Are you listening?

God has spoken to me. I have no doubt. And it's happened more than once.

The first time that I remember God speaking to me I was in my bedroom one night standing beside my bed in our house in Dunncroft. It was in 2000 and I believe it was in August of that year. I still remember the warmth of His touch and the comfort of His guidance. His command was clear "ask her to forgive you." I was not afraid. I was excited! I was relieved.

A very dear friend of mine was going through a traumatic event and I wasn't there for her. I could list the many reasons I wasn't able to be there physically, but they were all excuses. Because of my absence when she needed me most, our lives were drifting apart and that didn't feel right. If it were only because our families were growing, interests were changing, and time was limited, I could accept the change. But I knew in my heart that I was letting this happen and it wasn't right.

That night, God put His hand on my right shoulder and told me: "ask her to forgive you." I went to sleep knowing what had to happen first thing the next morning.

Fortunately, circumstances happened that I was able to go to her house the very next day. And just as God had told me, I simply asked for her forgiveness. No excuses for my choices. No explanations. Just an apology for not being there for her and a request that she find it in her heart to forgive me. She did.

It's funny. Our families have since grown and our time is more limited than ever. But I always felt like our lives would intertwine again. We've stayed in touch as best as possible and sure enough, our interests are becoming similar once again, and soon enough our kids will even been in the same school. God works in mysterious ways. Thank God!

Some things never change...

Do you have any unusual household habits that seem so natural you don't think twice about them?

This is going back a few years, but I remember my good friend Sharon suggesting to my friend that they get us a set of dinner dishes as an engagement gift because we were using recycled containers (I think they were butter containers and the like.)

We didn't really mind using the recycled containers. Nowadays you could say were were being "green." But at the time, it was nice to receive our first official domestic gift.

But guess what!?!?! Come to find out, we STILL use butter containers on a regular basis! We use Country Crock and get it in the small tubs. We have a stack of those empty tubs in our cupboard and frequently use them for dry snacks - a handful of pretzels or dry cereal. I don't even think about it, but imagine I've gotten some weird looks from visitors and in-home employees the first time they saw me prancing around with a butter tub ;-).

And to those of you who bought me that first set of Corelle dishes, thank you for helping me into domestic adulthood. Now I use the butter containers because they're convenient, not because we can't afford real dishes ;-).

Do you ever wonder why some friendships end?

Have you read that "article" about friends coming into our lives for a reason, a season, or a lifetime? I can't find the source, but found plenty of reprints online.

I fully agree and understand that some friendships are not forever (or that some remain forever in our heart even if we're not still in touch.) Ironically, Facebook has changed that philosophy a bit as some long lost friends have been brought back into our lives, so I guess we weren't fully done being friends yet. But it's obvious that some people will no longer be part of our lives once we've moved on from our commonality - be it school, job, neighborhood, church, etc.

Yet I have also experienced the end of some friendships that puzzle me to this day. Perhaps it was a misunderstanding that we could never quite straighten out, or lost contact information (because hard as I try, there are some people I simply can't find on the Internet!). Maybe it was social or parental influences or simply losing track of time and then losing track of each other. No matter the reason, I feel a void for those lost friendships and they're on my mind today.

Not Everything has to be "new & improved"!

Let's talk about the can strainer. Simple enough. A plastic disc with holes, insert it in your tuna can, flip can over sink, squeeze strainer against tuna and get practically all of the water or oil out of the tuna. We had one which looked much like this model for oh...a couple of decades before the plastic finally broke.



Thus started the surprisingly frustrating process of FINDING a new strainer. I can't seem to find one in the kitchen gadgets section. Couldn't even find one Bed Bath & Beyond (and yes I did ask for help.) Finally happened upon one in the candy aisle (or some other bizarre, unrelated section of the grocery store.) The new strainer looks like this:



I felt like I was modernizing my kitchen, until I realized this strainer SUCKS for the one & only thing we use it for...a large can of tuna! You see those handles??? They keep me from fitting the strainer all the way in and truly draining the tuna. And I hate soggy tuna! Are you kidding me???

So back to shopping I went and picked up this nifty strainer for all of $1.50 (once again found in a bizarre location like the cereal aisle):


This bad boy is adjustable. Just twist them apart or together for smaller or larger cans. Comes complete with instructions.


I'm satisfied with my new strainer, but concerned that the bells & whistles will only make it break much sooner than my old work horse.

Something tells me I could recreate this simple-simon strainer, market it to easy-to-find locations and charge $5 ;-)



Keep it simple people!!! Not everything needs newness or improvement ;-).

Rock Bottom?

I did not have a stellar day. Other than taking Kayla to the pediatricians (negative for strep) and remembering to up a gallon of milk, I don't feel as though much was accomplished. I managed to make a few phone calls but put off cleaning the kitchen. I hit rock bottom when I sat down with Colin to go over his grades and quickly fell asleep.

Tired? From what? Doing nothing? Eating like crap? A solid night's sleep? Pathetic!

Thankfully...I'm feeling better. I remembered a fun class at the gym that starts at 5:45 so I scrambled to tidy the kitchen and now I'm off to the gym for a fun dance class followed by an unexpected evening with friends.

Maybe my body needed the down day to appreciate life's highs. I much prefer the highs!

Scatterbrained

Sorry I haven't posted in over a week. Quite honestly, the one word to describe my days is "scatterbrained" though I don't think it's the same scattered brained as defined by freedictionary.com: "exhibiting or characterized by lack of serious thought or concentration; disorganized; silly."

It's not that I lack serious thought or concentration. As a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite. But after scattering my brain on different tasks and projects daily, I can't quite come up with one recurring theme to summarize the day.

So far this morning I've driven out to the east end, taken care of some business, gone to the grocery store, and discussed an order for Kayla's Cookies & Crumbs (I really need to update that blog too!!!) Not exactly sitting around with my feet up eating bon-bons, but also not life-altering.

One recurring theme in the past week has been friends. Bunko with the Carrington ladies, bunko with the SPES ladies, bunko with the Winterberry ladies, and maybe bunko with the ELES ladies. Checking in on friends going through rough times. Rallying with friends for good causes. Sharing things in common; learning from each others' differences.

I guess it's my ability to be scatterbrained which allows me to enjoy these many blessings. Yeah -- scatterbrained and I love it!

I think I'm obsessed...

...with hunting for bargains at the grocery storeSSS!

I am tracking every little penny, comparing prices at up to five different stores. Clipping coupons, scanning ads, visiting other savings-obsessed blogs and websites. And the sad thing is, I'm excited about it.

I see it as a process. Eventually I'll know where to go for the lowest prices (and whether it's really worth it to do so much driving around.)

This week's excitement:

1. I found out that if you use ONE COUPON from Costco's mailer, their system automatically activates all other coupons applicable to your order. I had a Costco coupon for pork chops (the BEST boneless pork chops!) I also bought a case of Mountain Dew but didn't realize there was a coupon in the mailer for Pepsi products. Sure enough...my receipt shows that they applied the $2 coupon WITHOUT ME SAYING A THING! Take that Michael's and your annoyingly frustrating coupon policy* ;-).

2. I've also recently learned that Target has "Target Internet Coupons" which can be used ALONG WITH A MANUFACTURERS COUPON on the same item. By the way, I ASSumed that Target would have higher prices on groceries; a couple of friends encouraged me to be more open minded. Sure enough, milk, Kayla's favorite cheese sticks, my nightly weakness and Cascade are significantly cheaper at Target...go figure.

3. I ordered an Entertainment book this week. I haven't bought one of those in years, but ordering one for $23 online (versus $35 at CVS) will pay me back the first time I take the kids to the batting cages & driving range at Bogey's Sports Park, so anything after that is a bonus!

*Don't get me wrong...I LOVE Michael's. But they have the lamist coupon policy. You can use one coupon at a time. Period. Meanwhile, Bed Bath & Beyond takes one coupon per item regardless of expiration date. CVS supposedly doesn't care about expiration dates either. And then there's Michael's, and perhaps that frustrates me the most because I typically buy higher-priced items there with some frequency (thanks to Kayla's Cookies & Crumbs.)