Saturday, November 29, 2008

Two Days After Thanksgiving

Today I:
  • Went on a two mile walk
  • Ate breakfast at McDs with Wally (they have the best ever chocolate milk)
  • Watched the end of "Becoming Jane Austen"
  • Helped hang Christmas lights on the front of the house
  • Went grocery shopping
  • Read a lot of blogs, it was fun, you start with just one and then you keep linking through their friends and find people you know and just keep reading, Natalie calls it "blog stalking"
  • Did not eat cheesecake
  • Ate a lot of fruit (apple, orange and now a pomegranate)
  • Did laundry
  • Made beef stew for dinner (no turkey tonight, but the leftover fresh cut up veggies came in handy)
  • Tonight we plan on watching "Get Smart"

Friday, November 21, 2008

The Band Aid Box Story


When I was a young girl living in Boise, Idaho in the late 1960's, my family lived in the country. We had a two story five bedroom house and we had a pasture with a small barn. Sometimes we had animals in the pasture, my sister had a horse and later my other sister had a calf, but that's another story.

The cool thing about the pasture was the ditch along the back that bordered the fence and a little gate back in the corner that connected us to our neighbors. Without the gate we would have to go to the end of our street, out to the main road and down a few houses.

We would have to walk past the scary house on the corner with the German shepherds that followed you from their side of the fence barking and growling at you all the way.

I was the youngest of five and my friend that lived through the gate was one year older than me and she was the oldest of five children. We spent many hours playing together with her younger brothers and her sister.

I'm guessing the band aid box came into use in the summertime. I don't know if we thought it up or our Moms did. For those of you much younger than me, you may not know that band aids actually used to come in a metal box with a hinged lid. When it was emptied of band aids it was useful for many things.
Well my friend and I took small pieces of paper and wrote various things to do on them. These pieces of paper were then folded up and placed in the band aid box. Whenever we couldn't decide what to do or we were bored (I would love to know what that feels like now), we would pull out a piece of paper and do whatever it said.

Some of the things on the papers were: ride bikes, play barbies, swim in the ditch, play board games, play outside, stuff like that. I don't know how often we used the box, but to this day I remember having it.
The reason I thought of this lately is that many times when I'm driving in the car, taking a shower, doing dishes, my mind wanders to all the things that I need to get done at home. But when I'm home and I have some time (not cause I'm bored) I never seem to have the motivation to accomplish those tasks.
So here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to get a small tin (since band aid boxes don't exist anymore) and I'm going to list small chores that can be done in 30 minutes or less in my box. I'm going to turn my laziness into achievements, one small scrap of paper at a time.
Here's just a start of what my papers will say: clean shelves in bedroom closet, clean printer desk drawers, clean kitchen pantry shelves, clean and organize hall closet - one shelf at a time, clean under the bathroom sink (where does all that hair product, shower gel and lotion come from anyway?). I might find something fun in the closet to sell on eBay, who knows.
And then when that list is finished there's the laundry room with full cupboards and shelves of who knows what, not to mention the sewing room.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Three Cups of Tea - Book Review

Three Cups of Tea, One Man's Mission to Promote Peace. . . One School at a Time.

I just finished reading this book written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It was one of the most fascinating non fiction books I have ever read. I didn't want to put it down and I did not want it to end.

The book was written in 2006 and tells the story of Greg Mortenson who as a mountaineer in 1993 found himself in a small village in the Karakoram mountains in Pakistan after a failed attempt to climb K2.

He tells of his experience over the next 10 years of frequent travels back to Pakistan to build schools. His knowledge of the area and his acceptance by the many people in these small villages is heartwarming. I never would have thought that one person could make such a huge impact in the life of others.
He worked endlessly (still does) and did all he could to raise money for the schools. While living in California he meets a woman who he marries after just knowing her for three weeks. What an amazing person she must be to love a man so unconditionally that she is willing to share him with these people in a foreign country who have taken him in as if one of their own.

Currently Greg Mortenson is the Executive Director of the Central Asia Institute, a non-profit organization with the mission to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
I would strongly recommend reading this well written, entertaining and educational book. In addition to the wonderful story of Greg Mortenson, it provides great historical, political and geographical information.

"Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything--even die."
--Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan

If you live in my area, I would be happy to loan you my book.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

November is Here!

2009, does that thought scare you? Well it's just right around the corner. As I put away my Halloween decorations yesterday, I put out a few things for Thanksgiving. I also cleaned house and moved the furniture around so we could get to the fireplace which we enjoy this time of year. It's actually a wood burning store so you need space to open the door out and I keep furniture in front of it most of the time.

When I went grocery shopping on Saturday the Halloween candy had quickly been replaced with yes, Christmas candy. I stayed 6 feet away from it and kept on walking. Funny how it's actually the same candy just in new Christmas colored wrappings.

As we go into the month of November it gives us time to reflect on the many things we are thankful for. I don't ignore the fact that there are a lot of bad things happening in the world today. It's so hard to believe that in 2008 there are still people in parts of the world without adequate drinking water, very little food and many without a roof over their heads.

We live in a country of excess and we shouldn't take that for granted nor abuse it. Just look at the volume of stores in your very own neighborhood. Anything you want right at your fingertips if you have the money.

I like to get down to the basics and be grateful for the ordinary things in my life. My family - every single one of them, my friends, my health, our home, the beauty in nature which surrounds us, my job, our dog, my religious beliefs (and the freedom to have them) and my memories. You can take away my car, my nice couch and even my indoor plumbing as long as I can keep the things listed above.

For all the luxuries and other things I live with that I think of as "necessities", those things I am also grateful for and I try not to take them for granted.
To name a few: chocolate, ice cream, movies, warm socks, a good book, a hot shower, electricity, my computer, the ocean, french fries, photographs, old books, toilet paper, fabric, shopping, even the public library.

Enjoy this season of Thanksgiving and take time to think about the many, many things in your life you have to be grateful for. Sure we may still be overweight, have to wear reading glasses, creak in the joints, never catch up on the laundry, have to cook yet another meal, run another million errands, have health problems or family challenges, but this is our life - enjoy it!




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