Encouragement Blog Hop

Do It Anyway

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

~This version is credited to Mother Teresa

I frequently get wrapped up trying to please everyone. It even happens in blogging. I wonder, “Is this too much? Not enough? Funny when I should be serious? Deep when I should be light?”

Our dreams and visions will never match another’s exactly. Some will come along to encourage the good work they see in you, but others are dissatisfied and will try to make you into their image. I try to remember, I am made in the image of God. If I am willing to let HIM mold me, shape me, and if necessary, remake me, then there’s nothing left but to move forward in joy!

Copyright 2009

Sunday Morning Repose

This morning I am resting, recuperating, and reading. It's been a long week of thinking I'm nearly well only to find myself, once more, sliding down the hill I'd just ascended. Most of us have experienced that a time or two, or twenty. Yesterday I thought I was ready to conquer the world only to be tackled to the ground and soundly thrashed. So, for medicine far better than any a doctor could prescribe, I've chosen to be in the company of one of my favorite authors, George MacDonald. If you're not familiar with his writings I most highly recommend him to you. You cannot leave him without a fragrance of beauty in your life and a wooing that compels you to unveil and utilize the better part of your being. Here's a tiny gem........

"Better to sit at the waters' birth,

Than a sea of waves to win,

To live in the love that floweth forth,

Than the love that cometh in.

Be thy heart a well of love, my child,

Flowing, and free, and sure,

For a cistern of love, though undefiled,

Keeps not the spirit pure."

From "Phantastes" ~ George MacDonald (1824-1905)

"I have never concealed the fact that I regarded George MacDonald as my master; indeed, I fancy I have never written a book in which I did not quote from him." ~C.S. Lewis

Blessings to you on this Sunday.

Positive Day

Today is officially "Positive Day." It was started by this little 12-year-old girl known to her mother as "Diva Daughter." You can find them at Dust Bunny Hostage.

This is what Diva Daughter has to say about "Positive Day:"

POSITIVE DAY

"I first started thinking about this day because I feel like some people are very negative about things that they don't have to be. So I am going to tell you some of the things that I feel positive about and thankful for.

I am very thankful to have a family like mine. My family loves me! I am positive about my friends too. My friends are always there for me. That is one of the reasons I am glad that we moved. If we hadn't, I wouldn't have met some of the friends that I have now. And I am very positive about God and Jesus. I am so glad that I will be in Heaven one day. So on Positive Day, I think people should think about the good things in life. Thank you for being a part of it!!"

This was her idea, not her mom's and this is the symbol she chose to describe her outlook on life:

How can you say no to a face and child like this? I can't so I decided to participate. I drafted my kids, too. Here are some things we feel positive about:

1. Robynn: I am positive I hate housework.....wait.....I may not be in the spirit of this thing. Let me start over.

2. I am BLESSED to have two teenagers who I would prefer to hang out with over anybody, except Grizzly, at any given moment. They are wise and witty and love me unconditionally. Add two dogs into the mix and I have more than I deserve, by FAR.

3. I have real-life friends and blog friends - and the two are blending more frequently - who regularly bless me in so many ways. I could never have imagined any of this eight months ago.

4. I have a husband who braves the heat, hard economic times, and hard physical work to support his family everyday.

5. I have deep assurance that God has his hand on our lives and our comings and goings. I know nothing happens to us that He is not aware of. I know I am the only one surprised by what happens in life. He already has a plan. I can rest in that and in who we all are in Him and TO Him. Even when I'm afraid. Even when medicine alters my thought processes while it poisons me. I quaver. I tremble. He doesn't.

1. Bo’s Comments: Every birthday we all get to spend together is a big deal. No one ever knows how long they will live or where life will take them. Right now, we're all together and we have to appreciate it.

2. The song "Like a Cloak" by Joey Ryan is a happy, sweet song that I'm loving right now.......some lines from the song:

"Since you've been around, honey, it feels just like a cloak has been wrapped around me, and nothin’ could ever go wrong,

“Since you’ve been around, honey, it feels like a thousand stones have been lifted off me, I’ve never felt so strong.

The CD just has five songs but the whole thing has an upbeat feeling and leaves me smiling.

3. A few nights ago I hung out with my girlfriends and we had no particular place to go. Just talked, and walked, and ate, and talked some more. All our lives have come to the crossroads yet we’re staying together and connected.

1. The Wild Man Speaks: I have lots of friends and I realize I take a lot for granted. I need to pay attention more to what good things I get to enjoy that some other people may not get to.

2. Good parents that spend time with me and care about me. And I ALWAYS make my mom laugh and that makes me happy. Even when she’s tryin’ to lecture me I can bust her up. =D

3. I’m glad I’m homeschooled. I have lots of opportunities and I’m not limited. It gives me a lot more options.

Robynn here again……

I wanted the kids to participate because it’s good for all of us to think about things. I HAVE to add that my kids got me through a very rough week after a reaction to medicine for the ear infection/tooth thing that isn’t quite over yet. They sat up late with me, loved on me, petted me, spoke comforting words, and Bo even researched whatever help she could find on the internet. Truly, I have so much. I have deep sympathy for those who struggle alone.

And as a last thought……Bo got up before me and headed out to get me Starbucks this morning. And TWM rarely passes me that he doesn’t reach out and pat me as he goes by with the words, “Pretty Mama.”

Now really, do I NEED anything else?

Copyright 2009

Observational Twitter 19

Famous Quote:

"To be proud of virtue, is to poison yourself with the Antidote." ~ Benjamin Franklin

Obscure Quote:

"To be proud of virtue is the pseudo-saintliest and most widely self-accepted form of sin. And the infected rarely know they have the disease. I've only known two truly humble people in my life and the other one would rather I didn't mention his name." ~Robynn


Copyright 2009

Tooth Update and a Plea……

After heading south with this infection yesterday and getting really sick, I had a Waterloo moment with my tooth and served it eviction papers. I’m done pledging my troth to one so unfaithful.

I did some research on troublesome root canals and they can continue to infect your body through tiny things called tubules even after retreatment. This is what you come to me for: cutting edge dental lingo. These tubules can allow infection to do what my infection has done – travel around your body, especially nearby structures, and they can be hard to get rid of. I’m on my second round of antibiotics and you know me and medicine. We’re like….

THAT

We stay away from each other if we can. We fight. It tends to win.

So, rather than plunk down hundreds this morning for a mere chance at success, I said good-bye to the first of my errant teeth for a $50 co-pay. With any luck, it’ll be the last. I believe you should hang on to friends and teeth until they absolutely prove rotten. But when you finally accept reality and let go, it’s a relief.

Bo drove me – it’s so nice to let yourself be pampered a little and not have to show up and drive yourself to everything, like heart surgery. Well, okay. It wasn’t heart surgery but I did drive myself home from major breast surgery. I had a duct removed (all men turn away here and throw up……). I was bleeding from a nipple and they had to lay me open, remove the duct, and stitch me up. They said it was a precancerous condition and couldn’t be ignored. Now, if you can imagine this, they shot me up with Versed which is supposed to knock you out and make you remember nothing. It does NOT have that affect on me. I talked like a magpie through the whole surgery. The last thing I remember was the surgeon telling the anesthesiologist, “For the love of all that’s decent! Shut that woman up and give her more!” Some people just CAN’T appreciate a good conversation.

Then they woke me up and made me prove I had a ride home. They made me give them a visual. They told me not to drive for a few weeks (breast movement and all that.) However, I had driven myself there and now there would be a car left and that seemed to be a problem so, I did what we women do. I got in the car and drove home.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, milking my tooth removal (all references to milking and breasts is purely coincidental – no animals were harmed in the making of this sentence.) I told Bo the oral surgeon said I require six weeks of bed rest, excessive milk shakes, and no lifting for at least a year. Bo added that she felt I should even demand complete control over the remote. It brought a tear to my eye. I raised her right…….(sniff……).

So, here’s where you come in. My little follower button? The one over there? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->? It has been stuck. Am I boring? (Don’t answer that.) Does no one new come here? I see names I don’t recognize in my comments so I’m thinkin’ maybe you just haven’t thought about signing up. Now that I’m desperately injured and laid-up, it would bring me great cheer if you would de-lurk, as it were, and sign up to follow. It's inCREDibly easy if you already follow other blogs or have a Google account. If not, you have to sign up for one and create a password. I guess that can be a pain in the posterior but consider me and my pathetic plight. Go ahead, make my day. Or my dinner. Or my massage appointment.

P.S. Sheryl asks: "Was it a front tooth?" That picture would kinda make you think so, huh? No, it was the last one in the back, on the bottom. I'm sure no one will notice but me. This picture is false advertising. I'm bling-less!

Copyright 2009

Paddling Down the Old Root Canal

Today I will lay in a dentist chair and envision the canals of Venice. It’ll take plenty of imagination. Maybe I’ll pretend I’m on a cruise and fording the Panama Canal level-by-level. That would definitely be cheaper than the canal I’ll be exploring.

The ear ache, jaw ache, and infection have all added up to this vacation buster. They THINK (operative word here) that I may have an infection under an old root canal due to a crack in a root. This is when you curse your British roots – literally. We just don’t have the best teeth. Every time the family is watching a program and someone appears with crooked, widely spaced, or browning teeth, Grizzly looks at me, laughs, and says, “Must be British!” Mind you, he isn’t exactly a perfect-toothed Osmond brother himself. I could throw a rock at Ireland from my British shore and hit him squarely between the eyes. I’m quite sure the DNA tests would show that we’re actually related. Too many similarities.

By God’s good grace our children will not have to bear the brunt of our inbreeding. Thousands of dollars and a miracle working orthodontist have spared Bo from bearing the family crest. The Wild Man is fast on her heels. Fortunately, his adult teeth were on a world tour and have shown up VERY late to the party. This has allowed us a small respite between orthodontia mortgages.

But Grizzly and I were born in the era of braces being only for the rich and privileged. In fact, only a few of my friends sport those expensive pearly whites that are as straight and even as piano keys. It just wasn’t done. Unless you could look down your nose and see your two front teeth sticking straight out, you were required to get over yourself and move on. I never went to the dentist until I was 13 and my mother got dental insurance through her job. By then I had eight cavities, not counting the vast one between my ears. I took the bus downtown to the dentist by myself. My mother was working. Eight shots and eight fillings later, I rode the bus home and decided this was one luxury I wanted to live without. Had I known to brush my teeth more than once a week I might have avoided the whole affair. Nutrition could have helped, too, but nutrition was expensive and would have required food knowledge. We lived on canned vegetables, Green Goddess and Thousand Island dressing, iceberg lettuce, Wonder Bread, and Velveeta. Honest-to-goodness I never knew there was any other kind of veggies or cheese until I left home.

I decided to do things differently with my kids. Don’t most new mothers? I nursed them endlessly and started brushing their teeth before they HAD teeth. I was determined to overcome nature with nurture. It has been largely effective as they’ve only had one tiny cavity between them in 18 years. But I was unable to influence tooth placement and jaw structure. Fortunately, our orthodontist is not so constrained. Unfortunately, our budget is horribly constrained. Parents get in line behind children and a root canal for the mother does not factor in. My endodontist says if the root is too badly cracked he will not redo it but will pull it instead at a greatly reduced cost.

Come on British roots, don’t fail me now. Crack wide open and make your cheap escape!

Copyright 2009

Hail, Caesar! Stop The Chariot!

Saw this and had to share. It's from Arthur Black's "Weird Homes" and it's located in Toronto. I've been there but I didn't see this. What style is it exactly? Roman/Greco/Colonial/Patriotic/Americana? In Canada?

I want to meet the people who put it together. Don't you think they might be interesting? Am I the only one or is anyone else seized by the desire to stop and knock on doors of interesting, or beautiful, or cozy houses and just randomly meet the people who live there? Get to know all about them. Stay for the weekend. I'd like to do that with my blogging friends. You've been warned. Lock the door and act like you're not home.

I want to know about the conversation that took place to bring this to life. Did she roll over and look at her husband's balding pate and decide it would look great if he sported a garland and wore a toga? And if so, shouldn't they be surrounded by a setting perfect for him? And was she looking to feature her great arms, set off by a sheet gathered at the shoulder? Do they parade up and down the balcony and hold open-air philosophical discussions with the neighbors? I'm thinking the neighbor on the left doesn't appear all that philosophical, if I may be so bold as to judge a book by it's cover. He probably just cranks up the tv and prays the Empire will be overthrown.

Whatever their story, they've got guts. I like people with guts. Now, I KNOW I don't want to live next door to someone who decides to paint their house chartreuse green with purple trim. But these people? I like 'em. And I wish I knew their story. And I'd love to listen to them. But I'm not wearing the toga. I don't have this lady's arms. Speaking of arms, that would be a great name for this place: "The Venus De Milo Arms."

Copyright 2009