Just Busy

When was it that my daily blogging fell by the wayside? Perhaps when I started a part-time job? For awhile, I continued to blog fairly regularly, but it seems that lately I rarely get here. So sorry.

So what have I been doing besides working part time?

And besides trying to keep honing the budget in an effort to get out of debt in spite of the economy?

And besides homeschooling a high school son (who just happens to have a visual impairment)? And besides participating in a great weekly homeschool co-op?

And what else have I been doing besides keeping in touch with several kids (adults kids, that is) who live in various parts of the country?

And besides driving around the kids who live here at home?

And besides chatting with them and with my husband?

And keeping in touch with friends and sisters?

Sometimes I just can't figure out what I do with my time...

A Letter Off

It pays to read carefully before you report the "news". The other day, after I took one of my sons to work at 4:30 a.m., I told my husband that I saw that a local hotel is being sold. I was saying how bad the economy must be for them to sell this hotel.

The next afternoon, I drove by the same hotel and saw the sign again:
Hotel Fur Sale.



P.S. If there is anyone visually impaired, reading this with a screenreader, the sign said "Hotel F-U-R Sale".

Perhaps I Could Do Public Speaking, After All

Public speaking has long been one of my fears. But if every crowd looked as benevolent...but I'm getting ahead of my story.

After Midnight Mass, we joined the throng in the vestibule, the children and I talking among ourselves, waiting for my husband to come down from the choir loft, along with what seemed like 100 people, talking quietly or waiting for someone.

And then my sensitivity to the incense we had just left and a draft from the door opening hit me together, and I began to sneeze. After the seventh sneeze I looked up. The stillness was like that of the church, as every smiling face was turned toward me. Time stood still.

I thought of "thank you", as I'm sure people probably had said "God bless you" while I sneezed. I thought of "excuse me", but somehow it seemed it would fall short of what needed to be said. Life seemed to be in suspension, and the spell needed to be broken. So I released them by saying with a confident smile, "I'm done!"

It occurred to me that perhaps I could do public speaking, after all.

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

You Are a Snowman

Friendly and fun, you enjoy bringing holiday cheer to everyone you know!

What Christmas Ornament Are You?

Pretty neat, except I wonder... If I'd been able to answer the question the way I wanted to answer it, about what you would want to do when it snows (I'd want to go out and shovel it) how the results would have come out.



Hat tip to Alicia.

Life Out of Balance or "Are You Organized?"

First of all, I'm sorry I stopped writing (three whole days). Well, I didn't actually stop writing. I only stopped writing here. I haven't ever stopped writing for nearly fifty years; it's just a matter of what I write: letters, emails, lists, possible books, potential articles, and of course, my blog. That's right; I said "blog". See, I'm so behind and so ashamed, I'm trying to pretend I don't have four blogs, three of which I've largely ignored for at least a month.

Sometimes in life, it's hard to keep everything in balance...even if for you that balance doesn't always include writing, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. At one time, we're lonely and bored. At another time, we have too much to do and think about, and are overwhelmed. Even though some of what makes "too much to do and think about" are wonderful activities and people, it sometimes means we take time away from something else or try to "do it all". Have you ever noticed how the pendulum swings? You know what's neat about asking questions on a blog? Some of you might actually answer.

Someone reading this might get the idea I'm disorganized, and then get the idea to try to help me get organized. You might not know that I already know most of the organizational systems and techniques that are currently known to man (that's mankind, as in women, men and children). Remember, one of the things I write are lists, and one of the things I do is plan. One of the things I do, too, is live too much in the future (and occasionally too much in the past).

If you want to get organized, if you want to do what I've learned, not what I do (does that sound like a good parent?), you can try the following for starters:

Website (free): Flylady

Book: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey



If you'd like to share tips with our readers for getting organized, you are most welcome! Just realize that this reader is pretty hopeless. But hey, I'm always open to new ideas. It gives me something to think about.



P.S. If you happen to be an editor, please know that I do meet life's deadlines!

What Kind of Reader are You?

What Kind of Reader Are You? Your Result: Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.
Dedicated Reader
Book Snob
Literate Good Citizen
Fad Reader
Non-Reader
What Kind of Reader Are You? Create Your Own Quiz

I don't know why I came out as an obsessive-compulsive bookworm. After all, I don't have my head in a book all day; some of the time I'm on the computer doing research or checking out blogs. And I don't read whole books at grocery stores, only a few pages...well, most of the time. If I have a reason to be there every day, I might read a few pages today and a few tomorrow until I've finally completed the book. I don't buy magazines at the checkstand; I just look for the longest line so I can read an article or two. When I receive book catalogs, I don't buy all the books, you know. I just read the "blurbs" so I'll know what the books are about and who is writing what. Naw, I'm not an obsessive-compulsive bookworm. Am I?



On the serious side: As a writer, I am fully aware that someone needs to buy the books and magazines! And I do buy some...according to my means and priorities. I wasn't telling you that you "ought to" read books and magazines for free. I'm just telling you that yes, I'm obsessive-compulsive about reading! And by the way, I put them back in the same condition I find them in. If I accidentally did something to injure a book, I would buy it without hesitation, even if I hadn't otherwise planned to buy it. As a matter of fact, I got one of my favorite books that way when I spilled a drop of hot chocolate within its pages at a Barnes and Noble.

Don't Take Your Daughter into a Strange Mall

...unless she’s there with you in person. Otherwise, when it’s time to go home, you think of calling her to ask where you came in, but of course she won’t know - because she wasn’t there, even though you could swear she was - because you were talking with her for twenty minutes while you walked in and around.

If you’re going to talk on your cell phone as you enter a mall, it does help to have a designated entry point. I always enter a mall through, or near, J. C. Penney, if there is one, or Sears if not. Thanks to that habit, it only took me an extra ten or fifteen minutes to find my way out of the mall.



P.S. I received different reactions to this story from my family. My daughter thought it was funny. But my sister pointed out that we should always be aware of our surroundings, for safety reasons. Thanks for the tip, Sis; I thought I'd pass it along.

Easy as Pie

If you pace while you chat on the phone, and you begin to wander around the kitchen...if you happen upon a box of chocolate pudding mix, and you happen upon a pie shell in the freezer...you might want to get off the phone before you make the pie. Otherwise, you might mix up the pudding, put it in the shell, and put it in the refrigerator...without ever baking the pie shell.

PG Post

Parental Guidance:

When we have something for dinner that Ed can't eat, he'll often have a baked potato with yogurt or cottage cheese on the side (along with the vegetables and/or salad that we usually have with dinner). Tonight we're having the one dinner that I can't seem to handle (macaroni and cheese), and Ed is working late. So I decided to fix something simple for myself: orange-cream ice cream (the only ice cream I could find) with the chocolate syrup I could coax from the bottom of the syrup bottle. I've been dieting for three whole days, and exercising daily too. I deserve this "dinner". Don't you think?

How to Ride the Subway

#1. Relax. New isn't always bad. This can be fun.

#2. When you're on your way back home, at the last stop before yours; and a voice comes over the loudspeaker on the train to tell you to get off, and that there will be a bus to take you the rest of the way to your destination, don't you believe it.

#3. When you're all lined up waiting for the bus, and a fellow passenger tells you all that she just called MTA on her cell phone and there is no bus, that you all need to go back into the station for the next train, believe her...especially if you look back and see that a train has just gone by in the direction of your destination.

#4. Don't take advice from someone who's only ridden the subway once (that's me).

#5. Do keep track of your ticket. Can you believe you need it to get OUT of the station? I couldn't either. Neither could my purse - which had swallowed the ticket.

Does Dove Count?

For Lent I gave up pop and sweets...execpt, I said, for chocolate milk or hot chocolate. Part way through Lent I bought a bag of small Dove chocolates. Another little exception wouldn't hurt. I would just be having one or two a day.

Today I bought another bag, opened my piece of candy, and read the saying on the inside of the wrapper: "Keep the promises that you make to yourself."

The Dove chocolates have been zipped into a bag. It's nice to have something to look forward to eating during the Easter season!

Watch Those Answer Keys

Thank goodness I understood Peter's math for today, because the first couple problems in the answer key were obviously wrong. Finally exasperated, I said to him, "This answer key is out to lunch!" and in the next breath, in a lower volume, "I'm on the wrong page..."

Do Try This at Home - Just for Fun

Have you ever Googled yourself? (Isn't it funny the verbs that we have fabricated, using proper nouns such as Google and FedEx?). Just for fun, put your name in quotation marks in a Google search and see what comes up. Maybe nothing, maybe something. It depends on where and what you write. For example, if you write on a restricted e-group, what you've written there shouldn't come up on a search. If you write on a public e-group, it might. There was a time a few years ago when I put my name in a search, and up popped a message to an e-group of a sensitive nature...not exactly private, not something I was ashamed of personally, but...well, something I would rather not have had popping up with my name. Couldn't the search have picked something more impressive? Makes me think of how everything we say will be seen one day. Yikes. Maybe I should be quiet more. Ha.

So...just to warn you, my blog IS PUBLIC. I would absolutely LOVE for you to make comments on my blog, but please be aware that they are not private. Sometimes I even forget that myself…well, not really when I’m writing in my own blog, but when I’m commenting on someone else’s. Of course, you can post anonymously, OR if you don't use your whole name as I always do, then I guess your name won't come up in a search. Makes me think of that verse, "Fools' names like fools' faces often appear in public places." Hmm, now that makes two times I've called myself a fool on here ("Fools rush in where angels dare not tread. ")Wonder what would come up if I did a search for "fools"...

Valentine's Day Adventures

A Story I Wrote to a Friend Five Years Ago
on February 15, 2002
(Thank you, Janet, for saving this story for me.)

Yesterday my 13 year old son climbed up to get something off a high shelf in the garage. He had permission to get the Ravioli but I thought he'd use a ladder or a stepstool. But no, he used the Rubbermaid box I have below it. Well, now, my daughter is an artist, but her artistic nature isn't always concerned about some of the little details. She had a gallon can of pink paint, from painting her room, sitting right near the Rubbermaid box...and she hadn't been able to get the lid on real tightly. Well, I'd seen that paint can there a dozen times (and thought vaguely that it shouldn't be there) but never realized it wasn't shut quite as well as it should be. I'm sure by now you can see the picture. My son came down from the Rubbermaid box onto the paint can, tipped it over onto the floor and his foot. Fortunately, he is just "dumb" enough to go barefoot in the winter. Otherwise he would be wearing pink shoes! Fortunately also, it was latex paint, which will wash out with soap and water if you get it soon enough. I thought it was so appropriate that the paint was pink for Valentine's Day.

I also felt blessed at their attitudes. My son said it was his fault for not using a ladder. And my daughter said it was her fault because she left the paint there. They both offered to clean it up, and I suppose it would have been better to have let them and just given them advice, but I felt better just digging in. However, my son made lunch to help out, and my daughter went with me to get kitty litter, and she later took another son to work for me. I really do think the kitty litter helped. I got the idea from a friend who paints murals for a living, who had once told me that if you have old paint to dispose of, that the garbage pickup will take it if you dry it up with kitty litter first. So I used that, and used old bread bags for plastic gloves, and lots of paper towels, and lots of garbage bags. My eight year old son assisted me (strong willed, difficult child but very competent and helpful).

We had been so afraid that Dad would come home and drive his car into the garage while I was out buying the kitty litter. So I thought I'd put an old high chair right where he parks his car. One son said that then he would start to drive in, get mad, get out of his car and head into the house to ask who put that high chair there, and hit the paint (with his feet) and down he'd go. I actually told that to my husband later, and he actually thought it was funny…though if it had really happened, NONE of us would have thought it funny…and we wanted to be sure it did not happen. So my daughter just temporarily disabled the electric garage door opener, so he COULDN'T drive his car in, even part way. But as it turned out, we got home and got the paint all taken care of before my husband got home. It “only” took about two to three hours. But we got the garage floor cleaner than it's probably ever been.

"What about Bob?"

You don’t usually find me recommending movies, nor do you often find me laughing out loud over movies, but this one - that had gotten missed in the post-Christmas rush until today - had me doubled over with laughter. I don’t recommend it for young children (say, under 12?), because of a little “language” and attempted (though thwarted) violence.

Bob (Bill Murray) seeks a new therapist, and discovers Dr. Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss), an egotistic, stressed-out psychiatrist who has just written a book. After one appointment, Dr. Marvin tells Bob he is going on vacation and will see him in a month. Not content to wait, Bob maneuvers his way into getting Leo’s phone number, and finally tracks him to his vacation house, where Leo’s wife and kids welcome Bob. But Bob drives Leo right over the edge.

If laughter is the best medicine, this is one over-the-counter medication I’d recommend.

The Light Side of My Right Side

"I'm deaf in my right ear." I have made that statement many times throughout my life. It's matter-of-fact. "Hearing aids won't help and surgery won't help. It's not a handicap." That's how I was brought up to think. The only accomodation I ever had was getting to sit on the right side in the back seat of the car, or at a table. I never really realized how adamant I was about that privilege until one rainy day...

Several years ago, my husband's boss invited us to attend a major league baseball game with his wife and him. Bearing our umbrellas, we met them going in, and we all walked to our four seats. I then began to tell everyone where to sit. After we all sat down, I told them why I had wanted us to sit this particular way. And then Ed's boss' wife told me: She, too, is deaf in her right ear. Oh, how I laughed later about the fact that I had told Ed's boss where to sit! ...and when his wife has the same condition I do.

You might think I would have learned something from that experience. But guess what happened this past weekend?? (smile). This time we were at a dinner and we invited a couple to sit with us. The four of us walked over to the table, and began to play a funny little game of musical chairs. We finally got settled...just the way I wanted. And then I popped my explanation. I'm sure you've guessed it by now: the other lady was deaf in her right ear also!

So, what do I do now? When we are going with someone I don't know real well, maybe I should say, "I'm deaf in my right ear. Are you?" (Laugh).

I also wish that I could have gotten a picture of the facial expression of a customer of mine at the store one day. While her receipt was printing, another cashier said something to me. She was to my right, so I turned my back to the customer to hear what the other cashier said. I then circled all the way to my right, back to face the customer, having now turned in a full circle. Deciding that some explanation was due, I said, "I'm deaf in my right ear, so I had to turn to hear what the other associate was saying to me." The customer had such a look of sudden comprehension and relief to her unspoken question of why this middle-aged cashier was spinning circles before her eyes.

Now, if you're ever with me and I make a totally inappropriate response to something you say, here's a clue: I probably didn't hear you and made up something to replace what I didn't hear! Do I do this on purpose? Absolutely not. I first noticed this with an aunt who could hear very little. I remember the time that she reported to someone after a family gathering that we were all having an argument and unhappy with one another, and that we had also said she was a nuisance. Nope. Animated, maybe, but no argument. And we hadn't said anything about her at all. We hadn't assumed that she couldn't hear what we said, so we could talk about her...nor did we have any reason to want to talk about her. However, it was an eye-opener for me. I began to realize that I "make things up" sometimes. I wish I could say I don't do that anymore. But I do. And not long ago I came up to a couple of people talking, and asked if they were talking about me! They said "yes" facetiously, and then said no, and explained what they had been talking about.

So, if you see someone doing gymnastics to get a certain chair or side, they might be hard of hearing. Or if someone is responding incorrectly, perhaps they didn't hear you. Like another lady I was talking to later on at that dinner last weekend. I was talking to her and her daughter, and she made a suggestion which was totally inappropriate to what I had said. I thought, "Were you listening to what I said?" And then I remembered that she, too, is deaf in one ear. The "duh" was on me! (smile)