Never Ever Dull
With every conversation, I always seem to end with "Never a dull moment"....our lives are rich, complex, and beautiful stories. Join me in laughing about everyday things and appreciating life-bumpy roads and all.
On Tuesday, my day started out rough. The kind of rough that I wanted to crawl back to my home, get in bed, and hope that this was just a bad dream. But it wasn't a dream and it was only 7:30 am. So I had to deal with it. I'd like to say I recited very beautiful scriptures or that I did something amazing that would really make you think I truly am Wonder Woman. But I didn't...I wallowed in my misery and was frustrated until... It hit me. It really wasn't Wonder Womanish-not even close. But a thought came to me: I was thankful that I wasn't the Man-Who-Wanted-to-Look-Like-His-Pet-Parrots. Yep, you may need to read that again but it's worth it. It got me out of my funk. Let me explain. Each morning around 6:30, I'm driving my son to high school for my first round of school duty. We're both not fully awake or ready to chatter and discuss deep life issues so we listen to the local radio station. Just at that point, the way-too-lively morning talk show hosts do a bit called "That's Craaaaazy". They share news stories that didn't quite make the front page of any newspaper but they are note worthy because they are so outrageous. They end each segment with "That's Craaaaazy!" The day before Tuesday (yes, that would be Monday), I listened to a crazy story of a man somewhere who had doctors surgically remove his ears so that he would look more like his pet parrots. Yes, you may need to reread that sentence too. I drove my Tank in deep thought wondering why a man would go to such great lengths to look like....his parrots?!?! So....how does this connect to my rotten morning? It's simple: I decided that at least I can be thankful that I wasn't the-man-who-now-resembled-his-parrots. Yep, it wasn't a major revelation or inspiring quote from anyone. I just kept contemplating all day:" I'm not perfect, but, hey, at least I don't look like a parrot." Sorry if you were waiting for something deep that you could repost and share with your friends. I just learned that sometimes you just have to be thankful for little things and that may just be that you have your ears and you're not looking like a parrot. =)
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I confess: I'm a Pinterest fanatic.. That's my happy place at the end of a stressful day: give me my Pinterest, some hot tea, and my fuzzy blanket and let me create all the arts and crafts do-it-yourself projects on my dream boards.. Sigh. But Pinterest projects don't always turn out the way they are pictured and blogged about in those cutesy little posts. Take what happened to my Blonde as evidence. My Blonde returned home for a few days and prioritized her Pinterest dreams. She opted to try the Grow-Your-Hair-Four-Inches-Overnight project. What?!? Yep. The blogs shared the recipe for a special concoction that if massaged into the scalp and left overnight for 12 hours....voila! You would wake up to four more inches of voluminous, healthy, beautiful hair! It sounded so simple. So....off to the stores, the Blonde went! Olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil, and other oils were purchased, mixed into a thick goop, and spooned and massaged into her scalp. The Blonde realized she couldn't sleep on her pillow because basically, she was greasy like a bucket of fried chicken....so she grabbed a couple of beach towels and headed to bed covering every surface that her head/hair/face could possibly touch. Really early the next morning, I woke up and found her towel in hand ready to take a shower hours before she should have even cracked open her blue eyes. I wondered what was happening.... Once out of the shower and all that oily gunk out of her hair, I could talk to her without feeling the urge to grab my cleaning supplies and wipe the grease off her face. I asked her how she slept with all those beach towels and every oil imaginable in her hair. She replied that she didn't sleep well at all. She awoke to the slurping from Banks our puppy...He was licking her hair. I guess the Blonde did smell like a tropical smoothie but it was disgusting to watch Banks saunter in licking his chops and smelling like oils. (It took him awhile to get rid of all that residue on his furry chin...yuck!). Not once did the Pinterest pins share that this concoction would attract dogs as if it were juicy steaks on the grill. Banks constantly followed the Blonde around the house getting as close as he possibly could to her or really to her hair. You're probably wondering: Did the Pinterest recipe work? The Blonde showed me before and after pics. Yes, her hair definitely had more shine and volume. I'm not sure if it was really four inches longer but it did appear to be longer. especially the way the Blonde kept her head tilted back all day so that the length of hair could clearly be seen. She probably had neck cramps from that but never complained. She was very serious in showing that this was not a Pinterest-fail or Pintrosity. So it turned out....not exactly as planned. But we had some fun. Or at least Banks did. I think he secretly hopes that the Blonde will try it again on her next trip home. I drove into the driveway and didn't recognize a single car. Had it been that long? I pulled the front door and immediately heard the voices and laughter. I knew I was "home". Ok...I was not really at my home or a friend's home. It was simply a rental vacation spot, but it was home for me. As soon as I walked down the little entry way and turned the corner, I was greeted with a warm "she's here!" and big hugs that enveloped me. I spent the next 24 hours with my old book club from my former neighborhood in Charlottesville, Virginia. . Back during my C-ville days, I got to meet with this wonderful group of women (the LGLG, Laughing Girls Literary Guild) once a month to discuss books that I probably never would have picked up. I was challenged and pushed to think outside the box in our discussions. But there was much more.... I realize now that this book club and my sweet neighborhood enriched my life in more ways. When I lived in C-ville, I did life every day with these people. I saw them each day of the summer as we cheered for our kids at swim practices and at meets. Each night, I was part of the dog-walking crowd at 7 p.m. (We were simply referred to as "the dog walkers"). As we strolled down the street with our labs and golden retrievers, we chatted about simple things from our day and gradually about heavy stuff that we all encounter at some point. We trained for the Charlottesville 4-miler and enjoyed bon fires and endless potluck dinners together. When I walked into my "home" for the next 24 hours, I was told it was "craft time"and to find a spot (yes, our Organizer structured some meaningful learning activities for us)!. As we listened to directions and started into the project, we each selected beads that caught our eye. Each bracelet was unique, created with a special blend of beads from the Bead Queen's treasure box of miscellaneous beads.. None of the bracelets turned out identical to another. .Just like those bracelets, each of those ladies is special and created with a unique arrangement of life experiences that have made that individual life beautiful. As I drove my Tank back to my home in Raleigh, I recognized how each of those lives, beautiful in their own special way, have given me hope, support, and love as I walked through adoption, moving, raising kids, and life's struggles. We lived life together when I was in the neighborhood and we continue to be there for each other. Distance doesn't matter with friendships like these. I'm so thankful that I got to go "home" for those quick 24 hours. Although I'm no longer in the neighborhood, I'm blessed that we can still do life together and appreciate the beauty of each individual and what each friendship offers. Love to all my LGLG and C-ville friends =) If you ever open the door to our freezer, be aware of what you might find... This week, we experienced monsoon-rain forest type weather, but that didn't slow down my boys. They continued with their sporting activities. I learned that rain and sweat combined create an awful aroma....the hard way. My boys didn't exactly share this finding with me. I noticed the shoes piling up outside the house. I saw them exiting the house with baking soda and other powdery substances. Lysol and other sprays went out the door too. I heard the washer thumping and later my hair dryer was taken and being used. With all these attempts, nothing was working to get rid of the odor. And the odor was awful!!! Someone came in our home and observed the odd smells and activities and made a suggestion: place the shoes in plastic grocery bags and freeze them!. The boys were desperate and were willing to try anything at this point.. Our bags of green peas, corn, and broccoli were shoved over to make room for the shoes. Just what every mom wants in her freezer! It worked fairly well, but you have to recognize that every day it was very wet here. Soooo, every evening was spent rigorously trying to dry and de-smell the shoes so that the boys had shoes to wear for the next day....ugh. Meanwhile..... Dreads! My Blonde who has beautiful baby fine strawberry blonde hair has been on a I-think-I'm-going-to-do-dreads kick. Daily, I received texts about the process of getting dreads. I received pins from Pinterest showing me pics of what the outcome would look like. I learned that dreads, if started in the next month, would look good in a year. Oh, great, so my darling Blonde will look like Pippi Longstocking with pig tails sticking out all over her head for a year?! What does a mom do?......contact the Oldest for emergency back up. Speaking of the Oldest....she is now known in her neighborhood as the Squirrel Whisperer. I promised her I wouldn't share the story. But....just know if you want to impress the good-looking guy on your street, it might not be a good idea to scoop up the baby squirrel that follows you around like your his new mom. He might look at you strangely. That's all for now. Never dull but always.....interesting! =) |
AuthorFun-loving mom to 4 kids and 1 big puppy. Fifth grade teacher of amazing little people who have never ending things to share with me. Love to discuss Jesus, diy projects, and life. Trying to keep it simple: Love Jesus, love people. Archives
December 2021
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