Contemplate - Chats with God

Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear; all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

I can get really stressed out sometimes trying to find a "solution" to life's problems.  The "problems" I'm speaking about are just my own (being effective at work, getting the kids to eat right or brush their teeth, house repairs, etc).  I can't imagine what it would be like to worry about the bigger picture (world peace, climate change, terrorism, the economy).  As a lawyer, I tend to think that I can find solutions to life's problems if I try hard enough.  That, in turn, just makes me stress even more.

The other day I was listening to Selah on my IPod and heard "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," and the words quoted above.  It really struck a chord with me.  How much time do I spend laying my problems down and taking them to my friend Jesus?  Now He may not "solve" my problems the way I think He should - my kids won't suddenly start brushing their teeth - but I have found that just having the conversation and giving up my worries to Him has an immediate impact in reducing my stress.  It also reminds me that I am not (and don't have to be) in control of every aspect of my life.  I just wish I had the conversations with God more frequently. 

To quote an overused 70's phrase: "Let go and let God."

cindy

Crafter's Block

Have you ever had writer's block?  I know I have.  As an attorney, I write quite a bit, and sometimes it's so hard to start something.  Once I get going, I'm usually fine, but just getting started can be daunting.

I'm having crafter's block.  I know I want to work on something, but I'm just not sure what.  I have four projects in some stage of development, and two finished afghans I want to show off (and list on Etsy).  I am working on those projects, but they are the kind of projects that take a lot of time.  I'm doing them in little free moments.  Maybe the reason I can't finish them is because I'm just not excited about starting anything.  Crafter's block.

I've been working on a couple of things to help me to get over the crafter's block.  First, I'm going to finish those pesky pending projects which will probably be the hardest thing.  Have you ever noticed that the piece you were writing when you experienced writer's block was the hardest thing you ever wrote?  Even after getting past the block, the first few things are just hard to finish.

Next, I'm looking for inspiration.  I have plenty of projects I had planned before, but I need something interesting to get this block out of my way.  I'm turning to the source for all inspiration - Pinterest.  Pinterest is so much fun, but soooo addictive.  Through Pinterest, I found another place of inspiration - Craftgawker.  Now that is a seriously dangerous place for crafters.  It's a lot like Pinterest, but limited to craft projects.  It has a sister sight, Foodgawker, which is also great for those of you who cook.

Tomorrow is October 1, so I'm going to put together an October project list.  Tomorrow.  Later.  I still have some time.

cindy

On the Go

I know my blog is called "Straddling the Gap," but these days my whole family is straddling lots of huge gaps.  The kids are so busy with activities, it's all Kent and I can do to keep up.  Mackenzie has religious education, choir, softball, Girl Scouts and martial arts.  Christian has religious education, Boy Scouts, bowling, Do-Re-Mi (music group), martial arts and youth group.  (And we were worried he wouldn't have enough social interaction with homeschooling!)

Kent and I do a lot of "hand-offs."  Because his days are spent teaching our son, he does his work in the evening and on weekends.  I come home, we say hello and goodbye, and I see him about an hour before bedtime.  It's not the easiest arrangement, but it appears to work best for the kids.  It's a little more hectic for Kent and I.  Kent recently told me "Welcome to the tween years."  I guess so.

The next 10 years are going to be interesting.  Our kids will go through the teen years into college and we will approach retirement.  I tell myself that our kids will keep us young, but in the meantime I might get a lot more gray hair.

Buckle up.

cindy

I'm Naked -Where's My Phone?

The last week has been scary. I've been disoriented and disconbobulated.  I've been without a phone!

More accurately, I've been teased with a phone only to have it snatched away.  It started about a two weeks ago when my HTC Rhyme started to get hot - really hot.  After the guy at the Verizon Store burned his finger on the SD portal, he suggested we send it back for a replacement.  Two days later I had a "like new" Rhyme.  I meticulously reloaded all of my lost apps and thought the unpleasant experience was over.

No. Two days later my "like new" phone wouldn't turn on and it was hot.  I called Verizon and they agreed to send me a new type of phone.  After an endless holiday weekend, it finally came - another Rhyme?!?  I had to change SD card because the phone practically burns up with the old card.  It's still hot with the newer card, but not as bad.  I'm trying to deal with it.  Who knew this would be so traumatic?

My daughter thinks I grew up with cans strung on twine, but I can say as a kid I was excited when we got a phone on the wall with a long cord.  It was awesome because I actually talked on the phone with my friends.  The best game we "played" on the phone was the one where we pranked the lady down the street by asking her if her refriverator was running.  I remember being amazed in the 80s when I saw Michael Douglas in "Wall Street" walking on a beach with a shoe phone.  So rich!  So futuristic!  Now I can't go 5 days without a phone, and I don't even talk on it.

Definitely the worst part about being without my phone was my recent jump into all things social media.  I just started with Instagram and haven't been able to take a single picture because I didn't have my phone (15 years ago people would have looked at you funny if you said you couldn't take pictures without your phone).

I'm recovering nicely from my traumatic adventure, thank you.  I'm getting reacquainted with my "new" phone.  Hopefully this one won't leave me in the cold (wait, the problem was with heat so we should be OK).

It's a love affair I tell you. (Just don't tell my husband)

cindy

Monday Morning Quarterback

In recent days as part of my job as an attorney, I endured three days of hearings on a very specialized and technical matter.  An independent third party conducted a study and the subject of the hearing was second guessing the third party and disputing whether the determinations made by the party were precise enough.  There were numerous parties on either side of the issue, and a courtroom full of attorneys and expert witnesses.  It was mind boggling.

It reminded me a bit about raising my children.  There are many individual decisions and environmental factors that go into how my children are shaped and formed.  Long after those decisions and factors shape and form them I may look at my adult child and second guess why I did this or that, or whether I made mistakes along the way.  Why is my child an angry/impatient/apathetic/timid person?  What made him that way?  Did I do enough to address the issue, or did I create it?  Sometimes I’m not even waiting until my child is an adult.  Why does my child have ADHD/obesity/lack of respect?

“Monday-morning quarterbacking” is a waste of time and energy.  We all do the best we can, given the circumstances we are in and the child we are working with.  To reexamine every decision and event that occurs is counter-productive (and it doesn’t help our own self confidence going forward).  Wouldn’t it be better to deal with where we are today?  If an issue needs to be corrected, let’s correct it, instead of trying to pinpoint how it occurred.  The fact is, how something influenced or shaped our child may have nothing to do with things we did, but instead related more to the circumstances and time and place the child was in at the time they were influenced or shaped.  Maybe there is no explanation.

I’m trying to take the pressure off myself, do the best I can, and let the chips fall where they may.  I need to keep the focus on today and let my children understand that I am human too, capable of making wise decisions and capable of making monumental mistakes.

Whew!  I’m relieved, how about you?

P.S. As a footnote, at the end of the hearing, the Court directed the third party not to be guided by the opinions of the various sides, but to use its best professional judgment.  I guess I'm not the only one to reject Monday Morning quarterbacks!

cindy 

Just A Little Something I Whipped Up

I don't get a chance to crochet much, so this week I took the bus to work twice and worked a little at the office and voila - scarf!

I made it for my daughter so she might wear it - not with a coat, but with her clothes.  It's long and thin. 

Truth is, I made it for me; not to wear, but as therapy.  It was so relaxing to work on it.  It was very easy, just single crochet only ten stitches wide.  It was so simple and I loved making it.  I know that's why I love creating.

cindy



Rush, Rush, Rush

We're in the thick of it now.  It's like a tidal wave that will carry you away if you're not careful, and you'll end up on that desert island, but you will get beat up getting there.  Of course I'm talking about Christmas season.  Are you under the tidal wave or riding the wave?

My husband is a church music director so the pressure of December has a whole different meaning.  There is no such thing as Christmas vacation.  He's busy preparing for 6 masses for Christmas (including 2 that occur at the same time!)  He has five choirs and two cantors.  There's a concert on Sunday and he's been working like a dog on it.  He just finished producing a CD featuring the two cantors and it goes on sale this weekend.  In addition to the concert on Sunday (in which both my daughter and I are singing), my son is in a holiday concert on Saturday completely unrelated to church. Yep, it's a little hectic.

I am having fun, though.  My kids are enjoying the Advent calendar and are looking forward to adding a person to our nativity every night.  Santa is still a big deal, but they recognize that mom and dad also give them gifts (so they have two lists for Christmas).  I'm going to write a Christmas letter for the first time in years and I should be mailing my Christmas cards before December 23.  I actually get to eat Christmas dinner!  Oh, and Jesus is coming too.  It's going to be a blessed Christmas!

I may not be riding on top of that tidal wave, but I think I'm body surfing without getting tossed on the beach.  Ho, ho, ho!

cindy

First Things First

It's not going to happen this year.  I am not going to run like a mad woman doing for the sake of doing.  I will have a meaningful holiday season.  These are my mantras as the Season looms like an approaching storm.  Notice I capitalized "Season" as if it is a threatening entity instead of the joyful and spiritual time anticipating the coming of the Kingdom.

First things first


I will not be making gifts this year.  In previous years I have made many of our Christmas gifts, especially for extended family.  I love being able to do this, as I firmly believe a handmade gift is more meaningful and personal.  However, without more advance planning, creating items at the last minute can result in sloppy gifts that are made at a time when I should be enjoying the holiday season.

First things first


I will carefully plan and purchase gifts using online resources, especially considering so many of our family members live out of state.  The free shipping and discounts I expect to see in the next week should work well with this plan.  (Just writing this has resulted in several great gift ideas.)  If I can get that done soon without mailing or wrapping, I can focus my attention on family and home.

First things first


I will make a concerted effort to get the Christmas decorating completed by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend.  In the past I have dragged out all of my Christmas decorations only to gradually put them up over a long period of time.  That has deprived us of the cozy Christmas home we expected because it was cluttered with storage bins and packing paper.  If it's not done by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend, we will have a more simple cozy Christmas with fewer decorations.

First things first


I will get the Advent calendar out before Advent begins and fill it with quotes from the Bible preparing for the coming of Christ.  I will set up our nativity and populate it each evening with a new character in an effort to teach my children about the time and place where Jesus was born.  I will involve my family in decorating our Christmas tree together with ornaments that reflect our memories of times and places we have enjoyed together.

First things first


I will not focus too much on the things and tasks I need to do, including the items mentioned in this post.  The most important thing about Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas is to enjoy time with family and friends in joy and charity, so things and tasks are less important.

First things first


cindy

New Adverntures - Part 3

It's been a while since I updated the weight loss journey.  I my first installment, I talked about my goals and how I wanted to get there, and in the second installment I bragged about how fast the weight was coming off.  This installment is about reality.

I'm just over a month into this and I've lost 20 pounds.  Better than that, I've noticed serious inches coming off in all the right places.  That's the promise of HcG proponents - that the weight loss comes from "bad" fat, or fat that is in the wrong places.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that life has been getting in my way for the last two weeks or so.

Don't worry, the excuse parade isn't coming just yet.  Having said that, I have been pretty sick with a wicked sinus problem that nearly became pneumonia.  I made a decision about a week into the infection to eat a few more calories.  The problem is that once you start eating more (and whatever you want), it can be very hard to get that discipline back.  So I've had some days that just weren't so good, resulting in a serious slowdown stop gain.  (Serious gain for this diet means 2 or more pounds.)

This for me is one of those crossroads.  I have a strong perfectionist streak, so when I'm not perfect, I beat myself up and become a "failure."  It's a little hard to come back from that, but I've got a lot more to lose, both in weight and what would happen if I gave up or continued to limp along.

So I'm gritting my teeth, pulling up those big girl "you know whats" and getting back at this.  I need to reestablish my discipline before the holiday mine field is upon us.  This year the holidays are going to be about pretty, creative things, looking good in my clothes and NOT about food (unless I'm making it for someone else :)

cindy

Loving Me Some Sparkpeople!

`Have you checked out Sparkpeople??  This has to be one of the best weight loss sites on the web.  There's so much to say about it but I'll give you ten of the best reasons:



1.  It is completely FREE.  No, really, it is completely free.  It costs nothing to sign up and you never pay a thing.
2.  It is NOT a diet site.  It does not encourage you to pick a "diet," but one is available if you need it.  Mostly it is a support site with great tools to help you.
3.  You can track your weight, food and fitness levels, as well as energy, measurements, goals or anything else.
4.  There is a huge community of people, both local and groups with common interests where you can participate for advice, support or ideas.  There are message boards, blog opportunities and a place where you can create your own page.
5.  Sparkpeople has workout plans, exercise demonstrations, reports of your activities and suggestions for improving your calorie to exercise balance.
6.  There are great articles on health, fitness, recipes, nutrition, motivation and lots more.
7.  You can motivate yourself with streaks, challenges, group activities, spark mail and emails (only if you want them) and stages of weight loss/improved fitness/increased wellness and health.
8.  There is a mobile application to track food, fitness, weight, water consumed and give you reports about the same (oh yeah, it's free too)
9.  The site was started by a guy who approaches weight loss, increased fitness, wellness and lifestyle with a practical and easy methodology (balance calories consumed with the amount of exercise done)
10.  Did I mention it's FREE??

Free Online Diet Plan at SparkPeople.com

I can't say enough about this website.  If you are interested in a place where you can get practical advice, support, a place to track your progress and a never ending supply of information, Sparkpeople is like no other place on the web. By the way, I was not compensated (or even asked) to recommend Sparkpeople.  I just believe in it.

cindy

And Then My Car Caught on Fire . . .

Did you ever have one of those weeks?  This has been one (or two) of them.  I can't believe how long it's been since I wrote my last entry.  The days have just flown by without much to say.  I'm working on three different craft/sewing/crochet projects, but have nothing to show and tell quite yet.  Although our Diamondbacks are out of the hunt, my childhood favorites the St. Louis Cardinals are in the World Series!  I have also become familiar with the bus to get to and from work.

And that brings me to my tagline.  Last Monday I left work and found my car with a dead battery in the parking garage.  A very nice Good Samaritan helped with jumper cables.  I KNOW they were correctly placed on my car (you know, positive to positive?).  I can't say whether they were correctly installed on his car or whether the positive cable on my car fell over on the negative cable as it slipped.  Anyway, next thing I know there's smoke, then fire on my battery.  At least the Good Samaritan was good at putting out the fire while I called the fire department.

That was Monday.  Now it's Friday and after several days of "the part is being overnighted and will be installed tomorrow" from the dealership, I'm going to pick up a loaner car because the new battery cables won't come in until Tuesday (or so they say).  It's been a pain, but I have discovered the bus, which is not so bad.

Sooo, it's been a lot of very little going on in the last couple of weeks and then my car caught on fire.

cindy

Homework

So school has been in session for several weeks now and it's starting to get difficult for my dear son.  Maybe that's not quite right - it's starting to get hard for ME.  We have been trying to work on our routines and coping strategies and it has worked somewhat.  However, he is still having problems getting the homework turned in and assignments written down in his planner.  With activities getting into full swing, it's getting frustrating for both of us.  (When activities get going, that means Kentster is not home in the evenings because he has rehearsals and meetings.)

To add to the frustration, dear daughter wants more attention while she does homework.  She doesn't have the attention problems dear son has, but she does resent the amount of time her brother gets every night.  (You really have to sit on him so he stays on task with the homework and his sister is a serious distraction if she is in the same room.)

I'm trying to regroup on the strategy while I write this.  We have eliminated television during the week already, but I think Kentster and I need to eliminate computer time until all homework is completed.  We also need to keep the bedtime routine on schedule, beginning at 8:00 p.m.  It's all written out on laminated papers stuck to the bathroom mirror - each of them has a schedule that goes in the opposite direction:

Shower (wash & brush hair)
Brush teeth
Lay out clothes for tomorrow
Get backpack together (binders, homework organized)
Put shoes and backpack by the door

It's much easier than nagging because all you have to say is:  "Look at your list."

I think something else we should try is to specifically schedule homework time for timeframes between school and bedtime.  What I mean is everyday has a different schedule of activities - performing arts, choir, instrument lessons, Girl Scouts, etc.  If we have set times on each day, it might make it easier for me when I'm sitting here at 8:29 and dear son hasn't started his bedtime routine that was supposed to begin at 8:00 p.m.  We can also give him a sense of time so he has a better concept of how long it takes him to do his homework (and everything else).

Breathe deep and count to 10 . . .

cindy

Chats with God

Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear; all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

I can get really stressed out sometimes trying to find a "solution" to life's problems.  The "problems" I'm speaking about are just my own (being effective at work, getting the kids to eat right or brush their teeth, house repairs, etc).  I can't imagine what it would be like to worry about the bigger picture (world peace, climate change, terrorism, the economy).  As a lawyer, I tend to think that I can find solutions to life's problems if I try hard enough.  That, in turn, just makes me stress even more.

The other day I was listening to Selah on my IPod and heard "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," and the words quoted above.  It really struck a chord with me.  How much time do I spend laying my problems down and taking them to my friend Jesus?  Now He may not "solve" my problems the way I think He should - my kids won't suddenly start brushing their teeth - but I have found that just having the conversation and giving up my worries to Him has an immediate impact in reducing my stress.  It also reminds me that I am not (and don't have to be) in control of every aspect of my life.  I just wish I had the conversations with God more frequently. 

To quote an overused 70's phrase: "Let go and let God."