Haven't been here in a while.  Been busy doing this, doing that, living life....

But I just have to share these blogs with you.  They are 25 Rules for Parents with Daughters and 25 Things Every Father Must Teach His Daughter About Life.  I wish I had known them when I was a very impressionable young lady.  Oh, the trouble and torment I would have avoided!!

Read these rules with an open mind and sense of humor, and show or read them to your daughter(s) when they are ready, although it's never too soon to start teaching her to love herself!!


I have added a couple of rules to these lists, and you can see the comments at the end of blogs for even more:

1.  Teach your daughter that the truth will always prevail. That when you tell the truth you don't have to remember it, because the truth never changes.
2.  Teach her that she is NOT her body, but her mind and character, and that no matter what mistakes she makes, she has the ability to transform herself into who she knows she can be. It is NEVER too late!

The Closet 80/20 Rule

Well, it's been a while since I checked in here.  Since early February.  Lot's of things going on.  But I wanted to post this information so I can come back and refer to it if/when I decide that I've had enough and finally get in my closet and get rid of so much that I've been holding onto for some reason.

I found this great website, Simple Organized Living, that has lots of wonderful tips and things to think about as I'm constantly trying to declutter my house and my life.  My closet is a big albatross around my neck, and the masses of clothing in it cause me to clutter up other spaces because it is so packed that it overflows into my bathroom space.  I found Andrea's  80/20 Rule for the Closet to be a refreshing way to look at things. This whole post really spoke to me.  So much so that I pinned it on Pinterest.  I know it has been up for a while, but it's great new information for me.  It gives me a different perspective from which to look at my clothes.  At this point I just see a somewhat organized sea of fabric when I look in my closet.  Way too many skirts, way too many pairs of pants, and waaaaay too many shirts and blouses.  I really need to go through and purge.  If I don't need it, want it, love it or think I look great in it, it needs to go.  And the price I paid should not factor into my decision to keep or toss.  Maybe I should be thinking about price more when I purchase something!  Is this piece or that piece really worth the price??

I have found lots of valuable tips and I'm learning a whole new way to think about "stuff."  And it's not really worth spending a lot of time thinking about and worrying about.  It's just not that important.  Now, if I could just bring myself to start getting rid of it.......... :)

Why you should exercise

Check this out at Whole Iron Woman and then tell me you don't have time to exercise.  This evidence gives me great pause to reflect on how I have lived sedentary for most of my life.  I'm just glad I finally got on the running bandwagon when I did.  It is NEVER too late to start exercising, except when you're too old and feeble to get up.  Think about it!

Are those jeans supposed to be pink?

Ugh!  I just bought this great new shirt at The Buckle last Saturday while shopping with my lovely Lucy and my friend, Tammy.  It's black/white striped with red trim on the short sleeves and collar.  I decided to wash it before I wore it.  So it's mostly white, and I figured I would just slip it in with my ALL WHITE load of wash.  DON'T DO THAT!!!!  I surely didn't think that such a LITTLE amount of red would do such a number on my entire load, which included my favorite pair of white jeans, my favorite white windbreaker, my (not so) favorite white sports bra, two white technical running shirts, and ALL of my white socks and undies!  But alas, I was wrong.  You know how sometimes you'll wonder if a white garment has a kind of tint to it, so you hold a couple of the fabric pieces together to make it thicker so the color will be more dense?  Well, you DON'T HAVE TO DO THAT WITH MY WHITES!!!  They are PINK!

Enough of the complaining - I went to the internet searching for a cure.  Hopefully, I have found one, although the jury is still out - the clothes are still soaking in a mixture of toxic ammonia and bleach in warm water.  I'm supposed to soak them for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.  I'm checking them every 30 minutes.  So far, they're still pink.  I'll let you know how they turn out.  Or if you see me running around looking like an Easter bunny, you'll be able to tell for yourself!

When Do You Become a Runner?

My daughter (I like to call her that, although she's not actually mine) asked me if I would like to write a post for her blog www.wholeironwoman.com as a guest.  I told her, "Sure, why not!  I'll have something for you tomorrow."  Well, that was two days ago, and I as yet have nothing to give her.  Here's the reason;  her blog is all about running and cycling and swimming--mostly running--and I'm not a runner!!  I mean, I don't think I am-yet.  I would like to call myself one, but I hold runners in such high regard, that I don't know if I'm worthy yet of wearing that title.

 Here's my story:

Six months ago if you asked me if I ran, I'd say you were crazy for thinking such a thing, and that anyone who ran was crazy.  I mean, why would anyone want to run when there are perfectly good cars sitting in the driveway??  I had NEVER in my 44 years of living on this earth even thought that I would ever run.  I had a bad knee, my ankle gave out in a sixth grade game of kick ball, it would make me sweat.......you get the picture.

Then my friend Melissa told me about her son, Jacob.  He has  Becker's Muscular Dystrophy, a degenerative muscle disease that only affects boys.  The recessive gene, from what I understand, is carried by the mother only, and Becker's is one of the rarer forms of MD.  Anyway, Jacob is only 7 years old, and the sweetest little boy you could ever imagine.  His outlook for a normal life is not good.  I don't even want to write about statistics.  Too depressing.

Melissa told me that she was going to raise money on behalf of Jacob for the Parent Project for Muscular Dystrophy by running with a group called "Run For Our Sons."  She told me that she would be running in the Rock n Roll St. Louis Marathon on October 23, 2011 in St. Louis.  "Would you like to come?  We'd love to have you," she said.  Well, she had me at "Jacob."

I don't think Melissa knew that I was anti-running.  And I didn't really have the heart to tell her.  I just wanted to do what I could to help Jacob's cause.  I wanted to raise money.  That was my goal.

And so the WALKING began....

Who Are You?

Or "What do you do?" might be more suitable, because after all, isn't what we "do" who we are?  I mean, when I first meet someone, the first thing I do is exchange names and go right into "What do you do?"

I sometimes struggle with answering that question.  Usually the struggle is more intense when I'm feeling like I don't really have a purpose or something "important" that I'm currently involved in like volunteering at school.  I mean, who wants to do laundry, clean the cat box and make dinner?  Is that what I want my answer to be when someone asks me what I do? Are those things really all that important?  Does that make me who I am?

When I was in my early twenties and just finishing college, I was always sure to point out to the people I met that I was a college graduate and that I would have a career in the near future.  In the meantime I was making ends meet by working in a retail clothing store and making sandwiches in a sandwich shop.  I also worked various jobs with a temporary employment agency.  I was a filing clerk, a mail-room worker sorting out and delivering mail at a large corporation, and a receptionist at an insurance company.  At the time, I felt "less than" because I didn't have what I thought were important jobs.  They were menial.  They didn't matter.  They were the behind-the-scene support jobs that didn't get recognition.  I continued to tell people who asked that I was in the process of looking for a career position and that these jobs were only temporary.

But isn't everything temporary?  Each moment--oops!--you just missed it.  There goes another one.  And another.  Time is passing with each breath, never  to be experienced again.  Really. 

You know that career position I was looking for while I was working all those temporary jobs? Well, I found it!  And guess what?  It was awesome!!  Guess what else!  It was TEMPORARY!   What I mean is that I worked at a wonderful company for six years, and then I quite and got THE best job in the whole world (being a mother), and I don't care anymore if the position I hold is one of status or financial or educational merit.  At this particular job I don't get paid, I sometimes think I stink at it, and lots of times I feel totally unappreciated and unwanted.  But it's also where I get the meaning of life, and why I get up every day with renewed hope in my future. 

What I do temporarily today leads to other things that are temporary today.  And that is how we become who we are today.  Forget about tomorrow.  It will come with all of your today's temporary moments.

So who am I, you ask?  Or more accurately, What do I do?  I am a person who tries to remember every day that what are my temporary circumstances in life are a constant, and the greatest thing about all of it is that I can change my circumstances and thoughts and attitudes about them in a heartbeat! I also remain thankful and humble that I am able to think and feel and be whatever I want!  That's who I am!  Who are YOU?  Think about it for a moment...........

Are You Happy?

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. ” - Helen Keller