One Part Inspiration...

I often think of Sisyphus, a character from Greek mythology, condemned to the eternal punishment by the gods for trickery. He was compelled to roll a huge rock up a steep hill, but before he could reach the top of the hill, the rock would always roll back down, forcing him to begin again. I wonder, did the gods give Sisyphus any tools to help him roll the rock? And while Sisyphus is rolling the rock up the hill for the umpteenth millionth billionth time, was he talking to himself? If so, was he saying: "Oh why, oh why, am I rolling this rock up the hill? It only rolls down again. Not to mention that I can't find the wedge I'm supposed to have to help me. I wish the gods would stop playing those jokes by hiding it on me...oh...would you look at that? The rock slipped away from me and now, it's rolling down the ...

He replied, " I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." Matthew 17:20 Yesterday at staff devotions, the science teacher spoke about faith . During this speech, a random thought popped into my head "I need more money". I didn't know if that was in relation to the talk on faith so I let the moment pass without giving it much attention. A little later, I looked down and there was 5 cents under the seat in front of me. Then I thought " I think I should have been more specific ".

Now I lay me down to sleep I pray the Lord, My soul to keep. If I should die before I wake That's one less test I'll have to take . It is exam season. The season where the mom of the house has to lay off the nagging reminding about chores like laundry and cleaning the house in lieu of letting her children hit the books. The season where schedules get turned around and the mom has to leave herself many reminders about who is going to what school on what day and for how long. The season where the tension in the house is felt on an unconscious level and no one really knows why. The season where when the cat chooses to do its business under someone's bed and everyone wonders where the bad smell is coming from but no one has the energy to look. It is definitely exam time. The one mitigating factor is that there are always a few days when, if the student doesn't have to write an exam, some 'kick back' time can be enjoyed. That is unless they've signed up to do th...

Some things just take you right back in time. I see this picture and I immediately remember lhow much I loved those Plaid Pants. And that Embroidered Sweater. And I see that my hair is just as straight now as it was back then. (Although the color has changed a few times in between). When the teacher is phoning in the attendance, the kids are invited to "Tell Miss Marni" their news. One little girl shared that she got a new stuffie. Even though it had been years since I had thought about this, I suddenly remembered my stuffies. One of the missionary ladies made me all kinds of stuffies. One was Humpty Dumpty. I remembered that worrying that they would get cold, and so I would get out of bed and sleep on the floor to save them from hypothermia. I sign a permission form for skating and I remember the time that my sister and I were skating on a backyard ice rink. I was congratulating myself on how well I was doing while skating backwards when I rammed into the tree. N...

Victory is won Not in miles, But in inches. Win a little now, Hold your ground, And later, Win a little more. -Louis L'Amour-

I have to tell you about my new best friend. This is one of those items which never quite made it into my cart because it was so expensive. How could I justify spending that much money on something that I couldn't eat. Then, I had a casual conversation with a co-worker about baking and cooking. I asked her advice on how to clean up the big mess I'd made baking cinnamon buns. When the smoke alarm alerted me to the fact that they needed to be taked out of the oven I found that the combination of too much brown sugar and butter at the bottom of the pan...[and probably blogging for just a little too long] had caused an amazing amount of carmelized carbon at the bottom of the pan. First she suggested pouring boiling water on it (that was fairly successful) and then she suggested using parchment paper the next time. Then I learned that she used parchment paper on her George Forman Grill. "Saves clean up on the chicken dinner" she said. I'm all over that. Cleaning up is ...

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. ~Eudora Welty This is one of my favorite pictures of 2008.

[Warning: The following post may make no sense whatsoever. The management takes no responsibility for the confusilment the reader may experience] So I just casually mentioned that we would be interested in having our name put onto the "Foreign Exchange" student home stay list. Never thought another thing about it. After all I was in full holiday gear. Lots of company, Lots of snow. And Lots of Lots More Happening In Our House. The next day, the phone rang. Would we consider taking on an exchange student for seven weeks starting in two days? Hmmm. How does one decide? It took me back to when I phoned my mother to tell her I was pregnant with our third child. We were still in the throes of grieving the loss of my husband's mom, my father-in-law was back from a trip to Africa and was very sick, my two year old was being toilet-trained[ and it wasn't going that well, if you know what I mean] , I was sick as a dog, we had moved, my husband was starting a new business...