Monthly Archives: May 2016

A Day to Celebrate

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bright future ahead

Today we celebrate the high school graduations with a party.  We have been striving to get the outside and inside ready for the few or the many that may come by to shake a hand, give a hug, provide a word of advise or just spend some time sharing their individual energy with the graduates.

I still have about 150 flowers that cannot yet be put into the ground as while the days have been beautiful and in the 70’s, the nights here in the  mountains has left us with frost almost every morning this week.

So for the grads, I will remind them to be flexible.

remain flexible

And to remember too that each day/moment is a choice.

this bright new day

We have sent them to school for thirteen years knowing that they were learning all kinds of lessons in the classroom, on the bus, on the playground, in their activities.

educate children's hearts

To give you a glimpse of the education of Devin’s heart, I will share with you a blurb he shared with me from a school project.   It was a stream of consciousness that he let flow about his times working out of the country on mission trips. (a stream is meant to be a flow of ideas, not worrying about content, punctuation, structure or spelling, it is to follow the flow of your mind on a subject)

Stream of Consciousness

I love to go on mission trips. It’s how I get my karma reset and I’m back to being a good person.  I also love traveling, and helping people that need it.  When I’m down in Mexico or Ecuador or the Dominican Republic it’s like I’m the happiest I can be and I get to help someone that needs the help.  It’s also the best sleep I ever get.  Every night I’m there, I close my eyes and everything is great.  I think that I want to do something involving mission trips when I’m older.  Maybe like the peace corps or work for casas por cristo.  I just think that’s what  I am called to do.  Also the people you meet down there are the nicest and most loving people I have ever met.  Forget everything you’ve ever heard about Juarez, the people there are loving and caring.  I’m sure there are plenty of people down there that wouldn’t think twice about killing some gringo like me, but I’ve never met someone like that.  I know that I’m building a house for this family that needs it, but I always feel like I’m the one that’s receiving the gift.  Also I’m never depressed or angry there. It is like a feel good drug.  I think everyone should go on a mission trip somewhere. I don’t care if it’s in Mississippi or Zimbabwe, I think that once you know how it feels to be loved so much by strangers and help them by putting a roof over their head, there is nothing like it in the world that you would rather do.

 

A reminder that:

lessons experienced(oh, and while I was told when he shared his stream of conscious writing with me that he didn’t mind me sharing it, he did stipulate that he didn’t want to hear about what anyone else said about it). I managed to not go into any commentary from my end and just relay how proud I was that he has such an open heart.

Which leads to some last advise.

live life fully

Best wishes and follow your dreams young graduates.

Love, Sally

First Day of Summer

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Today is my first day of summer!

wishing for more vacation days

That has been my little internal mantra for a while – if only I had the time to do everything I wanted to do and see.

Work has been slowing and I could feel the approaching conversations of whom could we let go and be without. I couldn’t comprehend losing another of my team and when I sat down and looked at all of the invitations to life events and opportunities to spend time with loved ones and visit those nearing their end of their bodily journeys, well, there really wasn’t any time for work in that.

what to do

I hatched a plan a few weeks back that I was the one that should take a leave from work as it would save them a managers salary and provide the time I longed for to travel, explore, visit and enjoy.

I wrestled with myself and insecurities of money and would they let me go and allow me to come back in the fall when work generally would pick up again. Those of you who know me well know that I also struggle with change and while I could feel one half of my brain doing a happy dance and cheering loudly for an opportunity to have the summer without work obligation, the other half would rationalize how there was value in a steady paycheck and the fear that I could simply be forgotten and not be brought back later and would have to face another job change.

tELL THE NEGATIVE COMMITTEE
Last week I let the happy/joyful side of my brain win the argument and launched my proposal.
They admitted that someone did indeed need to go, but they did not want it to be me. I was able to remind them that I would return when the natural flow of business picked up again and anyone else would likely be gone for good. An agreement was reached, and two days later I had my last day and left work to head to the airport to pick up my mother in law who came out for our graduate.

always say yesI’ll be heading to the airport again in a few weeks for the first of my out of state travels. Then there are a couple of road trips that will take me down to Texas and up to South Dakota with a  camp trip in Colorado smooshed in the middle.  All in June, so if you have ideas for July, I’m somewhat open although I am hoping to drag the hubby away for a couple  jaunts.  For those of you in the Ohio Valley, I do plan to see you as well.

Love Sally

Lucky Me

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There are the traditional good luck charms like finding a shiny penny or a four leaf clover.  I have found my share of both.  (Actually, I might have found lots of peoples shares of the four leaf clovers)  sometimes goodluck is gross

Today I was reminded of a little talked about good luck event.  The one that says when a bird poops on you or your car, it is good luck.

pidgeon lessons

Several years back, while camping with friends and family, in the midst of making children answer trivia questions in order to get a marshmallow to cook for their s’mores, a  bird flew over and dropped a bomb on me.  I quit trying to educate the young mind while providing sugar to their overactive bodies after that. Call that good luck for the children on that event.

Today, I was exhausted at lunch and so instead of a walk, I drove to the little park I sometimes go to and tilted the seat back, opened the passenger window halfway and took a nap.

When I awoke, there was bird poop inside my car!  What kind of party happened while I was snoozing? It’s not like I had crackers or Cheetos or anything on the dashboard.  I didn’t buy birdseed and spill it recently. (I can’t say that has never happened as my car has hauled all kinds of things and who can remember?)

 

who did that to my car

I almost thought I should look in the mirror to see if I had been so sound asleep that they had done a Disney braid with flowers in my hair or some other ruse.

That was my story for today.  Can’t make this stuff up.

Love Sally

 

Graduation Invitation

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I had not thought I would put Devin’s graduation invitation on a post.  But then I hadn’t thought that I would send out half of them without a complete address on them, or lose the list of whom I had sent one to and who I hadn’t yet.

So forgive me if you’ve see it or don’t care.  If you didn’t receive one and expected one, consider this your personal invite posted where everyone can see how much I love you and want you to come.

I would feel more guilty if he wasn’t so cute both then and now and can’t imagine anyone not being able to smile when you see that smile.

Note: The graduation ceremony and party are NOT on the same date.

Would love to see you.

Love Sally