Category: Life-condensed

Thanks baby.

I love you, too.

Say it with me:

I will not live my life in fear. I will not allow current events to take over my life. I will not allow the media to scare me into submission.

I will trust God. I will be proactive. I will stay positive and embrace life, even when everyone around me tries to convince me otherwise.

It always amazes me how easily people allow fear to rule their lives. And that fear grows and manifests itself into full-blown panic and before long, people are buying what the media tells them, lock-stock-and-lie. They’re doing what the media suggests they do and shutting themselves off from the rest of the world because they are too fearful to step outside anymore.

It’s mass hysteria and I simply don’t understand it.

The world has been, and will always be (until Christ comes back) a scary and chaotic place – and that’s exactly how the Devil likes it.

A few years ago, it was the West Nile virus. And wasn’t last year the bird flu? This year, it’s the swine flu. Next year, it will be something else. And every year thereafter, some new and terribly dreadful disease (or dark looming event) will be scaring us into acting like timid rabbits.

Look. I’m not saying we should shrug off these scary things, or discount them, or even ignore them, I’m simply saying, stop, breathe and step back from the media frenzy and crazy rumors and look at the situation logically and rationally.

Stop. Breathe. Think. Fear is a powerful emotion and it manipulates people into doing, and saying, all sorts of crazy things. Dealing with problems, or in this case diseases, requires rational thinking and confident actions – not mass hysteria and crazy predictions.

We’re a pretty healthy family. In fact, it’s safe to say, we haven’t had so much as a sniffle, any of us, in over a year. (Of course now that I said that …)

Here are some things that we do to stay healthy – maybe it will help you to stay healthy as well:

1. Boil your toothbrushes once a week. (Don’t keep the toothbrushes in the water for too long though, or they will melt. I usually just swish them around for about ten or fifteen seconds).

2. Vacuum often. (And this includes the blinds, ceiling fans, and anything else that catches dust).

3. Drink lots of juice (specifically, orange juice.)

4. Stay away from soda and too much caffeine. (Caffeine breaks down your immune system – drink lots of water).

5. Get lots of sleep. Seriously. It’s important.

6. Cough and sneeze into the crook of your arm.

7. Wash your hands. A lot. (Parents, make sure the kids wash their hands after school – school is TEEMING with germs).

8. Use nose spray. (It cleans out your sinuses – but use in moderation).

9. Take a Zicam at the first sign of illness (scratchy throat, etc).

10. Take a big swallow of something hot and burn the back of your throat. (No really, this isn’t a joke. The heat will kill any lingering bacteria).

11. Wash your pillows every few weeks.

12. Stop thinking about becoming sick. (You’d be surprised how powerful the mind is).

This stuff? Works for us. Like I said, none of us have been sick, truly sick as in bed-ridden, in quite some time.

And I plan on keeping it that way.

I will tell you what I tell the boys all the time: Relax. All we can do is deal with it.

Time is valuable.

My time is valuable.

At least, that’s what I tell you.

And that’s what I tell myself.

And yet, here I am, wasting time by clicking around on the Internet. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this pie chart I made:

Now granted, this is not based on scientific evidence. This is based on my own evaluation of how much time I think I devote to these areas of my life.

And I must be honest. I’m not happy with the results.

Just look at all that red.

Red is my least favorite color.

Something must be done with the amount of time I spend maintaining/writing/thinking about my blog.

Seriously.

Starting today.

Starting right now …

___________________________

The weather in Springfield on Saturday was gorgeous – sunny and nearly 70.

Unfortunately, it was also really windy (we ended up having 40 degree weather Sunday and today? I don’t think it’s supposed to get above 35 – Grr … Ozark weather is a pain).

So GD and Kevin took advantage of the nice day and shined up GD’s car.

Kevin waxed it (using one of those nifty buffer thingies that sort of scare me – can you imagine getting your hair caught in one of those things??)

(By the way, see that hole in the wall in front of the car? Yeah, Kevin did that. He drove in too fast with his truck one day and nearly knocked our wall down. Guess what’s next on his to-do list?)

GD worked on cleaning the tires and wheels.

The end result? *kiss* Magnifico.

Wait. What’s up with GD’s gangsta hat?! You can’t see his handsome face. Hold on …

Ah, there’s my guys. And may I just say? I can’t believe GD is now taller than both of us. The kid’s only 16 – I’m sure he’s not done growing yet!

Kevin was so enamored with the car’s mirror shine, that he then took this picture:

Pretty cool, right?

I’m beginning to think Kevin is a little too attached to this car. I’ll have to tell GD to hide the keys from him. 🙂

Well, this is a surreal image.

This is the music store we bought MK’s saxophone, the day before this woman drove headlong into the building.

In fact, we were there at the time of day this lady had her accident. If we had waited just one more day to buy his sax, we’d likely be kissing her grill right about now.

Apparently, this woman had a seizure and lost control. I have no idea about the second car in the picture but I’m assuming it was parked in front of the store and she pushed it into the store front.

She must have been hauling @$$ to have that much momentum to push not only her, but the parked car, into a concrete building.

This is the second time someone has had a seizure and rammed their vehicle into a business in the past three months in these parts.

Question: WHY are people who are susceptible to seizures even permitted to have a driver’s license to begin with?

Thank God no one was hurt (other than the lady who caused the accident, but I don’t think she was even seriously injured). This could have been so much worse.

One of my nieces works at this store. Again, thank God, she wasn’t on the clock when this happened.

Freaky stuff like this really makes you pause and appreciate life, doesn’t it?

UPDATED: I just found out, from family, that this woman was traveling around 70 mph when she hit the parked car, and then pushed it into the building. There was an employee sitting at the front desk when it happened and narrowly missed being squished. This poor woman crossed TWO busy intersections, mid-day, before hitting the music store. It really is a miracle she wasn’t killed, or killed someone else.

This story reminds me of a lady I used to work with. Her 19-year old daughter had a history of sporadic, unexplained seizures. And then suddenly, they stopped. She didn’t have one for one year and was on the verge of passing her driver’s test when she had another one.

From that point on, she was insistent on never getting her driver’s license. For even though her seizures were unexplained and she would go through periods of time when she didn’t have any, she didn’t want to take the chance of having one while she was driving and possibly injuring, or even killing anyone. She said she simply couldn’t live with herself if that happened.

I thought that was incredibly brave and mature of her and I respected her even more for her decision not to drive – ever.

Tell me this doesn’t inspire you …

I have a special interest in high school marching bands because MK will be one of these awesome kids next year. I can’t wait!

So, I’m minding my own business, listening to the radio in my car and driving the kids home from school yesterday when I hear a little sound come from my purse. It’s a cross between a tinkle and a chime and I’ve only heard it a few times.

The sound reminds me of the stuff fairies spread around when they’re trying to be all magical and mysterious – you know, fairy dust.

My boys have heard it, as well as the boy I drive home from school every day, and I sort of grimace an apology in the rear-view mirror and wait until I’ve come to a complete stop at a stop light (because I’m responsible like that, especially when I have three very impressionable teenage boys who are watching my every move in the car with me) to dig my cell phone out of my purse.

There was a curious little thought bubble with various letters haphazardly scattered within the structure and flashing on the screen.

I had a text message.

Curious, I navigated to the note and began reading.

It was a DM (which means a direct message in Twitter talk – you can set up direct messages so that you get them on your cell phone) to a Twitter I posted earlier. A well-known blogger responded to my comments; how nice that she took the time to respond privately to me!

A gamut of emotions ran through me as I read that text message: disbelief, excitement, awe, embarrassment and … discomfort. It was a little bit disconcerting to face my online persona in real life. It’s one thing to “be” someone online, it’s quite another when that person steps over the cyber boundaries and stares you in the face.

I wouldn’t say I disliked the fact that someone from my online world had contacted me in real life, in fact, I’d say it was pretty exciting, but the experience gave me pause. It’s so easy to be this … person online. It’s easier for me to share my thoughts and feelings online because I don’t have the (dis)advantage of instant feedback via facial expressions or responses. I can voice my thoughts online and then simply walk away – chances are, I’ve forgotten what I wrote by the time I get back on my computer. I’m not a person who sits and dwells on things – I’m the epitome of the saying, “out of sight, out of mind.”

So, to have something I said come back and tap me on the shoulder in real life is … strange. But exciting at the same time. It also reinforces the need to be careful about what I say and who I say it to because with today’s technologies, it’s very easy to transcend the boundaries of reality and shove it back into my face.

Writing online is such a delicate balance of honesty and discretion. It’s important to have an opinion, but it’s equally important to have a tactful opinion. There really is an art to communicating with one another. I’m not saying I’ve mastered that art, but I like to think I’ve picked up a thing or two from my years of being online.

And one of the lessons I learned today? Be careful what you Tweet. 🙂