Bye-Bye '09

Wow! Is it possible that I haven't written on this blog for two months? Is it possible that this year will come to an end in less than 1.5 hours? Is it possible that I'm the mother of four fabulous kiddos? Is it possible that God has allowed me a second chance at love for a life-time? Is it possible that my baby, my son, is half way through kindergarten? Yes! They are all possible and on my mind tonight.

I know lots of people talk about New Year's resolutions. Most try to manage their eating habits and lose weight. My boss tries to eat 4000 calories a day so that he can gain weight, as he (tragically) only weighs 171 pounds. No matter how much he eats, he always wakes up and weighs the same, a measely 171 pounds. Oh, to have that problem! But no, that isn't a problem for me.

Others try to read more, educate themselves more, return to school, etc. Some spend all of their Christmas money on self-help books that will further depress them and then they end up selling the books next summer in their first garbage sale of the season. Did I say garbage sale? Yeah, that's what I said. Remember, one person's trash is another person's treasure. So garbage is right. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll do without the books this time.

People who suffer from addictive habits like smoking often vow to quit their nasty fire-breathing habit. However, their bodies don't want to quit, and then the problem becomes mind over matter. Sometimes the mind wins, and sometimes it just doesn't seem to matter. Thus, by February, the puffs perk up and the habit rages on. This one isn't a problem for me. I like to watch the fire in the fireplace, not up my nose and in my throat, thank you.

Do you have any idea how much money people spend on memberships to gyms and other such places like the YMCA at the end of each year and the very beginning of the next? I can't say that I've done that before, but I have come close. I could never justify such an expenditure, but once when I lived in an apartment complex I decided to make use of the clubhouse gym on the second day of the new year. While there an older guy came in, took one look at me and said, "So, this is your New Year's resolution? Will I see you in here again?" Well, if for no other reason, I never went back, much less wanted to!

So, you are wondering what my New Year's resolutions will be for this year. Here they are: A couple of years ago I vowed not to make resolutions unless I specifically felt led by the Lord to do so. I'm not a fad person. I don't buy crocks just because they are "in." I don't buy those fuzzy suede boots just because they look good on everyone else. In fact, I probably wouldn't buy them just because everyone else has them! If I were to make a resolution for 2010, it would vanish before the end of January. In and of myself, I cannot resolve to do a cotton-pickin' thing if it is not of the Lord and He is not in it.

I can hope to treat my family better, spend more time with my children, prioritize my commitments to only those things truly worthy, try to lose 15 pounds, work out every day, eat more veggies and less chocolate, participate in more charities, work more hours, and even spend more time reading. However, not one of those things in and of itself will make me a better person. The only thing that makes me better is growing my relationship with Jesus Christ. And as far as I know, there is only one way to accomplish that goal: Hang out with Him. That is done by studying His word. The more I hang out with Him, the deeper our relationship grows. The more I speak to Him, the more He speaks back to me. The more secrets I share with Him, the more He sweeps in to gently confide in me the mysteries of His love. The more I seek Him, the easier it is to find Him.

So, as I say goodbye to 2009, I can look back and see events that brought laughter and some that brought tears. I have continued to heal physically and emotionally. I have seen God's fingerprints all over this year. He has never wavered in His faithfulness to me and my family. And, I resolve to do all that I can to invest in the best relationship possible to make 2010 a wonderful year. Why don't you hang out with Him in 2010? He will change your life!

An Author at Boot Camp Workout

Suffice it to say, I have failed at retelling my readers (you) about how the boot camp workout experience has been going. So, for those who follow the blog, I'll bring you up to date. I have continued the crazy workout, but modified it to fit this old body. Since I've had back surgeries, some of the most amazing moves of the workout just don't work for me. The crab crawl killed my wrists and left my lower back cramping. The rope pull put me over the edge without even a thread of hope, much less an imaginary rope.

I have adapted the timing of the workout to fit my weird schedule, and some days I don't get the entire hour in. Ok, honestly, most days I get in about 45 minutes. However, I do believe the important thing to emphasize here is that I am doing a workout on a regular basis. The biggest key to helping me reach this milestone is words. Yes, I am a female. I use more than the estimated 50,000 words a day, and if I have no one else to talk to, I simply talk to my pets and myself. When I am on the treadmill, I read other people's glorious words. The time flies by so fast I can hardly believe I've been on the moving motion maker for 2.5 miles. I haven't quite figured out how to read and run at the same time, so while I run, rather than briskly walk, I am bored silly and want to quit. However, I plod on.

To date, I've lost about 4 pounds, but then a couple find me again. No matter. I'll plod on still. I feel good, I know I'm giving my heart a run for its health, my energy level is higher, and I'm more alert throughout the day. Now if only I could lose the Mountain Dew. On that tender subject, I believe all people have a venue for release. Maybe you would call it a vice. Some are gamblers, some drink too much alcohol, some wear too much makeup, buy too many shoes, lead the gossip circles, etc. My vice is Mountain Dew. I know it has way too much caffeine. I know it is full of processed sugar. I know it is one of the worst sodas on the planet. And yet, I like it. I have one can a day, and on some days, a second can. For now, that makes me happy. I want to be happy, don't you?

I'll keep running on the treadmill, doing as many of the boot camp moves as possible, drink my Mountain Dew and anticipate the holidays. Personally, I'll be glad when Halloween is over. My neighbors decorate their yards with creepy gravestones, grim reapers, men in electric chairs being fried, and skulls without bodies and bodies without heads. Yuck! But when this horrible "holiday" is over, those same neighbors put out serene displays of the nativity. That's what I'm looking forward to. In between, I'll remember how thankful I should be for so many beautiful people in my life.

And now this author must do what authors do. I'm deep into editing my two books, and a deadline approaches, so I much leave this blog for now. I'll try to return before another month has passed!

Author Workout

My mother yearly gets me a subscription to Prevention Magazine. I'm not sure what I'm trying to prevent, as I've already had thyroid cancer, surgery on both feet, two back surgeries, four baby deliveries, enough stress to last a lifetime, and an extra twenty pounds have found a new home in my almost 40 body. Most months I peruse the pages of Prevention and find tidbits of info that interest me. However, this month about six pages caught my eye.

The pages contained lots of pictures and the title "Walk Off Two Sizes In Two Weeks with this fun boot-camp style workout." Ok, so does the title make this workout sound fun to you? Boot camp has never been my idea of a good time. So, I thought I'd read further.

I am already a walker. Ever since I took a job as a server at a nearby restaurant, I have walked more than my fair share. Each shift I work I clock about three miles on my feet. I work about four to five shifts a week, so that is pretty good. On top of that, I have four kids to keep up with. I run behind and beside bikes, I play basketball against my oldest, we take family bike rides, so you get the point.

Back to the boot-camp workout. How about trying it, I thought. Maybe it will do this body some good. This morning was day number one. The workout is something like this:

Five minutes of brisk walking (3.5-4 miles per hour) followed by 30 second breaks where one of the following is added before doing brisk walking again: High knees walks, the walking lunge, traveling squat, backpedaling walk, high step skipping, the shuffle, the crossover, incredible push ups, the bear crawl, the wood chopping squat, the crab walk, and the rope climb.

DOES THIS SOUND LIKE FUN? No, but it does sound like boot camp. They got that part right, at least.

By the time the whole workout was over, I spent exactly an hour sweating buckets. I spent 50 minutes on the treadmill (3 miles) broken up by bits and spurts of crazy moves like putting an old thirty-something though the bear crawl. Oh my goodness, it is a good thing no one else was home or could see me. I'm sure I looked utterly ridiculous.

I seriously doubt I'll lose 20 pounds or even four inches from anywhere on my body, but I am going to try to stick with this crazy boot-camp fun-filled workout for six weeks, at three times a week. That means that I have 17 more of these one-hour-embarrassingly tough-sweating profusely-workouts. That is only 17 hours of my precious time over the next six weeks. I can do that, can't I?

In order to keep my focus on the completion of this minor task, I am going to try to blog about it once a week. I'll let you know if my mind can master the matter of boot camp or if it is way too much for me. I'll share my moments of exhilaration and my points of frustration. And if you care to join me on this mind-blowing adventure, get a Prevention magazine from October 2009 and look at pages 88-94. Let the boot camp begin!

Kindergarten Homework

Tonight my son, a kindergarten, brought home homework, for the very first time in his precious life. His assignment? Write his name correctly three times using that wonderful triple-lined paper that teaches children to round their letters ever-so-perfectly, and count aloud to twenty a few times.

David has watched his sisters do all kinds of homework over the last few years. Kaitlyn, his oldest sister, musters the energy to learn pre-algebra, negative numbers, properties, and the like. Rachel, the next oldest drills on lists of 25 spelling words, Bible memorization, and long division. Meagan works on reading for thirty minutes a night, long addition and subtraction, and multiplication tables.

So one can only imagine the reaction of the sisters when David's homework was to write his name three times and count to twenty. "Just wait, David. Pretty soon you'll be doing a lot more than that!!!"

David's reaction to his first night of homework? "I hate homework."

Now in all honestly, David did not hate his homework. In fact, he sat right down with a sharpened pencil in hand and readily got to work making nicely rounded letters for his name. He didn't need Mike's help. He knew how to do it all by himself, he said. Well, he needed a little help making the letters stretch to fit the first and third lines, but when he was finished, he relished his success. He was proud of his accomlishment. He had tackled the world of homework for the first time, and he was victorious.

While he was counting to twenty and missing number fifteen, my mind flew back to his birth, the times that his sisters were in kindergarten, and I thought about how fast they are growing up. David will get to do homework for another thirteen years, give or take all of his college and graduate years. For now, he says he hates it. But I am praying that he will continue to feel that awesome sense of fulfillment with each educational step he takes. In all actuality, pretty soon he will be doing long addition, negative numbers, reading for thirty minutes, and studying spelling words. We'll be by him helping him every step of the way and cheering him on to whatever God has in store for him.

Kindergarten homework. Who would have thought? I'm glad he gets to share in the joys of homework. One day later this week he gets to draw a picture of his teacher as his homework. If he still hates homework by Thursday, maybe he'll draw a VERY interstering picture of Mrs. West, even though he loves her.

Typos Run Amok

Ah, the ever present typo. I am a former English teacher and author, yet I must continue to deal with the infamous typo. I know what I want to say, how I want to say it, and the best time and place to say it, but I must also consider the typo. I have been a paid editor for English papers in a local college preparatory high school, and I am good at finding typos. Well, let me clarify that a bit.

I am good at finding typos in other people's writing. In my own, I see what I should be seeing, not what I am seeing. Did you get that? Regardless, here is my philosophy on typos, in regard to this blog, all of my personal (not professional related) e-mail, texts, etc. Oh, wait! Texts are one enormous typo, so they don't count in the mix anyway...more on texts in another blog.

And yet I digress...my philosophy on typos: I will try to avoid them at all times. However, after I've given my blog a once-over to check for the nuisances, I'll simply save the post and move on. I don't have time to re-read over and over, and by the time I do that, I'll lose the idea that I was trying to convey in the first place.

Please don't get me wrong. Editing is vitally important. I pay an editor to go over my professional work with a fine tooth comb searching for typos. I have been a paid editor looking for typos. However, for the purposes of this blog, I shall render all typos powerless. Thus said, "Typos, you have no dominion over my blog posts. If you appear, we shall all simply ignore your presence and enjoy the purpose and focus of each blog. Move on and pepper someone else's page, please!"

Back to School!

It is a sunny, quiet Monday. The kiddos are back to school for yet another week. If my calculations are right, they only have about 38 weeks to go until summer break rolls around again. Do you remember those times? The sights and smells of a new school year can hardly be rivaled.

My husband in a first grade school teacher whose heart beats to the rhythm of the school year. About five weeks before his contract begins each year, he starts meandering through the school supply isles at Walmart. He picks up, plays with, and tests all of the cool, new school gadgets. He pushes the buttons, tries the levers and smells the crayons. He needs this time to begin dreaming of his classroom.

Each year Mike, my hubby of a two years, turns his regular first-grade classroom into something amazing. Last year the kids were in outer space all year. This year they are on a cruise ship with Mr. Purcell. Birds fly around the room via battery operated string toys, nets filled with crabs and star fish dangle from the corners, and life preservers display the school rules. His classroom is truly a sight to behold.

Oh, and let's not forget Snoopy. Mike has been a Snoopy fan for years. The border of his room is always Snoopy, and Snoopy guides the way for many other things that happen in that magical place. It makes me want to be in first grade all over again. But the best part of it all? Well, the room looks fantastic and inviting, safe, and fun. But the best part is that much learning will take place on that cruise ship over the next 38 weeks. Addition will be introduced and mastered by many. Students will learn to read for the very first time. Some kids will fall in love with their new-found abilities and show them off for anyone who will listen. One may even be on the early path of becoming author!

And it all begins in the heart of someone who cares. Someone who cares enough to spend many days of his summer break preparing for the cruise that he'll take with his first graders. Someone who loves the children he teaches. Someone who still finds value in the little accomplishments of the wonderful people in his life. My thanks go out to Mike and all the other fabulous teachers who impart more than an education to the children. A dollar figure cannot measure the value of their sacrifice for the children. Have a wonderful 09-10 cruise everyone!

I am an author. My first book is in publication, and I am fervently working on my second book. It goes without saying that authors have a lot to say. And this author is also a female, so words are always looking for a way of escape. My children are back in school, I have time on my hands, and no one to hear my words, thus, I've created this blog.

I am new to the blogging world, although it has been around for ten years, apparently. Those ten years have been spent birthing and raising children, so it is no surprise to me that blogs and millions of other things exist that I am not aware of. But for today, I'd like talk about those ten years.

I am in my late thirties and have never truly felt "old" before. However, recently I took a part-time job to help bring in some extra funds. I am a server at a local restaurant where I am about twice the age of all of my co-workers and ten years older than all of my bosses. That is such a very bizarre feeling. In my late thirties, I am being treated with kid-gloves and looked at with awe mixed with revere. Why is that? Do I look like a tray of food is way too much for me to handle? Does my back curve? Do I walk with a stoop?

I do lack the energy and stamina that most of my co-workers seem to have, but then again, this body has given birth to four children, I keep my house functioning, I am an author, a cancer survivor, a faithful wife, an active church member, etc. They attend high school. Regardless, we all get along nicely primarily because I am the ancient one.

So, in the end, I hope they get the message that I am working to fill in the gaps for my family. Even if having a thirty-something person working at the local restaurant is weird, it is right. We must roll with the times, even if they are tough. Sixteen or thirty-six. I will gladly (okay, well sometimes not so gladly) put on my apron, face the world of adolescence and do what I can to provide for the needs of those I love.