Guilt, It's the New Black!

I have heard some messages lately from quite a few different sources. The messages are saying about the same thing: Americans are rich, spoiled and should be ashamed. Now, I do believe that we are the richest people in the world. Compare our poor to the World's poor and it doesn't even come close. We are very progressive and fortunate. Why do we have to feel guilty about it? Are we not also the most generous nation? (Yes, we are!!) Do we not have missionaries all over the world? (Yes, we do!) Do we not also have all sorts of relief groups, medical groups and charities that are all about helping the poor IN ADDITION to what our government does? (YES! YES!!)

So why then should I feel ashamed and embarrassed to be an American? I try very hard to be good steward of everything God blesses me with. I am a generous person as are most of the people I know. The people I know who have alot more money than I do are usually (of course, not ALWAYS) abundantly more generous than I am. I am proud of our country as a whole and I think we are very benevolent.

Now, to argue the other side, I see wastefulness all around me. I see things set out for the trash man that are in perfect shape-people just don't want it and are too lazy to find it a new home. I am appalled at the way food is wasted. I can recall a holiday pizza party given in one of my kid's classroom. Those children had already had lunch and there were all kinds of other snacks brought in to "celebrate". I did not see one child take more than a bite of pizza. The rest went into the trash and my heart ached at the waste of food and money. I see programs where food that is not used is just thrown away. I worked at fast food restaurants where there was a timer and once the food reached a certain "age", it had to be tossed. It was called "quality control" but as a poor college student working two jobs and supporting myself, I called it a tragedy. One maverick manager let us eat the 'old' food on a break because we were a very hard-working crew. We all knew she could lose her job over it but we respected her greatly. We were all poor and she knew it. It was the right call on her part, in my humble opinion.

America is a nation of excess. It is all around us. Do I feel guilty about it????? NO!! I think it is an opportunity to bless others. I also think people are beginning to wake up and realize the value of a dollar. I think we, as a nation, are well on our way to making better decisions about our food, our stuff and our money.

Guilt is an effective way to get people to change, but I personally prefer the "knowledge is power" approach. When people know better, they will do better. As people all around us are losing jobs and trimming the fat in their budgets, it is the time to be generous if you can. Don't feel guilty for having a good job or being blessed with wealth. Choose instead to be generous and thankful to be able to bless others.

Jesus Calling: A Review

"Ask My Spirit within you to order your day and control your thoughts, for the mind controlled by the Spirit is LIFE AND PEACE. You can have as much of Me and My Peace as you want through thousands of correct choices each day."

This is an excerpt from the daily devotions book entitled, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. This is an awesome devotional that is written from the voice of Jesus using scripture. Each page takes scripture and changes it into direct instructions as they might come from Jesus if he were speaking them. I love this book. Of course for the review, I read through the book without any thought to the dates at the top of the page. I can't wait to take each day's words for the day and meditate on them in prayer and quiet. It is a truly remarkable way to personalize scripture, which is God's plan for His Words and the words of Jesus.

I have read many such books as these and this is the first one that puts the Bible in such personal, instructional words. Of course, I don't believe Sarah Young can read the thoughts of Christ, but I do believe she has paraphrased the scripture in an accurate way. She also lists the scriptures she has used so you can use this as a tool to study your Bible and stretch your perceptions and beliefs. Stretching is such good exercise. ( ; I hope you enjoy this devotional book as much as I have. (And will continue to!)

I think God is happy when we spend time meditating on His word and His will for our lives every day. If this book allows you to do that in a more effective way, excellent. It has been doing that for me!

Sun-BURN

Ouch. I can't even believe it. We were sunscreen users today. To a fault. We were rubbing down with it way more than 20 minutes before we got into the sun AND we were careful to make sure we had full coverage. Yet still, here I sit like a lobster in places and a ghost in others. The contrast always makes me laugh. My girls all have a bit of the burn as well. Except Kayla who spent most of the day curled into a ball hiding under a towel. She also used more sunscreen than anyone else. I told her Edward isn't real AND...she said she was team Jacob anyway.

We fished mostly today and I was on cloud nine. I love fishing. Love love love it. I would love it even more if we could actually catch fish that you can eat but I make myself content to catch and release tiny bass, sunfish and bluegill. Erika caught something enormous today-we watched it thrash in the water. She was trying to reel it in and we were searching frantically for the net when the line snapped. Total fish caught-I don't remember but Erika, Lilly and I all caught fish and we were very happy. Kayla doesn't fish, tan or swim. We are debating whether or not she should attend boating outings. She basically just eats the snacks. (BOO HISS) I guess she does help us balance out the boat too.

It was a fun family day. Dad being off the day after a holiday is really cool. It has been a fun long weekend. Tomorrow is back to work for everyone. Now I am off to munch a salad I picked out of my garden. I am excited and a little scared.

PS...I found my camera cord!! Random pics for you!!

My little birdies. This is at the Audubon museum in Henderson, KY. My Great nephew, Noah. He is waving hello (or maybe trying to say Nanu-nanu, just look at that concentration!) and he has grown so much since this picture it makes my heart hurt.Lilly LOVES Noah and everything about him. Can you tell by the expression on her face??

Lilly and Dunker-our favorite local talk radio personality at our town's Tea Party 2009. The bumper sticker on that guy's back is also posted on my bulletin board. I LOVE IT! It says: "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Sigh. 'Tis the truth.

Me, Simple?

Okay I have decided to join Peggy and the other ladies who do this daybook. I love reading Mia's every week.

Outside my window...it is raining. Occasionally the clouds allow the sun to poke through, but mostly there is rain.

I am thinking...of how lucky I am in to be living in America. How proud I am of the veterans who have fought and died for our freedoms. I am disgusted by people who take those freedoms for granted and think America is a terrible place.

I am thankful for...my family. Especially my in-laws who like to feed us on holidays. We love spending time with them even on days they don't feed us. I feel bad for people who don't have wonderful in-laws. I am blessed.

From the learning rooms...One of my children learned that Pink and Pink Floyd are two different musicians. I can't stop chuckling about that.

From the kitchen...Tonight's supper will be LEFTOVERS, leftovers, leftovers. Momma is taking a holiday from cooking.

I am wearing...a purple tye-dye shirt I made with my girl scouts a hundred years ago, jean shorts and my brown $1 flip-flops from Old Navy.

I am creating...clean laundry today.

I am going...nowhere for the rest of the night unless there is some awful emergency.

I am reading...a book of devotions called Jesus Calling. I am loving it.

I am hoping...for a very productive week.

I am hearing...Lilly watching TV in my room and Erik watching the race in the living room.

Around the house...I should totally be painting Erika's room since I could be. I just don't wanna.

One of my favorite things...Daisy's powdery soft ears. She is such a good dog.

A few plans for the rest of the week:Tomorrow I get to escort my stepfather to the doctor for a check-up. A haircut on Wednesday. Taxicabbing the kids to their various stuff and school.

Here is picture thought I am sharing...My new favorite band. They even play jazz. So much talent for a three piece band. Plus, the drummer is HAWT!

SUN-day

NOT. It wasn't sunny today, not a bit. However, Erik's 4 biggest fans still loaded up to festivate with him. AND, the show went on despite torrential downpour that did at times, change into merely super soaking drizzle. Did we have fun? YES. We got to stand on stage and offer applause. Unlimited access to the greenroom-such a lovely perk. We spent $20 to support vendors that allowed us behind the counter snacking...to get out of the rain, of course. We bought ribbon fries, a large smoothie and a funnel cake. AND never have our puny purchases been more appreciated. We ran into friends we hadn't seen in a long time and had so much fun creating art in the kid tents. Everyone who attended the festival today was having fun...in the rain. We were soaked to the bone and we did not care. Then we came home, took showers and had a movie marathon. Erik brought home KFC for supper and we wrapped up a perfect rainy day.

Blah, Blah, Blah

I titled this post that way because I feel like that is exactly what I have been doing for two days, talking my head off. Socializing left and right, with a side of gardening and topped off with a birthday.

Yesterday was Hubby's 44th birthday. WHEW! He's getting up there. Thankfully I will always be 7 years his junior...except for the few months between Feb and May that I am only 6 years younger. Coincidentally, this was also hoof trimming day for my mom and stepdad. Thankfully, after a day of walker parades and trying to block the sounds of the "tools of the trade", Erik's mom and dad treated us to a steak meal for the birthday boy and family. It is my most favorite family tradition. I love a good grilled steak. In fact, my love of a good grilled steak, rib, burger, hot dog, chicken breast, chicken leg, shrimp, brisket, etc. is what keeps me out of the clutches of vogue vegetarianism. We had a great birthday dinner and a wonderful time of fellowship together once we were back home and the kiddos went to bed. Birthdays really are not that big of a deal for Erik or I. We are usually poor on both of our birthdays-mine is too close to Christmas and his is too close to mother's day, graduations, and the beginning of birthday season for all my nieces and nephews. Therefore, we don't pull out all the stops-we just savor the gifts we get from outside the family which vary from year to year. Sometimes we splurge on one another, but usually we are low key.

Today was a day of socializing in our homeschool group. We went to a park meeting and I am pleased to announce that I will be a part of the leadership team for our support group. It is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I have lots of ideas and I have many friends I want to encourage to be an active part of the group. Some people want to do things and just need encouragement and opportunities to really do a good job. That is the secret to a good organization-support and delegate. Then everyone feels like they 'own' it because they do. I've already been rallying the troops and letting them know how much our group needs their volunteerism. (Mia, consider yourself ralied as well!)

After the meeting, we went to my friend Sue's house and we swam in her pool and dug perennials to bring home. Oh how I love to swap perennials. I had so many at our old house that I had swapped with friends. At this house, I have done very little gardening-but now that our back yard is tree-free, I am inspired again and having fun. I can't wait to share a few plants her way as well. I also dug a few at my mom-in-laws since I was already in planting mode.

Now, I am ready to get off of here and get some shut-eye. The older girls are at a sleepover and so Lilly and I get to enjoy the morning as a twosome. Look out yard sales, here we come. My kids are so much fun one on one. We should do that more often!!

I am blogging to a live band in the garage. Erik and his bands will be playing a local Artsy festival on Sunday. I am not sure how many of his bands. Too hard to keep track with my feeble mind. I have already warned the girls that we are skipping church to festivate with Dad. There are just so few family friendly opportunities for us to be FANS. So anyway, they are gearing up and sounding really good. This is a new three piece band and they are all really great guys that don't really need to practice a bit, but I am glad they are. Imagine blues and jazz, along with Stray Cat Strut and Let's Get It On. I predict they will be a hit. Come see them if you are local. ALSO, there will be art. Hands on artsy stuff for the kiddos. I can't wait. We love lowertown art festivating with Dad.

Sunrise, Sunset

Have you ever noticed that bad days often follow really good days? Sometimes I am certain that is might be some sort of law. Like too many good days all in a row might make us forget about bad days. This is almost always the case in my homeschooling world. A day of accomplishing goals must be followed by a day of, "I can't believe it is 11 o'clock, what happened?". May as well watch Martha the Stewart and call it Home Ec. Just kidding, we just watch-we don't call it school.

So, with yesterday being such an on-track day, today is not so much. However, I am getting ready to crack my whip and rally the troops. We must fight through the bad days like our lives depend on it. And they sort of do. Not fighting through the lazy unproductive days begats more lazy unproductive days. And everybody knows, lazy unproductive days are best kept to summer vacation...8 days from now. Must resist...JUST A FEW MORE DAYS...Anyone else out there fighting for their life? BAND TOGETHER, strength in numbers and all that jazz.

On Track!

We had an excellent school day and I have the last nine days of school completely laid out and ready to go. We will do math and science all summer-the math they know about, the science will be snuck in and they won't notice or won't mind if they do notice. I feel good and I am totally ready for summer.

We have summer camp just around the corner and some other things to look forward to. No big vacation though. Too much home improvement after the ice storm.

I have much to do before bed. Hope you had a good Tuesday and your Wednesday is even better.