Consistently Inconsistent

That's been one of the other titles that would be perfect for my blog. It's one of the things in my life that I lament over, kick myself around regarding, and generally am frustrated about. When I read back through my journals, I find plenty of times when I was most unhappy with myself for my lack of consistency.

But I think that my perspective hasn't been quite right.

If I were consistent - according to my own definition - wouldn't that be the same as being perfect? Isn't that quite impossible? Last I checked, there's only one man who was ever perfect and that's Jesus. I don't even come close.

I often run into the wall of unrealistic expectations. That doesn't mean I should just cross it off the list forever, not caring whether I'm consistent in anything or not. But I need to extend myself a little grace and understanding, realizing that I should be steadfast and disciplined in things, but if...no, when...I fall short, it's okay. Get up, dust myself off, and hop back on the trail. I would certainly offer the same kindness and mercy to others, so why not for me?

I just printed out a chronological Bible reading plan for next year from Diving Deeper Ministries over at the Internet Cafe Devotions. I hesitate to do that, because I know of my past inconsistencies and that causes me to sink my efforts before I even begin. Why bother? I know I'll just fail.

That, by the way, is another skewed perspective. I seem to have quite a few of them.



So I'm signing the linky, jumping aboard a year-long commitment to reading my Bible regularly, knowing full well that I won't be perfect. I will miss some days. I will get frustrated with myself. But I will just keep plugging away and forgive myself in the process. Instead of looking at what I didn't accomplish or where I messed up, I will look toward Jesus and look forward to what He has for me as I spend time in the Word, knowing that it will be glorious!

Wordless Wednesday - Empty Chipotle Patio

For more wordlessness, check out Live From Waterlo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Dust-Free

Well, it wasn't so bad. I think it took about 2 1/2 hours, but that included a jaunt to the hardware store for a new extension cord (the kind with the flat plug-in part which fits behind the dresser) and visiting with Lucy (while cleaning).

Dresser Declutter Recap:

Cleaning supplies? Check.

Massive amounts of dust? Check.

Lovely, clean dresser? Check.

The shoebox on the left is John's stuff. I really can't sort his stuff for him. Sorry, honey. You'll have to handle that one yourself. But it's all nicely contained.


Ability to see my beautiful purple silk flowers from my mom for my 40th birthday? Check.

Plugged-in, functional stained glass lamp (A gift also from my mom. She did the stained glass. Thus the need for an extension cord.)? Check.

Can you believe I had that much dust on my dresser?

Can you believe I actually shared that here?

Again, this is where minimal readership is probably a good thing. Who has that kind of dust on their dresser? My goodness.

But my lamp is pretty. And visible. And plugged in.

Which makes me very happy.

Catch Up Transition Preparation Week

I'm not always sure what to call this week between Christmas and New Year's. Maybe just the week between Christmas and New Year's. But it's a week of cleaning up, catching up, getting ready, and let's see how much I can possibly cram into one free week for me. I suspect I'll get about 1/25 of the things done that I'd like, but I'm kind of used to that.

One biggie (as ever) for me, is decluttering. So while there are plenty of other tasks to be done, I'm going to declutter at least one area every day this week. I have Erin Rooney Doland's Unclutter our Life in One Week, but I don't think I can to that. I just can't devote that much time to one thing when I have kids, other family, friends, and other things needing to be done. But I'm still reading the book and gleaning some useful nuggets. Perhaps over the course of a longer period of time, I can actually complete the entire book. Either that, or my family takes a vacation without me for a week. Nah. I would hate that.

So today's decluttering task is our dresser. Our very big, has shelves, and too much flat space dresser. It's an absolute train wreck and drives me crazy. Did you know that when you have too much junk on your dresser, you really cannot ever dust it. And when you don't dust, you notice that your dresser has taken on a new shade - it's no longer dark brown, but more of a dusty gray-brown. It doesn't even match the other furniture any more. Maybe if I stopped dusting the other items...

So as scary as this is, I'm sharing with you and the whole entire cyber world, a picture of the current state of our dresser:

Boy, am I glad that only 2-3 people read this blog. On a good day!

Now I HAVE to get it done. If for no other reason, to show a picture of what it looks like after the decluttering (and dusting!) process.

And when I'm done? I'm having two squares of this:

Thanks to my sister and her family. :-)

Merry Christmas

Unplugged and Wordless Wednesday

All too often, my posts are just the random overflow of my brain. Which means I have no idea what to title them. Perhaps I should come up with a title AFTER writing the post. Now there's a novel idea.

Isn't this a cool shot? On the right, the Christmas lights are reflected in a glass bottle. Behind and to the left is a framed print in which the lights are also reflected. I love how the colors look in the bottle, though.

I spend a ridiculous amount of time on my computer and then lament the things I don't get done. Is it just me, or is there a problem here? I was just reading David duChemin's holiday/Christmas post and it got me thinking that I need to just unplug from all this online life. Yeah, all? Meaning I troll around on FB, read some of emails, play some games, look at some websites, and generally do nothing productive. Meh.

So Friday evening, at 6:00 p.m., I'm shutting this thing down until Monday morning. The ONLY exception will be if I need to get on to pay a bill or do something like that which must be done. I will peruse my emails on my phone, but that's it. No FB. No Twitter. No blogging (as if that will be any different!). Zero. Zip. Nada.

I think I'll schedule a couple of blog posts, so for the 2-3 people left who actually read my blog on those rare occasions I post some words, there'll be something here.

That's another thing. Wordless Wednesday. It's been fun and all, but it's kind of lost its oomph for me. I keep doing it because it's the only thing I've ever been consistent with here in the blogosphere. Maybe in my whole life. Well, other than breathing, eating, and sleeping. In fact, I have 201 Wordless Wednesday posts! Well, there are 5 more that are tagged with WW instead of Wordless Wednesday. That means 206 weeks of posting a picture every Wednesday (or late Tuesday night). If I post two more weeks, it will be an even FOUR YEARS.

Wow.

I'm a little stunned.

I don't know if I'll continue with it or not. We'll see. I am interested in participating in Darcy's Sweet Shot Tuesday, but I may do that on my photo blog.

So that's about it for now. Maybe if I survive the unplugged thing, it could become a monthly habit. Or dare I saw, weekly? I'm sure it's possible. After all, I lived without this internet once upon a time. I lived without a lot of things once upon a time. But that's another story.

Wordless Wednesday - Look I'm a Lego

For more wordlessness, check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Wordless Wednesday - Bokeh

For more wordlessness, check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Wordless Wednesday - Colorado Beauty

For more wordlessness, check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Wordless Wednesday - Peek-A-Boo

For more wordlessness, check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Wordless Wednesday - NEW!

Better late than never! For more wordlessness, check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Friends, Family, and Whatember

So saying it's a crazy week would be a bit of an understatement. But it's all good stuff, so I'm super excited in a crazy sort of way. My awesome friend from Kansas, Carrie will be arriving tomorrow with her kids in tow to spend a few days here in Colorado, for which I'm SUPER jazzed!! And since she's an amazing photographer, we also get to have family pix done.

I'm going to have 18 people here for Thanksgiving. It will be cozy, chaotic and loads of fun!! I'm really looking forward to it.

A big surprise is on its way to me via the UPS peeps. Well, it's a surprise to you, not to me. I can hardly wait.

I get to see the orthopedist tomorrow to likely confirm that I have a torn meniscus. Oh, joy.

For some reason, I'm having strange and bizarro dreams last thing in the morning before I get up. I think it needs to stop because it's wreaking havoc on my getting out of bed. Yesterday, I even barked at my husband because he tried to wake me up and I was very angry in my dream and yelling at some rude people. As I began to wake up, I realized I needed to apologize. Goodness.

I'll take Dreams I Don't Remember, Alex, for $200.

I was leaving a comment over at Lisa's blog - The Pennington Post and I came up with something brilliant. And I quote (from myself):

"And Thanksgiving of 2011?!?!? How the heck did that happen? Next thing you know, they'll be telling us it's nearly Christmas. And then 2012! No way, I say! We need another month tucked in here between November and December. One free of any sort of holiday whatsoever. We'll call it Whatember. So you can do whatember you want during it since there's no pressure of birthdays, holidays, and other such interruptions. Oh, and there will be 41 days in Whatember so it doesn't pass too quickly."

Don't you think we totally need the month of Whatember? Of course, with its 41 days, the little saying will have to change.

Thirty days has September,
April, June, and November.
Forty-one for Whatember.
All the rest have 31,
except February.

I think it works. What do we have to do to get the calendar folks on board? And whatever other minions might be involved? I seriously need that extra-long, super-sized month this time of year. Is anyone else with me?

Wordless Wednesday - Chemistry

For more wordlessness, check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Just When You Thought It Was Safe

From August through October, I was on the go a lot. Finally arriving in November, things seemed as if they would slow down. Just a teensy bit. Yeah, right.

I guess the on the go a lot thing settled down, but now I have projects galore. Wedding photos to finish editing, a couple of sewing projects, a newsletter to put together, company coming in a week, pictures to take, a web site to work on, Christmas cards and shopping, and always there's homeschool and a household to care for. Goodness. It's always something, isn't it?

When we think at a certain point, life will . . . settle down, be easier, be under control, (fill in the blank) . . . we just set ourselves up for failure. Not only that, we can start to live for some future time, because we believe it will somehow be better than it is now. Whatever better may mean.

I don't think there's anything wrong in looking toward an end date for something and planning to accomplish the thing in a timely manner. But we have to learn how to live here and now in this moment, not always looking forward to some nebulous time that will never be what we expect anyway.

Because really? Life will always be busy. There will always be projects and tasks and interruptions and people and such. Just plan on it and squeeze all the enjoyment out of it you can. Because that's reality. That's where we all live. We can either make the most of that time and whatever it may bring, or we can miss so much as it flies past while we're looking to something next week, next month, or next year.

And if you happen upon a serendipitous moment of calm, appreciate it for what it is, breathe it in deeply, and be refreshed for the return to real life.

This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

Wordless Wednesday - Big Wheel

For more wordlessness, check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub.

Desperately Seeking Adjectives

Before blogging, Facebook, and life on the internet, my circle of family, friends, and acquaintances with whom I had regular contact was much, much (MUCH) smaller. I doubt it's different for many others. But now that there are all these blogs I read, Facebook statuses I comment on, and photographs I check out, I've begun to run out of adjectives.

I see a picture that is just amazing and stunning.

I read a blog post that's hilarious. Or sweet. Or so true.

I comment on Facebook with awesome, sweetness, or bummer.

I feel as if I use the same adjectives over and over and over and over.


Lather, rinse, repeat.

So I've decided that I need to retrieve the thesaurus, peruse the dictionary, and entreat my fellow bloggers, Facebookers, friends, and family to help come up with some different adjectives. What have you got? Leave me a comment with some interesting adjectives that could be used to respond in the various venues. Let's see what kind of a list we can create.

Wordless Wednesday - Ride On Red

Check out Live From Waterloo and the Wordless Wednesday hub for more photo fun.

Catching Up

Wow. Life has sure been busier than normal. Ever since August, I've been on the go and generally quite occupied with this and that.

• Trip to Breckenridge & Glenwood Springs
• 25th Anniversary
• New year of homeschool
• Ladies retreat in Buena Vista
• 1st trip to Denver - Women of Faith with Pam
• 2nd trip to Denver - taking Pam to the airport and picking up nightstands from a friend
• 3rd trip to Denver - David Crowder Band concert with the girls
• 4th trip to Denver - Casa Bonita, Lego Store, and other such fun with my sister, nieces, and the boys
• Messed my knee up in self-defense class
• 5th trip to Denver - photowalk with D, hurt my foot
• Shot a wedding yesterday and my knee went out

In addition to the regular stuff of life. I don't think I've been out of town more than a handful times in the past year. Apparently I saved it all up for these two and a half months.

From what I've read about having a torn meniscus, I'm thinking there's a very good chance that is what is wrong with my knee. I had problems with it last year, but after some chiropractic care, kinesio tape, and massage therapy, it got better and life went back to normal. A couple weeks ago in self-defense class, it made a loud popping sound during a front kick. It wasn't terribly painful, but I was aware that my knee wasn't really okay, so I made an appointment with the orthopedist. Of course, I can't get in until closer to Thanksgiving.

But then last night at the wedding, as we went outside to shoot the First Look, it just went out. And this time it did hurt. A lot. I was totally blessed with a last-minute wedding photographer joining me and she was such a huge help. Both because I often couldn't move fast or well and she graciously shared her knowledge and expertise. Thanks, Briana, you rock, my friend!! I can't wait to see your pictures, too.

I'll be calling the orthopedist tomorrow to see if I can get in any sooner. A cancellation, perhaps? I sure hope so. It's quite uncomfortable to walk and maneuver stairs.

In the meantime, there's homeschooling, photo editing, and house cleaning to do. No more Denver trips planned for now. Time to settle in and start thinking about the holidays soon.

Colorado Weather

The weather is rarely boring in Colorado. It goes from one extreme to the next in short order.

Earlier this week - 70s, sunshine, gorgeous.

Today - 30s, snowy, still gorgeous.