even more family members that I really never get to see.

Here's the bride, beautiful Alexis:

And the all three of my sisters-in-law, Pam, Michelle, and Dawn:

And here was my ride for the weekend. We tooled around on a perfect day in Michelle's Mercedes convertible.

But like all good things, it came to an end and I drove back home Sunday morning. Had a great nap, went to church, and that was the end of the weekend.

Monday morning just happened to be my 50th birthday, so I celebrated by going to the gym and beating Tony in a wall sit. (fuzzy cell phone picture)

My current favorite friend, Patty, made me an incredible carrot cake and sent the WHOLE THING home with me. AND she got me an awesome T-shirt. Front:

and back:

Ben took me to dinner where we shared two pounds of mussels and a couple of steaks PLUS a piece of cheesecake with blackberry sauce (because I needed it) and came home in a food coma.

Then came Tuesday and you already know about that ad nauseam, so I'll skip the narrative on that day.

And that gets us caught up. Hope your weekend was as much fun!

Be thankful ~

Earthquake.

2011-08-23T21:30:00.000-04:00

Isn't it just so true that you never know what a day will bring? You get up thinking you'll answer a few emails, go to the gym, do some work, cook dinner, and somewhere along the way there's an earthquake that sends all your plans down the drain.

I won't bore you with the details since, if you have facebook or twitter, you're sick to death of hearing about it, but I will tell you a very sweet earthquake-related story.

This afternoon I was standing in my bedroom folding laundry. Man-squared was in his room doing homework.

Then it hit. And when I say hit, I mean HIT. There's no build-up to an earthquake. The house just starts shaking violently and there's a loud rumbling noise. Never having been through an earthquake before, I thought Man-squared was throwing furniture around his room, except that wouldn't explain why the mugs on the shelf were rattling toward the edge and the ceiling fan was flopping like a fish out of water. As I ran to the living room shouting, "Elijah!" he came out of his bedroom with a panicked look and we both figured out what was going on. So in my calm, cool, and collected state, I yelled, "Get outside!"

Man-squared grabbed me by the arms and started shoving me toward the garage, shouting, "You first! You first!" which I was only too glad to obey, calling for Pete on the way.

Only later did I stop to think that my boy was getting me out of the house first, before himself, and I almost cried.

That's a man.

Be thankful ~

Two days in a row. This might be a record.

2011-08-19T23:53:00.000-04:00

It reminds me of last week when Ben announced the Mets were on a one-game winning streak.

Today I drove from Northern Virginia to the Jersey shore, a five-hour trip. It took a little over seven hours. I hit the DC beltway at 2:30 pm, never a good idea on a Friday. Then I got to Baltimore around 3:30, even worse. By the time I was approaching Delaware it had started raining, and everyone knows you slow down to 20 when it rains. That continued all the way over the Delaware Memorial Bridge and onto the New Jersey Turnpike, where things took a turn for the worse and came to a standstill. Human nature hit a new low with people cutting through the rest stops to pass traffic sitting on the road.

But it was all worth it when my nieces walked in the door with two pizzas from Vesuvio's. I'll sleep well.

Be thankful ~

Thoughts.

2011-08-18T18:56:00.000-04:00

1. Last night I was lying in bed reading when Ben came in. He started off by saying, "I have a theory."

Not having any clue what he was talking about, I braced myself.

He continued, "Last night when I went out there to shut Pete's crate (we lock him up at night), his head was hanging out."

(He's a weird dog. He sleeps with his head hanging out of the crate, which is big enough for a small horse.)

"So instead of shutting the crate door, I thought he might be more comfortable if I just closed the laundry room door. That way, he could sleep with his head out, and it would be a little warmer in there too."

(We keep the house just above freezing for those of us who have hot flashes, and at times we find Pete curled up in a tight ball, almost shivering.)

I looked at Ben in stunned silence for a minute, then burst into a laughing fit. When I could finally talk, all I could say was, "How lame are we that we've devolved into theorizing about the dog's comfort?"

2. This morning I actually ran 2 miles without stopping. They say if you can run 2, you can run 3. I don't know who they are, but if it's not true, I'm suing.

3. Tomorrow I'm going to New Jersey for my niece's bridal shower. I'm looking forward to seeing family we don't get to see very often, and eating real pizza and getting a Mueller's crumb cake. And maybe some good hard rolls. (If you're not a Yankee, you probably don't know what those are, but let me just say there's nothing like a good buttered hard roll in the morning. It may not be the breakfast of champions, but it takes me back so I'll eat them and be happy.)

4. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." (Titus 3:5,6)

See you Monday with photos.

Be thankful ~

2011-08-13T20:03:00.000-04:00

Well, hello. Apparently I have a blog.

My only excuse for the long absence is that I work for two different companies, just sent a daughter back to college, I'm committed to my gym schedule, and I like to see my husband now and then. In other words, life is busy.

In the middle of it all, I've gotten a few emails from the daughters who don't live at home anymore. Leah sent me one telling me she sat as a model for a teacher (I think) who was drawing a picture of Scylla. Here's how Wikipedia describes her:

Scylla was a horrible sea monster with four eyes, six long necks equipped with grisly heads, each of which contained three rows of sharp teeth. Her body consisted of twelve tentacle-like legs and a cat's tail and with four to six dog-heads ringing her waist.

Alrighty then. Here's Leah:

Here's the drawing:

I can see the resemblance. The teacher's 16-year-old daughter said his wasn't scary enough, so she drew her own:

And people tell me she looks just like her mama . . . hmmmm.

I get pretty regular updates from Deb. Here's the latest of the boys watching Cars:

Button has put on a substantial amount of chub since we saw him in May, and Deb says he's cutting his first teeth at the ripe old age of three months. All I can think is TOMORROW you'll be paying his college tuition bill.

Ben and I were in the car today discussing the sorry state of our finances when we realized we have only two more tuition bills for Abbie—December and June. CAN I GET AN AMEN?? That will leave one child to get through college. And then we laughed at how just ten years ago we wondered where we would get the money to buy the books and supplies we needed to homeschool. That bill was usually around $500 a year. For five children.

So all this talk about money got me thinking . . . just how much have we spent on tuition for our kids? And the answer is a shocking $226,500.

SO FAR.

By the time Abbie and Man-squared are finished, we'll be well over $350,000, and that doesn't include Ben's bachelor's degree and master's degree, nor the MBA he's currently working on.

Going to stick my head back in the sand.

Be thankful ~

Wish I were there.

2011-08-06T18:39:00.000-04:00

Leah and her friend Elizabeth are in New York City this weekend, and it sounds like they're having a blast. Yesterday I got this photo:

Sorry about the quality, but that's what you get from a cell phone. She said they were in Grand Central Station gawking and taking pictures. They went to see The Phantom of the Opera and then found their way back to the ferry that would take them back to where they're staying.

Then this morning I got this one:

And a little while later she let me know she had found our ancestor's name in the log book from 1892. Carl came here as a 19-year-old from Vienna, Austria. The girls were also going to Wall Street (I guess to give condolences) and Chinatown, and then going to see some other friends.

My Saturday has been every bit as exciting. I spent the first part of it at the commissary, then brought it all home and Abbie helped me put it away. We vacuumed the house and made a trip to Staples for Abbie and Man-squared's school supplies. Came home, worked a little, read for an hour, made dinner. Unfortunately, I'm not as good with the camera as Leah is, so I don't have any exciting photos to share. Lucky you.

Be thankful ~

Four things you probably didn't know about me.

2011-08-05T20:40:00.000-04:00

1. I learned how to gut a fish when I was 11 years old. The rule was, "You catch it, you gut it." What I did NOT have to do, however, was catch my own grasshoppers and put them on the hook. My daddy made my brothers do that for me. I just couldn't bring myself to stick a hook through a living insect with its little legs kicking. So why was it so easy to slit the fish and pull its guts out? I have no idea, but in my twisted young mind it was a completely different issue.

2. When I was in high school I refused to wear skirts or dresses. I wore jeans and that's all. I think I remember wearing a skirt one time, and then only because I had to when I was being inducted into the National Honor Society. Proms don't count because it goes without saying you're going to wear a dress, but if I could have gotten away with pants, I would have. Now I love dresses. Again with the twisted young mind.

3. My first real job was bussing tables in a seafood restaurant in the resort town I grew up in on the Jersey shore. I got the job because my mother went to church with the restaurant's owner. My first day of work I was carrying a tray of glasses to the front of the restaurant where we kept the stuff needed to set tables after they were cleared. I balanced the tray between my hip and the edge of the sideboard and was putting the glasses on the sideboard. I don't have to tell you what happened. Physics took over and half the glasses went crashing to the floor. Miraculously, I still had a job the next day and went on to work there another five summers. By the end of the first year, I could stack a tray with 9 dinners and carry it on one arm over my head.

4. I have never been a football fan. I liked the Steelers when I was in high school (back when Terry Bradshaw had hair) and went to all the high school games, but it was a social thing, not because I was any kind of sports fanatic. So when it was announced in my senior year that we would be playing co-ed touch football in gym, I was apathetic. The coach got us out in the parking lot (our football field was at the elementary school across town), picked teams, and assigned positions. He clapped his hands and said, "Okay. First and ten!" and I asked, "First and ten what?" He looked at me funny and said slowly, "First down, ten yards to go." And I asked, "What's a down?" He dropped his whistle and buried his face in his hands. I was the physics teacher's daughter. What did he expect?

Be thankful ~

A post, such as it is.

2011-08-04T20:33:00.000-04:00

You know you're overdue for a blog post when your husband complains about the lack of new content. It's not my fault. Really. I've been working like a crazy woman in addition to trying to get my butt in shape for a 5K at the end of October.

October, you ask? That's three months away. What's the rush? But here's the deal: It's taken me since February to be able to run 2.5 miles, and that's with a short walk break in the middle. When I say I want to run a 5K, I mean I want to RUN it. No walking. And if I could do it in under 35 minutes, that would be stellar. I just don't want to be last. The good news is that by then I'll be in the 50+ age group.

I got this picture today from Deb. In case you don't know what's going on here, Bean is sharing his beloved bunny with Button. I replied, "Awww, isn't he sweet?" and she texted back, "No, he's trying to smother him with it." Brothers are awesome like that.

Man-squared had his head stuck in the refrigerator today and when he backed out, he said, "Mom, next time you go shopping, can you just get a ton of chicken we can marinate and grill?" I answered that I thought that's what I had been doing, and that I felt like I was cooking huge batches of chicken almost daily. Apparently he really means a TON. Ben and I figure that when he goes off to college for $25,000 a year, we'll still be better off financially because we won't have to feed him.

And that's all my brain can process today.

Be thankful ~

Camping.

2011-08-01T22:11:00.000-04:00

Three of my kids went camping last weekend and brought home a lot of dirty laundry and some great pictures. Since I'm pressed for time, I'll keep the commentary brief.

The tent, with tarp. They're Sargents—they know it's going to rain. (It did.)

Man-squared and Leah.

Leah and Abbie.

Man-squared and Abbie.

Man-squared doing a back flip off the diving board.

Man-squared doing a flip in 12 inches of water.

I think it was at this point that he wondered why he was doing a flip in 12 inches of water.

Too late now.

That had to hurt. Why do 18-year-old males do this stuff?

Oh, yeah. That's why.

Be thankful ~

You never know where a grammar faux pas will show up.

2011-07-31T15:00:00.000-04:00

Seen on a pair of pajamas in JC Penney:

I would never be able to sleep with that unnecessary apostrophe on my chest.

Be thankful ~

Childless.

2011-07-29T21:02:00.000-04:00

Ben and I are childless for the weekend. Abbie and Man-squared went to meet Leah for a weekend campout. This morning we loaded Abbie's truck with enough stuff to survive a month in the wild. Abbie took typical girl stuff (she said at one point, I have the most important thing--chapstick.), and Man-squared went armed for bear. He takes his role as protector seriously.

Around dinnertime I got this text with the attached photo: Best campground ever!

Nothing like a beach to make that girl happy. She gets it honest.

Tomorrow Ben and I have a wedding in the morning and a birthday party in the afternoon. We thought about escaping to the beach ourselves, but decided to be responsible adults. Isn't that sad?

Have a great weekend!

Be thankful ~

Seen at the gym.

2011-07-29T13:28:00.000-04:00

Abbie and I decided to start a new blog series called "Seen at the gym."

This morning we were waiting for Strive to begin when we saw a woman on the stair-climber (not to be confused with the StairMaster, which according to The Man is what non-wimpy types use). Emblazoned across her butt was this message: Keep it beautiful.

Rock on, sister.

Be thankful ~

Coming up for air.

2011-07-26T20:39:00.000-04:00

I've been working my brains out lately (not quite literally, but almost), and all that sitting at a computer editing e-books doesn't make for good blog stories, hence my silence. But I do have a few random facts to share.

1. A few months ago I decided to have my body fat percentage checked. The first time, it was a little over 23%. Not bad for an almost-50-year-old. So I kept working at it, and just a few weeks ago it was down to 21.3%. I'm feeling pretty good about that, but I'm not allowed to try to lower it any further. And that's all I'll say about that.

2. Last week one of the trainers at the gym was doing body fat measurements, so Abbie stepped up. Granted, she is only 21 and hasn't had five babies, but honestly, 16.8%? I'm trying not to be jealous.

3. Then today Man-squared had his measured. You know Man-squared, the guy with all . . .

the . . .

muscle?

Yeah, him.

His body fat percentage is so low it doesn't even register on the machine. And they tried two different devices just to make sure. (For the record, they know the machines go down to 4% because they've seen that number on them.)

Jerk.

4. On the upside, I bought a dress the other day and it's a small, so I guess 21.3% isn't so bad.

Be thankful ~

Wildlife.

2011-07-23T19:11:00.000-04:00

I looked out my bedroom doors today and saw this guy in the bushes way out back.

He's got his head stuck in there searching for whatever keeps bringing him back. We see him all the time.

When I grabbed my camera and opened the door all stealthy-like, he stopped and looked up at me.

But he didn't run like he usually does. He just stood there watching me tip-toe across the deck. I didn't have time to go get the zoom lens from Abbie, and I was trying to get to the rail so I could use it as a tripod with my prime lens. He just kept standing there, and finally I got this one.

He kept his eye on me until I went back inside, then he turned around and went back to eating.

Ben went fishing last week and brought home a bucket of fish guts for the garden (think Indians showing the Pilgrims how to grow corn), and it's still sitting way out by the woods. I keep waiting for our resident bear to show up. Hopefully I'll have the zoom before then.

Be thankful ~

Saturday confessions 15.

2011-07-23T14:13:00.001-04:00

1. I want to complain about having to run in the heat and humidity all week, but I'm on a campaign to stop whining about exercise, so I won't. You already know it was 106° here yesterday.

2. That said, I ran in humidity so thick this morning it was like pea soup. When I stepped out the front door I almost turned around and came back in, but I knew I'd feel better after I was finished, and sure enough, I did. It's nice to be able to say I did it in spite of how awful it was. (It sounds like I'm complaining, doesn't it?)

3. I forgot my mother's birthday yesterday, so I called her today. She said it was okay, and that once you reach 76, you're just an old bat and birthdays don't really matter. But my daddy is a smart man. He bought her a new car and had it wrapped in a huge red bow. (Go ahead and say, "Awwww!)

4. I need to do a small amount of writing for work today and I'm procrastinating by writing this post. Confessions are much easier to write.

5. I found organic ground beef for $2.97 a pound today at Target (it's usually $5) and bought all they had, which was only 3 pounds. That's not really a confession but more of a brag.

You can read more confessions at A Familiar Path. How's your Saturday been?

Be thankful ~

1.2 degrees warmer than the day I got married.

2011-07-22T20:45:00.000-04:00

Taken at about 3 pm today. And yes, the sensor is in the shade.

Being thankful for A/C ~

My kids make me laugh.

2011-07-22T15:12:00.000-04:00

Here's Abbie with her arm double.

Be thankful ~

I am my mother.

2011-07-21T20:35:00.000-04:00

I just uploaded a few photos from my camera and was surprised to find the spider I had forgotten about.

What you can't tell from this picture is that he (or she) is snacking on whoever got caught in the web. I could have gotten a better photo, but I would have had to hang out over the deck railing 15 feet above the sinkhole in the backyard to shoot from the best angle, and I think we all know I'm not that dedicated.

While I was scrolling through the rest of the pictures, I found a bunch that were taken by Abbie on Sunday while we were making dinner. Whenever I'm photographing a recipe for the blog, I get Abbie to do the shooting because she's much more talented than I am, and because it's hard to cut potatoes and take pictures at the same time.

When I got to this one, I gasped because, hello? What are my mother's hands doing in this picture when she was 100 miles away?

Did you ever say when you were younger that you would NEVER grow up and do (fill in the blank) like your mother? I did.

And then I grew up and became my mother. The difference is that now I think that's a good thing.

Be thankful ~

Best slogan ever.

2011-07-19T09:20:00.000-04:00

Two of my daughters have been talking about moving to Austin, Texas, after they finish school. One will get her master's degree next May and the other will have her bachelor's the following December. They hate the cold, love the heat, and are currently swooning over Texas. They decided on Austin because they are both studying the arts (music and studio art, respectively) and it sounded like a good fit. (I think the real reason is that it sounds like an awesome adventure.)

So this morning I was glancing over the Yahoo news headlines and saw this article about cities with the most jobs and cheapest housing, so I clicked on it, and wouldn't you know, Austin is #5 on the list. Lots of jobs in the arts, good housing, thriving music and education, and their slogan is "Keep Austin Weird." My daughters will fit right in.

I ran my two miles this morning in the 178% humidity, came back and drank two 20-ounce glasses of water, and still felt thirsty. Abbie and I are going to Pilates (in the air conditioned Mind/Body Studio thankyouverymuch), and then Man-squared and I are going up to the Marine Corps base to get our military IDs renewed and buy food. I'm a little nervous about taking Man-squared grocery shopping with me—you know, that whole burn-it-faster-than-he-eats-it thing.

Have a great Tuesday!

Be thankful ~

Saturday's confessions continued.

2011-07-18T20:52:00.000-04:00

1. I don't think I finished one thing I started over the weekend. I have half-written blog posts, two-thirds of the photos I need to post the Crack Potatoes recipe, a partially edited E-Book, most of a grocery list, a lot of the laundry done, and six quarts of beans that are washed and snapped, waiting to be put in the freezer.

2. Tomorrow may not be any better. I have a Pilates date with Abbie, a military ID date with Ben and Man-squared, and a buy-a-lot-of-food date with the commissary. Somewhere in there I need to finish the E-Book. And run two miles.

3. Abbie made cookie dough Saturday and had the brilliant idea to freeze it in cookie-size pieces, so now every day we have fresh oatmeal-whole-wheat-dark-chocolate-chip-cherry cookies hot out of the oven. I've given up losing any more weight until she goes back to school.

4. A few months ago, we took the hot rod to Firestone to get an estimate on some work we needed done. Yes, it's old. Yes, it has over 200,000 miles on it. Yes, there's duct tape residue all over the driver's door from when the window wouldn't work and we had a garbage bag taped over it. Now the only window that works is that one. No A/C, no temperature gauge. Anyway, the guy told me it wasn't worth putting any money into. He said, "That car won't go another five miles." Since then, Ben has driven it to work and back most days (45 miles round trip), drove it to Tennessee (1300 miles round trip) to work on our house, and just got back from Ohio (800 miles round trip) where he was visiting friends and fishing.

No, that car won't go another five miles.

Be thankful ~

Saturday confessions 14.

2011-07-16T18:45:00.000-04:00

1. I haven't been to the gym since Tuesday. I've been staying home, trying to get caught up on the virtual mountain of work I have. I ran 2 miles yesterday and today so I don't feel too bad about it, but I do miss the weightlifting. And the Pilates. But definitely not the StairMaster.

2. Thursday Abbie and I went to the beach. When I left that morning, both inboxes were empty, and when I got home at 10 pm, they were overflowing. I would say that will teach me to take a day off in the middle of the week, but why would I lie? We're already planning the next beach day a few weeks from now.

3. This morning I was up before everyone else and when the sun started peeking through the trees, I saw an awesome spider web covered with dew, sparkling in the early sunlight between the deck rails. So I grabbed my camera and went out to take a few pictures. Aside from Pete getting in the way, I realized I wasn't going to get a decent shot with the mediocre lens on my camera. Abbie has the good one right now and I didn't have the heart to wake her that early. Someday I'll buy another 35mm f1.8, but apparently there's a shortage right now.

4. I'm already looking forward to lunch tomorrow. I'm cooking tilapia and the famous Crack Potatoes. And maybe some squash and zucchini and grape tomatoes.

5. I just realized I never posted the recipe for the famous Crack Potatoes. I'll take pictures and put it up here soon.

Be thankful ~

At 10:44 pm, you get a list.

2011-07-14T23:00:00.000-04:00

1. Abbie and I spent the day at the beach, and despite the red flags (rough surf, no swimming), it was perfect. Sunny, breezy, not too hot.

2. My phone has sand in it and I can feel it crunching when I text.

3. Virginia Beach has a Jersey Mike's Subs, and we found it thanks to Leah in South Carolina finding their website and calling me with directions. Technology is awesome when you're craving a #2 with no onions.

4. Have you seen the movie Pursuit of Happyness with Will Smith? Great movie. But have you read the book? It's even better. I only put it down for two naps today.

5. It's 10:58 now and my brain shuts off at 11.

Be thankful ~

Short and sweet and to the point.

2011-07-12T21:44:00.000-04:00

I ran this morning and went to Pilates. Then I went back to the gym this evening with Abbie for 30 minutes of cycle and totally earned my dinner at Bonefish Grill. The entire time I was on the bike I swore I would never put myself through that again.

Then I came home and checked out the upcoming cycle schedule. What is WRONG with me?

Don't answer that.

Tomorrow I'm not going to the gym at all. I've got this e-book the size of Texas I need to get through and sent in, and I'm determined to get it done tomorrow. So that's it. I'm going to get up and bury my face in the computer until it's finished. I'm so exciting.

Happy Wednesday!

Be thankful ~

Pure excitement.

2011-07-12T08:05:00.000-04:00

Ben is on his way home, Man-squared is working, Abbie is helping a friend, and I just finished editing the last of three marketing blasts. I'm on page 191 of the gargantuan e-book I started working on 3 weeks ago (First time through. I'll have to go through it again, but it will go much faster the second time. Right now it's like climbing Everest.) and thought this was as good a time as any to bore you with the mundane details of my life.

Saturday we had our Sunday school class over for a barbecue (or cook-out, depending on whether you're rebel or yankee) and as usual, wound up with way too many desserts. I successfully avoided the massive chocolate chip cookies until Sunday afternoon, but they went perfectly with my two cups of coffee. And the brownie I ate at the bridal shower Sunday night was just to make sure I got no sleep at all. Monday I woke up with a food and caffeine hangover.

After a weekend of no exercise and too much food, I couldn't wait to get to the gym. I jumped on the StairMaster for the first time in 3 or 4 weeks because apparently I am a fan of pain. After 90 floors I decided I'd better save some strength (ha!) for the Strive class that came next. That would be the class in which I was told to hold a plank while balancing on one elbow and the opposite foot, and you better believe I whined about it, but not before I did a face-plant in the carpet. No more cheesecake for you-know-who. ;-)

And then the storm came and we shut the computers down, so here we are the next morning and I'll spare you the details about Pete and his drool and putting him in jail.

Happy Tuesday!

Be thankful ~

Saturday confessions.

2011-07-09T07:22:00.000-04:00

Melissa says this is #14, but I'm sure I haven't posted confessions 14 weeks in a row because I'm lame like that.

1. I've done nothing but work and go to the gym lately, with a little cooking thrown in. Abbie does the laundry, nobody cleans. It's been a rough couple of weeks, but the end is in sight. I think I'll finish what I'm working on this next week. I hope.

2. I'm having a bunch of people at my house for a barbecue (cook-out?) today and all I've done is make a cheesecake. Lame again. Do you call it a barbecue or a cook-out?

3. I'm going to cook Man-squared's groundhog in the crockpot today. Never say you came to my house and didn't eat something interesting.

4. For those of you who aren't friends with me on Facebook, here's the bill we got from the hospital last week. Five days, one surgery:

Notice the "Please Pay This Amt:" line. I always look at that part first, then go back and laugh at the total bill. We have amazing health insurance.

5. It's 7 am and I'm going to make a blueberry dessert for tonight. My mother always said you can serve a mediocre dinner but if dessert is awesome, that's what they'll remember, so I always make dessert first. Thanks, Mom.

Be thankful ~

A guest post by Mike.

2011-07-06T13:55:00.000-04:00

I love my children. The older they get, the more often they bail me out of my self-induced blog neglect. And since I am up to my eyeballs editing a really fantastic unit study this week, Mike stepped up and sent this guest post.

I have something my parents call "The Father Confessor Gene." This is the gene that makes you a prime target for drama-queens, lonely weird people, and those who have really screwed-up life stories. Most of the time I don't mind, but there are those times when I have told people to fix the unnecessary drama before they talk to me again. And those are just some of the guys. I've learned things about my generation's women that make me fear for the survival of humanity.

But I digress.

The Father Confessor Gene, as you might be able to tell from the name, means that people look to you for forgiveness of their sins, even though you can't forgive anyone's sins at all. They explain what they were thinking, make excuses, try to justify their behavior . . . and in the end, they're no more convinced of their own justification than when they started.

And for non-Christians, that's just where I want them—lost, and knowing it. But when a Christian does this, it makes me a little crazy.

See, when God saves someone, He forgives them of every sin they have ever committed. And since that's not quite awesome enough for such a great God as He is, He also forgives all the sins they have yet to commit.

And still, that's not good enough for God. So He takes that sin, and buries it in something called the Sea of Forgetfulness. God chooses to not remember that sin—which is exactly as if it had never happened in the first place. That is the power of the blood sacrifice of Jesus.

Now here's where I get a little irritated with Christians: If you asked God to forgive you, He did. Period. That is the promise of 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So if you're already forgiven, why are you still acting like God didn't follow his own word?

God is a great God, who always keeps his promises. If you, as a Christian, asked for his forgiveness, you got it. So riddle me this: Who are you to go scuba-diving in the Sea of God's Forgetfulness, dredging up things he has already dealt with?

God always forgives you permanently, even if you don't. So if you are forgiven, live like it. Go, and sin no more.

And be thankful, for such forgiveness as this.

Happiness is . . .

2011-07-02T19:46:00.000-04:00

. . . having a husband who is willing to drive the car with no air conditioning all the way to the rental house 12 hours away so I can have the good car.

. . . having a son who works at Bonefish Grill and brings home Bang-Bang Shrimp.

. . . having a neighbor who also works at Bonefish and brings me incredible hazelnut brownies with raspberry sauce and fresh whipped cream. It's a wonder I don't weigh 500 pounds.

. . . a beautiful organic garden (doesn't this cancel out the brownies?)

. . . last year's flowers that surprise me, popping up in the cilantro

. . . fresh basil

. . . and beans

. . . squash enough to give away

. . . tomatoes to go with the basil

. . . banana peppers

. . . and cucumber vines with swirly tendrils

Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. (Psalm 68:19)

Be thankful ~

The cold, hard slap of reality.

2011-07-01T07:46:00.000-04:00

Well, then.

Apparently my daughter's commentary on homeschooling was a hit (get it? a hit?). This blog received more visits in one day than ever before. Thanks to all who came to read.

While Leah was busy keeping my website going, I was sitting in my beach chair with my feet in the surf, becoming a vegetable. I don't go to the beach very often (it's 2 1/2 hours away), but at least once a year, I like to go shut down for a day. And yesterday was it.

Abbie, Man-squared, J (Man-squared's friend), and I left at 7:30 am to enjoy a day in the sun, and it was the perfect day for it. Mid-80s, no clouds, warm water, and no jellyfish. It was lovely. I slept, didn't think, listened to a grandpa tell his 2-year-old granddaughter to shush, stop it, and quiet now at least 500 times and I really don't think I'm exaggerating (thanking God for iPods), and enjoyed a few salty swims with Abbie.

And because I've been made an exercise freak, I went for walk from our spot on 20th Street all the way to Rudee Inlet and back. That would be 2.6 miles.

No pictures because I didn't want my camera to get sandy and I just never thought to use my phone, but I can assure you the beach looks the same as ever.

So after a warm, relaxing day in the sun, today it's back to reality with Strive and then work, work, work. I have a huge project I'm working on and will spend the majority of my weekend on it.

Happy Friday!

Be thankful ~

Guest post by Leah.

2011-06-29T22:08:00.001-04:00

Well, I was picking on my mom for not blogging (Four whole days! What was she thinking?), and she said I should write a guest blog. So I did! Here goes!

Lately I've been talking to a Jenny [name changed to protect the innocent:)], a coworker of mine. Jenny and her husband have two children, and for various reasons, they're thinking about having Jenny be a stay-at-home mom and home school the kids. When she told me about this, I said, "You know, I was home schooled all the way through high school and I'm a pretty big fan of it!" Jenny: "Really? Did you ever feel like you were . . . [searching for a nice way to say it] limited by not going to school?" Me: "That depends on how you define limited, I guess."

Jenny basically said the same thing (in a nicer way) people say to me all the time when they find out I was home schooled. How did you have friends? Did you ever feel like you missed out? Did you wish you went to school? Were you angry at your parents because they didn't let you go to school? Didn't you want to be normal? How did you get into college? Was it hard to adjust to a classroom? What about college social life?

Here are my answers, as a bona fide home school graduate, to all of those questions.

Q: How did you have friends?

A: I was a nice person. How do YOU have friends? (This is my standard answer)

In all seriousness, I made friends at church, and when I was fourteen we started using a home school co-op for music lessons, so I made friends in the orchestra. Yet another perk of getting your child music lessons (I'm a music teacher. I had to make a plug for it). But we also played with the neighbor's kids after they got home from school. "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly" and all that. :)

Q: Did you ever feel like you missed out?

A: There were times growing up when I wondered what it was like to go to school and be with friends all day. Then the movie Mean Girls came out and cured me of that.

No, I never really felt like I missed out. Unless by "missing out" you mean missing out on getting teased, missing out on the drugs, smoking, immature dating relationships, sneaking around, and dishonoring parents. If that's what you mean, then yes, I totally missed out, praise God.

Q: Did you ever wish you went to school?

A: I did once, that I remember. But the next morning when I woke up at 8, instead of 5:30 (like most high school girls do), all of a sudden I got really thankful for being home schooled.

Q: Were you angry at your parents because they didn't let you go to school?

A: I don't remember ever feeling angry at my parents for not putting me in school.

I understand that parents don't want their kids to be angry at them. But with all due respect, you're the parent. Sometimes your kids won't like the choices you make (having to mow the grass when I was a teen comes to mind), but you're the adult and you know better. Do what you know is right for your kid. They'll come around. Especially when they wake up at 8 instead of 5:30. It does wonders for the attitude.

Q: Didn't you want to be normal?

A: Why the heck would I want to be normal?

Normal for a teen girl means you or a close friend has an eating disorder, and have worried about being fat since age four. FOUR. Normal means you've slept with someone by age 14. Normal means having smoked a cigarette by age 12, and had your first alcoholic drink by age 11. Normal is wearing trashy, immodest clothes to advertise how insecure you are and how easy it'll be to take advantage of you. Normal is yelling at your parents when you don't get the new iPhone ALLLLLL the other kids are getting. Normal? I'll pass.

Q: How did you get into college?

A: I took the SAT and applied. What did you do?

No offense, but this has got to be the dumbest question ever. There's only one way to get into college. Take a standardized test and then apply. Duh. My mom kept track of my high school courses and sent in a transcript just like other schools, and since I was going to be a music major, I auditioned. In the middle of April I got an acceptance letter. It's not rocket science.

Q: Was it hard to adjust to a classroom?

A: Not really. It was definitely different, but I thought it was pretty easy to adjust. I enjoyed being in class with my friends, but I was always sort of the nerd of the group and I tended to study more than they did. Now that I've worked for a year and I'm in grad school, I can safely say that being the nerd is totally worth it. Plus, in college the nerds are the ones who get begged for tutoring. I can't tell you how many poor little freshmen I helped pass music theory. :)

Q: What about college social life?

A: It was kind of weird being around a bunch of people my age at first. I'd always been in more (dare I say it?) diverse groups. It only took about two days for me to realize this whole college thing could really be a blast. I got involved with a Christian student group, helped found and run a chapter of the Network of enlightened Women (NeW), and worked on good conservatives' political campaigns with the College Republicans. Ironically, they made me the Social Events Chair my junior year. The home schooler. Imagine that.

Home schooling isn't just an educational choice. It's a lifestyle. It really is what you make of it. Personally, I'd take it every day of the week over being in school. So to answer Jenny's question, no, I was definitely not limited. On the contrary – I had then and have now more freedom than the vast majority of my classroom-schooled peers. I'm incredibly thankful that my parents home schooled me, and I definitely plan to do the same for my children someday.

Basically, I have a pretty great life. But it started at home. My parents are still the biggest influence in my life, and I wouldn't trade that for anything. After all, they're the ones who taught me about Jesus. And He makes all the difference in the world.

Leah

Saturday confessions 12.

2011-06-25T18:10:00.000-04:00

1. This will be the shortest Saturday confessions post in the history of mankind because I forgot about it and now I have to leave the house in ten minutes.

2. Part of one of my jobs is writing a monthly newsletter. Every month I leave it until about six days before the end of the month and then panic. So far my strategy has not backfired, but I know one of these days it's going to bite me.

3. I call all my kids and all of their friends "darlin." Sometimes I almost slip and call someone inappropriate that. That's also going to bite me someday.

4. I used a neti pot for the first time today and it was the strangest feeling. But I've been trying to get rid of a sinus infection for almost a month now, and after ten days of antibiotic, it's still there. I'll let you know if it works.

Be thankful ~

The stress of pressure.

2011-06-23T20:35:00.001-04:00

I am not a fan of the pressure. I work my brains out trying not to get myself in a pressureful (to use my niece's made-up word) corner, but every once in a while things build up faster than I can get through them (that's the way it is in publishing), and I'm up against it. And guess what: I write under pressure, and then stand back and marvel at how quickly I get it done. And then the next day I am convinced once again that I just can't work under pressure.

This is Pete. We call him "the brainless wonder" because it's a wonder he can function at all with as little brainpower as he apparently has. What he lacks in smarts he makes up for in jowls and hair.

Pete hates pressure too, only in his case, it's the barometric kind. He senses a drop in atmospheric pressure and begins the freak-out process because he knows there's thunder coming. Then we have the requisite pacing, panting, and drooling. A few weeks ago I heard him outside my bedroom door at 1:30 a.m. in the middle of a meltdown, so I got my bathrobe on, opened the door, and slid through a puddle of dog slobber. I may or may not have said some less-than-kind things to my panic-stricken dog and shooed him back to his crate to ride out the storm. Remember the book, Marly & Me? That's Pete.

Pete in sun-shiny high pressure:

Pete in there's-a-storm-a-comin' low pressure:

Maybe I should deal with my pressure like he deals with his.

Be thankful ~

More on Pitaiyo.

2011-06-22T08:29:00.000-04:00

Pitaiyo on Sunday afternoon was killer. I thought I'd go to the gym that afternoon because I hadn't done anything the day before, and in my twisted mind, if I take more than one day off, I'll gain 5 pounds and lose half my muscle. So I went, thinking, "It's just Pitaiyo. How bad can it be?"

I will never learn.

Have I already told you that Pitaiyo is a combination of Pilates, Tai Chi, and yoga? Pilates works the core, Tai Chi makes you sweat, and the yoga calms your mind while your muscles are screaming.

The Tai part is pretty easy, and the yo part wasn't too awful. I was hanging in there until close to the end, when the instructor demonstrated Warrior 3. I know it doesn't look bad, but I'm telling you this is the most unnatural position to try to get your body into. However, because you are face-down, your nose makes a handy spot for dripping sweat onto your mat.

If you really want to see what it looks like, go here. I've tried four times to paste the photo and the ole blog just won't take it today.

Anyway, I lived through the tai and yo portions. Then we got to the Pi part and I thought I would die trying to do a reverse bridge with leg lifts. So I learned my lesson and will hereafter forevermore refrain from Sunday afternoon Pitaiyo.

Maybe. I reserve the right to change my mind because apparently I enjoy suffering.

Monday was uneventful. Tuesday I went to the gym and then Abbie and I went to donate blood. I gave my pint while listening to the flurry of activity behind me, where someone had passed out because he had his legs crossed. Then Abbie and I went shopping and I bought a cute dress. I actually found two, but decided one was enough. I have no idea why.

And now here we are at Wednesday, getting ready to go to the gym. It's a Strive day, so I'm happy to say there's no yo.

Be thankful ~

Saturday confessions 11. (Warning: Hunter photos ahead.)

2011-06-18T10:21:00.000-04:00

Look at me, getting this out there before bedtime on Saturday (or worse, on Sunday)! But only because I saw Melissa's link on Twitter this morning.

1. I've been a little obsessed with taking photos of Man-squared's muscles lately. When the light is just right, you can really see the definition in those arms. He's just like his daddy.

2. Speaking of Man-squared, he killed one of the groundhogs that have been vandalizing our garden yesterday. I walked out on the deck to throw a towel over the railing and saw it sticking its head out of the hole. So I quietly came back in and told MS to get his gun. When he went out, he saw a different one peeking out from under the woodpile where it makes its home. He aimed through the rail slats and shot it. I'll spare you the details, but it was a pretty amazing shot, knowing that a groundhog's ear is about the size of your pinky fingernail.

3. My dog is stupid, but you already know that. After the groundhog was shot, we sent Pete down to investigate, hoping he would get the scent and learn to go after them himself. He ran down to it and sniffed a few times.

Then he started barking, like that would increase the amount of dead. Or maybe he wanted to play.

Even my Yorkie learned to kill a mouse. I fear there's no hope for Pete.

4. Now it's Saturday morning and I've already been to the commissary and put all the food away, with help from Abbie and Noelle (she of the big, brown eyes). The rest of my day will be spent working and doing laundry, and then going to a graduation party.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Last weekend's major event, very late.

2011-06-16T15:57:00.000-04:00

If you've been here any amount of time, you know we have a truck in the driveway that is either red or purple, depending on your gender (the girls call it purple, the boys, red).

This truck has been sitting for a few years waiting for a new motor, and since both Man-squared and Mike were here last weekend and Man-squared found out that once it has a new motor it will be HIS truck (how's that for motivation?), they decided it was time to get the old motor out.

Man-squared is on this side, Mike is buried in the leaves on the other side, and that blue thing in front is an engine hoist.

First try. Something's still bolted.

Second try. Even with all that muscle, it's not coming out. (Adam, he has his daddy's arms.)

Making a plan for try #3.

Success!

Ben had to settle for being the brains behind the brawn. Man-squared is just showing off his lats.

Ta-da!

At some point a new motor will go in, we hope as easily as this one came out.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Signs of the times.

2011-06-16T13:56:00.000-04:00

Two sisters go shopping together and what do they get? Photos of incorrect signs for their mama.

This one from Leah:

And I think the plural should be scraves.

And this one from Deb:

I can just picture them fighting over who gets to take a picture of the sign and send it to Mom . . .

Be thankful ~

Karen

Sweet Shot Tuesday.

2011-06-14T08:01:00.000-04:00

Man-squared pulling the motor out of his truck.

As always, it's the subject rather than the photography skills that make me love this photo.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Saturday confessions 10. Only for me it's 9.

2011-06-11T20:39:00.000-04:00

1. It's 8:30 pm and I'm tired and want to take a shower and get in bed with a book, but like every other Saturday of my life, I forgot to write this post until now. So here I am.

2. I did my first Pitaiyo class today (that's a combination of Pilates, Tai Chi, and Yoga) after being told over and over (by you-know-who) how great it is. I was also told it was a good workout and would make me sweat. There were extenuating circumstances in today's class, but it was still pretty good and did make me sweat a little. I wouldn't trade Pilates for it, but I might do it once a week just for the stretching.

3. My brother showed up here this afternoon and we had a good time talking and laughing. He speaks my dog's love language. I did not take a picture but I should have.

4. I drove Abbie's truck for the first time today and might have felt a little of my redneck side coming out.

5. The boys finally got the motor out of the truck I affectionately call purple today, but I've promised Man-squared I will start calling it red. He's going to get it someday and doesn't want to be driving a purple truck. So it's red.

6. I forgot to buy batteries for my wireless mouse today so I'm using the trackpad. I'm tired of it. So I'm going to shower and take cough medicine and go to bed. Good night.

Be thankful ~

Karen

It's in the genes.

2011-06-10T08:06:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, Man-squared left the house one morning and I didn't see him for most of the day. I don't usually worry about him; he's a good boy (boy?) and quite responsible.

When he came home that evening, here's the report I got.

A few days earlier, he had been talking to his youth pastor's wife (who has a toddler and is pregnant with #2), and she was lamenting the lack of a garden in her backyard. She's always wanted to grow vegetables and learn to can them, but she and her husband have no experience with such things and just didn't know where to begin. And that gave Man-squared an idea.

You already know he's no stranger to hard work.

When he left the house that day, he took with him our tiller and a few other tools. He stopped at Lowes to buy some plants and a 50-foot hose, and then went to the YP's house and got to work. He tilled a spot in the yard, planted the tomatoes, squash, and whatever else, and watered them well, all while training the dog to stay out of the garden.

YP and his wife never knew he was there, but they have their garden now.

The reason this event is significant (and my mother is probably tearing up now) is that my grandfather (her daddy) used to do the same thing. He would go to somebody's house, plant a bunch of bulbs in the fall, and never tell anyone he'd been there. In the spring, up would pop beautiful flowers, and people would wonder where they came from. Or we would come home from school one day to find a bushel basket of peaches on the porch, or a 50-pound bag of potatoes. He just did these things without ever telling anyone. He went about doing good.

And though Man-squared never met his great-grandfather and grew up in a completely different lifestyle, I can say without a doubt that, even three generations removed, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Be thankful ~

Karen

One score and seven years ago . . .

2011-06-09T15:56:00.000-04:00

We were very young, much thinner, and with thicker hair, and on the hottest day in New Jersey history, we got married in a church with no air conditioning, and then had an outdoor reception under a big tent in the sunny yard.

I'll spare you the photos because we were all covered in sweat, and the piped hearts on the side of the cake were sliding down as we cut it. Ask anyone who was there what they remember about our wedding and they'll say, "The heat." No joke, it was 105° on that record-setting day in 1984.

Twenty-seven years, five homeschooled children, and a career in the Navy later, we're still here with a vastly better understanding of what it means to say, "For better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health . . ."

Be thankful ~

Karen

Babygirl gets a truck.

2011-06-08T05:00:00.000-04:00

Abbie (aka Babygirl) has wanted a small truck ever since she drove a friend's out in the country. She envisions herself driving with the windows down, elbow hanging out, maybe a toothpick in her mouth. She's a redneck at heart.

So after not much searching on Craigslist, Babygirl's daddy found the perfect truck for her.

And it even came with the toothpick!

Be thankful ~

Karen

What remains of the weekend post.

2011-06-07T08:37:00.000-04:00

The last three photos from yesterday.

First cousins, once removed. Go ahead and ask me to explain cousin relations. I'm one of the very few people I know who understands it.

My mom with her second great-grandson, Button.

My dad, reading the first great-grandson a story. What you don't see here is that Bean commentated through the whole book. Every animal is "bunny!" and every man is "Daddy!"

Be thankful ~

Karen