I'm shredding

for years the summer sun's dreaded burn has been avoided in our household by slathering ourselves and our children, and demanding they follow suit when they arrived at the age of conscience.  you would think that i would be 1. smart enough to know better and 2. risen above such rebellious attitudes that have plagued me since my younger years. 

but i am sad to say (confess) my rebellious attitude continues to cause me to struggle.  sometimes it wins and but it does not make me smarter, as a matter of fact it hinders the application of my aptitude and hence i do have a sun burn.  through the week i refused to complain about the pain, you know it is my burn and i will be the one to pay the price, don't nag me attitude.  and for the most part, except for the hugs that i had to turn away, i dealt with it fairly well.  until today.  aiiiieeeee carumba!!!!!  i itch.  and if i rub, the little blisters break.  and after they break they peel.  and its ugly!  like old lady skin peeling is very very unattractive!!!  maybe i should just go drag myself on the lawn and get it over with.  at this rate i will be peeling for a month of sundays.

dont burn yourselves....use sunscreen....if for no other reason you don't end up with peeling old lady skin someday.

It Was Never Promised to Be Easy

"Lutherans deciding on new role allowing gay ordained clergy" http://churchexecutive.com/article.asp?IndexID=1252

This is an article written by a Mr. Robert Keener, based upon an interview he did with Walt Kallestad, Pastor of Community Church of Joy in Glendale, AZ.  If you have the time take a look at the article.  Pastor Kallestad says some mighty truths that should be considered by each and every one of us, every Christian, regardless of denomination.

Tolerance, intolerance.  (see comments to my last post)  Obedience, disobedience.

It's pretty clearly stated here in this article.  Although this article addresses homosexuality, the issue extends way beyond it.  Just thought I'd share.

painful alienation

you know that question that is included on oh so many personality quizzes that goes, "when you walk into a room you a.) meet and greet everyone you see, b.) shrink to the back of the room and wait for "them" to come to you?  well for the most  part, i am a shrinker.  i am only a meeter/greeter now days because i know there are oh so many others like me that are shrinkers and i guess i am trying to alleviate their pain.  i know that pain and how disabling it can be.

i remember literally hanging on to my mother's skirt tale, squeezing behind her as tight as i could in order not to be seen by the person(s) she was talking to.  and Lord forbid if that person would lean around her to pursue a conversation with me, whether it was because they thought i was cute or just plain felt sorry for me because i was a dork.  oh and if you thought i was bad, oh, oh, oh, my middle brother was 10 times worse.

shyness.  how many years did it plague me?  you?  are you shy?  have you grown out of it?  just thinking about the ailment gives me a queasy feeling in my gut.  but the reason i am thinking about it is that i have been watching the kids go into to the meeting hall each morning ~ they are sooooo excited to be there.  they just run in and hook up with their new buds and whiz through the rest of  the day.  i do not recall my kids hiding behind my skirt-tail.  nor do i see kids 'today' hanging on their mom's.  could it be this "self esteem training" that we have been indoctrinated with the last 30 years has changed our approach?  could it be we, as a social group, have in fact changed and actually do a better job of accepting others, others feel more accepted?  hard to believe that but i think it just might be the case.  a change for the good, i might add.

just another point to ponder.  have a good day.

g

VBS and wonders

Ahhhhhh   VBS.  Day 1 was quite interesting to say the least.  In the end we had 317 childrens in class.  Thats a lot of kids.  And come noon, when I finally got away from the registration tables, I informed them all ~ i don't believe i really "like" kids.  not even my own.  LOL.  they are all wiggle worms, full of life and energy, and questions.  and they get lost when you're not looking.  but...i got a new tee-shirt out of the deal.  which laid lightly upon my sunburned shoulders and neck.  "Where did you get a sun burn?" you ask.  we went to the beach Sunday after the No Piru verdict.  it was a lovely day to be at the beach.  sat there and told stories of wave jumping and body surfing when we were kids.  ocean water is just plain yucky tasting.  

so there was a little boy in the kindergarten or first grade class yesterday.  he was new, but very much involved in all the activities,,,,,coloring, crafting, bible-story, the whole thing.  at the end when they were getting revved up singing in between songs, he yells, "Hey, who IS Jesus???"

Does that not define the very essence of VBS?  Mom's all over town dropping their kids off at every VBS through the summer ~ kind of free babysitting ~  but see, He works ~ He is always working!!!!!  I am sure this little boy is going to find the best friend he has ever had by the end of this week.  how cool is that!!!!

and so it goes

ya know.....i hate walmart.  well i dont hate it, okay, but i go there on very very rare occasions.  and since we dont have super-walmarts here i cant go there even to buy steak.  however, we are to get two superop-walmarts in the near future and each of them about 2.5 miles from my house.  one to the east, one to west.  i am hoping all those who stand in the aisle stay in the east and i have heard of people  actually petitioning to make sure they dont show up in the west.  anyways costco moved into my neighborhood about two years ago.  it is literally down the street and around the corner.  i can even walk there if i want but you know that aint gonna happen.  so i drive to costco to buy milk.  i can get two gallons of milk for about 3 bucks and that is about a buck cheaper than in the real stores.  remember i dont do albertsons either.  although their new add claims they have lowered of 20,000 prices.  yeah right.  even if the lowered them 50% they would still be robbin' ya blind.  i didnt really want to or need to do real grocery shopping today.  it is very hot outside.  but we needed milk.  so i got took a bath, let my hair stay wet, put on some clean clothes and hopped into my automotive convection oven and drove over a couple of blocks for milk.  then i spotted the blueberries.  i love blueberries and costco has them for about 1/2 of what they cost in the real stores.  two pound containers mind you.....  oh yes and add to the basket the rainier cherries.  ooooolala they are sooooo good.  expensive but sooooo good.  better than bings by far.  i head over to the checkout area and spot the self-checkouts which are pretty empty and fall in behind a guy that was just finishing up.  two or three people get in line behind me befor they notice that the register next to us is open.  everybody insists i go to that register, but because it i was in no hurry to get out of the store i let them go first and i stayed in my line.  although it is not as cool in the stores as it used to be it was a heck of a lot cooler than going back out into the heat.  the guy ahead of me gets done and i walk up to the scanner, scan my card, scan my bananas, scan my cherries, walk to the back of my cart and pick up my blueberries.  when i did, i guess i squeezed the container in the wrong place and as i ran it across the scanner and onto the belt, the container blew open and the blueberries blew out.  probably 500 little blueberries skipping down the conveyor belt.  it was an 'oh crap' moment added to an 'is anybody looking?' moment.  the guy with the four kids that went over to the other register came over to help me.  he was scooping them little berries faster than they could move only he didnt have anything to put them in.  when i finally got the clerk's attention, he had a huge handful of berries i think he would have shoved into his pockets to get rid of if we hadnt arrived with a box when we did.  i am still laughing over it all.  and then he even wished me a good day.  wasnt that nice?  would never have happened at walmart.  they would wiped them onto the floor to be smashed into oblivion by the little feet doing cultural dances in the aisle.  the clerk even tried to send the guy's son back to get me a new box of blueberries until i told her the kid wasn't mine.  she called him a little gentleman for being so nice to help.  

although it didnt make it any cooler outside, it did make my day that much nicer.

now it is nap time.

Incidentals

incidentals.  what does that mean to you?   to me, it means things like undies.  things you can't do without, but not necessarily big-ticket items.  does it still mean the same thing?  then there are accidentals.  thats a musical term for a flat, sharp, or natural played in the middle of what ever key you are currently in....which boggles my mind, why don't they just mark it all one way and then no one will have any accident(al)s.  i really should have been born 2 thousand years ago and i could have given this idea to many of the composers as they rose to fame.   but, i wasn't so i will go on analyzing the absurdities of life.  like....splain this one to me.  is it really really necessary to stand in the middle of the store aisles with all your families and friends and give a blank look of confusion when someone pushes your cart and says, 'excuse me' a million times to get by?  that, i believe is a cultural thing, i truly am curious as to its origins.  or how about the kid who, when released from his mother's arms, walks up to the kid ahead of them in line, and BITES him in the chest.  where do they get off doing things like that?  only to have mom say "no, no."  what is up with that?  don't they have animal training for that?   what was that red-furred character on sesame street, not the one that laughs..uh elmo....not elmo...the one that kind of growls and makes noise.  Animal!!! yes yes of course that was his name.  reminds me of this kid.  gaaaaaraaarghhhhh.   lol

okay i gotta go.  i need more time to ponder.

It's a Hummer

fill in the blanks

my ______ tis of thee

sweet land of _____

of thee i sing

land where my _____ died

land of the pilgrims _______

______ every mountainside

let f______ ring.

there...now it will be in your head all day