Fly Like An Eagle.............

Peter has been a busy boy!! Just last night he had his Eagle Scout Board of Review. This means that Peter is now officially an Eagle Scout!!

We are so proud of Peter. Statistics say that only 2% of boys that get involved in Scouting ever make it to the rank of Eagle!

For his Eagle Project, Peter ran an Emergency Preparedness Fair for the community. He had the Red Cross come, as well as CERT (community emergency response team), the Fire Department, and the Blood Drive people. He had booths set up to talk about water purification, 72-hour kits, long term food storage and first aid. The Blood drive people collected 31 pints of blood! It was a big project, involving lots of people, but Peter organized it all and did a GREAT JOB!!

He was pretty nervous last night at his Board of Review. As was I in the waiting room! He was in with the Board for about 30 minutes with the three reviewers grilling him. Then they sent him out while they conferred for about 15 minutes. We were called back in and they told him what a good job he'd done, how they were impressed by his answers and would be proud to have him represent the BSA (Boy Scouts of America) as an Eagle Scout. They read us a poem about the Eagle leaving the nest (I almost cried!) then shook hands all around and sent us on our way.

Peter, we are proud of you and the man you are becoming. Keep up the good work. I can't wait to see what you accomplish next!!

<----Peter in the middle, his Scoutmaster, Reuben Aiton on the far right. The other three are the ones who conducted his Board of Review. (this is the first time we saw them smiling! They were a pretty tough group!)

Video Games.......

Okay, so I got this package in the mail yesterday. My birthday is on Sunday. I figured that it might be a birthday gift so I briefly considered not opening it until Sunday. That lasted about 15 seconds. After all, maybe it wasn't a birthday gift, maybe it was.......umm.....ummm...... something else that needed to be opened immediately.

Turns out it was a birthday gift. From my brother, Peter. He sent me a Wii Fit. I have been wanting to try one for a while now, and oh, my gosh, is it ever fun!!

I realize, of course, that I'm old, and that video games are typically for the young, but I happen to like video games. To me, video games are the great equalizer between me and my kids. I mean, really, I used to be able to run faster than my kids, beat them at arm wrestling, do more sit-ups, push ups, etc. Those days are long gone. They can outlast, outrun, outplay me anyday. Not so with video games. In video games I can actually challenge my kids on a level playing field.

I'm really good at Brain Age (a mother's day gift from two of my boys), pretty good at Mario Kart (one of my favorites!), not bad at the 'old school' Sonic games, and I've been working on my drumming skills on Rock Band (I've still got a ways to go on that one!)

Now that I (we) have Wii Fit, we have even more challenges to do together. We've had it less than 24 hours and so far Jacob has the high score on the Ski Jump and Ski Slalom, Sam is best at Soccer Heading and Tight Rope Walk, and I hold the high score in Table Tilt and Hula Hoop. Yes, we've already logged quite a bit of time on the Wii Fit.

Now if I could only find the time to get the laundry done.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom Not My Own.....

Deep summer

is when laziness

finds respectability.

~Sam Keen

Summer....

Summer is fast approaching. Sam is already done with school. Peter has just 8 more days. I'm starting to panic.

My kids idea of a perfect summer is unlimited video games, pool time, and sleep. I like summer to be just a little more productive than that. Last year I tried to have a S.M.A.R.T. summer. It flopped. I'm not sure what to do this year. We do have several activities planned. Scout camp and things like that, but we will still have plenty of down time. I have learned over the years that too much down time leads to kids that are cranky, argumentative, and bored.

So, I'm coming to you for help. What can I do (or have my kids do) that will be fun, productive and inexpensive? Any ideas??

Memorial Day...........

Memorial Day.

A day to remember.
But the question has become...remember what?

Remember to grab the lifejackets on your way to the lake?
Or remember to stop for flowers on your way to the cemetery.

Remember to get charcoal for the grill?
Or remember to lower your flag to half-mast.

Remember that you signed up to bring the potato salad?
Or remember those who gave their lives so you can live yours.

It used to be that Memorial Day was just that...a memorial day.
A day to remember those thousands who have died in service to our country.
There were parades and ceremonies and speeches.

Now, it's a three-day weekend, kids-out-of-school, let's-go-to-the-lake, I-wonder-why-that-person-is-flying-their-flag-today holiday.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all about three-day weekends. I miss the go-to-the-lake days of my youth. I love a good barbecue, and having the kids out of school for an extra day.

But let's at least take a moment. Sit down with the kids and remind them why they have this day off. Why some people are flying their flags. Why there is still a parade or two. Why those old men at the park are wearing their ill-fitting, out-of-date uniforms and looking at the flag with a tear in their eye.

Let's at least drive past the cemetery on the way to the lake and look at the rows and rows of white tombstones...each with a small flag waving in the breeze.

Let's talk to our kids about sacrifice, and duty, and love of country, and loss of life. Let's plant the seed of patriotism in their hearts so they can pass the legacy on to their children. Remind them why their grandfathers went to war. And their great-grandfathers, too. Why young men and women are still going to war today. And dying today.

Teach them to respect those who serve. Teach them to remember those they never knew. And if you want to make it more personal.....just read about Donn Sweet. And let Donn, as one man, represent the thousands who performed similar acts of heroism.

And then.......go have fun at the lake!

A Favor For Mary.....

My daughter, Mary, has entered a contest and needs your votes to win. The contest was to design a twitter background for Paperback Swap. Here is the link. You are only allowed to vote once. Please share this with your friends so they can vote for Mary, too. Her design is the one with a blue bird standing on a red book (pictured above). Her name is listed as 'medimedimary'.

Thanks, everybody!! Remember to give her a 5-Star rating!!

Judging Books by Their Covers.......

They say that you should never judge a book by it's cover.

Then, how exactly should we judge a book?

I think we need ratings on books. I don't really care how we rate them. It can be the same rating system we have for movies: G, PG, PG-13, R. Or we can use the system used by some cable television systems: V(violence), S(sexual content), L(language).

Whatever I need a rating to tell me if the book has bad language. There is some language that I find offensive. I need a rating to tell me about sexual content. I do not need to know all the details!! Some books are almost pornographic in their descriptions. Yet we are not warned ahead of time!

I hate to spend money on a book only to find out later that it should have had an "R" rating on the cover! I have thrown away more than a few books because of their content. (I don't donate them because I don't want to subject others to things that are offensive to me!) So.....being that books don't come with ratings...how do we decide which ones are 'safe' so to speak?

I am currently looking for a 'new author'. I tend to find authors that I enjoy, and then read everything they've ever written until I run out and have to start my search again.

I like Clive Cussler, Dick Francis, David Baldacci, Robin Cook.

Please tell me some of your favorite authors. If I don't find something soon, it's going to be a L-O-N-G summer!

Six Word Stories....Are Such Fun....

I heard about 'Six Word Stories' a while ago and I've been wanting to try it out. The premise is simple: tell a story using only 6 words.

Supposedly, sometime in the 1920's, Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a such a story. He wrote, "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn."

You can find out more about Six Word Stories here.

Here are some of mine:

Rode Bike, fell, bled, tried again.

Childhood. Freedom, adventures, friends, innocence, home.

Afraid of change, I stay put.

To go home again, I write.

Mom, can I? Please say no.

Free agency is much too expensive.

How did you get this number?

Once a brother, now a stranger.

Lake house. Where summer never ends.

I really had fun with this. It's almost addictive. I'm sure that you are much more creative than this....so show me what you've got!!

Consequences.........

I'd like to introduce my 'Slave-for-a-Day'. This is Peter. Peter is my slave boy today. It's noon and so far he has cleaned 2 bathrooms, started a load of laundry, whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and is now out in the backyard raking and killing weeds. I have not yet decided what wonders await him after lunch.

What, you may ask, did Peter do to deserve this? Let me tell you......

Yesterday morning as Peter sat in his Geometry class he grew restless. Class was only half over, he was bored, he was hot, he was thirsty. (He could have been doing his classwork, but what's the fun in that?)

Peter decided that he needed some fresh air. So, without asking anyone, or saying anything, he just stood up and walked out of class. Now, if you've been in a high school recently, you'll know that there really isn't much fresh air in the hallways. So, Peter not only left class, he left the building. He was going to go right back in. He was sure he wouldn't be missed. Unfortunately for Peter, the door locked behind him and he was now locked out of the school. This meant that he had to walk all the way around the school and come back in the front door.

When you come in the front door of his school, it leads you directly to the Front Office so that people can check in when they are late to school. So, Peter walks in to the Front Office and the lady behind the desk asks him what he's doing. He explained to her that he had just left class for a minute. He just needed some fresh air. She was not very understanding. And neither was his Geometry teacher when the lady called him to tell him that Peter was now in the office. (He thought that Peter had just gone to the restroom, and would be right back.)

Which is why I got a phone call from an Assistant Administrator yesterday morning telling me that Peter would be suspended today for: skipping class, disrupting class, and leaving the building without permission.

And that's how I got my Slave-for-a-Day.

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom Not My Own....

I originally read this in an Atlanta newspaper in 1998. I've kept it and made copies through the years (in case I lose the original!) I didn't know who the author was until today.

Her name is Oriah Mountain Dreamer, though that is not the name she was born with. Apparently, she has now written a book to go with this prose-poem. You can read more about her here.

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for

and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool

for love, for your dream,

for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow,

if you have been opened by life’s betrayals

or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own,

without moving to hide it, or fade it, or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own,

if you can dance with wildness,

and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic,

to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another

to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal

and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty

even when it is not pretty every day.

And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure,

yours and mine, and still stand at the edge of the lake

and shout to the silver of the full moon,“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live,

or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up

after the night of grief and despair,

weary and bruised to the bone,

and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know,

or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself

and if you truly like the company

you keep in the empty moments.

--Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Mothers I have Loved.....

I've been thinking about Mother's Day this week. Thinking about how much I miss my mother...(who has been gone for 31 years now.) Thinking about myself as a mother, my daughter as a mother, and other mothers who have touch my life...

So Happy Mother's Day to those gone on ahead and those still here:

To my mother: Thanks for the memories.......the Sunday dinners, the family gatherings, the bedtime stories, the Christmas mornings, the movies we saw together, the endless miles of driving, the nurturing, the spoiling, the example, the love. I miss you, Mom.

To my Grandma Patch: Thank you for listening to the missionaries, and bringing the Gospel into our lives, for raising my Father to be such a hard-working, righteous, kind and loving man, for spending so many Christmases with us in Minnesota, for the life stories and the poems you left us, for the lessons of hard-work and perseverance, of getting up when life knocks you down and moving forward in faith. I miss you, Grandma.

To my Grandma Strom: Thank you for being there during my growing up years. For your toughness and resilience. For your courage to come to a strange new land and leave behind everything you'd ever known to start anew. For your no-nonsense approach to life and your example of working hard and playing hard. For your love. I miss you, Grandma.

To my daughter, Eleanor: Thank you for making me a grandmother. For bringing those two sweet boys into our family. Thank you for raising them to be responsible and brilliant and loving. I love you, Eleanor.

To my mother-in-law, Mitzi: Thanks for raising a wonderful son. For being a wonderful grandmother to my children. Thank you for your love and energy and willingness to help. Thanks for your example to my children of service to the Lord. We miss you, Mitzi.

To Lois: Lois is not my mother, but the mother of my best friend growing up. Lois was and remains my 'other mother'. Considering the amount of time I spent at their home growing up, she had a great hand in raising me and instilling certain values in my life. Thanks, Lois, for putting up with me, for loving me in spite of my short-comings. For your sharing, and caring, your endless patience and understanding, your unconditional love. I love you, and wish we lived closer so we could visit more often. I hope you have a great Mother's Day!

This list could go on and on, as there as endless women who have influenced my life by their actions and examples. So, to all the women in my life:

Happy Mother's Day!!

Desire vs. Reality......

I discovered (long ago) that wanting something does not equal having something. Wanting your children to get along will not make it so. Wanting a job will not get you hired. Wanting to be good at something will not mean that you will be good at something.

For instance, I want very much to be 'crafty'. I want to cross-stitch and quilt and sew. I want people to come into my cozy home and exclaim "Oh, did you make that?!" and be able to glance humbly at the wall-hanging, or quilt, or tapestry and say "Oh, that? It was nothing."

I want to be an amazing photographer. Oh, I've taken some good pictures in my lifetime, but I want to take the kind that people will pay hundreds of dollars for and be amazed at how I captured the light or the mood or the expression on a child's face.

I want to scrapbook. I want each of my children to have an amazing book (or several) to look at and remember all the fun times they had growing up. The vacations, the school plays, the Christmas mornings. It's not going to happen.

I also want very much to be able to play a musical instrument. I'm thinking maybe the piano....or the guitar....or maybe the drums. (Rock Band on the Wii is giving me a false sense of hope for my budding musical aspirations.)

Unfortunately, simply wanting these things will not make them happen. Procrastination is my constant companion. I am forever considering projects, dreaming of projects, even starting projects....but they never get finished.

I give you exhibit A: I started this project when I was a Beehive in MIA. MIA stood for Mutual Improvement Association. It was the youth group at my church consisting of the boys and girls between 12 an 18. The Beehives were the 12-13 year old girls. (This organization still exists today, but it's simply called 'Mutual' now) This means that I started this project sometime around 1970. I take it out every once in a while, and think how nice it will look when it's framed and hanging in a place of honor in my home.....then I pack it back up again for another 5-10 years. But I never give up hope. I still believe that 'someday' I will finish it.

Exhibit B:

Here is my quilt project. I bought this 'quilt-block-of-the-month' kit back in 1997. I was convinced that I would find time to do just one block a month! I actually started the first block, but the pieces didn't line up the way I wanted them to (ie: perfectly) so I packed it up again. It's also on the 'someday' list.

As far as the scrapbooking goes, well, let's just say it's on the back burner. When Mary was about 5 (she just turned 21) she came to me asking where she was in the scant photo albums that I had patched together. I told her that she wasn't in there because those pictures were taken before she was born. (At the time I had 6 children under 10, I barely had time to shower in those days!) She gave me her most horrified expression and replied: "You took pictures before I was born!!" I ended up buying her a 4 X 6 photo album at the dollar store, handing her a shoebox full of pictures and telling her to make her own photo book. (a testament to the fabulous mother that I am!) She did make her own, and still has it today and continues to add pictures. Maybe I should just get her the rest of the supplies and put her to work!!

I could go on and on, but it seems that blogs are about the only things that I have learned how to finish!

Wednesday's Words of Wisdom Not My Own.....

You can't

build

a reputation

on what

you are

going to do.

--Henry Ford

Delete.....

I deleted someone from my life the other day......to be honest, I deleted several someones. The relationships just weren't working for my anymore.

When I first got into 'blogging', I was on a roll. I went skipping from blog to blog looking for something interesting. I would read the blog of a friend, then the blogs belonging to friends-of-that-friend. I was insatiable. I collected blogs of interest: cooking blogs, quilting blogs, preparedness blogs, crafts-for-kids blogs.....well, you get the idea. I was a blog-a-holic. I even blogged about my budding blog addiction here.

I realized that I had a problem when I had to check my blog list every day. I would get mad at the kids for wanting to get on the computer, wanting dinner, wanting to be driven to school. Selfish children.....couldn't I have a few minutes peace to check my blogs!! I was spending more than 30 minutes of my time every day checking the blogs of people I don't even know!!

Granted, I do feel like some of these people have become my friends. I comment on their blogs, they comment on mine. We're friends on Facebook now, and even e-mail once in a while. But many of the blogs I read, too many, were just time wasters. I realized that with all the millions of blogs out there, no matter how interesting and informative they may be, they were still just time wasters.

So, it was time for them to go. Most of them, I couldn't remember why I started reading them in the first place. They'll never know they've been deleted from my life. There will be no hurt feelings. I've kept the ones that I find most interesting, and the ones where I feel like we've developed a friendship. But the list is much shorter now.

If only it were that easy in the real world. Delete the relationships that don't work (with no hurt feelings!) Free ourselves of obligatory relationships. And only keep the ones that bring us joy.

I feel better having cleaned out my blog list. And maybe now, my kids will get to school on time!

(No.....this is NOT about you....I love you, and hope that we are friends forever!!)

Happy May Day! (not MAYDAY!!)

May Day. Not to be confused with MAYDAY!! It is NOT a cry for help or a signal of distress. Simply a celebration of May. It used to have more historical significance....and if you really care you may read up on it here, but I sincerely doubt you'll bother.

May 1st. May Day. How many of you remember, or ever celebrated May Day? For those of you younger than me, May Day is May 1st. It is generally celebrated by dancing around the Maypole and hanging May Baskets on people's doorknobs. When I was small, I remember making little baskets and filling them with flowers or notes, then doing the ding-dong-ditch to my neighbors and surprising them with May Day greetings.

Growing up in Minnesota, May Day was also a sort of end-of-winter celebration as well. We were usually done with snow by May 1st. Spring had sprung and we were ready for the flowers to bloom and the temperature to finally make it's way above 40. May in Minnesota is a re-birth.

Having lived in the South for over 20 years now, I'd forgotten. Spring comes early in the South and stays late! By the time May rolls around, the Dogwoods are done blooming, people have gardens planted and producing, and that one day of snow we had in January or February is long forgotten.

I think I appreciated May more when I lived in Minnesota. May was a hint....a promise of the brief summer season that was fast approaching. It was the promise of June, the freedom from school for a season and chasing fireflies in the early evening. The promise of a never-ending July of fireworks and swimming and fishing at the lake house. The promise of August. Family vacations and camping out under the stars. A time for making memories.

So, Happy May Day!! I hope all your dreams of summer come true. Now go hang a May Basket on someone's door and make their day!!