ETC - Embrace the Camera

It was her first time playing Checkers.
The first few moves she had me worried...
I wasn't sure I could beat her!

This week embracing the camera was hard for me...yes, its hard a lot of weeks, but this week I didn't get in front of the camera. I wanted to capture the happiness of my kids, not how very alone I have been feeling this week....it was such a blessing to have friends join us for dinner tonight.

Not sure what this face is about?
He sure did like climbing in and out of the chairs.

Friday, A Question for the Ages

I am leaving here in about an hour and half for a weekend away with the kids…and I have nothing in my suitcase!  So here is another effort in procrastination…

Advice time ladies…or more reassurance…I am not totally weird or lost in left field on this one, am I?

Facebook Friends:

I am not friends with this guy...and he is my dad!

I seem to be odd ball out when it comes to Facebook friends. I have maybe 35 friends (okay I stand corrected I have 84…I didn’t realize that I know 84 people, but I am glad you are all my friends!) while the rest of the world has 300 friends.  It is just who I am. I much prefer a close group of great friends to a larger group of acquaintances. I am sure there are some of you ladies who can keep up with a whole yearbook’s worth of people and feel totally connected with each and every one, I just can’t.

All of that said, I am not friends with many of my friends’ husbands. A few of those husbands are not on Facebook.  I only counted three that I am friends with – two are out of town and one I use to babysit for so I saw him more often than I see most of my friends’ husbands.  I just don’t feel right about being Facebook friends with everyone’s husband or guys in general and this from the girl who until post-college always had more guy friends than girl friends. Even my maid of honor was a guy.

Several of my husband’s friends have sent me friend requests – mostly guys from school who he is close to. I haven’t accepted those. It isn’t that I don’t like the guys, it’s just I don’t feel the need to be “friends” with them. I need a little space from that part of his life – school has already infiltrated so much of our family life.

I am friends with one of my husband’s  friends, who I have never met, but he is someone who is important in my husband’s life. At this point in all of our busy lives Facebook is the best opportunity I have to get to know him in any sense.

And it is not that I spend my time on Facebook  man-hating. If I had to guess I would say that since I am part of a couple, it is his job to be friends with the guys? Or maybe in this place in my life I have so little girl time, I don’t feel the need to drag the guys a long?

What do you think? Who do you not friend? Who do you friend?...and the infamous last question, WHY?

Friday Thankfulness

Oh, there is so much I want to say…and so much more I want to know.

Let me start here though….Ladies, we need each other’s support and friendship. We need to build each other up. We need to encourage each other. We need to be present for each other. We need to be welcoming and embrace each other. I know…I know this because I have been blessed by these very things this week, and without the women who have encouraged, supported, made time for and been friend to me I would be lost.

I have been invited.

I have had fellowship.

I have been supported.

I have been encouraged – by strangers and friends alike!

I have been consoled.

I have been inspired.

This week, I have been thrashing around some old hurts this and without the encouragement and support of other friends I don’t think I could have held on to the here and now, even as little as I did. The encouragement and support, the welcoming that I received wasn’t even directly related to those old hurts, but it was an important counterbalance to that darkness.

You know that George Strait song, I Saw God Today? I don’t know that I saw Him, but I certainly felt His presence through the wonderful women who touched my life this week.

Thank you to each of you.

How have you been encouraged this week? Were you supportive of others? Were you a positive encouragement, or did you use that moment to deride someone in need? Did you use your strengths to call others up or to hold them down?

The Why of Creativity - Problem Solving and Need

So this crafty girl is not going it alone. I have asked my crafty friends to tell me what they are made of...
And my ever so crafty friend Angela was the first to respond...I asked (sort of) why is creative and she basically said out of necessity. Okay so she said cheapness...I would say that its being thrifty in this case, but still a need to conserve resources - whether its money or time or otherwise.

Here is what Angela said,
 “My creative skills were awakened and refined by a low-income childhood. If I didn’t have it, but I really wanted it, then I either went door-to-door singing Christmas carols with a tin can, or I figured out how to make it myself.

As an adult with (somewhat) the financial means to buy stuff, I still find my cheap side inspecting high-priced items and replicating them at home.For example, I just love the invisible bookshelf at Barnes and Noble. But at $10 a pop I’m too cheap to buy any. So I inspected the design, thought of a medium of which would be good enough to do the job, and went home to recreate it. So, for the price of a metal clothes hanger and a pair of needle nose pliers, I made a couple of invisible bookshelves for my wall.

Another example of using my creativity is with the Accountable Kids child training program. I didn’t want to put an investment of $20 per child into it (I have six children!) without first giving it a whirl to see if it’d even work. With a little help from the Accountable Kids website and YouTube videos, as well as some old poster board, paperclips, crayons, and a $12 investment in color photocopies, I made four Accountable Kids wall boards and a big chunk of cards for less than the price of one real kit. My trial run was a success, and I felt confident forking out the $120 investment to get the real thing. (Honesty is my policy!)

That $16 dress from Target is nothing more than a tank-tee and a chunk of fabric sewn to the bottom. No problem! Raid my husband’s drawer and cut up an old sheet- viola! Want a cheap tattoo but without the lifetime commitment and pain? Colored Sharpies. YES! Quick skirt for my four-year-old? A pillow case and a length of elastic harvested from a fitted sheet.

I primarily use my creative skills to make whatever I can for cheap or free. It also gives me something to do on those boring days when I need a break from all the monotonous housework”

I think Angela is hinting at something else here, too. Creative people are problem solvers - they see the parts of things and how they go together. It isn't just a dress, its a dress made of a shirt and some fabric. I can honestly say that I would not have thought to get elastic from a sheet, but its there and she saw it and used it. That is what I would call a "beautiful junk" moment!  And next time I am crafting into the wee hours of the morning and suddenly find myself in need of elastic I will no where to get it! 

Thank You Angela for sharing your creativity with me! You are an inspiration!