Long day ... followed by a long long meeting tonight. But at least the budget is mostly done for the year. Tomorrow I will be glad that it is done, tonight I am just tired.
I am already looking to the next project. I am reminded that so often the rewards of finishing a project get lost in the frailty of my body and the long list of thing still to be accomplished. I am not sure that us a good thing, but it seems to be my reality.
Tonight I will listen to my body and get some sleep. Tomorrow I will work on the list once again.
Just Connie
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Today's Surpise
For the last couple of years I have struggled with a small growth on my hand. I have tried over the counter remedies, tried freezing it off, even have cut it off on several occasions. Today I gave up and went to the doctor where I found out it was a cyst.
After poking and prodding it, my doctor decided to take it off. It turned out to be a bigger deal than I was expecting. So I am now sitting here wrapped in pressure bandages with my hand elevated. Tomorrow the bandages come off and it will be much easier to type.
Sigh ...
Just Connie
After poking and prodding it, my doctor decided to take it off. It turned out to be a bigger deal than I was expecting. So I am now sitting here wrapped in pressure bandages with my hand elevated. Tomorrow the bandages come off and it will be much easier to type.
Sigh ...
Just Connie
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
My Vacation
Well after a week of "kind of" vacation, I am back at the office. It has been a very busy week off. I chopped vegetables for the the community dinner (100 pounds of onions and 50 pounds of celery). I went clamming, I picked up 800 pounds of veggies. I spent countless time on the phone trying to make the arrangements for everything and I served for the community dinner on Christmas Day. (we fed over 500 people) And of course I drove to Portland to be with my family.
Today I am back to to a somewhat normal schedule. I have sorted the mail, worked on my sermon, answered lots of phone messages and already began my meeting schedules again.
Tonight I will begin to take down the Christmas decor and reclaim my house. That will be a process of several days. Then I get to begin to shovel out my spare room so my son has an actual room to stay in.
Oh boy .... the fun never stops at my house.
Just Connie
Today I am back to to a somewhat normal schedule. I have sorted the mail, worked on my sermon, answered lots of phone messages and already began my meeting schedules again.
Tonight I will begin to take down the Christmas decor and reclaim my house. That will be a process of several days. Then I get to begin to shovel out my spare room so my son has an actual room to stay in.
Oh boy .... the fun never stops at my house.
Just Connie
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Christmas Clams
I went clamming today. I decided that I wanted to spend some hours of my vacation with friends. So we packed up and drove 3 hours to Seaside. It was a beautiful cold, frosty day. The sun was shining bright when we got there. You could not have asked for better December wather at the beach.
I drug my net and my clam gun up and down the beach and found ...... sand dollars. Lots and lots of sand dollars. Big ones, little ones, whole ones .... broken ones. Every kind and color you could imagine. It was like a wonderful treasure hunt.
I came home with a net full of wonderful things, but not one clam. I have to admit that I was not really disapointed. It is a whole lot easier to clean a sand dollar than a clam.
Just Connie
I drug my net and my clam gun up and down the beach and found ...... sand dollars. Lots and lots of sand dollars. Big ones, little ones, whole ones .... broken ones. Every kind and color you could imagine. It was like a wonderful treasure hunt.
I came home with a net full of wonderful things, but not one clam. I have to admit that I was not really disapointed. It is a whole lot easier to clean a sand dollar than a clam.
Just Connie
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Reflexes of a Cat
I have the reflexes of a cat. At least that is what I keep telling myself. My years of gymnastics has blessed me with good balance and endurance. In fact, you might say I take pride in my physical ability.
Recently I got to practice my physical dexterity when I went mushroom hunting with friends. I love being out in the woods, it fills me with a sense of God’s goodness and His infinite creativity. I was having a good time climbing up and down steep canyon walls while searching for Chantrelles. As I searched, I walked across a mossy log on the edge of a precipice looked out over the misty vista and sighed with pleasure. Turning back to the task at hand, I took another step. Just as I was ready to put my foot down, I saw it … there right under my foot was a beautiful golden mushroom. I balanced easily on one foot and called to my mushroom partner.
With glee, I did a half pirouette on the log and bent down to capture my prize …. and that was the moment the log gave way. My “cat like reflexes” and I went tumbling over the edge. Head over heels … over and over and over I went until I finally came to a crashing halt in a pile of brush. As I laid there with my head in the ferns and waited for the world to stop spinning, this Bible verse came to mind:
“First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.” Proverbs 16:18 (The Message)
And people say that God has no sense of humor ….
Recently I got to practice my physical dexterity when I went mushroom hunting with friends. I love being out in the woods, it fills me with a sense of God’s goodness and His infinite creativity. I was having a good time climbing up and down steep canyon walls while searching for Chantrelles. As I searched, I walked across a mossy log on the edge of a precipice looked out over the misty vista and sighed with pleasure. Turning back to the task at hand, I took another step. Just as I was ready to put my foot down, I saw it … there right under my foot was a beautiful golden mushroom. I balanced easily on one foot and called to my mushroom partner.
With glee, I did a half pirouette on the log and bent down to capture my prize …. and that was the moment the log gave way. My “cat like reflexes” and I went tumbling over the edge. Head over heels … over and over and over I went until I finally came to a crashing halt in a pile of brush. As I laid there with my head in the ferns and waited for the world to stop spinning, this Bible verse came to mind:
“First pride, then the crash— the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.” Proverbs 16:18 (The Message)
And people say that God has no sense of humor ….
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Family
Family has always been important to me. It is part of what has held me together in the tough times and gives me a sense of love and security through daily life. But I live a couple of hours away from my family and that means that the time I do get to spend with them is especially precious to me.
This week I took a trip to my parents house to be with my children and the rest of the family. It was a very rare treat for me. It meant that I got to see my 2 year old grandson and play with my great nephew and just enjoy the sense of being surrounded by people who know me and love me anyway.
I have to admit I miss having my family around me everyday, but I have been blessed with love and friendship here in Willamina and that fills up a lot of the lonely places for me.
But still .... there is nothing like family.
Just Connie
This week I took a trip to my parents house to be with my children and the rest of the family. It was a very rare treat for me. It meant that I got to see my 2 year old grandson and play with my great nephew and just enjoy the sense of being surrounded by people who know me and love me anyway.
I have to admit I miss having my family around me everyday, but I have been blessed with love and friendship here in Willamina and that fills up a lot of the lonely places for me.
But still .... there is nothing like family.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Christmas Love
Tomorrow I will head to Portland to have Christmas with my son and daughter. I will also get to see my grandson who will be two in just a few weeks. There is nothing like being surrounded by family. It fills my heart with love and fills me with a confidence that the rough patches in life cannot shake.
And really .... isn't Christmas the perfect time to remember that love is what it is all about
Just Connie
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Hurts of the Past
There are times that the hurts of the past seem to flood my present. Today was one of those days. It seemed like such a simple conversation, but yet there it was .... the past leaping up and grabbing me by the throat. I sat there and fought tears as I tried to find a graceful way out of the conversation. In the end there was no grace to it, I just sat there and cried.
Most of the time I feel like a competent, confident woman, but when the past intrudes .... it fills me with insecurities and pain. Unwanted and unexpected yet there it is.
So what do I do with this stuff that I am feeling? My natural instinct is to pull back and hide, yet experience has taught me that is not healthy or wise. And as much as I would like to wave a magic wand over the hurt and make it go away, I think the only way through it is to feel what I am feeling and take another step forward.
So tonight I am choosing to feel and choosing to believe that there is hope for tomorrow.
Just Connie
Most of the time I feel like a competent, confident woman, but when the past intrudes .... it fills me with insecurities and pain. Unwanted and unexpected yet there it is.
So what do I do with this stuff that I am feeling? My natural instinct is to pull back and hide, yet experience has taught me that is not healthy or wise. And as much as I would like to wave a magic wand over the hurt and make it go away, I think the only way through it is to feel what I am feeling and take another step forward.
So tonight I am choosing to feel and choosing to believe that there is hope for tomorrow.
Just Connie
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Fearless Me
I drug my son up to the attic last night in search of Christmas boxes. It is always a major undertaking because first of all I have no direct access to the attic, just a hole in the ceiling with a panel over it and the fact that I have 20 some boxes of Christmas decorations.
So I carried the ladder in, set it up, pulled myself through the crawl hole in the ceiling and began handing boxes down to my son. Everything went well until I found the dead mouse. I did not know that it was dead when I first saw it, it looked like it was laying in wait for me ... just waiting for me to bend down so it could spring for my jugular vein and wrestle me to the floor. But after running around in circles screaming, "Mouse! Mouse!" it still had not moved. That is when my son came up and pronounced it dead.
Being absolutely fearless in the face of certain doom, I turned to my son and said, "If you love your mother you will dispose of the mouse." So being the big strong brave man that he is, he turned to me and said .... "Uh do you have some pliers or something I can pick it up with?" So I went and got the pliers from his tool bag. (I was not going to let him use mine for that) I got a plastic garbage bag and stood at the foot of the ladder waiting for him to come down and use the bag to dispose of the mouse. About then his head popped through the ceiling and I looked up to see dead mouse dropping from the attic. At that point my body hijacked the rest of me and went screaming to the other end of the house.
By the time my son got down the ladder and came in search of me, I was hiding behind the couch. He looked at me and said, "You moved the bag .... if you had stayed still the mouse would have dropped in the bag." I pulled myself up to every one of my 4 foot 11inches and said, "You dropped a dead mouse on me!" while giving him the kind of look that only a mother can give. He vehemently denied it but went and fished the dead mouse out from where it had fallen and disposed of it in the outside garbage can.
He still insists that he was aiming for the bag, and is sticking with his story. As for me ... I am thinking that at some point I must have dropped him on his head as a baby, because there is nothing in our history as mother and son that should have made him think I would stand there with aplomb while a dead mouse was hurtling towards my head.
I am also thinking ..... that next year I send him up to the attic first.
Just Connie
So I carried the ladder in, set it up, pulled myself through the crawl hole in the ceiling and began handing boxes down to my son. Everything went well until I found the dead mouse. I did not know that it was dead when I first saw it, it looked like it was laying in wait for me ... just waiting for me to bend down so it could spring for my jugular vein and wrestle me to the floor. But after running around in circles screaming, "Mouse! Mouse!" it still had not moved. That is when my son came up and pronounced it dead.
Being absolutely fearless in the face of certain doom, I turned to my son and said, "If you love your mother you will dispose of the mouse." So being the big strong brave man that he is, he turned to me and said .... "Uh do you have some pliers or something I can pick it up with?" So I went and got the pliers from his tool bag. (I was not going to let him use mine for that) I got a plastic garbage bag and stood at the foot of the ladder waiting for him to come down and use the bag to dispose of the mouse. About then his head popped through the ceiling and I looked up to see dead mouse dropping from the attic. At that point my body hijacked the rest of me and went screaming to the other end of the house.
By the time my son got down the ladder and came in search of me, I was hiding behind the couch. He looked at me and said, "You moved the bag .... if you had stayed still the mouse would have dropped in the bag." I pulled myself up to every one of my 4 foot 11inches and said, "You dropped a dead mouse on me!" while giving him the kind of look that only a mother can give. He vehemently denied it but went and fished the dead mouse out from where it had fallen and disposed of it in the outside garbage can.
He still insists that he was aiming for the bag, and is sticking with his story. As for me ... I am thinking that at some point I must have dropped him on his head as a baby, because there is nothing in our history as mother and son that should have made him think I would stand there with aplomb while a dead mouse was hurtling towards my head.
I am also thinking ..... that next year I send him up to the attic first.
Just Connie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)