Spending My Stimulus Check – TOP 7
So this past month I have engaged in the “last hurrah” before I get stingy with the budget. The stimulus check we got from the government? Yeah, I am putting it to good use. So I have bought personal items that I normally would never buy or do that are more of indulgences…and boy is it great. Here is my top 7 list of things I have or will indulge in during a 30 day period:
7. Bikini Waxing. Can you believe I have never done this! I swam competitively in HS and College (okay, just my Freshman year of college) and always shaved. I life guarded and taught lessons for 8 years. Basically I spent more of my time in water than out. So this Saturday I am going for it. After my uptight neighbor said she never felt so free, well I knew I had to try it. Wish me luck!
6. Bare Essentials make up – mineral based makeup. I read about it in a book and ordered a started kit on-line. LOVE IT! (imagine me saying”love it” just like Weezy on Dragon Tales. There, now you get the feel.) After I watch the video to learn how to apply- great. Before that I did look a little funny. I put my drug store foundation in the back of the cabinet and this threesome is going to be my new best friend.
5. NARS blush, Orgasm. No that’s the name of the blush, really. It arrived in a box with potpourri and beautifully presented with a few free samples thrown in. Ahhhh. Normally I buy drugstore makeup so the price tag on this beauty was (drum roll please) $25! Outrageous! But it felt so good, almost as good as…
4. Great Shades! I got mine for free unexpectedly but they are still an indulgance since I almost bought them. Wiley X has a line of women’s eyewear – only 1 pair of the six are avilable right now is call the Dalila. They are designed for sun protection and safety (ANSI approved). Distortion free lenses and stylish form fitting frames. Move over Jackie O. My fave www.safetyglassesinc.com is dabbling in premium eye wear like Wiley X and other cool stuff like OCC and Harley Davidson.
3. SIGG water bottles. Protect the environment and look really cool doing it. Designer water bottles that don’t leach so they are safer than plastic water bottles. The only bummer is that they’re not dishwasher friendly. But hey, that’s what husbands are for. (I got him one too)
2. Sexy T-shirt for my hubby from Red Bubble. Totally edgy and unique looking. I am going to give it to him for our anniversary. I take care of my man too.
1. Still working on this one- there are a couple contenders (sunless tanning lotion, great heels, a certain book) Hmmm so much I could choose. I must research this a little more. I need something I normally would not do for myself.
Literally Climbing the Book Shelves
I took my two boys (2 & 3) and my friend’s son, (2) to the library. I was trying to keep them occupied while my friend was at dialysis. We were in the children’s section playing trains and watching the salt water fish tank when I realized I didn’t see my youngest son. Immediately I put the other boys in the stroller and took off to find my son. Couldn’t find him. Got some help. Started to panic. Some guy said he saw him in the adult section. Didn’t see him & I especially was looking under the book shelves since he likes to hide.
One of the librarians found him – hanging on the top shelf of the bookshelf. He was over my head! I must have walked by him but I was focused on looking down. He refused to go to the libarian so she got me to get him down. He was super quiet- either scared or he knew he was in trouble.
After we left the library I started to get teary. In a blink of an eye our life could have changed. Someone could have grabbed him, the book shelf could have tipped over…anything. Now I can laugh and write it in his baby book.
Sex equals blog visits?
I really do the blog for me to reflect and to develop my writing skills (well lately I have not done much editing/proofing but in theory it was to develop my writing skills). And I enjoyed getting an occasional visit from someone blog surfing. Sometime I even hit double digits! Like 12! But mostly I had 2 or 3.
But then I wrote a blog titled “Interesting Sex Book” and my hits that day were around 70. Yikes! And of course I have had to refrain from putting the word sex in every title since then.
I sure most people were looking for a different type of sex story- not one about God redeeming our sexuality.
Sex is a topic that has come up a lot this year for me. Our women’s parenting group has explored the issue (tentatively at first) – mostly from the view point of how it changes once we have kids. Sometimes for the better or sometimes for the worse.
I will have to blog more on that later when I want to get more hits – uh uh – just kidding (about the hits). I do think sex is something we need to talk about more in the church community (besides just telling kids to wait). I do mean in appropriate company at appropriate times. I have been married almost 13 years and we are finally having great to amazing sex. We have three young kids but I finally am investing the time I need to so we can have a great sex life. It didn’t happen until after child #3. Well we had good sex before then but not consistently. A friend of mine said if your sex life is good it only impacts/influences you 10% in your marriage. But if the sex is bad or not going well, it influences 80% of your marriage. Hmmm. Not sure where she got the numbers but the visual picture is meant to make a point.
17 miles!
I walked 17 miles on Saturday. The day before I was wondering why I let my friends talk me into doing a 17 mile walk for a local fest. I wasn’t even doing it for charity! I had to get up before 5 am (a sin in my book). I was praying for rain – an easy out. But the day was beautiful: sunny without being too hot, Spring flowers everywhere, lakes glistening, picturesque farms and hillsides. Every two miles was a porta potty and water/Gatorade station. Even TWO beer stations. I took a sip even though I don’t like beer. My group did it in 4 hours and 40 minutes and still felt great after we were done. I thought it was going to be more difficult but the group camaraderie made it go fast.
Starting Over
So it happened – we thought we backed up everything on my computer before we wiped it clean. We only backed up ONE file. So I lost all my files and pictures on my laptop. That means pictures of the kids, work articles, all my files I transfered from my MAC. Yep, gone. Surprisingly I am not in a great depression. But I have so much work to do. I realized how much of my life is tied to my laptop.
What Was I Thinking? Not a MP.
It has never been a secret that I am not a MP (morning person). I find that after 10 pm is when I get my motor running and start accomplishing things. In hte morning I wake up feeling foggy and my body creaky. I don’t start to defog until after 8 am.
So last night I as I set my alarm for 4:50 am. That in itself is just wrong. My husband was asking me if I was crazy. I agreed to work out at 5am with my neighbors and I knew I had to show up. The morning was beautiful and just slightly cool enough to wear a sweatshirt. Bunnies were running around and birds were chirping. The ladies I went with were buzzing away. I was doing okay and feeling okay. However, later that day my body let down and crashed.
Part of me wishes I was a morning person. The morning is beautiful and calming. The world works better if you are a morning person. I can’t wait wait to sleep in tomorrow morning.
Interesting Sex Book
I love the library. I check out the new book section every time. It’s very interesting, even more so last week.
Last week I found the book, Naked and Not Ashamed, How God Redeems Our Sexuality, by Dan Scott. I have not read the whole book but what I have read so far has been insightful. It is especially interesting as it adds to the dialogue my husband and I have had over the last couple years. We have talked about what is “okay” for Christians. Context here: we were “conservative virgins” when we were married (gosh that sounds funny but appropriate) and were cautious about exploring sex. Up until we got married we heard about how we needed to stay away and be careful. Turning that around after one is married is quite strange. But that’s a whole other story.
And sex, in my circle of friends anyway, is not a common topic. We talk about poop, breast-feeding, periods, weird things that happen with your body when you get pregnant but sex rarely comes up. Not that I think I need to hear the ins and outs of someones sex life. I don’t. But I think when I was a newly wed I could have gained from some older women’s wisdom. Last week, when I brought up a sex question to a friend during our six person women’s small group prayer time, someone expressed later that they appreciated that I was so open about sex. (We were addressing a busy friend’s life and her bickering with her husband. I shared that when my husband and I don’t have sex for an extended period of time sometimes we get testy with each other and wondered (out-loud) if maybe they were experiencing the same thing).
Here’s an interesting passage from this book that I read last night:
“Perfectionism, then, whether it attempts to destroy sexuality or to enshrine it as an idol, poisons life. Sex is not a great web of wickedness, nor is it a conduit to cosmic consciousness. Sex is not Satan, nor is it God. Sex is just sex. It is, to be sure, one of the greatest pleasures of life, but healthy sexuality cannot survive when we try to push it to either perfectionistic extreme.”
Dirty Little Secrets
What are my secrets? I was just thinking about what I don’t share with anyone – you don’t count since you don’t know me. Some are not bad – just embarrassing to my “image” and others are ones I don’t want to own up to even myself.
I bought a body slimmer. The first thing I read in the paper is the comics. I check out Perez Hiltons site…daily. I won’t wear thongs. I get bored playing with my two year old. I made a shopping list during a sermon two weeks ago. I stopped having a regular devotional time three weeks ago. If I had the $ I would get a tummy tuck. With all I know, I should be a better mom. I feel cynical about church leadership. I don’t like tampons. I tell my husband to stick to our budget but I don’t. If I could get out of the 17 mile walk with my friends, I would. I told them I am looking foward to it – right. I spent 30 minutes Saturday finding flair for myfacebook page when I should have been working and I want to go do it again. I like steamy romance novels (ack!) My mother-in-law is really mean and I think that gives me the right to bad mouth her to my husband. I didn’t vote in the primary.
Loneliness: To Live the Question
I was surprised to see how many people searched the word “loneliness” to get to my site. So that prompted me to include a quote from Henri Nouwen. I am reading his book, Reaching Out. It’s easy to see my aloneness in being mine alone, yet to quote Sting. “It seems I am not alone, in being alone. A hundred billion castaways looking for a home.” So I picked a section that talked about the movement from loneliness to solitude.
“By slowly converting our loneliness into a deep solitude, we create that precious space where we can discover the voice telling us about our inner necessity – that is our vocation. Unless our questions, problems and concerns are tested and matured in solitude, it is not realistic to expect answers that are really our own…This is a very difficult task, because in our world we are constantly pulled away from our innermost self and encourage to look for answers instead of listening to the questions. A lonely person has no inner time nor inner rest to wait and listen. But in solitude we can pay attention to our inner self.” Henri Nouwen
School Bully
My daughter didn’t want to go to school today because of a bully. It’s the first I have heard of it but it’s been going on for awhile. Apparently she offered him $45 to leave her alone and now he asks for it everyday and pushes her around. She said he gets really angry and scares her. She’s in first grade.
The Mama Bear in me wanted to go ballistic but I sat down with her and talked out what she should do. Then I emailed her teacher who responded back before school started.
So I have been thinking about bullies today. Why are they bullies? Is there something in their make up or in their lives that makes them that way? My daughter said everyone is too scared to stand up to him. How can one person cower so many?
Then I thought back to one of my first teaching jobs and a girl in my class who was a bully. It was her Senior year and she controlled people in a way that amazed me. She even went after me: a long term sub teaching her Geography class. Her lack of fear was quite odd. And she could bring others into her gang up on her victim effortlessly.
Do kid bullies grow up to be adult bullies? And as adults, do we cower too?
