Pay it Forward

Saturday I worked in the yard. As I was raking, I was approached by a man coming from my next door neighbor's yard. I was puzzled. I didn't recognize him, but it turns out he was the neighbor's dad visiting from Montana.
So he stood there talking to me, and we talked about yards and homes and financial stuff and I said I was hoping to get some repairs on the house this year.
He asked what I wanted done and I said my first concern was the front porch. We had a ramp sort of installed when my mother was in a wheel chair, but it was never finished and just sat there looking ugly.
His name is Clay. He  took a look at it and said he thought he and his son could help me with it the next day. I told him I would be at church Sunday morning but home around noonish. I invited he and his family to come along. To my surprise he said, "We might just do that."
Later that day Clay and his son came over and dismantled the ramp.
Clay and his wife rode to church with me Sunday morning, and it was a little cooler and rainy that day.
Monday it snowed here--first time all winter-- and everyone stayed inside. But yesterday Clay and his wife came over and installed the rails on my porch and put it all back the way it was prior to the ramp being installed.
I tried to pay them and they wouldn't accept it.
This was such a huge help to me. I can't adequately convey how much it means to me.
I know this is going to sound cliche, but we do hear a lot of the bad things that people do. This gave me a little hope that there is still a little bit of good out there.
I can't do major home repairs, but I know I can help people in need.
So I'm waiting for God to put someone in my path that I can help in some meaningful way.

A day of Wow

We made our trip to the library on deadline last week, as usual. Well, lately there have been a lot of late fees, so we've missed deadline a few times in the past few months.
Point is, we took some stuff back on time, and while we were there Sean wanted to check out one of his favorite snake books. The library had shuffled some sections around, so we had to ask Aunt Bennie (who works there) for some help to find it. While he had her attention, Sean asked her to show him the airplane section. We came out with a stack of books on flight, helicopters and airplanes. He dove into them and within an afternoon was recognizing airplanes by name.
Because Sean is so interested in fight, I thought it would be a nice treat to take a field trip.
The Museum of Flight in Seattle is within driving distance, so we took a road trip today to immerse ourselves in airplanes and flight memorabilia.
We walked into the museum and he recognized the first plane he saw. We constantly were saying, "Wow, look at that one." They were all over the place. There were planes suspended above us, planes parked on the floors that you could walk under and peer into, and there were a couple of them set up for people to sit in, and an audio gave information about the cockpit.
The museum is very comprehensive, and includes an area devoted to space exploration, and there are neat screens set up to play old commercials and intros to shows from the 1950s and 1960s that related to Sputnik and the nation's focus on space exploration.
There are three floors, I believe, and it really is quite astounding. I could have stayed longer, but Sean was getting tired and hungry. The only thing we didn't see was the top floor that had the WWI stuff. Next time.
I'm interested in old stuff, history, antiques, etc., so the glass display cases with the old flight log books from WWII and flight suits, dog tags and all of that was very appealing to me.
Sean's favorite things were the jet fighters, and an old WWII plane that had teeth painted on the front. He could tell me the names of them, but I don't remember that kind of stuff very well.
There are a couple of opportunities to go into flight simulators, but that was a bit pricey for our budget.
I could have stayed all day, and there's even a cafe, but Sean wanted to leave. We've both been fighting a cold that won't go away.
It was a fun day, and I'm glad I thought to go. Wish David could have been with us, because he and Sean could have had a great time together there.

recap

I have been sick for what feels like a very long time. Once one illness subsided, another took hold--some kind of sinus thing that I was afraid would become a full-on sinus infection. They usually do for me.
I'm still recovering, but today I began to see a glimmer of recovery.
Even with the short month and tight deadlines, this month went smoother than usual with work. I was aware that my stress level was lower and wondered if I was just too sick to freak out or if I really felt more calm and in control.

My attention was fully on my boy today. The house has suffered along with me through my lack of energy and motivation. We cleaned up a bit, then we got down to business. He chose to study about leeches for a while as I answered some work emails, then we pulled out some old books to make room for his cool new books his brother sent. They totally qualify as work, with subjects such as Volcanoes, Focus on Wind, Airborne, etc. so they are on a special shelf for his work books near his Montessori shelf. We did some Spanish work, and just relaxed today.

We were almost blinded this week by that huge ball of glowing yellow in the sky. It is a big event for us when the sun comes out this time of year. I always forget how blue the sky is during the winter months.
Our temperatures are very mild, and Spring is on the way. It makes me want to do a bunch of home improvement projects that we really, really need.

I missed two meetings for our Lenten study. Last week Sean was sick and I couldn't take him with, nor leave him. This week I was sick. Maybe next week.

Yesterday Sean wanted to play a game. He dug out some flash cards called Bible Heroes that I bought at the Dollar Tree as a stocking stuffer this year. I was amazed at how much he knows about the Bible.

I'm part of a few Yahoo groups, and today I saw two posts that strengthened my faith and illustrated how God works in wonderful ways. A person who reached out to ask for prayer a few weeks ago recently provided information that could help many children who are misunderstood because of a disorder called Sensory Processing Disorder. Two Montessori teachers responded about children in their classrooms who exhibit some of those symptoms.

News is a tough business

It has been a very rough month. Starting the end of December it seemed there were things going on almost every week that needed to be covered for the newspaper. I felt like I was working at a daily and I was the only reporter. I only have a couple of people who can cover news, and they had already been given assignments. I took the brunt of the work and was doing some of it with up-to-the-minute updates on our Facebook page. (We're going to redo our Web site this year. It doesn't allow for quick updates.)

While I admit I am a huge news nerd, and I usually live for this kind of stuff-- a kidnapping, a pharmacy burglary, post office mailbox thefts (two of them, the huge blue boxes) and a beached dead whale( very sad) and a trash truck that barreled down a hill with no brakes and landed in the water (driver was OK)-- after a few weeks of this, plus all of my regular duties, I was tired.

I'm still tired. And I'm fighting a sinus infection and some other strange symptoms, and trying to carry on like nothing is wrong with me. 

The blessing is that I get to work from home. It allows me to take breaks when I need to go rest, and I can work late if I need to.

I'm handling a lot of things I never dreamed I'd be handling, ever. I always said I would never become an editor. To me it seemed like a boring job and people hate editors. I never imagined being in charge, because it just wasn't something I ever thought I could do.

Now I'm an Executive editor, not just editor. I not only get to edit, I get to handle all of the business transactions, make those really tough decisions that aren't popular, and deal with things I never knew were brewing out there. 

It has taught me so much and I understand a little bit about some of the past bosses I've had. I can see where they were right, and I can also see where they were wrong. I think about the good ones and how they handled things, and I try hard to emulate them. 

Grace under pressure in this position is sometimes very difficult. I pray a lot, and I read what I can about management when I have a moment.

I've learned more about hiring procedures, firing procedures, non-profit status, how to delegate, how to recognize a person's strengths and weaknesses when it comes to their talents, and how to try to give them the tools to become great at what they do.

I still have SO MUCH to learn. 

I'm learning a lot about myself. My weaknesses especially. I am trying to find ways to strengthen myself too. 

This job doesn't pay a lot, but it's enough to keep us sheltered and fed. And I love being home with Sean. And with everything that has happened with layoffs and newspapers shutting down, I'm very thankful to have this job. I get to do what I love, and get paid to do it.

Plugging in again

Months have gone by, and we haven't been plugged in to the world. When the switch to analog went into effect our television reception was reduced to about 5 channels of garbage that I would never watch. On top of that, it was not reliable reception. We no longer got any of the channels we watched, like PBS and our local CBS, ABC or NBC channels - nothing. I truly got better reception and more channels before the switch. I unhooked our converter boxes and said, "forget it." We live in a mountainous area, and I've been told the analog signal doesn't work well with mountains.
I was not happy about this switch, and I know that puts me in a minority. I just felt like it was something forced on us as a population, and while they offered the converter boxes, no one I've talked to who has them, except one couple who lives within a straight shot of the tower, likes them. Most gave up and got cable or satellite. So for those whose budget was already stretched, they also had to pay for television.
I was against it on principal. I figured we could get by without it. I've known a lot of people who got rid of their TVs. Remember the "Kill your Television" bumper stickers?
While this was a nice experiment, going without television, I found myself missing it at certain moments when I really needed to just be fed something entertaining without doing a lot of work to get it. My job is stressful, and when crunch time comes there can be many hours spent with no break. The last thing I want to do is sit at this computer searching online for a TV show.
I tried watching things online. Yeah, it's a pain. I have to search for it, download some sort of player, update it almost every time I go back to that site and try to watch something new, and I get completely sick of sitting in this chair. I wanted to move from my desk to the living room and just watch something on television.
What I didn't want was my 7 year old to be bombarded with commercials. But gone were the days of free PBS programming.
So I caved in.
We got cable TV today, and we've spent most of the day in our PJs, playing with the new remote, surfing the channels and keeping track of the ones we like.
It's something brand new for us, so we were excited today. For me it's already pretty well worn off. I'm glad to have access to some channels that I was missing, for news, and PBS, and a couple of extras that I haven't had in years.
But I know I will have a TV schedule for us that limits the time it is on.
I do love the quiet.

Superstitious?

Each year since sometime in the 1990s I've eaten blackeyed peas on New Year's Day. In the South, they claim eating these on New Year's Day will bring good luck for the year. I think you're supposed to eat them with collard greens too.
When I started this tradition I remember the year had been a bad one, and I was open to any suggestion to make the new one better. I don't remember if it worked, but I've kept up the tradition.
I pair them with hash browns. Not sure why, it just seemed like a good thing at the time.
At the grocery store today I picked up my can of blackeyed peas and paid that outrageous amount of more than $1 for them.
Tonight we'll probably eat something easy, like spaghetti or chili and chips, and watch something on the Internet about the festivities around the world. Tomorrow I'm going to make snacky foods and we'll sit around and eat all day and play games. The meal will consist of hash browns, blackeyed peas and greens, probably some corn and green beans for Sean, and maybe some chicken. (He doesn't like blackeyed peas.)
The photo above was taken from the Allen's Web site. I can't get the Southern Style where we live. I get the regular plain blackeyed peas.
I really like them, but I just wonder why they're so expensive. Are blackeyed peas difficult to grow? Are they difficult to harvest? Maybe they're only expensive here.

Some Christmas Eve/Day highlights

Yesterday we wore our matching aprons that Aunt Bennie made for us, and whipped up a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

Sean mixed the dry ingredients, and then slowly added them to the wet mixture. He likes to operate the mixer.

We posed for a couple of pictures in front of one of our trees. This one is the Santa tree in the dining room. I thought of having a family photo with the dog, but figured the cats would freak out.

OK. Now this one has a story to it. I wanted to bake an apple pie. Then I decided that it would be fun to give little miniature pies as gifts. Oh, but how would I do it? I don't have tiny pie pans. I have a loaf pan that makes tiny loaves. I use it for banana bread. I would have made that too, but I didn't have bananas, nor the time to do all of this in one day.

Back to the apple pies.

So I remembered that I had these little foil muffin tins that are heart shaped. I got them at the dollar tree who knows when. I've been waiting for the perfect time (like Valentine's Day) to use them. But I figured they were the right size and they could work. Hearts convey love, and I love my family -- weird as we all are.

While the first batch of cookies were in the oven, I started on the dough. As I made the dough I thought of the muffin tins and how the heart shape just wasn't what I was going for. I pulled out some cookie cutters that are Christmas shapes (stockings, trees, etc.) They were too big.

It hit me. I knew that somewhere in my crafting supplies I had a stencil of Santa.

Believe me when I say I don't aspire to be a baker. I really just wanted to have something fun, a conversation piece and yummy individual treat for all of my family members.

The tins are very flimsy, so they're not really a good idea for pie dough. It was difficult to get the dough into them and then getting the top on and pinched together was even harder.

By the time I had four of these finished I was completely wiped out. I decided to use this as a test run, and maybe I'll do it for real next year.

The cookies on the other hand turned out very delicious. They're still good today, but were best last night.
Sean said they were mouth watering good.
We had a couple of them after we got back from the Christmas Eve service at church, and then tracked Santa for a while before getting to bed.

This morning at 2, Sean came into my room to inform me that Santa had left the gift he asked for, and then proceeded to excitedly tell me the features of his Star Wars Republic Gunship. I had been asleep for maybe an hour or so. I mulled it over in my mind, "Up at 2 a.m. to open gifts/play, then back to bed (doubtful), or up until time to go to his Dad's house and both of us in a horrible mood by noon, with more family events planned for the day? No."
So I made him go back to bed. I got up at 8:30 a.m. and found him in bed, but all of his ship was assembled and sitting in his bedroom floor.
Jewel found this thing and mailed it to a family member, who then handed it off to me. Places I looked it was out of stock, and online they were going for $300 + last time I checked.

This camera is making me crazy, but here it is. The Star Wars The Clone Wars Republic Gunship. And the smiling face of a boy who believes.