Attitude Check

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A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step………..

I was tired of feeling sick and tired, so this past July, I decided to make a change.

Change is never easy, even if the change is healthy and good. Often times, those outward changes we make are not nearly as defining as the inward ones.

I have a thyroid autoimmune disease, and gluten sensitivity. I was diagnosed with the former, in my early teens, the latter, several months ago. I was feeling really sorry for myself. I knew I hadn’t felt well for some time, but knowing I was going to have to “give up” favorite foods and begin to consciously read labels left me feeling down. It didn’t seem fair.

Although I would consider myself fairly active, I knew I needed to exercise more. Strength and flexibility grow increasingly important as I grow older.

More than changing my eating habits and exercising more, I have changed my attitude. Since, I’ve been thinking more about my attitude lately, this quote I came across from Charles Swindoll seems apropos. I might commit this to memory.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company…a church….a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past…we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude…I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you…we are in charge of our attitudes.” –Charles R. Swindoll

Snowing Again

The Gypsy Mama

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

Oh and Ahem, if you would take pity and turn off comment verification, it would make leaving some love on your post that much easier for folks!

OK, are you ready? Please give us your best five minutes on:::

Again…

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It’s snowing again.

White, fluffy flakes floating down to the earth.

Winter is here, and I can feel it give birth….

to crisp, cold air. Drifting snow…

and bundling up, with no place to go.

Blankets of white fold into the ground

The hush of snow, a quiet sound.

Snowed trees on mount Brocken, Harz, Germany

Feeling Homesick

chocolate chips cookies

Image by timlewisnm via Flickr

“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave,

and grow old wanting to go back to.”

—-John Ed Pearce

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Farm houses

creaking floors,

Shared bathrooms

opened doors.

Milk and cookies

and PB and J,

Cozy evenings,

long summer days.

Popsicles

and friendships,

Bicycles

and home movie clips.

Family pictures

and church socials,

saying goodbyes

are always emotional.

Growing up

and moving out,

leaving home

great things, no doubt.

Moving forward

looking back,

time stands still,

fade to black…

 

 

10 Reasons I Hate Grocery Shopping

Standard shopping cart, picture taken at a Weg...

Image via Wikipedia

It is the end of a long week and time for a good laugh…..

I had to go to the grocery store this morning. It was either that, or allow my family to starve. I considered it. Ahem…..just kidding.  The grocery store is not my favorite place. As a matter of fact, I find myself becoming overly depressed when food shopping. I can literally feel myself becoming poor with each push of the cart…..which leads me to the ten reasons I hate grocery shopping.

1. I always end up with the renegade cart that has wheels that go in different directions. I think I have a predetermined genetic condition that draws the wobbly carts to me. The strongest thing I drink is iced tea, but steering the crazy cart up and down the aisles makes me look like I’ve been on a week long bender. A great way to start the morning, let me tell you.

2. The one thing I’m looking for is not on the shelf. A.) It is now a discontinued product and will no longer be available. or B.) I got there too late and some other mom scarfed up all goods and left nary a crumb for anyone else. At the time I was thinking ugly thoughts. I will not type them for all to see.

3. I had to go through 5 egg cartons before I found one that didn’t have damaged eggs. Ugh. If an egg can go through all the trauma of being laid by a chicken…..can’t we get them into a box and shipped without cracking about a million of them? Just saying. I have cracked egg frustration.

4. Little old ladies that talk on their cell phone…LOUDLY. I realize that she probably spoke loudly because she couldn’t hear herself…..but, the rest of the store could. Plus, every time she replied to the person on the other end of the conversation, she stopped her cart. I almost ran her down. Not intentionally.

5. Meat is expensive. My family likes meat. They have membership cards to carnivores of America. They know the difference between real meat and fake meat. I’ve already tried that.

6. I got all the way through the store and realized that I had forgotten something. Because I didn’t make a list this time. Because I was tired and didn’t feel like it. Now, I pay the price! Oh well, I didn’t need it that bad.That’s my story anyway.

7. There is a man in front of me with 50 bazillion items and there are no other cashiers available, so I sigh and get in line.

8. There is a woman behind me with two items and I let her go in front of me because if I don’t I’ll feel guilty. She said, “thank you” to me. I smile, but I’m really thinking, “I hate you because you only have two things to buy”. Okay, I didn’t really hate her. I was just jealous. Plus, I was sweating from all the steering of the cart and schlepping meat products into those plastic bags. It’s hard work, people.

9. The grocery store parking lot has a trillion parking places, most of which were empty at this time of the day. You’d think that no one would feel the need to park smack dab next to my van. Well, you would be wrong! As I came outside and pushed my cart to the van I notice a car parked on the side of my van that has the sliding door. The door I need to open and get the cart next to so I can unload my groceries. I begin to talk to myself (and to anyone within earshot)……Who parks a car that close to a van when there are a ton of other parking spots?????!!!!!! I am forced to squeeze the cart in between the van and car. Just as I am situated and attempting to unload, a woman and her teen daughter emerge from the store. She laughed, “Oh, sorry. I guess I parked a little close.” I gave her the death glare. She deserved it.

10. After returning the cart to the store, I jumped in the van and circled around to the entrance of the parking lot….at which point I heard several thuds and realized that my canned food was now rolling around on the van floor……Big sigh. I’ll have the kids help me unpack when I get to the house. They can crawl around on the floor looking for the canned peas.

 

Eat Your Nutritional Bits!

Shelves of dog food. Includes Beneful and Pedigree

Image via Wikipedia

Life has come to me arguing with the dog.He is not participating in the argument, so really it’s just me pretending to argue with the dog.

Okay, so maybe cajoling him.

Oh, alright! Begging him. This is so humiliating.

Tonight I was trying to get Lonnie, the wonder dog…all 19 pounds of him…to eat his nutritional bits.

I buy him the dog food that is supposed to be good for him. Healthy even.

The nutritional bits resemble little chocolate chip looking things. Yum.

Lonnie refuses his nutrition. Instead he roots through all the rest of the dog food, spewing bits as he goes. How in the world does an animal that has no fingers pick all those teeny, tiny bits out of the bowl? He must spit them out like watermelon seeds. I will have to make a point to observe this. I’ll have to be sneaky if I want to watch, Lonnie tends to be covert.

I called the little terrier to me when I saw the mess he made. I gave him the “stink eye”. He stared back. I proceeded to lecture him on his canine health. He licked me. I continued to inform him of his need for good teeth and a shiny coat. He actually yawned. At this point I placed my hand on my hip, got the mom stance and said (with a straight face) “Lonnie you are like a five year old who pushes his peas all around the plate. You need to eat your nutritional bits!”

I thought for sure that I had made my case.

Sigh.

On a good note, the cat seems to enjoy eating them off the floor.

Love And Marriage

Typical game contents and scoring example.

Image via Wikipedia

Our love intertwined in the moments of the every day……

“Are you coming to sit with me?”

I will in just a minute.

“Do you want to play Boggle?”

Okay…but, you almost always win.

“No, I don’t.”

Yes, you do.

“Okay, so I do.”

“Thank you for making lunch.”

You’re welcome.

“Do you want to ride into town with me? I need to get something at Lowe’s.”

Sure, can we get a coffee while we’re out?

“I drink coffee. You drink creamer and mocha with a splash of coffee for flavor.”

Do not.

“Do too.”

I like mocha.

HE JUST WANTS TO BE WITH ME….ME.

OUT OF ALL THE WOMEN IN THE WORLD, HE WANTS TO HANG  WITH ME.

How cool is that?

 

Walk With Him Wednesdays—Click On The Picture On My Sidebar

 

 

 

 

 

Getting The Treatment

Udders of a cow grazing. Pictured in Tanzania

Image via Wikipedia

This morning I stood in front of the bathroom mirror. As I was washing my hands I was looking around the sink. My eyes lingered on the Chicken Poop Lip Balm (and don’t freak out, there isn’t any REAL poop in it) from Tractor Supply Center. Then I noticed my Udderly Soft (can be used on all sorts of farm animals) hand lotion that I picked up at WalMart. Seriously, if I keep going like this, my bathroom sink will look like a table at the vet’s office.

But, on the upside…I’ll have really soft lips and hands.

Sigh.

 

 

 

Help! I’m Stuck In Frozen Foods

A young girl and her mother shop for chicken e...

Image via Wikipedia

So, as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post…I got up early and went to the grocery store(s). WalMart at 8:15 in the morning usually is not so busy. Today it WAS! Every body and their brother was schlepping up and down the aisles picking out “stuck in a snowstorm” food. It also did not help my plight any that whoever wasn’t shopping for snow food was shopping for Super Bowl food. Get out of my way Super Bowl people!  Put down those chips and cheese dip. I’m on a mission.

I wrestled somebody’s grandma to the ground for the last bottle of salsa. Okay, so that is a lie. I didn’t really do that. I wouldn’t wrestle a grandma for salsa. Ice cream maybe, but not salsa. I have my priorities.

In all seriousness, there were a lot of senior individuals out and about today. I felt sorry for them. They probably believed their early morning shopping routine was being over taken by storm shoppers…and they would be right.

I moved on to the next store. I got there 15 min. after it opened. By the time I got ready to check out, the line was all the way back to the freezer aisle! For the love of Pete! Storm shoppers are a hardy bunch. We are not deterred by long lines! We settled in for the long haul. I was enjoying the sweet scene in front of me. A little boy (about 3 or 4 yrs. old) was shopping with his aunt. I know this because he called her aunt several times. (Call me super sleuth)  He was telling her various stories about  his parents. (one of them had to be this woman’s brother or sister) It was a lovely story about how the little boy’s mom liked Chinese food and the little boy liked Chinese (the jury is still out on whether Daddy liked it). He asked his aunt if she’d buy him Chinese? She said, “why don’t we let mommy and daddy buy that?”  He said okay. “Mommy gets Chinese a lot, because she can’t cook it.” I smiled. The little guy smiled back. He reminded me of my son when he was 4 years old. He liked to tell stories too. Not about Chinese food, but you get the gist.

The line went quickly. I smiled at the cashier gentleman. I told him that he was very quick with check out and I appreciated that he was smiling and in a good mood even though he was swamped. He laughed. He said, “I expected that we’d we busy, just not this early!”

I got everything stashed and packed in the mini van. I did not drop anything…no cans rolled under the van. Not that, that happens to me. Purely, hypothetical. On the way home I did hear a loud crash and looked to see that a sack of soups fell off the seat and rolled around on the floor near the van’s side door. I’m so lucky. Now when I open the van door, all the cans will roll out into the driveway. Sigh. I don’t get paid enough for this wife/mom gig. Just sayin’.

The weather people are calling for a monster storm. Snow. Sleet. Freezing Rain. High winds. Some states. even getting tornadoes. Just watch. All this shopping and standing in line and we, here in rural Ohio, probably will end up with an inch of snow. That would be my luck. Whatever. At least I have enough hot chocolate and chips to last the family and me until 2012.

Oh, and by the way, I also have sweet smelling candles to burn…just in case the electricity goes out. (due to ice) We might all be sitting in the dark but, at least it will smell good. Then again apple, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice scented candles might make us hungry. That’s where the excessive amounts of chips and salsa comes in. A mom always plans ahead.

Wandering Into The Unknown

Older refrigerator model, with freezer compartment

Image via Wikipedia

I put it off as long as I possibly could. I didn’t want to go there. But I had to do it.

A MOM’S JOB IS NEVER DONE…AND THE JOB CAN GET PRETTY GROSS!

Cleaning Out The Refrigerator 101

1. I’ve noticed for the past couple of weeks that leftovers have been piling up in the refrigerator.

2. Leftovers that certain people swore up and down that they planned on eating. Uh, huh.

3. Now said leftovers are either moldy, or rock hard and could be used as a weapon.

4. I found detox tea that I had made, well, I can’t tell you when I made it. Um….nasty stuff after sitting in the fridge since before time began.

5. In my defense the tea had been shoved to the back of the fridge. Out of sight, out of mind.

6. This never happens to my sweet tea. It is gone in no time, and I have to make more. I’m so pathetic. Sugar, yes. Detox, no. Don’t tell anyone.

7. Slices of pizza and old Subway subs do some really funky stuff if left to their own devices.

8. Cheese dip turns to glue.

9. Glue that sticks to you if you happen to get some on you. Not that, that happened to me.

10. The gag reflex is a marvelous thing.

11. How come mom’s end up with this job? And most of the stuff “leftover” in there…wasn’t even mine!

12. It was a little like Christmas.

13. A little “gift” all wrapped up in aluminum foil.

14. What will the surprise be?

15. Oh, wow. A piece of my son’s birthday cake…too bad his birthday was on October 13th!!!

16. No. I am not THAT desperate for chocolate.

17. Thank goodness.

18. After ridding the fridge of all the nasty evidence of my family’s slothfulness…

19. I wiped it all down with Clorox wipes. I love those things. Just sayin’.

20. Now, all is well with the world again. And the refrigerator is practically empty. Sigh. Time to start over.

Food Stamps

Soft drinks on shelves in a Woolworths superma...

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New York officials are trying to say that if one uses food stamps he/she shouldn’t be able to buy sodas or sugary foods. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Statistics tell us that 41.8 people in this country are on food stamps. That’s a lot of people. Is the government going to tell all of them, what they can or cannot eat?

1. Do most people really WANT to be on food stamps?

2. Probably not, for the most part.

3. There are those who are ” takers” who don’t really mind to sponge off others….but, I think most people would rather not be dependent on the government for hand outs.

4. On the one hand…if a person accepts food stamps, should they have to adhere to what the gov’t tells them to eat or drink?

5. Or is that too controlling?

6. Who believes that the gov’t should become the food police?

7. Today it is soda, next month might it be cookie mix? or anything that has food dye in it?

8. When does it stop?

9. Shouldn’t people be able to make their own decisions?

10. Some people will make poor decisions and spend it on junk. They will have to live with the consequences.

11. Some people will choose wisely, and their health will benefit.

12. But the decision is theirs to make.

13. I mean don’t we all have to make decisions that are best for us individually?

14. I’m going to be watching this story…

15. To see who wins this battle…personal freedom? or government control?