Hanging Low

I love it when I can sit down at the computer and type out my thoughts in a somewhat pleasing fashion. Unfortunately, today will not be one of those days.

I have been really fortunate the last couple of months not to have gotten sick. Well, the sickie bug has finally caught up to me. My digestive system seems to have developed a mind of its own today. Lots of fun.

Just wanted to take a moment to say...I'm alive....only I'm hibernating today.

Silly Bloom

Why am I always amazed about things growing during winter here in Oregon? Don't those silly plants realize that it is January? The dead of winter? A time to stop...rest...recharge your energy for a glorious spring?

Apparently not.

One of my least favorite yard keeping duties is weeding. I have yet to find anything that really makes that a delightful experience. I have been noticing lately that all my flower beds have this subtle (in some places not so subtle) shade of green about them. No...it isn't early spring flowers making their way through the dark soil. It isn't even some lovely evergreen plant of some sort. It is weeds. Gloriously, hideous weeds. Darn things.

This is definitely not weed pulling weather, in my opinion. It is cold, wet....and did I mention that it is wet and cold? I have no desire to sit out there and clean up all those weeds. Yet, to look at those weeds every day drives me just about batty. I even laid out some Preen, a couple of times, this fall in the hopes of keeping them at bay. So...I try...when it isn't too miserable out there...to pull at least 10 weeds a day. Slow going, I might add. Very slow.

This morning, as I was taking a couple of items out to the recycle bin, I noticed this one, solitary, bright pink bloom on my azalea right outside my door. I usually enjoy my azalea. When it blooms. It has just about gotten its death sentence because I want to redo where it is at....and it hasn't been blooming very well the last couple of years. So...here it is, in the beginning of January...when most things should be dormant....that silly azalea spouting off one little bloom.

I can't help but wonder if that is the only bloom for that azalea. What will happen when Spring actually does arrive and other things start blooming? Will it lay quiet? If one bloom is all I am going to get....in the dark days of January when I am hiding away under my fleece blankets....then that silly azalea may just meet its end.

For the mean time, though, I think I will just try to remember to notice that little tiny bloom whenever I walk out the door. When I take the time to notice it, it puts a smile on my face. The bloom isn't even in a very noticeable place. It must have been trying to keep it a secret.

Silly bloom.

In Loving Memory

I'm a day late....but my thoughts were there yesterday. I miss him so much.

Wayne Piersall
July 11, 1926---January 5, 2007



I love you, Gramps!

Sins of the Mother

Daria and I had an interesting discussion last night about her soccer game. She took the loss of her last game pretty hard. She had a hard time looking past that one mistake to see the truth of how well she really did play all day. We had to do some praying about that last night....had to ask Jesus to help her see the truth. After a laugh about wanting to rip the heads off the other team, she really began to see the truth.

Today, as I was practicing my horn for playing on Sunday, I found myself doing exactly what my daughter did. I couldn't see past my little mistakes here and there to see how well I was doing the majority of the time. Hmmmm. I hate seeing my nastiness coming out in my children.

I see my nastiness coming out in my son, too. He can really be a little pill when things aren't going his way. He will push and whine until you want to just scream your fool head off. Hmmmm. I tend to whine and complain, too.....probably too much. Why can't my kids just pick up on my good traits....instead of throwing my icky ones back in my face? Ugh. Guess it just shows me how much I need to work on being a better Mom.

For fun...here are some pictures the coach sent over from yesterdays turney.

Here is Daria in action. Her face is kind of odd....but for some reason...I see myself in her face.




This next one shows the one way that Daria reveals her nerves. She chews her nails. I noticed today that her nails are pretty short!!! Her coach is explaining the shoot-out to the girls.

This pictures shows the true agony of the moment. I loved seeing all their crossed fingers!!! Based on the jersey of the girl on the far right....this is the shoot out for the game that we won. The one where Daria really smacked home a block!!

And here they are: The Sherwood Rockers!!

Thankful Thursday....Soccer Style!!

Today's Thankfulness has to be a little different today. There is just no other way about it. Daria had a soccer tournament today....and I'm still riding high. So...what to do? Do I not do a Thankful Thursday? Do I do two posts today...one thankful Thursday...and the other soccer stuff? Well...I just decided to combine the two. Could be interesting.

There are not enough descriptive words available to describe how proud I am of my girlie-bird today. I am so sorry that her daddy missed her games today, because they were awesome. She was awesome. She really stepped up to the plate today; and, I don't think that I have ever seen her play better soccer than she did today. What a day!

• Today, I am thankful for a coach who is skilled...as well as encouraging. Daria's coach has really been good for Daria. He has excellent skills...but he also seems to reach the girls and encourage them. Even though they haven't been able to practice much, the team is doing so well and I have really seen Daria improve in her skills. She really showed it today!

• I am thankful for her teammates' parents who spoke words of praise about Daria today after their games. Daria really did shine today. I was so proud that I cried.
  

• I am thankful that my daughter doesn't seem to crumble under stress. Me, on the other hand, I was a puddle in the stands. She handled herself with confidence and grace. How fun to see her growing and maturing in her abilities and self confidence.
  

How do I begin to describe how these games went? Daria's team came in second....could have been...should have been....first. But, what a well earned Second place it was! In the words of her coach, "It doesn't get better than that!" Those girls played their hearts out and they should have won.

The first game of the day, Daria's team got romped. The other team was just running circles around them. Pitiful. Daria was in tears after the game. I thought it was because they had lost, but apparently she got kicked in the stomach while playing goalie. After a trip to Dutch Bros., she was ready for action.

The second game, they really romped the team that they played. I was glad to see them get a win in because they were so discouraged. That win really seemed to light their fires. The third game, the teams were pretty well matched. Those are fun games to watch. Can be stressful at times....but a lot of fun. The game ended in a tie....and it went to a shoot out.

Talk about a Soccer Mom's nightmare. It is a 5 second one-on-one situation. Hard to describe. The kicker has 5 seconds to try and score on the goalie. Daria, of course, was goalie. I was The Basketcase. Daria did so good! The first round neither team scored. The second round....our team scored...and then Daria totally denied the other team's attempt. I think I just about collapsed!! What a way to win!!! Yee-haw!!

That win put them into playing for first place. Daria's team was only suppose to play for third...but a Newberg team got disqualified for having 3 girls who were 10 years old. That team was incredible. Oh my!! Anyway...back to the story. The game for first place was now against the team that romped Daria's team earlier in the day. I was so bummed. I wanted them to have a fighting chance!!

The girls totally amazed me....all the other parents....themselves...and their coach. They fought so hard. The other team was definitely dominating...because we were pretty much always on the defense. But...wow...our team did soooo good. They held them completely scoreless for the entire 22 minutes of play. The bad thing...it went into another shoot out. I wasn't sure that I could handle the stress!! My throat was so sore from yelling that I couldn't hardly encourage Daria. Our first attempt at the shoot out---wasn't even close. I was so disappointed. Then it was the other team....against Daria. They scored. I didn't realize it was a sudden death shoot out. But, it was. So, Daria's team came in second. But, what a game!!

These words don't begin to describe how good Daria played. She was amazing. She had some incredible plays. I was so proud! (if you hadn't figured that out already!!) She was very discouraged that her team lost. She thought it was all because of her. I had to remind her that if our kicker had made her shot....it wouldn't have ended that way. She did so good. Her coach sent some encouraging emails after the game...and I think that really lifted her spirits. After I read her the last one...she gave me this great big hug.

I think she finally got it!!

To close, I thought I would share her coach's last email:

Words cannot put in place how proud I am, of how all the girls did
today. In an odd twist, they literally got better as the day went on.
They fine tuned, found their fires and would not be denied today, to
earn a very impressive second place. And even in the final game,
after playing 2 games in a row, forced the game into a shoot out!

It doesn't get any better than that.

Traditions

Yesterday, Tim was home for a full day. It seemed like a rare occurrence around here. He has been working a lot of hours lately. Try as hard as I can, sometimes it still bothers me as much as he works. When he works half a day on Saturday...and Sundays are spent half a day at church...it never seems like we have much time as a family. So, yesterday kind of felt "special." At the end of the day, though, we hadn't done anything special. It kind of felt like a waste. Thankfully we had dinner with some friends and that helped redeem the day for me.

As I stewed about the wasted day, I decided that we have to be deliberate about memories and traditions. I think it was mymom who once told me that whether you are deliberate about it or not, you are setting traditions. It all depends on what kind of traditions you want to establish. Do you have the tradition of doing nothing? Of working all the time? Or do you have the tradition of making family time..and doing fun things to create traditions?

So, I wrote on a piece of paper yesterday of things that I wanted/needed for 2008. One of them was to "Plan and Implement Traditions." I am hoping that Tim will either read my list, or read my blog and it will help us have a discussion about that. I figure that they don't have to be elaborate traditions. Even as simple as taking a walk up to the top of the hill at Magness Tree Farm on New Year's would suffice. I can imagine that we could have some funny memories of walking to the top of the hill in pouring rain...or slipping in the mud...or who knows? Maybe we can come up with some other ideas that would make fun traditions throughout the year.

I guess my thought is....I want my kids to want to come home when they are older and move out. Will their memories be sweet and draw them to come home and experience them again? Or will their memories be blah and so-so that wouldn't be worth the gas money to come home again? Will they want to bring their friends to hang out at our house because here there is fun? How do we do that? What steps do we take to get there?

Being deliberate. I think that is my new motto for the year. I think that was where I was headed in the thought about taking charge of the pen. I need to take charge of the pen that writes the history of my family. It doesn't seem to gain anything to just sit back and let life happen. Aim for the best...and see what happens. It may not be perfect....but it could sure make a funny memory later.

Guess I've got some more praying to do.

Opening The Year

Getting out from under the unbearable weight of the holidays has been a good thing for me. I must admit that I have been less than inspired lately. In my blog. In my housework. In my life. Being without inspiration can be a dark and lonely place. Where do you begin without inspiration? Where do you begin to clean up a mess? Where do you begin to make sense of the chaos? Where do you begin to even make a change for the better?

I said yesterday that I don't really do resolutions. I am sure that I am not the only one who starts the new year with these grandiose ideas only to see them fall to the wayside in just a few short weeks, days....maybe even hours. Yet, when you stand at the brink of a new year...with new possibilities...you can't help but think....FRESH START. There has to come a point in your life where you draw a line in the sand and say: "No more. Things need to change."

I am hoping that I am starting to draw that line today. I hit a brick wall. I looked at the complete and utter mess that was my house and I said...UGH. Things need to be different. I started in on my kids' room with a vengeance. Well....it really didn't start out with a vengeance. I went in originally just to put their beds back in order. I felt the need to have a small corner of order...somewhere...anywhere.

Yet, how do you stop at just the beds? Pretty soon I was filling bag after bag with....junk....and garbage. (How in the world did they collect so much junk??) Then, I started planning all the stuff that was going to be bagged up and donated....or bagged up and stored away for my future grandchildren (Lord willing!)...or stored away to be sold on Ebay in about 30 years for our retirement or a trip to Hawaii! (hmmmm...interesting thought!)

Then, I got down to the nitty gritty of it all. I went under the boys' beds. Oh. My. Word. There are not enough words in my vocabulary to describe the mess under there. I took the lid of a box and used it like a backhoe to drag all the paraphernalia out. When I was done, I just sat there in this mound of stuff. I think at that very moment, I began to draw the line. Things have got to change.

I began to see where I had allowed the weight of life to stop me in my tracks. Shoving things under the bed seemed easier than dealing with them at the moment. I'm not saying that I shoved all that junk under their beds...but isn't that how life is? Slowly, one little item at a time, we overfill our buckets. Soon they are overflowing, but we just shove the excess under the bed instead of getting rid of it. One little item at a time my kids slowly brought all that stuff in their rooms and it became a mountain.

Gotta move that mountain.

I've got a lot of hauling to do. I am a classic pack rat. I know that I am better than I was when I was Daria's age. (I won't even begin to tell you about Daria's room!) Yet, everything has a purpose...a possibility. You never know when you might need this or that. Oy...the logic of it all. I wish that I was superhuman and could tackle all that I want to tackle in my household. I am going to go through every cupboard, every closet, every drawer...and organize and purge. I can feel the weight lifting even mentioning it. If I can get the nerve up, I am going to ask my Organizing Fiend, I mean Friend, to come help me sometime. (Lord, help us.)

The line is going to be drawn in other areas of my life, too. I'm going to have to do a lot of praying over those other areas. My whole family is going to need a lot of prayer for these other areas, too. To succeed, we are going to have to draw the line together.

Well, it is late. As I ponder these thoughts in the dark of the night, I couldn't sleep. I had to lay all this stuff out so that I could rest. Opening a new year is like opening a new calendar....the days are yet to be written on. With that in mind, this year, I am hoping to take charge of the pen...and not let the pen take charge of me.

Good night.