Lexical Light

Better than Saturday Morning Cartoons

Wow. What a cool morning it's been. The quick version of my agenda:

7:00 am - breakfast at IHOP w/a friend. Pumpkin pancakes, eggs, laughs, good counsel, and tea bags from home made for an absolutely refreshing meeting.

9:30 - scrapbook store to check on cropping area guidelines. Since they weren't open, I read a little Gatto in the van.

10:15 - It's fun to stay at the YMCA. Did an hour on the elliptical. Can I read on the elliptical w/out barfing? Yep. Woohoo! The Gatto book was cumbersome, but smaller books should be easier - unless the print was too small. Made sure I strectched well afterwards, to help w/the Achilles issue.

12:00 - scarfin' a Mighty Kids Meal at Mickey D's. It's not as healthly as Jason's Deli, but not as bad as Sonic. Read a little more in the van.

12:30 - Ahhh, the library. Yes, I have a computer at home, but it's not quite and neat at home. :) After my hour and a half of computer time is up I'll head back to the homefront to prep us all for church this evening.

This has been one of the most restorative moring's I've had. Though hubby took the kiddos the G'parents a couple of days last week, I stayed in the house and did nothing. This felt much better.

Thanks, strong, handsome Jack, for this mornig. I owe you. ;)

The Final Countdown...of my 30's

(Cue "band trash" music...Final Countdown by Swedish glam band Europe.)

Yes, this is the eve of my 40's. The dawn of a new era. Though still within the 35-44 demographic on product registration cards, it marks a new decade in my life. I prefer to think of myself as "Queen of the Hill," not "Over the Hill."

How do I feel about my 40th birthday? Fine, thank you. Fine enough to wear a "I'm 40, so there." If I had one.

I don't recall looking forward to any particular age growing up. Going from single to double digits didn't leave a mark. There was no Bar Mitzvah, quinceanera, sweet sixteen or debutante ball to mark teenage milestones.  I've never liked alcohol, so twenty-one was no biggie. Twenty-five was cool because it's a quarter of a century, but other than that, birthday numbers didn't mean much to me. Until now.

For some reason, I'm pretty pumped about turning forty. I wonder why. It's not like I'm in the best shape of my life. I'm not a millionaire. In fact, there's lots of things I'm not. On the other hand, there are lots of things I am - blessed with a perfect for me husband, four awesome children, lots of friends and family, etc. Oh, yeah, I'm also here. People complain about getting older, but would they want the alternative?

So what did I do the last night of my 39th year? I went to B&N to get a new journal. Then I went to Starbucks to finish up my old journal. (I didn't quite finish, but I'm going to be a rabble rouser and start my new journal tomorrow anyway. I can do that kind of thing, I'll be 40.) Curiously, when I told hubby about my plans, he asked if I couldn't just do it at home. Usually he's completely okay w/me going out for some alone time on short notice, but he seemed to want me home tonight. He told me to take the truck because it was safer and call him before I headed home, "Because he loves me." I took the truck and called before I came home. Here's the reason behind the questioning:

At first I thought hubby & the kids had been at work, but the handwriting was suspiciously neat. Turns out it was my sis-in-law with her daughter & a friend. So that's what you get with a pre-meno woman & two juniors in high school. Nice. They also decorated the front door of the house. Not only did they make me smile, they helped me find some chicken I forgot in the van. Thanks, girls. The birthday messages blazoned on all the van windows will hold me over until I can get my  ''copyright 1967" t-shirt.

   

Phrase of the Week: Focused Activity

Inspired by a teaching CD we listened en route from the writer's conference, I'm working hard to have "focused activity" times this week. I'm not ADD, but can tend to wander off task.  While the kids are at VBS I'm efforting towards working on my new website blog for writers. So far, so good.

It's already 2007.5!

Christmas will be here before you know it. Just had to mark the 1st day of June. The new phone message is pending release production, but I'm sure it will have something to do with the San Antonio Spurs going for their 4th NBA championship in 9 years. Enjoy the last 20 days of spring.

A Simple Bit of Bliss

"Having fun isn't hard, when you've got a libarary card." - Arthur Read & friends

The library and the YMCA are two the things I enjoy most about my lttle suburb Even better is that they are both easily accesed from my house and about 2 miles from each other, w/the library being en route to the Y. I dropped the kids off at the Y for a few hours. (A sweet part of our membership.) Emily has basketball practice in the middle of our 4 hours, so I have to go back soon. Hanging out at the libary beats driving home and back to the Y. So, here I am.

Since I haven't posted much this week I figured this would be a great time to learn exactly how to utilize the grown up computers at the library and get a post in at the same time. (BTW, my first from our beloved local library.) 

I love libraries. The books. The quiet. The information. The computers. I really could hang out here a while. It's fun just to sit and look around. Look at the girl using the cool hole puncher with the erognomic handle. I wonder what precious documents she's hole punching? There's the express check machine they just moved from downstairs. I'll miss having two of them there. I wonder what those black cases are on the bookshelves over there. They look like laptop cases. I think I'll have to ask about them. It's interesting to hang out in the grown up part of the library. It was just the other day when I learned where the grown up magazines are. Still haven't made it over there read them, but at least I know where they are. Wow. I see the magazine back issues from my computer station. Arhritis Today. Austin Monthly. Organic Gardening. I really could stay here all day. (With breaks for food and beverage of course.) Yes, I'm a party waiting to happen.

Moments like this are a bit of bliss for me. The kids are involved in something good. Time, gas and money are optimized. I'm using technology at the library. It's all good. I'm quite thankful. I need to do this more often.

Meme: Top 5 Obsessions

I want to know, what your thinking. Tell me what's on your mind.--Information Society

I'm finally doing a meme. I've been tagged for memes before, but never answered them, more out of procrastination than not wanting to. Today, I meme.

A kindred spirit, Monica of "Books are Our Friends," tagged me today. As a means of escape from my 10 year-old son's 11 boy sleepover, I'm blogging the Top Five Things Consistently Popping Up in My Brain. I'll put the qualifier of "this week" on it.

1. Can I learn to really connect with the kiddos each day, one way being through writing?

2. Like, Monica, I think a lot about making time for things I need and want to do.

3. Will it hurt my newfound interest in running hurt my knees in the long run, even if I'm not going all Mary Decker Tabb?

4. Can I get my days ordered enough to pursue a fund raising business with cool crayons?

5. In 20 years I'll be 60. "The days go slow, the years go fast." (Not sure of exact wording & author.) I want to live them well - my days and my years.

Ta-da! That's my first meme.

Farwell to March

March is my favorite month. The wildflowers are in bloom, the weather - including the thunderstorms -is usually wonderful, and it's loaded with basketball. Alas, all good things must end. As we head in to Final Four weekend, I'm reminded that March is over. Time to get down to birthday business for April. Thanks for a good month, March.

BTW, March is named after the Roman god of war, Mars.

That Time of the Month

Yes, it's time for my monthly post. Thankfully, my PBS symptoms weren't too bad.

Here's my "If I'd Been Blogging" list for this month, starting with the hangovers from last month :

*To Kill a Mockingbird- should finish the 8 cassette audio books tomorrow a.m. while cruisin' on the elliptical at the Y.  I love that it's told from Scout's perspective.
* church history
* church involvement
* the Middle East
* Ana from Byzantium
* our church's women's conference
* congrats to Mopsy on her new bunny
* many thanks to my IT guy & his right hand guy for the tech support
* The Village People were right. It is fun to stay at the YMCA.
* the just released U2 by U2 book
* monthly posting is not recommend for building blog traffic
* blog traffic - what's that?
* Julana's Buckeyes beating my 'Horns
* using the Proverb of the day for copywork in school
* my closet is still one of my favorite places

That concludes this month's edition. Thank you and good night.

Reunited - and it feels so good

It's kind of strange how soothing it is to be blogging again - like a satisfying scratch on a persistent, though low grade, itch. I don't know if there are scientific studies to back it up, but I'm thinking I feel some endorphins release going on with every keystroke. Ahhhh.

It has been 4 weeks, to the day, since my last post. I purposely took the first few weeks off to focus on getting school started and before I knew it the month of August passed. The times I had thought to post, I was afraid to get on the computer for fear of being sucked into the on line world. ("Look away from the light, Carol Ann.") I didn't trust myself to get on & off the computer in a reasonable amount of time, so I steered clear. I don't think I've even looked at my blog and only skimmed through my daily Feedblitz Digest once or twice.

Another perk of returning was finding people missing me. (Thanks, Mopsy and Pam for the comments. Thanks to my FTF friends for noticing their emails missing.) I didn't expect it. I've gotten used to bloggers taking breaks here and there and figure they'll come back, unless they say otherwise. Though the comments weren't expected, they were enjoyed. (Note to self: take a minute to let others know you miss them.)

More good news, I still show up on the top spot of a "lexical light" google. Yes, I'm easily amused.

Now, for my own amusement, here's a few things I'd like to blog about, but won't right now:

*school progress (slowly, but surely)
*Fifi being so excited about her new Bible
*To Kill a Mockingbird (Just started listening to it today. Gameboy insists it should have "How To" at the start of the title.)
*The Exodus Decoded (amazing)
*Pastor Earl's Wednesday night preaching (coincides with other things I'm learning)
*The Today Show (I could see me live blogging the Today Show when the kids are older.)
*church history
*church involvement
*the Middle East
*etc.

Oh, yeah, one more thing - OUR MAIN COMPUTER DIED SUNDAY!!!! The fact that it's a post script on this post is only by the grace of God. Thankfully, we have another computer that's Internet accessible and an IT friend to help resurrect our other computer. I'm so dependent on my computer for so many things, including skoolin' my young 'uns. I'm hoping it will be back up in a few weeks. (It's only 2.5 years old and the hard drive is shot. Oy.) Argghhhh.

(Insert my clever sign off line here - I ripped my pants? I'm trying to use the phone? Oh, where is my hairbrush? No, those aren't sign offs. Good night, sleep tight, and pleasant dreams to you? Gotta boogie...)

Pick a Plate, Any Plate

In addition to my usual day to day operations as wife, mom, aka Chief Operations Officer of Smith & Associates & Happy Jack Skool of Lurnin', these activities have taken priority over my dear blog over the past few weeks:

• taking a writing class at church
• "interning" above mentioned class
• laying out the gianormous home school co-op yearbook
• attending birthday parties
• hosting birthday parties
• mulling over my upcoming blog presentation
• implementing recently revealed life mgmt. strategies
• mulling over an upcoming presentation on said life mgmt. strategies
• wrasslin' with content for writing a book about beauty (Those who know me appreciate the irony there.)

I'm blessed with an abundance of opportunity. The challenge is to choose well. As much as I enjoy blogging, it's had to take a back seat. However, over the next few months I hope to reformat my blog and get into a regular posting rhythm. We'll see how that goes.