save a tree...and your sanity

It's estimated retailers mail 17 billion catalogs a year! That's not magazines, junk mail, or fliers. Imagine adding all the cardboard boxes, paper products, and the list could go on and on. A few months ago I got on the "do not call list" for junk mail first because I was so bugged by the mass of meaningless mail I was getting and what a waste of my time to sort through all the junk. Second, I felt concerned over the amount of paper going to waste. Getting on the list takes more time and is a longer process than getting on the "do not call list" for your phone number, but it does work.

Here's the link if you are interested:

www.newdream.org/junkmail/optout.php


And by snail mail write to:

Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
11 West 42nd Street P.O. box 3861
New York, NY 10163

You must include your name, address and zip code.

Thoughts For The Day

Nothing feels so good as...

...taping up a box after packing it up.



Nothing feels so bad as...

...turning around and seeing more junk to be packed.

separation anxiety

The thought came to me today that babies get separation anxiety once they develop to the point of recognizing there is only one you with no suitable substitute. Only one mom, or dad. Only one center of their universe. And to not be there is traumatic for sure.

So this idea makes me wonder: do adults get separation anxiety? What would this look like? Have you even found yourself digressed to infancy where you don't realize there's only one you and to be away from that true you is a terrible, very sad, very scary thing?

What to write

I just read today that Hemmingway tried to write 250 words a day which doesn't seem like much until after 365 days when you have discovered you've written a novel.
I would like to write every day. By the end of this sentence I will have written roughly 50 words, so really 250 isn't a huge goal. All too often I want to write, but nothing comes to mind until my fingers start moving. Seriously, I start with "what to write..." and before I know it there's this!
Here are places I write which would certainly count toward writing everyday:
My journal (handwritten)
My kids' journals
My computer journal
Notebooks, napkins, over kid artwork (hard to admit, but if it's the only piece of paper for miles I've picked a corner to cram in some notes), receipts, newspapers, HERE, THERE, EVERYWHERE.
This blog

The point is, record it. Put aside spelling and grammar, form and flow for a moment or two and write. Thoughts have a tendency to evolve and I simply dislike losing that instant when exactly what I wanted to say and how to catch it in words because I couldn't find a medium!


Some other notes:

Funny how I'm living in a sort of removed whirlwind life. How do you cram in doing all the things you love "one last time" without yearning to do them again the next day?

I'm both looking forward to the upcoming lull in life as well as dreading it.

Positively anticipating because I will be relieved of all the details. I spend over an hour each day on the phone, answering emails...just getting back to people and making plans whether it's for church, friends, family, work, whatever! It's starting to overwhelm me because I NEED that hour for other things like sleep, so that's one thing I'll be glad to have a small break from. I'm really looking forward to our new house. It's an older home, tastefully renovated with plenty of charm and coziness. It will be so great to have space!

Dreading because Natalie and I will dip into serious despair once we fully realize no friends, no family, and no DAD. It will kill us both and time will only tell who first. I've been substituting nearly every day and she's become his shadow. Quite darling and I've very happy for them both. Jared's a trooper playing full time parent and getting a taste of life being home all day. He's fortunate it's only until mid-afternoon and I can' begrudge his need to decompress when I get home. He of course is stellar, but it's still "a lot of work" (his own words). It's kinda nice to switch roles for a while and come to appreciate how the other one feels and really does. I didn't fully appreciate what coming home to them was like or leaving in the morning.

Anyway. I'm also really looking forward to having some time to work on projects I've been putting off for the past few months and hopefully being new in an area will give me time to delve.

A quick quote of the day. I was subbing in a 5th grade class and a girl blurts out, "You're the best gangsta teacher we've ever had!" Not sure what that means but I think it's good. :) So the next time you are giving a compliment, add "gangsta" and it will really make their day.

Lastly, a photo for the day. This tree is really growing like this. Initially I thought it was fallen but after I checked it over, it is living and thriving just so smack dab in the middle of OSU campus. Isn't that just a stop and smell the flowers sight? Makes me want to sit and think.

messy post

Have you downloaded Southwest's "Ding" program? I'm sure glad we did because we found some cheap tickets to many a place we needed to go and to a few places just for fun. This past week we went down to Houston where one of Jared's brothers and his family live. We've been gone off and on the past 5 weeks (by the time we move we will have seen all of Jared's 8 siblings except for the one in Iraq...we missed our layover there en route to point B...) and been having a fantastic time.

We are only too aware of how little time we have as a family for the next year plus and are trying to see everyone we can and pack in the memories to last us through Jared's first year of residency. We have such great family. I feel homesick for all of them. How did we get so luck to have such good family and friends? It's funny how you can be away from someone for months and months, even years, and then get together and it's like no time has hardly past. I love that feeling. You just know each other. Can talk about the big stuff and small stuff, tease and cry with one another. I love how I can spot my sister-in law Heather from across the loading zone at the airport in a van I've never seen and just know it's her. Love that. It makes me happy to think about all the wonderful years of life we have to live still. I seriously anticipate meeting up with "old" friends in years to come and can't wait for family reunions. Jared and I are a good match since we both would drive/fly far and wide to see people and places we love. It's always worth it. Thanks everyone for all your gracious hospitality, good times and love love love.

We were only in Texas a few days and one of the days went down to the beach.

This is me with one of my cute, cute nephews who is sincerely so sweet and fun. We made matching crazy birds---the seaweed is their hair...

I love this photo of him. It's not crystal clear, but the way his foot is tucked up on the driftwood and he's reaching out to the water. Side note: we found this neat piece of driftwood shaped perfect for the kids to sit in and out of the blue, a car drives past, stops, a lady gets out, picks up the driftwood and loads it in her car and takes off. We were a little speechless at first. What do you say? That's our piece of driftwood? I know people collect and even sell stuff like that, it was just a little weird to see it happen. Right in the middle of our playing.



This was both our kid's first trip to the beach and our first time to the Gulf of Mexico. We couldn't get enough. It was a new experience for me too in that it was warm water. Warm enough to put my baby in a swimsuit and let him play on the shore. The beaches I grew up by were only fun after you were numb from the cold and the waves were a serious danger with undertow.



I titled this "messy post" because it's reflective of how I'm feeling right now...a little hobblygob since we arrived home late last night and have unpacked by scattering our belongings throughout our house only adding to the previous little piles already there since we've only been home long enough in the past weeks to do a quick load of laundry and head out the door somewhere else. With all the fun, I've missed a few things:
*blogging---just caught up on a few of my friends and family member blogs and just had to write a quick something to start the mad collection of "things to write about" floating around in my mind
*my kids' regular routine
*eating right, getting in good exercise
*paying bills (Jared is reading over my shoulder and just snorted).

And, now that we are home, I am realizing how many things missed me. For example, in between Sunday School and RS, my super great RS president nicely asked, "So, you are conducting today, right?" Ohhh....yes....and am prepared and ready to go. Ha! She's so nice. Anyway, lots of little things such as that I've been missing and am ready to get back into the swing of life. Or, at least for 3 more weeks until we move. Hmmm.

Anyway, the rest of this post is just some random picts of the kids for our mom's and all you dear readers. Hope you find your way back to my blog after not having anything new for a while. Thanks for reading. I'll try to catch ya'll up on all our other travels and hopefully you'll see my brilliant posts I've been writing in my head for the past weeks appear in virtual real life to read.