Arkansas State Fair Time

I am in a real funk today. I don't know what it is, maybe hormones, who knows these days. But for some reason I just couldn't get going today. It is 3:30 in the afternoon and I am still in my pj's. I don't know what happened today. I folded a couple loads of laundry, did some dishes, made the bed, but not much else. I did manage to feed the kiddo's and the pups, but don't ask for much more than that. Tomorrow is work day for me, so I just decided to go with the funk and relax today. I will however, have to get up in a few minutes and start supper. I think it will be crawfish fettuccine with alfredo sauce and a veggie. That is fairly easy to throw together.
A week from today, my surgery will be over and nothing left but the crying. Hopefully the pain won't be to bad. I figured that I carried and delivered three children, surely I can deal with this. It isn't like they are pulling a watermelon through my nose or anything. We shall see...I will post before, during, and after photos for those of you who can handle it.
Fall, maybe here... This is the Arkansas State Fair time. I am not sure when we will try to go. But I do want to go at least to see the exhibits. I want to see the livestock; especially the goats; and I enjoy the arts and crafts. Tuesday Megan, Noah and I went to the farmers market and we met a lady there with goat milk soap. I bought the lemongrass and honey soap. I love the smell of it! Anyway, she is going to be at the fair with demonstrations of her soap making. So I would like to see that. She invited us out to see her at her home and she would show us how to make it. I just might take her up on that. I have wanted to make goat milk soap for so long. Anyway, she is at http://www.arkansassoapcompany.com/ if you want to stop in and buy some soap. Her name is Kelli, tell her that Deidre' sent you. And if you are interested in the Arkansas State Fair follow this link.

I have been thinking about people that are very special to me and have made a lasting impression in my life. I was thinking of doing something to honor them. So starting in a couple of weeks, I am going to take a few moments to pay honor to one each week. So stay tuned for future developments in this new endeavor.
Thought for Today

The miracle is this – the more we share, the more we have.

- Leonard Nimoy

Photos

Here are the photos that I promised. They are from Noah's birthday and the puppies. They were born on his birthday. I will take current photos, (they are now almost 4 weeks old), and post later.

What's cooking?

What's for supper? Don't you hate when you can't decide what to fix for supper. I get so tired of coming up with meals for my family. We have such different taste in our household. Yes, I am one of those that will cook different things for each child because of their likes and dislikes. If you make your kids eat whatever you cook and they do it, well, congratulations! But mine won't. Yes, when they were very young, they would eat what was cooked, but now that they are older...It is a free for all for meals. There are a few things that I cook that we will all eat, very few. But I can't cook those over and over again. Most of the time there is a main item; say pasta; that everyone will eat, but the veggies are different and the meat is different for someone. Like when we eat salmon, Megan eat fish sticks or chicken instead of the salmon. So you get the idea. So deciding what to cook can be a pain sometimes. I enjoy cooking when I am inspired, but on a day to day basis, after the laundry and school work is done and I have had a crankie toddler pulling at me all day, well, let's just say, I am not inspired to cook. But I still have hungry mouths to feed. And hubby comes in wanting to eat, so I suppose I need to find something to cook. Hummmmm....lets see....

Well, while I am thinking about that I will leave you with this this:

Today's inspiring words

William A. Ward

Four steps to achievement:

Plan purposefully.

Prepare prayerfully.

Proceed positively.

Pursue persistently.

Getting rid of stuff...

I will start with a correction: I think I miswrote the title of the audio book I am listening to, the correct title is It's Only too Late if You Don't Start Now; How to create your second life after 40 by Barbara Sher. Anyway, I have been listening to it and it has helped me in my thinking. I am actually starting to relisten to it, for the things I may have missed. So if you haven't read or heard it, I suggest the audio version. I got it at the local library and I put it in my car, so when I am driving I can listen to it.

I have been thinking about things lately. I have been reevaluating my life and the way I live. I have alway been a pack rat of sorts, not a to the extent of needing a psychatric help or anything. But, I do tend to keep things well beyond their use; (just in case you know, someday I might need it or there may be a use for it that I can't think of right at the moment. And boy would I hate to get down the road a few years and realize I really could use it now, and then have to go buy a new one...) Sound familiar to anyone? Well, anyway, I have been thinking seriously about downsizing and getting rid of a lot of things that are stored up somewhere, or that we aren't using. But the task seems monumental and I just can't seem to get started on it. And when I do, then I run into the problem of what to do with it? I can't throw perfectly good things away... ( when there are so many poor, hungry people in another country that could use it...) I just can't seem to get that which was engrained into my head in childhood out. So with that in mind, I have given a lot of things through the years to Goodwill or to someone I know who could use whatever it happen to be that I was getting rid of at the moment. But I also have my mom on the other side, saying: "You shouldn't throw away any of the kids things, those are their memories, and they might want to show them to their kids." This coming from a woman who never threw away anything of mine or my brothers. If something was broken, she couldn't just throw it in the trash, she had to burn it. She never gave anything of ours away, because she felt like it was giving part of us away. Well, I am not that bad. I do throw broken things away and I do give things away. But that guilt is hard to get past. But my rationalization for that is...by the time the kids get older and have kids of their own, they won't want this stuff they have now, the kids will have so much new stuff, they couldn't care less about this from my kids childhood. With a few exceptions, like for instance, special stuffed animals or dolls, or small trinkets that meant something special to them. But my kids have had so much stuff through their lives that it would require a whole house just to tore all of their things. Which brings me to a point... We have a double garage; can we park in it? NO! Why can we not park in it? To much stuff... We have a 12x24 foot out building behind my parents house in Louisiana full of what...MORE STUFF! But if that isn't enough, we pay $50 a month on a storage facility here in Arkansas for what??? Yet more stuff!! Some of this stuff, hasn't seen daylight in years. Some I packed away when we moved to Kentucky in 2000, and it is still packed away, only we are moving it around with us with every move, and paying good money to store it. We have far exceeded the value of the stuff in storage fees through the years. WHY you ask? For the life of me I can't tell you. This is one thing that I have been contemplating lately. Why do we have so much stuff? Why would we need so much stuff? Like I said, it is just the idea of having to rid ourselves of it that is the hard part. It isn't parting with it, but just going through it all and deciding what goes and what stays, that is the real problem. To compound that, well, there are these little thing called SPIDERS!!! I hate them. And we have brown recluces and black widows here. And I have seen them in the storage shed that we rent. (Just in case you don't know about them, I have included a link to each, enjoy!) So I am deathly afraid of them, and I don't know just how to go about cleaning the shed out without encounting one. Did I mention that I am VERY afraid of spiders? Anyway, so those obsticles have kept me from doing anything about the junk. BUT, the time has come...

... the Walrus said,"To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--Of cabbages--and kings--And why the sea is boiling hot--And whether pigs have wings."

"But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,"Before we have our chat; For some of us are out of breath, And all of us are fat!" ..........................

Sorry, I got a little side tracked there...

As I was saying, the time is here to make some changes...and getting rid of the stuff is a first step. So I have called a consignment shop and I will be taking clothes, clothes and more clothes that we no longer need, or can't wear; mostly the latter, to get rid of. I am planning a yard sale soon to rid myself of more stuff, and then what doesn't sale will be taken to goodwill. Then when I get the garage cleaned out, Andrew's job is to go to the storage shed, since I am a wee bit afraid of spiders, and bring the stuff back here a few boxes at a time, and I will go through them and do the yard sale/goodwill thing again. And what noone would want, or for whatever reason isn't usable, will be thrown into the trash, (sorry Mom!) without guilt! Because once I am freed from the stuff in my life, then I will be lighter and happier, Right?
"Of course you will dear."
So these things have been on my mind and one day I happened upon a podcast. While I am working at the PO, I listen to my ipod and one of the podcast that I like to listen to is
The Story from American Public Media. If you haven't heard it before I put a link to it, you should go visit the site. Anyway, there was one called, My 500 things (follow the link to listen), and it really got me inspired and interested. The guy took inventory of his things and decided, like me, it was time to downsize. So he wants to get down to 500 things that he owns. It was really inspiring and eye opening for me maybe that is just me, but I recommend everyone listening to his story.
So now that I am working on getting rid of this junk in my life, I am also looking around at other things in my life that need to go...and a really big one is about 40 pounds. Literally, I need to get rid of about 40 pounds. So I am working on that issue. Maybe my next blog entry will be about that. Or maybe just about some radom thing that is going on that day. I am still planning to post the photo's of the puppies and of Noah's birthday. I am getting around to it.

Fall is on the way, I would love to take a trip up east and see the wonderful fall colors, but since I can't I suppose these will have to do...

Deviated Septum and other crooked turns...

Well, since I lost the post I had written about all of this, I will try to remember as much as I can about the original blog.
I have been thinking lately about all the things I have always wanted to do, but for one reason or the other, have put them off until somewhere down the road. Mostly fear has kept me from some of these things, fear of what, you ask...Well just the fear of the unknown, perhaps the fear that my long held dreams won't turn out to be what I had hoped. As long as they are just dreams then they can be great and grand, but once I actually pursue them and make them reality...well sometimes reality has a way of turning out differently than you had hoped. So the fear that it won't be what I thought it would and I would be...well, disappointed. But I am now facing 41 and entering into the second part of my life.
(read: It's Only Too Late If You Don't Start Now: How to Create Your Second Life at Any Age by Barbara Sher) And I have decided on a new theme for my "second life". Living Life on Purpose!
For the first 40 years of my life I have just let life happen to me. I have vascilated somewhere between letting things happen and "allowing God to direct me". I don't say that in a sarcastic manner. I still want God to direct me, but I plan to be more active in life. I believe God has a will for our lives but we also can have free choice in that will, and still be on track. I don't know how to explain it really. I guess you would say that I believed that whatever happen in my life was God placing me here or there and allowing these things to happen. Not realizing that by not taking a more active roll in the decisions of my life, I brought some things about, not necessarily because that was what God wanted to happen, but because He doesn't come down and move us around like chess pieces. We have to take action on what He directs us to do. In other words, He gives us the unction to do, but we have to get up and put one foot in front of the other and do...
Yes, I have to an extent, done that in areas of my life, but in other areas, although I hate to admit this, I sometimes played the victim. Victim of circumstances that I felt helpless to change. Or as I said before, afraid to change. I sometimes felt like the old saying, if you put a cow in the middle of two hay bales it would starve to death trying to decide which one to go to first. Well that was me in a way. I was often times afraid to act on something because I was afraid that it would be the wrong decision. I guess you would say that I had trouble making decisions for fear of making the wrong on. So by now, do you see a common theme for my life so far...FEAR!!! there was a lot of doubt mixed in with it also. Doubt about my abilities, doubt about my knowing what was best. Although I have been very unhappy with myself for many years; unhappy on many different levels; I held to the adage The enemy you know is better than the one you don't know. So I continued on the path of least resistance, although internally, the turmoil I have felt inside has been turbulant. I guess I have reached the point that I dislike the way things are more than I fear the alternative. So I am working on me and trying to capture the life that I have only dreamed of up until this point. So having said all of this...
I went to the doctor yesterday. I decided to quit putting off my dreams, and start making strides toward the place I want to be. So I went back to the otolaryngologist, say what? Yes, the otolaryngologist... and I am going to have surgery either on Oct 18th or 25th. The nurse will call tomorrow with all the final arrangements.
What surgery you ask? Well the septorhinoplasty/turbinectomy of course. Try saying that three times, fast.
What is that? Well, I have what is called a deviated septum, which means crooked nose. The bone in the nose is crooked and blocks one side of my breathing and to make it worse, the cartilage has slid to the side and my nose is crooked from a side view and from the front. It really shows up in photo's. And it has gotten much worse as I have gotten older. So instead of lamenting about it, I decided to face the fear and do it! So I am! I will post before and after photo's and probably give more details than you would like to read about when the time comes. But either way, a month from today could be the day or it could be post surgery by several days. So wish me luck and say a prayer for me.

The next item of news:
As some of you know, Andrew's dad had a stroke several weeks ago. While in the hospital with that, they discovered that he had cancer. He has it on the brain, and in other locations. It is pretty far along. They plan to give him radiation and then just see from there. But they pretty much told him to go home and enjoy his family and friends and gave him about two years. He still has no movement in his right arm and hand, but is able to walk some. So he is planning to sell his home, downsize and move into a senior citizens apartment. So I guess he will be doing that soon. They are going to start radiation next month, I believe. Anyway, please be in prayer for him and his family.

I have had several people ask me about Jewl. Well, I don't know what to say. Andrew gave him a day laborers job working on the building his is building and he worked for a few days, and then he slacked up. He didn't show up one morning, said he overslept. Then when he did come to work...well, he was worried about keeping his room that he was staying in at the motel. Afraid that he would lose it. Anyway, he decided it wasn't working out so he went back to doing what he was doing before. He dropped by a couple weeks ago and told me he had found an older couple that was going to rent him a room. So I wished him well and we haven't heard from him since. But through it all I learned that you can't always fix things, even if you have the ability to fix them for someone. Unless they want it fixed, and maybe your solution isn't their solution. Sometimes the reason people come into your life isn't to fix their problems, but to show the love of God to them. Just to show kindness and concern for them. And then they pass on by into someone elses life. So I feel like that is what we did in this situation. We showed kindness and showed God's love and fulfilled what He required of us to do.

Well, other bits of new:
The weather has gotten much more tolerable. There is a hint of fall in the air. It has rained more the last couple of week, we really needed the rain. I am looking forward to days when the high is in the 70's, not 90's.

Noah had his 2nd birthday on the 13th of this month. We celebrated with a little party with just the five of us. He is getting so big. He is very vocal. There is very little that he can't say, or at least enough that you can understand what he is saying. He is learning to count. He counts to ten with a little help. And he talks about numbers and letters. He points to the clock and says "numbers on the clock". He loves Winnie the Pooh. No, he is obsessed with Winnie the Pooh. He can name them all and he calls Christopher Robin, Wobin. And he loves Tigger. He says, "Tigger, bounce" and he bounces through the house saying "bounce, bounce". So for his birthday we got him one of those big blow up bouncing things. He really likes it. So my baby boy is two. He is such a joy and has brought so much to our lives. Of course, all three of my children are such a blessing and I am thankful for all three.
The puppies are growing. I will post a photo, maybe later today. They will be two weeks on Thursday. We have three girls and four boys. They will be registered and we will have them for sale in about four weeks if anyone is interested.
I will stop now. This has been a long post. I will continue the theme: Reinvent your life after 40!!! Stay tuned!!!

Thought for Today

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

disappearing post

I just had the most frustrating thing happen to me...
I wrote this nice long blog with lots of updates and information about what is going on here and it disappeared!!! With just a blink of the screen it was gone... all of it every last word! It is to late now to redo it all, so I will have to repost all of it tomorrow. Just to remind myself: "Deviated septums and other crooked tales..."

Also new theme for my life in the making. A peek at future posts; Living on purpose and reinventing your life after 40! Wow, where is this thing called life taking me? Well, stay tuned and maybe I will share some of it with you...

Thought for Today

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

And since I lost my whole post here is another thought for today

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely."
-- Auguste Rodin

We Have Puppies!!

Well, Sadie had her puppies this morning around 7:00 am on Noah's birthday!! She had seven!!! Wow, I was thinking five, but we got seven. They are adorable. I will post photo's later. Mom and pups are doing well.
I know it has been a little while since I have blogged, but there has been a lot going on and I have to be honest, I just haven't been in the mood to blog. There is a lot I want to write about, but didn't know where to start with it all. I will blog later about Andrew's dad, and more on Jewl, and other things going on here. But for today, it is Noah's second birthday today and we have puppies! I will post photo's of Noah's party and the puppies later today.

Thought for Today

Happiness is where we find it, but rarely where we seek it.

J. Petit Senn