Thank You Is Like A Present From Your Mouth

From the mouth of a five-year-old's moral dictionary.

Need I say more?

Let us generously give lots of free PRESENTS today!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

You Just Never Know

Never underestimate the influence you can have.  

You never know how your words, no matter how simple they seem to you, can impact another.

Let us aspire to uplift by making sure that the words we choose are words we share with love.

Yeah, But Lizards Don't Talk

I saw a tiny lizard scurry across the driveway as my five-year-old friend and I walked around the neighborhood looking for Shirley.

Shirley happens to be a run-away-from-The-Scary-Zoo-talking-elephant whom we were in search of.

With a landmark map we inquired of neighbors as to whether they had seen Shirley.

When the lizard darted out, I  suggested, "Maybe we can ask the lizard if it has seen an elephant?"
And my little friend's reply was, "Yeah...but lizards don't talk".

I guess only elephants do!?

Just Don't Get In The Exit Only Lane

"Just don't get in the exit only lane."




As I was driving in a foreign state to me but home to my son, that is the advise he gave me-I think so I would quit asking, "Which lane do I get in now?"

I continued driving down the freeway and I pondered the Exit Only's in our lives.
In my life. 

The paths I had taken that took me somewhere I had not intended to go.
The roads that changed my life course;at least long-term temporarily. 


I did not stay forever "lost" but did have detours that delayed and even caused me to miss events in my life I would have otherwise embraced.
Some experiences and even people that would never come my way again.

I usually ended up in the "exit only" lane because I wasn't closely paying attention and before I knew it, I was too far over to safely change lanes.
I had no choice than at that point to exit.
Once there, I had to ride that course until an opportunity arose for me to get back on track. 

Although not 100% successful, over the years, I have tried to be more diligent about watching the "signs" and having a better idea of where I am going ahead of time so as not to be lead off my destination.

Thank goodness for alternative routes.
For second and even third and fourth chances to right our wrongs!
Who knows where I would be if it weren't for U-turns in life!?

"We all have big changes in our lives that are more or less a second chance. " ~Harrison Ford

 

Not A Nut-Free Family

Some of you know that I work at a school with young children.
In recent years many different kinds of allergic reactions with the children have come up, some being more severe than others.
Because of this we are now known as a nut-free school.


Unlike the school at which I work, my family is not nut-free.

Actually anything but.

We have any kind of nut you might want.
Foreign ones,
Americanized, (is there such a thing?)
Big ones,
Little ones,
Tasty ones,
Salty ones,
Bland ones,
Sugar -coated ones,
Some shelled ones ,
And others which are almost impossible to crack,
Ones good for your heart,
And yet others that probably prematurely contribute to a shortened life expectancy.

If you want a nut we have got it!!

Sooo.... if you are allergic to nuts-our reunions are not the place for you!

" Sister to sister we will always be,
A couple of nuts off the family tree."~Author Unknown


"Insanity does not run in my family.  Rather, it strolls through, taking its time, getting to know everyone personally."

This Is What Happens When We Aren't Secure

I rescued this shelf from a roadside trash pick-up.

Well, it didn't start out looking like this.

It was a put-together storage shelf that just needed a little TLC and it would be a nice piece to have around.

A perfect DIY project!

Then what happened you ask?

Well, being the naive, inexperienced- truck-borrower-driver-transporter that I am, I did not secure my awesome-to-be-shelf.

I was only going a short distance.

It was an area I was familiar with.

And I thought I had it all under control.  Really.

What I didn't account for were the bends in the road.  

The turns that were more sharp than I had guesstimated.

The challenges I did not see coming that would sway my shelf out of control.

Truthfully, I didn't really even expect a problem.

What could possibly go wrong is this short amount of time?

So I wasn't even really paying attention.

That was not until I heard a crash!?

Then it really was roadside kill! 

You should have seen me scrambling to pick up the pieces out of the middle of the road before anyone was aware of what I had done.  (Looking over my shoulders the whole time-yes shoulders).

Or before anyone else would be affected by it.

Now in several pieces it was not quite beyond repair but a much, much bigger job than it had started out to be.

Sometimes this happens to us in our lives.

There is something that we need to work on, to improve, to just tweak a little to get ourselves back in our best shape.

To regroup and safely secure us.

But we get lackadaisical about it.

We take for granted that we know ourselves so well that we don't have worry too much about it.

Or we just ignore that there could be a bigger problem up ahead, a bend in the road.

We do not notice that we are starting to sway-a little too much.

Then when we least expect it, we crash and things fall to pieces.

Something we weren't expecting and therefore not prepared for.

And what started out to be a simple fix has turned into a big project.

Maybe no longer a DIY project but something we need outside help with.

My advise to myself and anyone else who may be insecurely swaying back and forth:

Take the time to tie the wobbly, loose ends in your life down-before you can empathize, oh too well with Humpty Dumpty.

To be continued.......

Remember The New Male In My Life?

Eighteen months ago I invited or/and allowed a new male into my life.

I wrote about him here. 

Well, we broke up.

Not because we don't love each other (it would be hard to find more unconditional love anywhere),
Not because of age difference (although it is substantial),
Not because we don't get along (we are the best of friends),
Not because of lack of communication (although it has been minimalistic and verbally one-sided for most of our time together),
And not because I don't want to be with him anymore (this is breaking my heart),

But because him and his family had to move out of state.
(For you who did not get the original scoop-he is now an eighteen month old toddler).

I was offered to come along and had I been twenty-years old it could of been the dream-move of a lifetime.

But (FYI) I am a little past twenty and have an established place and other obligations and responsibilities (...and what sounds like excuses) where I am at now.


It was however one of those unexpecteds I started writing this blog about.


* I unexpectedly acquired a complete new family into my family structure.

* I unexpectedly fell in love with someone not of my own flesh and blood as if he were my own.
(I in no way mean any disrespect , but I wondered if maybe just for a tiny glimpse this is what happens to adoptive parents and other family members when they are blessed with a child.)

* I unexpectedly learned even more about parenting (even after raising five children), and child development (even though I have been working with children for over forty-one years), and family dynamics (it was so heart warming to see such a strong and loving marriage unit).

* I unexpectedly have a broken heart.  Not because of I fell out of love but because I fell in love.


* I have unexpectedly been blessed in so many ways from this relationship that I often wonder(ed) why God was being so generous with his love and blessings to me.


* I unexpectedly now have an opportunity to try a new venture.


"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving."  ~W.T. Purkiser

Let's see what I can do with my blessings!