On a Mini-Rant

Have you ever felt that people were attacking your beliefs and therefore attacking you? Yeah, I'm in that place. Politics is upon us, but the twist is that now religion has come into play. Who I am politically is more of a surface issue. Who I am religiously is a "real me" issue.

Why are they mixed? Most of you know that I am a Latter Day Saint belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka Mormons. And with Mitt Romney running for president, the Mormons are in the news - a lot.

But I have 3 things to say concerning his run for office:

1. Just because he is of my faith, does not mean I am for him. I may be. I may not be. Once I've made up my mind, it will not be because of his religion any more than I would vote for a candidate because of their race or their sex. I vote my conscience.

2. Our church does not sponsor candidates. They occasionally take a stance on a moral issue that is being politicized, but they have never, and will never, have a candidate they espouse. Each member of the church is encouraged to make their own informed decision.

3. Just because Mitt is a Mormon does not mean that everything he does reflects the church guidelines. He has voted in ways that, to me, seem to be against church teachings. He may very well do so again. He is no better than any of the rest of us trying to live out our religious views in the face of a society that no longer relishes those views. He is not perfect. I am not perfect. Don't hold his imperfections against his religion unless you are willing to do so to all candidates against their religions.

Done ranting.

Funny of the week:

A sign in my grocery store that reads:

Machine out of order
_______
Sorry
Management

I guess sorry management may have played a role here?

Other News:

Finally got a car! 2001 Buick LeSabre. Yeah! We got it for a tad under the amount the insurance company paid us for the wrecked car. I'm so glad that escapade is over!

Katherine's soccer practice started this week. She felt discouraged after Wednesday's practice. She is the most inexperienced player on the team. I told her she just needs to practice!

Quote of the Week:

Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.

I'm Legible - Are You?

My email server, gmail, is pretty good about relegating spam to the spam folder. However, on rare occasion, something slips through. This happened on Friday. And with it, came an idea for an English assignment. Clearly, the writer of the document was not an "English as a first language" writer. Clearly. In fact, in the first sentence, I was told that I was a legible person. Oh really? Apparently, I'm clear enough to read. That will be a great relief to my husband and children. I guess there really is no need for that communication's class after all.

Back to the assignment. I think I am going to give the document to my kids and have them find the word usage errors, the run on sentence errors, the verb usage errors, and the punctuation errors. Then I will have them rewrite the document in persuasive way. Out of this little piece of spam, we will get English grammar AND a creative writing assignment. What do you think? I just love homeschooling!

Just so you can laugh along with me, here is the first sentence of the letter: "I got your contact information from a reputable business/professional directory of your country which gives me assurance of your legibility as a person." As I said, whew. I've been worried about this for a LONG time!

Other news:

Kimberly is going to Florida at the end of the month to visit a family she had grown very close to. She's very excited to be flying for the first time.

Rebekah has been busy with her Temple Teens - teen ambassadors for the Temple Theatre. They are a singing and dancing troupe. I saw one of her Valentine's Day performances and she is really good, if I do say so myself.

Katherine and Rebekah have created a writing contest. First person to write a novel of at least 50 pages (and it must be finished and NOT a fan fiction) will get a Barnes and Noble gift card from the other. I love contests that go along with one of my school goals - writing, writing, and writing!

I've been working on my website. Take a look and tell me what you think. I really am looking for critique, so be honest with me: www.teribclark.com

One of my latest photos for my 365 Day Photo Challenge

The first dandelion of the year. It may be a weed, but it is yellow and flowering and a promise of Spring. I'll take it however I get it!

aaaaahhhhhhhh....screeeeeeccccccchhhhhhh.........crunnnnnccccchhhhhhhhh

Today was not a good day. I was in a car accident and it was my fault. No one was hurt, thank goodness, but my car is in pretty bad shape. Luckily, we have good insurance - that I'm sure my rates will skyrocket on immediately.

Rebekah was in the car with me - in the front seat. She screamed for me to watch out. I slammed on the brakes, but I just didn't have the space. Yes, I was following too closely.

No airbags deployed which is both a cause of concern and joy. Concern because I rear ended someone and was going about 30mph when we hit. Shouldn't they have come bouncing out of the steering wheel and dash? Joy, however, because I could drive it under its own power to the body shop. Deployed airbags would have prevented that.

I called 911. And then we waited....and waited....and waited. 15 minutes. That's a long time to stand on the side of the road with a stranger trying to make small talk when you've just hit her car. The car with her child in it. Yeah, and it gets worse. Her child was both physically and mentally handicapped. He was very concerned and scared. I felt like a real loser.

Now for a funny moment. We were waiting on the police to arrive when Rebekah looks down and gasps. I look down to see what she is gasping at. I don't see a thing. She points to my feet, and then says with horror, "You are wearing pink fuzzy socks! Those are not outside socks. Mom! Oh, I hope no one sees your socks." So, here I stood, with my hood all scrunched up and lights hanging by cords and my daughter is worried about my socks!

For those interested, the car is awaiting an adjuster. We are down to one car. This should make life interesting for a while.

In other news: Our governor is not running for election again. Wow. Her rating is so low, she knew she couldn't win a primary and there was going to be a primary. How sad is that?

Rebekah is singing with the Temple Teens at a black tie affair and needs a black or red dress. That is what we were going to do today before the...uh...incident.

Kimberly gave blood for the second time today. Her phlebotomist has a child that could be part of the program at her summer camp. It is called Camp Kaleidoscope and is for kids who have been sick with cancer or heart problems or things that keep them from being able to attend a camp without medical supervision. He saw her tshirt and knew the name because the children's hospital has talked to him about it. He never thought about it because he was afraid. After talking with Kimberly, he is going to check into it for his daughter this summer. I feel she was meant to be there today, just for this father.

Katherine is with a friend, primping for photos. My daughter...primping. I'm finding this hard to fathom, but it is happening as we speak.

Keith has had a political victory today. We have a commissioner that is mean, abuses his power, and is sneaky. Keith was able to uncover a story that showed this to be true. The newspaper took it up and now the whole commissioner's race this spring and fall will have a new flavor. I'm very proud of him for sticking up for the community and living by his principles.

24 Hours is a LONG Time

As you know, Keith and I are doing a communication course. Wednesday was our second lesson. We had been using content communication all week. I found that I am a big hint dropper, but realized that Keith is as well. He tends to ask me a question like "Are you hungry?" actually meaning "I am hungry, will you fix me some lunch." It's been interesting.

Well, one of Wednesday's challenges was to go 24 hours without being critical of anyone. Absolutely anyone. Even those I don't know. So, let's say I see something on TV that is just whacko, I can't talk to the TV and complain about what I see by calling someone an idiot. Or, I can't talk about the stupid drivers. Or, I can't make some snide remark about my husband.

The first try lasted 11 hours. The second try lasted 17 hours. Today, I made it! However, within 30 minutes of meeting my goal, I was critical of someone I didn't know. They were cheating on a photo assignment. I complained that they had NOT taken that photo today and therefore the photo simply didn't count. I said it with disgust. Sigh. It isn't easy to do. And poor Keith - he is involved in a bitter conflict with politics. He doesn't make it from phone call to phone call! He wants to know if he can exclude politics from his 24 hour assignment. I told him, "It's up to you." And it is, but secretly, I have my own opinion!

Other things that have struck me lately:

Gmail has an advertisement for spam quiche. The idea makes me squirm.

I have decided to take a 365 day photo challenge. So has Kimberly. Feel free to join the site and see what we put up! https://www.facebook.com/pages/365-day-photo-challenge/336655936358297  Here is today's post - I call it "Dress Up"

I can't play blues music on the piano without keeping the beat with my body. It must be hysterical to watch. I guess I'll have to get a video and see for myself.

My step granddaughter, Claudia, emailed us today. Grandpa had written to her about how he likes politics and asked her if she knew who her Governor and mayor were. She was proud to tell us that her Governor was Jerry Brown and her mayor was Scott Nelson. Keith just loved the email!

Rebekah is finally signed up for Driver's Ed. We also signed her up for the SAT on May 5th. And she plans to do the Winter Conservatory  - 12th Night by Shakespeare. Busy, busy.

Katherine is in the throes of picking a summer camp for GS. I think she has decided on the "Immunity Challenge."

Word of the Day

Remember how I said that I get too much email because I surf and sign up? You may also recall that I signed up to Squidoo of the Day. Its a lens, which is kind of like a blog, which is not really catching on. Anyway, as they do every day, they sent me the title of the day's squidoo. It caught my attention: Musical Earworms.

My first thought was ewwwwwwwwwww. I could just picture some horrid, nasty worms squiggling around in my ear. And I immediately wondered how a person got them and how they got rid of them. Of course, I had to look at the lens. I was relieved to find out that musical earworms is the name for the problem of having a tune stuck in your head. Why anyone would name that phenomenon any kind of worm is your guess.

I have a song stuck in my head today. It is Sound of Music. I am learning to play this on my piano. I can play to the first break, but I play it over and over and over, trying to get it good enough that someone could sing to it with me. The hills are alive with the sound of musical earworms!

I swear I don't see any worms.

Other News of the day: Kimberly started back to college today. She has 2nd level English, College Algebra, Spanish 1, 2nd level Psychology, and .....weight lifting. Yes, my girl will be in with all the jocks!

Keith is steeped up to his eyeballs in local politics. He has so many irons in the fire that he doesn't know which way to turn and the phone is ringing all the time. He loves every minute of it.

Katherine is writing her own fan fiction. She loves to do it. I love that she is writing!

Rebekah is spending the week babysitting. She does her schoolwork while the baby sleeps. SATs are coming - anybody have a good idea for a practice essay? Today's was "Should they allow the Pledge of Allegiance in schools?"

Me - I've been on a cleaning kick. My filing cabinet has been updated. I've hung a few pictures. The hall and stairs are vacuumed. My room and bathroom, which always take the back seat to other cleaning, are spotless today. Everything smells like scrubbing bubbles. I am now a convert to that stuff. Talk about making cleaning easy! The soap scum on my shower door is completely gone. I just sprayed it on, waited 5 minutes, and wiped it down. Gone. I know, I could be a commercial!

Oops. I think I over did it!

I Said It - I Must Mean It

From reading my last post, you know that I didn't make any New Year's resolutions. I probably won't. I think they are overrated.However, this does not mean that I don't try to improve myself and set goals.

So, where, you might ask, do I feel the need to improve? I'm an author - I write a lot. I'm a mom and a wife and a teacher - I talk a lot. I am a FB junkie - I comment a lot. You'd think I'd have the whole communication thing down. Not. Particularly with my family.

Keith and I are listening to a series on communication. I've realized a few things. For instance, I am a hint dropper. Hint dropper, you might ask? Let me give you a scenario. I walk into the kitchen. I stare into the sink. I stare at my daughter Katherine. I stare back into the sink and put my hands on my hips. I give one more withering look to Katherine. Seems pretty straight forward to me. I see dirty dishes in the sink, Katherine is in charge of the kitchen, I want her to clean up the mess. According to this series, I did not communicate effectively. Wow.

I guess that leads me to ask the question, What is effective? I mean, she understands the look and scurries over to the sink and does the dishes. Seems effective to me.

Let me give you another scenario. I walk into the kitchen and announce - there are two coats in the kitchen. Once again, seems obvious to me. I want the owners of the coats to hang them up or at least get them out of my way. Once again, it is effective in that the coats get out of my way.

Apparently, not everyone gets the hints, especially husbands that have not grown up with the best hint dropper of them all (hi mom!). So, according to this series, we should practice something called content communication. This means that what I say is what I mean - no matter what my tone of voice or no matter how I gesture. So, if I announce that there are 2 coats in my kitchen, the appropriate response could be - yes, there are 2 coats in there. Does this smack of smart a&& to anyone else?

Keith and I have decided to try content communication for a week and see how it goes. We often get upset with one another over tone of voice or over a hint that didn't go over well. This is supposed to solve that problem.

How am I doing, you ask? Please, I'm doing great! (Oh, sarcasm doesn't work well online, nor is it allowed in content communication....sorry). I'm failing miserably. And that's the truth.

The End of a Year

I guess this should be one of those posts that reflects upon 2011 and then looks to 2012. It should talk about the goals I set and accomplished, as well as those not yet reached. It should talk about my goals for the new year and the hopes and dreams I have.

Yep. It should. But I'm just not in the mood for it. I realize  that this is the last day to really be in this mood, but it just isn't happening for me. I don't feel reflective. I've tried to decide on goals for 2012, but I get nothing. Nada. So, this year, my New Year's resolutions will have to come sometime other than the New Year.

As for the past and the future....last year was a year. Next year will be one, too. And I'll do my best to do my best. And I'll come up short at times. And I'll go above and beyond at times. But mostly, I'll just plug along, day after day, doing what moms, wives, homeschoolers, seminary teachers, Latter Day Saints, friends, and relatives do. That is just fine by me because it will mean that I am living my life. I can't think of anything more important to do during 2012, can you?

Speaking of traditions...oh, I guess I wasn't, but I am now. I am a German Yankee and German Yankees eat pork and sauerkraut for New Years dinner, along with mashed potatoes. This was to bring good luck and prosperity. Keith is a NC Southern boy. He had pork jowls, collard greens, and black eyed peas. This was to bring good luck and prosperity. We do a bit of a compromise...well, more my way than his because I am the one that cooks! We will be having pork (not jowls, but loin) - in the crock pot, crocked with sauerkraut. We will have mashed potatoes. We will have black eyed peas. We will NOT have collard greens. I can't stand the way they  taste and the smell while they are cooking - let's just not go there. I will add to that biscuits, homemade cranberry sauce, and sweet potato pie. All are welcome to stop by!

In other news - Claudia and Eric are on their way to California where they will make their new home. They will be dearly missed. I can't wait until they come for a visit - possibly over Easter. Definitely during summer break. What to bake, oh, what to bake?!?

We really will miss these two!

Funny for the day: Keith has eczema in his ears. The doctor prescribed an ointment to put in his ear canal at night. Last night, he said the tube just didn't feel right in his hand. He looked down to realize that he had just put toothpaste in his ear.

The Slowdown

The daily Christmas event calendar is complete. Christmas came and went with happiness and fun and laughter. I couldn't have asked for a better time.

On the 23rd, we had the opportunity to have all 4 grandchildren for several hours. We baked cupcakes, played games, cut snowflakes, drew pictures, played the piano, played outside. It was fun. It was exhausting. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Time to decorate the cupcakes, and the hands, and the elbows, and the table!

Eric really liked the sprinkles. Want to guess which ones were his?

That evening, we had Kyle, Faith, Gena, and Jaxson over for Christmas. It was nice to see Faith and Kyle. We had not seen them in several months. I got 2 new cookbooks, which I will definitely use. In fact, that is on my list of things to do - find a few new recipes.

Gena started playing the violin this year. We got her a violin ornament, a violin book, and 2 "how to draw" books.

Jaxson sold over $600 in popcorn with the cub scouts this year. We got him a popcorn ornament. He also loves to read. We got him a subscription to National Geographic kids and then a book on submarines and one on the solar system.

Matthew got home on Friday as well. It was so nice having him here. He felt the same - mainly because of the food. He was even excited over leftovers for lunch! He just kept saying, wow, there is so much food in this house. He has been on the poor boy diet which includes a lot of rice and beans. He lost 13 pounds since August and didn't need to lose any. I was very glad to feed him. And was highly distressed to know how hungry he had been and hadn't called home. I remember trying to do it all myself at that age. 

Christmas day was wonderful. It started with breakfast, went on to presents, then to church. The kids went on to their dad's house and Keith took me to the Carolina Hotel Christmas Buffet. It was incredible. They had food that I couldn't pronounce and definitely food I'd never afford to try anywhere else! Keith thought he was trying some kind of jelly with crackers. I tried not to laugh - it was caviar. He seemed to enjoy it even when he realized what it was! I ate entirely too much dessert. The dessert table was 30 feet long and went down both sides. No one could pick just one.

Here are the appetizers. You should have seen the rest of it!

Church was lovely. Wonderful music. Truly enjoyable. I did get two laughs though. We had several narrators reading to us from the scriptures - mostly in Luke. One very southern gentleman read the part where the angel said hail to Mary. However, the accent made it sound like he swore at Mary. (say hail slowly and with a southern accent....get it?)  I couldn't look at Matthew because he was trying not to laugh as well. Then there was the part about the espoused wife. Except it was said exposed wife. Once again, I couldn't look at my kids. Or the people in front of me. Or behind me.  Thankfully a song came immediately and I was able to recover completely.

Monday we saw our friends Vaughn and Karen. Today we got to spend time with Keith's oldest daughter, Kim.

So, as Christmas comes to a close and I enjoy my decorations for just a few more short days, I am thankful for the wonderful season, for family, for friends, for all my many blessings, for the ability to help others during this season, for the gospel of Jesus Christ. And for the last time, until December of 2012, I wish you a Merry Christmas and all that goes with the season.

Long Past Due - More Christmas!

Well, I had high hopes that I would post almost daily during this wonderful Christmas season. And yet, here it is Dec 21 and I haven't posted since we put up Georgia's tree on the 6th. Shame on me.

Lots of those days were spent decorating - the outside, the inside, and eventually the tree. I love putting up my tree. The kids get ornaments every year that they will eventually take with them when they have a home of their own. I love looking at them and remembering. The year Kimberly was so into Barbies. The first year Rebekah was in a Christmas Carol. Katherine's first Christmas ornament. The year we saw the lighthouses on the NC coast. Flamingos. Penguins. All of Keith's nativity ornaments. The star I made when I was 5. The Love ornament Keith got me when we were dating. We have a lot of history on our tree. Oh, and the strung popcorn. We string it every year. I love it. The girls tolerate it. But I just can't imagine a tree without popcorn!

Don't you just love the 3 beautiful ornaments at the bottom of the tree!

We also went to Apex and saw a nativity display - over 800 different nativities. It was amazing. And overwhelming. In 3 days, they had over 5000 visitors! We got there while a group performed Handel's Messiah. It was beautiful. It put Keith in the mood to find more nativities. We now have one that is white and says Joy with the nativity in the O. We also got one that looks like little children - reminded him of the years he used to do the Christmas Pageant - as a small boy, he was the "Littlest Shepherd."

We also made our own cards this year - 61 of them. That is a lot of cards. A lot of cutting. A lot of stamping. And a lot of addressing! But we've heard nothing but good reports, so it is definitely worth it. We borrowed a friend's Christmas stamps this year and that gave us a lot of new variety. Katherine is the best because she is patient and willing to work long hours to finish her share. She is very creative. I tend to find one or two varieties that I like and then I make all of them that way. Kimberly loves stamping. Rebekah likes each of her cards to be different and delights that she is able to do so. And calls me a slackard for not doing the same!

Let's not forget the snowflake cutting. We decorate the hall between the bedrooms with hanging snowflakes. My girls think they are outgrowing this - well, Katherine doesn't think so. She likes to make hers very intricate. I have no idea how she makes them. I'm still stuck at level 1. She must be a level 5! This year, we had the joy of having 2 grandchildren help us - Eric and Claudia. It is so fun to have little ones around. It even got my older kids to cut a few - but don't tell them that I told you!

Isn't Eric cute? And concentrating so hard!

Ta da!

Claudia is a beautiful child - and no, I'm not biased or anything!

I'm sure you are ready for me to be done, but I'm not. So, head on to the bathroom. Get yourself another cup of cocoa and a cookie or two, and then sit back and read the rest of the post!

We baked a lot of cookies this year. Double batches of the following: Sugar, choc chip, mint choc chip, oatmeal, ginger snaps. And then a quadruple batch of my grandma's Sour Cream Date Drops. These are to die for. I had woman at church rushing me as I left the building with a few left on the platter. I was lucky to make it out alive! This is the first year that I've made them because I just got the recipe from my mom. I'm sure that they will be a yearly cookie now. And, of course, we always do our sugar cookies. Rebekah thinks they look childish. I think they look like Christmas. I'll show you a picture and let you decide:

And what do we do with all the cookies? Go caroling, of course! We catch a few neighbors and some friends. We have a few folks that expect us now. I wonder how they'll feel about the addition of the date cookie? I guess I'll have to take a poll.

So, what's left, you ask? Well, we are going to play Secret Santa tonight. No pics, of course, because then it isn't secret! We are, if the rain has stopped by then, going on a hayride to look at Christmas lights on Thursday night. We are having Claudia and Eric over on Friday morning, and Gena and Jaxson over on Friday evening. I still have to watch my Christmas movies - Rudolph, Frosty, and Grinch. We are having the missionaries over on Christmas Eve for homemade soup and homemade bread. I figured it was significantly different than what they'd get Christmas day! Matthew is coming home on Friday. There's the Christmas story to read Christmas Eve. And of course Christmas Day with presents, our Christmas breakfast, and a lovely service at church.

Well, folks, that is it. That's what we do in December. It is busy. It is crazy. And I love every minute of it!

In Remembrance

We inherited a lovely, designer tree several years ago from my dear friend Georgia. Georgia had colorectal cancer and knew she was going to die. She put up over 20 designer trees every year. They were her children, as she liked to call them. We were blessed to adopt one of her children - the Santa tree, aptly called because of all the various Santas.

Santas, sleighs, reindeer, flowers, grapes, bows, balls, glass ornaments, gold masks, beads. It is beautiful, don't you think?

She was around to see the tree in our home for 2 Christmases - the year she gave the tree and the year after. She passed on in September of the following year, about the time she would have started decorating. She said that all the "ber" months were game for Christmas decorations. (SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER, and DecemBER).

This one tiny, little tree has 3 rubber maid containers of ornaments. That first year, I had no idea how to get them all on the tree. We called Georgia several times to get pointers. She finally told us that she had faith in us and that was that - we were on our own. It took us 6 hours to get that tree done. She visited and said it was prettier than when she had done it. That was very sweet, but we didn't believe her for a minute. She had a designer's eye and all her trees were beautiful.

The second year, it only took us about 4 hours to put up the tree. Georgia, once again, came to visit her tree and make sure the adoptive parents were doing the tree justice. Her smile said we were doing just fine.

Keith added the train 2 Christmases ago. 

You'd think that trying to get them all to smile AND look at the camera would be easier now that they are older. Umm...no.

 Now we have gotten the decorating down to about 2 1/2 hours. It would be shorter if we had a prelit tree, but I just can't bare to let anything of Georgia's go away. For now, at least, I'll carefully string lights up and down each branch and watch everything take on a magical sparkle.

Here's to my friend Georgia. May her memory always live on in the hearts of those that loved her.

Georgia and my son Matthew before he left on his mission to Germany.

Fa La La La La La La La La

First of all, yes, there are the right amount of "La"s in my title. I know, because I sang it as I typed!

I love the Christmas season. I truly find it joyous. I love thinking about my Savior. And I love sharing Christmas traditions with my family. And traditions we have!

December starts with our count down calendar. We make it each year from last year's Christmas cards. We cut out pictures that represent what we will do that day. Then we hang it on the wall and the countdown begins.

Day 2 is my Christmas village. I have been collecting my village since 1989. I have 81 pieces now. Candy shop, clock shop, taylor, coal shop, grocery stores, bakeries, churches, book store, music store, city hall, opera house, police and fire, school and library, and the list goes on. I did notice that I have no medical personnel and no pharmacy. I'll keep looking - certainly there is a doctor's office somewhere out there. This year's addition is the German castle my son got me for Christmas while he was in Germany. It sits up on a hill and looks down majestically over the village. It is beautiful, if I do say so myself. I love looking at my village and pretending I live there. I imagine going into the shops, stopping at the train station to pick up relatives, heading on over to the Christmas tree farm, chatting with  the farmer as he saws logs, listening to the choirs practice O Come All Ye Faithful. I have a picture - it won't do it justice, but it might give you a small feel for it.

The castle is on top of the hill. My first piece is the Tudor house on the very right side of the tier below the castle.

This is the center of town. In the gazebo is a little man playing the violin.

Day 3, yesterday, was the Annual Sanford Christmas Parade. I love parades - even cheesy small town parades. You know you live in a small town when one of the trucks from the road division of Sanford has a brightly lit snowman on the back. Or one of the local plumbers has a float with a toilet on the back, water spraying out of it, and a man standing there with a plunger looking confused. Really. It was there. 2 marching bands. A few dancing and gymnastics groups. The karate group. Church groups. Very loud motorcycles. Some 4 wheelers. The community college. Several beauty queens for things like Miss Pinecone and Miss Brick City. Police and sheriff and fire engines galore - all with sirens blazing. We even had a semi from a local trucking company. It all ended with Santa riding in a 1925 fire engine. We bought the kids cotton candy and popcorn. We made quite an evening of it. The only problem was that it was too warm. It didn't FEEL like a Christmas parade. Ah well, you can't have it all.

Before the parade. Have you ever noticed that my mouth is HUGE? It takes up half my face.

I will be writing about more of our traditions as they happen. Suffice it to say, you may get quite tired of the Clark household before the season is over!

Visit With Family

We had a wonderful Saturday afternoon when Keith's daughter Corey and her two children, Claudia and Eric, came to visit. I had a dose of playing grandma and I realized how much I look forward to having my kids bring their kids home for me to spoil.

I have been cooking with my kids since they were old enough to stand in a chair next to me. But, my kids are pretty well grown, and now cooking with me means "you do your task and I do my task." The cooking goes faster and the kitchen stays cleaner. It hasn't always been that way. There was a time when letting them help meant slowing me down and cleaning up food off the floor...and the counter....and the wall....and the child.... I remember telling myself that I was teaching them and I'd count backwards and really try to keep it together. Yesterday, it just came naturally. It didn't matter to me that there was flour and cocoa powder on the floor. I wasn't the least bit concerned that the eggs never really got beaten. It was perfectly fine that the measurements weren't just so. I loved watching their faces and proud expressions as they accomplished egg cracking (or egg smashing in Eric's case).

I really enjoyed letting them dig into the bowl when the brownies were finally in the oven. You can learn a lot about someone by the way they attack a batter bowl. Claudia delicately put her finger in. Eric grabbed the bowl and tried to stick his head in it to lick it. I only stopped him because I knew Claudia wouldn't want to eat after that. If it had been only Eric, I would have let him go for it and gotten the video camera (the regular camera wouldn't have done it justice).

Then we went outside and Claudia was overjoyed to see that we had rakes. She wanted to rake leaves. Remember the days when a leaf pile was something to smile over? For me, now, leaves just mean things I have to get out of my yard. It is work. Pretty work, but work. Claudia raked with vigor. Eric did for a moment, but then the hammock and wagon beckoned him. Once the pile was big enough, it was time to jump. And swoosh. And play. And roll. And then it was time to pile them all up again. I had forgotten how fun leaves could be.

The rest of the day was the same. Putting pepperonis on the pizza. Playing the piano, especially pretending to play when one of the prerecorded songs came on. Trying to win the game of Sorry. Hide and seek when you are small enough to fit under the TV cabinet. Reading books.

Yes. I am definitely moving into that period of my life where my kids are growing and moving on. My youngest still needs me, but mostly as a chauffeur. In just over 4 years, she will head off to college. And I'll be home, waiting for the grandkids to come by so I can spill some flour on the floor.

You've Got to Be Kidding Me

I think this a lot. What? Really? Are you kidding? No!

I'm not sure if those around me are truly crazy or if I am just seeing things incorrectly. However, with so many people making me say "really???", perhaps it is me.

I had a friend blog this week about an arts and craft that I simply will not get into. Suffice it to say that I said, "REALLY????" Whatever you are thinking, multiply it by 10. It was that bad. (You've got to know, don't you? Check it out: www.wandaargersinger.com/blog )

So, I'm thinking that I've had my "really" experience for the week, but not so. I just saw an advertisement for an Obama Chia Pet. Really? That is just so wrong on so many levels. Whether you admire him or wish he were out of office, do you think it is respectful to grow grass on his head? It just seems so....wrong! On a rock, yes. On a cat or a dog, ok. On the President of the United States? Come on, folks, what were you thinking? I just can't see anyone growing grass on Queen Elizabeth's head or Nicolas Sarkozy (French President) or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (though I might get one of these since growing grass on a dictator's head might be humorous).

It all just makes me realize that I don't want to be famous enough to have a Chia Pet named after me!

In other news:

Kimberly is giving blood for the first time today. I love how dedicated she is to helping others.

Rebekah has started rehearsals for A Christmas Carol at Temple Theatre in Sanford. I can't wait to see the show.

I am slowly but surely learning Oh Come All Ye Faithful. For those of you that are piano players, I am at the end of Level 1. This song is definitely towards the end of Level 2. I can only practice it for about 10 minutes before my brain scrambles. I know, not so hard to do. You all are so funny and clever!

Turn That Frown Upside Down

I've been working at getting more photos of me doing stuff with the family. I tend to hide behind the camera. We all know that I am there, but the only proof is that someone obviously was taking photos. I did this because a friend of mine, (you know who you are), made a comment on her blog about it. She said it very eloquently, but I'll paraphrase and say "We all know you are turning gray and that your hind end is big." As I said, she was much more eloquent.

Back to the photos. I've had a lot taken in the since August. And I keep noticing something. Wrinkles. I have hundreds of them. I smile and my face crinkles up into hundreds of little wrinkles. Every time I see those crevices, I cringe.

So, today, as I was getting ready for church, I got to looking at myself in the mirror. Yes, I definitely had wrinkles. I smiled. They popped up - bigger than life. Then I tried something - I frowned. No wrinkles. It hit me. I had smiling wrinkles. That means I've smiled so many times that my skin has learned to crinkle in all the right places. Best of all, I obviously don't frown enough for the same thing to happen when I frown!

I am overjoyed that I have smiling wrinkles - well, if I have to have wrinkles, and it appears that I do.

As someone that struggles with depression, I often wonder how I portray myself to others. How my kids see me. Whether I will be remembered as happy or sad or angry or any of those other hundreds of negative emotions that I can feel. Yet, the wrinkles seem to tell it all.

So, on this November 6th, I am thankful for wrinkles in all the right places.

I'm smiling here because my daughter got accepted into Phi Theta Kappa. Proud moment!

Cars and Senior Citizen Dating

Car Clutch Magazine and Faithful Women Wanted (Seniors, mind you.) Now what would I have on my Facebook that would cause them to believe either one of those would be interesting to me? A. I know nothing about cars except to take them to a good mechanic. B. I'm NOT a senior citizen, despite what my children have to say. C. I am not looking for a partner. I have one of those. One is enough.

Low fat cooking? That I would understand. Authorship of some sort? Ok. Small business stuff. Sure. Homeschooling. Of course. Car clutches? Really?

Now, I do have a friend that races cars, but I don't think I've chatted about it on Facebook. And my husband is sometimes a senior depending on the store. But note the word husband - that kind of takes out the whole dating thing. Personally, if I were paying for Facebook advertising, I'd be ticked off that my ads were going to me.

This got me thinking about the ads I get in the mail. I do often get a farm supply flyer. I live in the city limits. I do not own a garden. I am unlikely to buy horse feed.

I also get the Oriental Traders catalog. I bought from them once. I think they've lost all the profit from that one tiny little sale by putting me on their mailing list. I love looking at all the do-dads, but my kids are older and we have no need for Christmas craft projects or a 6-pack of Halloween fake teeth.

I still get mail for the ex occupant of this house. It has been 2 years. You can learn a lot about a person by looking at junk mail sent to them. For instance, she is a Democrat. She is a patron to the arts. She is an educator or in the education field. According to the mail, she has a great credit rating and needs to get a  lot of credit cards.

I wonder what those living in my old house think of me? Probably that I am a grease monkey chick in my 60's!

On the newsy front:

Keith had a birthday yesterday. He turned 62 (remember my comment about HIM being the senior). Katherine made him a cake and he got presents. We also went out to eat.

Almost a smile! Even without peering into my mail, you can now see that I am Republican...or at least married to one!

He had to share his day with Kimberly who was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa (Community College Honor Society). We are very proud of her.

The truly funny thing about this picture is that there is nothing (not a thing) on this certificate. It is just a blank piece of paper. She got her real one in the mail a couple of weeks ago! lol

Keith was able to save my Quicken files. Now I don't have to recreate my whole year from bits of receipts stuffed into a file folder. Yea, Keith!

Think of me, with my hair more on end than usual.

I Don't Hate Halloween

It was suggested in an earlier post that "Keith" hates Halloween. Don't get tricked by that.  I deny "hating" Halloween.  There isn't much to hate any more.  It doesn't seem to do a bit of good.

I do think that we have been tricked into it by thinking it is a treat.  (cute kids, fun games, etc.)

We do have an adversary.  If  he can't induce us to do something evil, he will attempt to keep us busy with things that may be good but not the most important. But I don't think Halloween is a good concept. It should be avoided.
I don't know if it is a conspiracy by the dentists or not.  Well, anyway all the lights will be out tonight.