Reflections

I discovered something yesterday.  I have been mainly posting for the blog using my cellphone. I thought I would continue editing my blog post using my desktop computer. However, the draft blog post is a local draft on my phone and not my computer. I could not figure out how to get it over to my desktop. Sometimes technical electronic issues irritate me.

Thank you Lynn and Mary for the encouragement and ideas.

Why do I like to write? Good question.  I have always written things down. I think it helps me to remember and it also helps me get my thoughts in order. I have a lot of journals hanging around in various places. When I was a teenager I kept a journal.  And I did destroy the journals when I got married and moved away. Sometimes I wish I still has them so I could read them and see what kind of things I thought about as a kid.

I was telling some friends about my journals and they could not figure out why I would want to leave my written thoughts for others to read when I’m gone. I’m thinking I’m dead so who cares….I don’t think I wrote anything too horrible about anyone….I will have to give some thought about what to do with them.

I do like writing. Of course, writing on the blog I have spend a little more time actually thinking about how to communicate with words better. I think my problem happens because  I’m not good at redeeming the time that I’m given in a day so I leave many  things I want to do undone and do those things I think I must do….

Thinking back this last week, I came to the conclusion that the reason it has been hard for me to meet my blogging challenge was due to my procrastination. When I started the challenge I would think about what I was going to write off and on as the day progressed. However, I am now waiting until late evening to think about it and then I hurriedly try to post something before I fall into bed. Most things I want to do I have to intentionally plan for it to happen. If I don’t then the idea whirls around my head until it is forgotten. 

I read that most blogs have a theme that they write about. Should I just continue to just write about whatever is whirling around in my head. I was wondering if I should continue to try to post every day or just shoot for a couple of times a week. Of course without a schedule I would never post (which is what was happening before.) My brain is beginning to hurt….

We will see what I come up with tomorrow.

It was real tempting to not logs on today and post something. I thought I’m too busy to even think of anything interesting but I remembered the challenge.  I get so mad at myself when I cannot keep a commitment I make to myself. I feel that this challenge is a commitment I made to myself and I do want to finish it.

Onto another topic. The sermon today was about our speech, how it is to be encouraging and not crude. I have been thinking about this all day and realizing I could use some improvement in this area. I do not think my language is crude but I am not very encouraging. We will see how it goes at work tomorrow.

I love Saturday’s. I get to sleep in and this Saturday my sister is coming. We had great sister time at the nail salon. Overall a great day with family.  By the way we miss you Mary.

The last couple of days have been emotional. My son had a dog named. Rocky. He is an older white German Shepherd, or at least that is what we think. Anyway, as I wrote the white German Shepherd was old. He finally became so weak that my son had to but the dog down. It was sad for us because we would go over and take care of the dogs whenever my son was on shift. We tended the dogs the night before and could see how bad off Rocky was….He is no longer suffering and I miss him.

I love this picture of my dear Emily. She is such a cute jailbird…when she was 4 years old. The time flew by and now she is all grown up. 😢

This year my dear hubby retired.  In an effort to try to save money I decided that I would try to reduce the amount of money that I spend at the hair salon. I was coloring my hair every five weeks and this cost me about $110 each visit.(That comes up to $220 spend every ten weeks)   I decided that the way to reduce the cost at the hair salon was to reduce how often I colored my hair.  Helen suggested that I just put lowlights in and then my natural color would start to show.  By the way, my natural color is the beautiful color called white…I mean gray. She also suggested that I stretch out the appointment to eight weeks and we would do the lowlights. The lowlights would cost $110 per visit. (That comes to $137.50 every ten weeks.)  I agreed.  It has been maybe six months since I have been doing the lowlights.  I admit that I did receive compliments on my hair. The problem is that I can not stand the length of my hair after about the fifth week.  It bugs me so much that I begin to take the scissors to it and try to trim it up a bit.  I discovered that I am not good at trimming my own hair – even just my bangs.  So today when I had my appointment I did it.  I told Helen that I wanted to see her every five weeks to cut my hair and I would let my highlights go. The cost $48. So now I will spend $96 every ten weeks.  Goal accomplished – money saved. I am happy that my hair will be trimmed more often and I’m hoping and crossing my fingers that my white hair does look beautiful…and is really not a dingy gray.

As my daughter loves to quote:

Proverbs 16:31     White hair is a crown of honor obtained by righteous living.

PS   I know that some bible versions use the word gray instead of white but I’m sticking with the versions that say white.

 When was the last time you really stood out in a crowd? Are you comfortable in that position, or do you wish you could fade into the woodwork?

Stand out in a crowd…I don’t think so.  I do all I can do to fade into the woodwork. Maybe my fear of standing out in a crowd occurred when I was a teenager. I was probably 13-14 years old when I was nominated to compete for Queen of the county livestock show.  Why they chose me I will never know.  Way back then I was tall , thin and very awkward. From what I can remember one of the events I had to participate in was a style show in the local mall.  The outfit I was to model was not a new store purchased one but one that I made.  I never was an accomplished seamstress so as you can guess I was never felt pretty in the things that I created.  I am sure that in my small thirteen year old mind that I looked horrible when in reality I did not look as bad as I thought.  Another event was the talent contest. In my mind everyone else’s talent seemed better than mine. Most of the talent consisted of singing, gymnastics  and twirling batons…but what was my talent – playing the clarinet.  The worst sound in the world is a clarinet that squeaks.  I remember trying so hard not to make that horrible sound. But, you know how it goes.  The longer you try not to do something you go and do it anyway. Yes, I made a loud horrible squeak and just wanted to be swallowed up by the stage.  Like most things the world did not end.  I still had people who loved me and encouraged me on other things that I attempted.

Do I think that this fear has hurt me?  No, I do not want to stand out in a crowd.  I do not want people looking at me all the time, wondering about me, talking about me. I’m glad I am just me quietly going about my life. Hopefully, making the world a somewhat better place.

I think I am still recovering from this weekend.  It was a lot of fun but I am not a night owl type person and staying up until 4 am still has me pretty beat.  Sunday we arrived back home so late that all I really accomplished was unpacking the trailer.  Tonight I am trying to get the house in some order since my sister and her family are spending the night this coming Saturday.

I also felt a little overwhelmed at work today. I had a lot of e-mails and requests to catch up on along with deadline work coming in to do. I hate deadline work because one day you have no work and then the next day it all comes in and you feel like you are drowning and will not get caught up. And tomorrow I will be taking continuing education so I will not be able to work on my deadline work. Ugh!!! But I do need the continuing education, too.

Maybe tomorrow I will be able to think of something more interesting to write about…but I am celebrating 15 days of writing…Yippee!!!

It was a great trip and it is always nice to get home.   Now I need to get ready for the work week.😢