I have started making smoothies for breakfast. I love it. One banana, milk and a smattering of frozen fruit. The other day, I saw that my bananas weren’t going to make it through to the next smoothy so I froze several just to not be wasteful. This morning, I used the frozen banana and WHAT? It makes the smoothy way smoother. It’s like having ice cream for breakfast. Try it. I’m telling you! It’s AWESOME!!!
Here are a few pictures of our Trek up the highest point in Maine. Mount Katahdin located in Baxter State Park which is in the wilderness of northern Maine. I will save the story of our ascent up the mountain for another post. However I hope you enjoy these few photos of Katahdin Stream Falls was about a mile into our journey. The first photo is the original and was taken quickly, due to me being in conquer the mountain mode. I didn’t take the time to set up my tripod, to get some good long exposure waterfall shots. The next two I had a little fun in Photoshop and created a watercolor and HDR photographs.
I hear the phrase “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” used in reference to humans alot. I just want to put it out there that we are not dogs. Humans are humans! Therefore, no matter how old we are we should be capable of learning new tricks.
My grandmother was gifted an iPad by her children (who I was amazed were using iPads themselves as they are in their 60’s and rather resistant to technology). At first she hated it. I just wasn’t working well for her. Touch screens take some getting used to and well, it’s not fun to get used to them. I, myself, was a little nervous about my first touch screen device.
However, after many months of just keeping at it (mostly because her grandson was on the computer so much), grandma got the hang of the iPad and now spends a significant amount of her time using it for the various functions it’s good for. She peruses Facebook, keeping up with her kids and grandkids and great-grandkids (no doubt reading this very post). She maintains a Netflix account and does online banking. (She also golfs almost daily.)
When she first started doing adult things like paying bills, she was writing personal checks and keeping accounts in a ledger. Now she’s using her iPad for all of that old stuff she used to do. She’s in her 80s. Now, I would never presume to call her old but I will say that she learned a new trick and I hope to stay that open minded. I want to always learn new tricks and never have it said of my that I’m an old dog.
I read a passage in the Bible the other day that said, “If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.” – 1 John 4:20
So my question to the world: Is the inverse true? If someone says they hate God (whatever the name they use for him or if they even believe in a higher being), but loves their brother, are they a liar? Is a person who doesn’t have any solid belief in a god but is kind and loving to their 
fellow man still going to go to heaven?
I think so. I think that as much as the God I believe in wants to have us include Him in our lives, if some human uses the idea of Him to hurt someone and that someone rejects that idea of God but continues on in life in a loving way toward their brother in humanity, they are a follower of the true deity in their heart.
What do you think? Do you have to have thoughts on this verse? Do you believe in a deity who is loving? Do you not believe in a loving deity and why? What are your thoughts on loving your brother?
Here in Small Town there are alot of Mormons. There seem to be missionaries everywhere! They are riding their bikes and walking and talking and well, we have a large Mormon population anyway but then there are the missionaries and we are saturated. Every 6 months or so, a new crop of missionaries will come in. Inevitably they will come to the house and strike up a conversation. They usually start with asking if they can do anything for us. For some reason, they always show up just around dinner time. I don’t know if my mom’s kitchen (which is huge) is a legend in the mormon world or if the scent of her homemade cakes wafts down the street to the ward only two blocks away but those Mormon’s know just when to come and knock. My mom can’t resist inviting a young person to eat. So in they come and then they come back and are invited in again and well… we aren’t Mormon so the success rate of their conversion attempts is clear. The usually leave a little bit fatter and we have yet another copy of the Book of Mormon.
Truth: I consider myself a churchy person. Why? Because all my friends are at my church. I love my church. I’m involved in my church and I regularly attend my church. However, I don’t feel the need to create baptized members of my church for the books.
Here we have our six year old with cowgirl boots and a fashionable dress. Her hair was braided by daddy!!! My hair skills are improving, but when mommy isn’t home!! Daddy has to do something!!!
You may see my husbands photos of the four year old’s fashion choices sometimes pop up.
(Today she is wearing white capri leggings, pink patent leather dress shoes and a tie dye t-shirt. If I wore that I’d be featured on the next “People of Walmart” video but somehow, she looks CUTE!) The other day she wanted to give me a pedicure. She pulled out all the colors and proceeded to do a bang up job of making my toes look like Revlon threw up all over them. She changed her mind about the color several times and never bothered to take off the previous choice before applying the new polish. Therefore, it was not only amazingly multicolored (not in a nice way), but also quite uneven and thick. It should also be mentioned that I wear flip flops all summer… even to work.
So I didn’t “fix” her pedicure.
She also mopped the kitchen floor the other day and I didn’t “fix” that either.
What I’m saying is, my child is good enough. I might suggest things to her like, “Maybe it would be a little easier if you held the paint brush like this,” or, “We need to mop here also because it is sticky from your juice.” But if it’s not perfect, I’m going to let that go and I’m not going to go behind her and fix it because then she will know that she wasn’t good enough. Mommy will always be better at it than her and she will always be in competition with me.
I don’t want to compete with my daughter for anything. I want her to rise above me and go beyond me and be better than me and be more than me. I want to lift her up and have her be comfortable in my presence and know that I am comfortable in hers. I want her to trust me and know that I trust her.
Therefore, my toes will stay crazy pink and weird green and everything mixed together.
What with the whole 4 funerals and a baby thing we’ve been dealing with this summer, I have spent alot of time in airports.. with my newborn… trying to be discrete about diaper changes and breastfeeding.
At one of my many layovers, I was sitting next to a lovely teen. When I say lovely, I mean, this girl was fashionable, naturally pretty, and had a very bubbly personality. She had never flown before and started to freak out when she couldn’t find her boarding pass. After assuring her she could simply walk up to the counter, show her ID and get a new pass, I gave her a few other bits of advice and then moved a few seats down when she got a phone call.
It was a small airport and no matter how much I tried to give her privacy to have her conversation, I couldn’t help but overhear her talking to her friend.
“Well, he didn’t ask me to come. I TOLD him I was coming. I know! If he wants to be like that I’m just going to have to tell him what I think! He’s my boyfriend and she’s not even there! I don’t know. My dad paid for the ticket but I mean, I’m going out there and I’m GOING to be there for 10 days so it BETTER go good.”
Hmmm…. I wanted to grab her and say, “I have a great show called ‘How to Lose a Guy in 1 Easy Step.’ Wanna star on the first episode?”
NO! DON’T GO! The relationship isn’t worth the cost of this plane ticket.
But I didn’t.
I don’t have advice that would be listened to and I don’t understand so I stayed out of it but… It was hard. I wanted to say to her, “You are worth so much more than that! Don’t be that girl. Dump him and move on to someone who will want you where ever they are! That’s a real relationship.”
But… she was a teenager.
Oh, the drama….
When I was single and working a limited amount of time and living in a place I knew very few people, I signed up under someone to be a part of a “relational marketing” group that sold product. I got the kit and promptly put it under my bed and never took it out to “market” to anyone. The main reason was that I never wanted to approach people about my product. How could I possibly know if that person had any interest in what I was selling if I was just sitting there with them at coffee and suddenly brought up my product and mentioned that I was also a salesperson for that product?
I also tried door to door sales for a year in high school and that was a bust.
I’ve never been good at that kind of marketing and I’ve never taken to kindly to being marketed to that way.
When someone calls me up and says, “Hey, I just wanted to talk.” I’m like, “Awesome! I missed you.”
Then they are like, “So I started this business and I want to tell you about it…”
And that’s when my heart sinks. Did this person really want to talk to me EVER? All future calls from them are under scrutiny. Are they trying to sell me something or get me to sign up?
The thing is, I understand the appeal of being a home based business because I’ve been a stay at home mom and I’ve needed income and not been able to find a job and I’ve just been there.
I’m not dogging the product or really the sales people. I think there is a way to approach this whole home based business thing that won’t alienate people. I also love Mary Kay (I already have a MK lady and we have a nice arrangement) and Pampered Chef products. (Don’t call me. I’ll call you.)
However, I have a store and people come to me when I have something they want because I’m in the Yellow Pages or on my website or whatever so I can sell like nobodies business because I know that people have come to me for the express reason of being sold to.
When I answer my phone seeing that it’s one of my friends, I’m answering the phone for the express reason of talking to my friend, not being sold something.
There has to be a way to put it out there that you are a home based business and then allowing people to come to you! I’m not sure what that is but you would think that with social media being what it is, we could accomplish that better.
How about you? Do you “do” the pyramid scheme? Do you “get” the home based business? Is there such a thing as “relational marketing?”
Recently I was reading Kylie’s blog and she wrote asking whether love at first sight existed.
The answer is no.
Like at first sight exists. Sex appeal at first sight exists. Attraction at first sight exists.
I remember reading a romance novel (Don’t do it. They are full of lies!). It proclaimed that the lovers had been together for years and heatwaves still engulfed the heroine every time she touched her hairy chested man.
Lies.
When I first met Andy, I wanted to kiss him. When his hand first touched mine, there was a shock that went through my body. But none of that was stuff that hadn’t happened before with other boyfriends.
Attraction is not a choice. Attraction is an instinct and those shock waves will subside like they do with every other relationship.
What makes my relationship with Andy unique from all the others is the CHOICE to love him. I choose everyday that I’m living with someone other than me in a manner that is not my instinct to LOVE him. To cherish him. Our LOVE is not shocking. It’s comfortable.
It’s him getting up in the morning and making coffee for me because he knows I can barely function without it. 
It’s me taking time out of my day to look at his photos every time he posts them. It’s him setting up the tent, doing all the camp work, and then taking down the tent all while I sit in the car with the kids because he knows I hate camping. It’s me tolerating camping. It’s him cleaning up the house when it’s not what he wants to do. It’s me not getting mad that our work and leisure hours rarely line up. It’s us snuggling in bed with three wiggly children together. It’s me ignoring hair in the sink, socks on the floor and food left out on the counter.
It is him sacrificing himself for me and me sacrificing myself for him. If I’m giving 100% and he’s giving 100%, we are both getting 100%. Love is not 50/50.
Love is a conscious choice. It’s not hard… at least it isn’t for me. But it is a choice every day because infatuation wears off and what is left can be tossed aside as you search for those fireworks again in a different relationship or you can stoke the embers of love (there is still hot and heavy every now and then, it’s just not the same) with choices to sacrifice yourself everyday.
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