July 2006 Archives

My two lovely teenage girls are in their second week of high school band camp. This is usually an all-day affair, five days a week, a Saturday parade, for two weeks.

It is incredibly arduous this year. Our first week, the temperatures pushed passed 95 degrees. I am amazed at how well most of the kids do. They begin at 7:30 in the morning. They have a schedule they follow each day that roughly moves them through a variety of activities such as full band practice, charts - which is the choreography of the show and is usually done outside on the asphalt parking lot, section practice, and a segment called movement where the kids learn how to carry and move their bodies gracefully.

A few parents are usually cooking away from 8 to 2 in the kitchen for the daily lunch, some pounding away in the props garage, and then there is me with a few others who have been cleaning out the very smelly uniform room and fitting and altering uniforms for 87 kids.

After 5 pm, the kids still have energy, amazingly. Most nights there are activities planned such as a tailgate party, a talent show, a dance, or a game of capture the flag. These activities allow the kids to get to know each other outside the structure of the day.

I'm always awed by these kids and what they're capable of. Where DOES this idea of "band geek" come from?? These kids are fit, talented, articulate, funny, compassionate, loyal, hard working and ethical.

I'm proud of my "geeky" girls.

Are women more apt to become embarrassed when they become the center of attention, or the queen of the day, or just recognized and appreciated for doing what they do best? Some, probably not. But there are lot of women out there who have been taught - at least in some secret way - that to enjoy "their moment" is selfish.

This entry in "Creating a Charmed Life" suggests that to be our best, we need to accept praise. In fact, to fully enjoy other's shining moments we need to have had our own, lest we resent others.

Two suggestions the author offers are to spend time with people who "think you are splendid and tell you so" and when this isn't possible, don't forget to appreciate yourself! Treat yourself!

Too often, some of us dismiss the appreciation of others carelessly. My mother admonished me to accept gratitude or compliments graciously.

Rather than pass your accomplishments or talents off with excuse, remember to say "Thanks!". It really is enough.

What was I thinking?

I mowed our very hilly and irregular lawn with the push mower today. Now I can hardly hold up my arms to type. I haven't used the push mower to do anything more than trim the yard in the last 5 or 6 years since my youngest has become old enough to mow with the John Deer.

I don't know what I was thinking. It's not just that I am incredibly sore, but I feel quite nearly incapacitated! I really think - at least in these instances - I should act my age!

The rain has come today. A steady rain, enough to quench my thirsty gardens and containers. It seems that my last few days of gardening has been focused on watering and now I can relax. Today I can catch up on my reading, phone calls, bill-paying and such.

Saturday afternoon brought an interesting offer of maple logs and kindling. My neighbor finally decided his beautiful maple was, indeed, dead and that it was time to take it down before a storm did, indiscriminately, upon his house. Neighbor Randy cut most of the trunk into pieces fit for our forced air fireplace (the box is not very big - pieces cannot be longer than 16 inches), and cut the major branches as well. All of this was conveniently dropped about 25 feet from my log pile over the fence line using his Kubota tractor with the handy bucket scoop in front. (One of those toys my husband not-so-secretly covets.)

The rest was up to us to collect. I paid my oldest (that was the only way I was going to get her out there) to help me pick up, break or cut pieces, and load them into the yard cart. We made about six or seven trips and now have an impressive pile of finger-width to arm-width kindling to go with the logs.

I feel like the ant in the Ant and Grasshopper story, even smug that I've begun "storing" away needs for the winter. Since the hike in gas prices, we are among the many who heat their homes primarily with wood in the winter.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with lists. To do lists, grocery lists, things I need to do for work, lists of chores for the kids (that I need to managed, follow-up, and supervise) . . .

Are you list-driven? I mean, do you start your day doing things that are on your list, checking them off as you go? Is the success of your day dependent upon how many things get crossed off that list? Worse, do you ADD an item to your list, then cross it off if you did it?

Hmmm . . . we're in good company. Trust me.

If you are a list junkie, then chances are likely that you don't follow your heart as often as you should. Creating a charmed life requires it. Demands that you take time for those little things that interrupt your plan. They are not the urgent, unimportant things like the phone ringing, but rather a little more subtle.

Like my husband, who just asked me if I'd read Opus from last week's Sunday paper. . . I just blew him off because I was bent on getting this written. I mean who cares about a comic strip from last week anyway?? Hmmm . . . I think this counts as one of those moments.

Think I'll go find out what prompted his question. *S*

My beautiful and charming sister, the one many of you know at Arrrgh, gave me a book a few years ago with instructions to summarize what I learned from each of the 75 lessons. I like this book so much that I want to share it with you and, of course, its lessons, too. The book is about creating a charmed life. It occurs to me that she believes that my life is charmed. I have to agree with her.

I'm not saying that I have never experienced hardship or loss. I'm not saying that I haven't haven't had times when I've been low or frustrated. But my life is charmed. The book was a gift in a number of ways. Naturally, in the traditionally way, but also because it allowed me to see what a GIFT my life is.

Perhaps, the two are synonymous is this sense - both charmed and a gift. Let me explain.

I struck on the idea that I should keep track of the changes in my backyard efforts. I took a number of "before" pictures to set the benchmark. I also drew a rough diagram of the backyard so that as I refer to various zones and post pictures those of you who are interested can follow more easily. Eventually, I'd like to repost each of the "before" pictures with the "after" pictures. Knowing how plants develop as they mature, pictures beyond the "after" pictures would be cool, too.

First, is my diagram. Although the picture is not to scale, I have a fair sense of space so it is accurate for this purpose.

The vegetable garden was the first of my tasks. I felt it was important to get it opened and extended given the nature of annual vegetables and herbs. Too bad there isn't a true "before" picture.

By now my husband and our youngest have made it down to near Biloxi, MS for a mission trip to rebuild houses flooded or destroyed by Katrina. This will be my youngest daughter's second trip in as many weeks.

In June, she went with our church's youth group - a group of 35 youth and adults to New Orleans. There each day they donned suits, helmets, gloves and HEPA masks while they hauled out the evidence of what was once the lives of residents. They tore down walls, stripping theses homes to their studs. With many hands, the job was fast. Blessedly - for both the homeowners and the work teams.

I've always been a believer in getting dirty work done quickly. No laboring over the pain of the job.