50 Days

I am officially counting down. I have 50 days until I go back to Peru.  This both excites and terrifies me!!  I am so excited about being able to return to a country that I fell in love with. To a people group that I (literally) dream about at night. To the most important work I will ever do in my life - God's work.  I am terrified because I am the group leader this time and I don't know my elbow from a hole in the ground about booking flights, leading in a foreign country, etc., etc., etc.

I could write about the people I will be working with for pages and pages.  Instead, I'll try to sum up with a few words and some pictures.  (my apologies to friends who have seen these pics and heard these stories for a year. Buck up - here they come again)

All credit for this pic goes to my friend, Ben.  It is one of my faves. No words can express the immensity and beauty of these mountains. The little white dust ball on the right is a 15 passenger van. Yeah...

Horrible pic of me, but these are only four of the 750+ orphans that stole my heart on the first day.  I pray that I will have the opportunity to return here and serve.

(Ben's pic again) This person is considered Quechua (keh'- choo-wah), which is a direct descendant of the Inca. They live in the high Andes, many speak both Spanish and Quechua, and live a very simple life compared to a typical American. I am in love with this people group. It has to be God-driven, because I never knew they existed before last summer. I look forward to many years of building relationships with them and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

50 Days!!

Joys of the Job

I teach at an elementary school.  Now I know that there are teachers out there getting in trouble for blogging about their job - but I'm going to take a risk and share some insights.

Codes: We have all kinds of codes in elementary school... and you better learn them all, just in case you need to follow through on one.  For instance, there are codes for tornadoes and for fires, for intruders and for power outages.  But the important ones, the REALLY IMPORTANT ONES are color coded.  Code Brown  - kid goes to clinic for new clothes and the lucky teacher needs an air freshener.  Code Yellow - kid goes to clinic for new clothes and the lucky teacher needs a mop and a wet floor sign.  Code White - kid goes to clinic for new clothes and the lucky teacher needs....

Yep, it's called PUKE-UP.  Bahahahahaa!!!!!!!!!!!  Talk about a product hitting the nail on the head!  I saw this in our cafeteria this week. I guess it works as well as the hamster-cage chips we used to use.  I am slightly concerned, though, over the really BOLD warning that it may irritate eyes. If I ever had to be that close to the need for "vomit control", I would have to call a code white for myself.  Just sayin'.

Odors: Elementary schools = strong odors.  It's simple math. And my room is one of the stinkiest. It has no windows.  NONE. It's the MUSIC room, so I can't even open the door for ventilation because we're too noisy. When any of the odors I'm going to talk about happen, they fill my room entirely and there is no escape! Sometimes it's hard to even open my mouth to sing because I'm afraid the odors will become some kind of mutant TASTE. SO!There are the obvious ones (caused by the brown, yellow, and white codes), but there are some other ones, too.  Fifth graders in May after recess. This is where we introduce the word "deodorant".  Second graders any time after recess.  This is where we introduce the idea of occasionally washing our shoes. Kindergarteners after lunch on taco day.  This is where we start talking about self-control and that everybody "toots".  And there are some that may surprise you... like the smell of black magic markers. Or dry erase markers. Or overhead markers. Did I mention my room (sans windows) is next to the cafeteria?  There's the smell of tater tots (good) and of cabbage (not good). Pizza (tolerable) and fish sticks (bring on the puke-up).  This week, though, I had a surprising run-in with an odor in my small enclosed space. After my kindergarten Valentine's program, I moved all of the stage decorations to my room. It took me two days to realize what was giving me splitting headaches and sinus congestion.

FORTY latex balloons. You could smell them as soon as you opened the door.  It was horrible.  And amazingly enough, my headache went away as soon as I distributed them to other teachers.  Hmm... who knew?

What are the joys of your job?

Finding a New Normal

It's been over a month since I wrote anything here... and I hope to never have another month like that ever ever again. I have almost posted something over and over again, but it never worked out. It was like being in my own version of Goldilocks - some thoughts were TOO serious, some were TOO sad, and anything that was funny... well that seemed inappropriate somehow. As if having humor in the midst of grief was forbidden.  Stupid, I know, but that was how I felt.  But I HAVE to get back to it... I have too many random thoughts wandering around in my brain as it is.  I need to let some of them out to run amok. (Did you know that the word "amok" is Malaysian and means "a murderous frenzy"?? Scary thing - some of my thoughts qualify) SO!  Today I will be discussing the events of the past month and how I am now finding a "new normal" in life.

Family: My uncle had a stroke and passed away.  This took place over a two week period, and I was in Tennessee/SWVA for most of it. My aunt had to be placed in full time nursing home care. My mom and I had to take over all POA responsibilities for her. My new normal for family consists of recurrent dreams where my uncles and grandmother die again (and again), waking up to realize that they are still gone, wishing I didn't have to sleep, endless phone calls to {fill in the blank with insurance/bank/government/healthcare providers} who continually tell me there are 100 more hoops to jump through, and guilt trips over not doing enough for the two guys who truly ARE the center of my existence. 

Around the House: I got home on Sunday.  On Tuesday, our neighborhood dog, Harley, was hit by a car and killed. My new normal around the house means getting used to pulling in my driveway without worrying about where she is, JC skateboarding without his constant companion, and an empty silence in the night where I usually heard barking at strangers... or deer... or blowing leaves.  She liked to bark. :)

ShrimpSlayer: To add insult to injury, I accidentally tipped over JC's tank of SeaMonkeys that Santa brought him.  Down the sink.... Yes, I know they are just brine shrimp. Yes, I know you can buy more at the TRU. (thanks grammy & g-daddy for making that trip!) But it was the proverbial camel's straw.  I had to just lay my head down and cry. In my defense, they were really cool.  And lots were big. And after an episode where (as JC says) they were "stuck together"... one had an egg sac and I was waiting for babies. And then I knocked them into the garbage disposal. My new normal on this one - my son was unaffected, -ron and I have started a new tank, and my co-workers have an all new way to give me a hard time. If you're reading this - thanks MBW, AH, and CF for cracking me up.

Enough with the mostly serious stuff.  I have my eye on something that I REALLY need to comment on... but I have to take a picture so y'all will believe it.  That's coming soon!

If you actually were dedicated and made it this far - leave a comment... it'll give me a giggle.

Mo

Reality Check - Spouse Style

A little background - when I came home today, my hair had taken a turn for the worse and was hanging across my face.  I don't like anything touching my face, so I wandered around the downstairs looking for a hair clip.  No luck.  I grabbed up a random kitchen clip magnet and took care of the situation. (I'm not going to dwell on how lazy I am and how easy it would be to go upstairs and GET a clip)

-Ron comes home.  We greet each other, sit on the couch, watch some television, discuss our day.  Finally, I give up and say, "It's been half an hour and no comment from you about the fact that I have a chip clip in my hair."  He looks up at me for a second - expressionless - and replies, "Well, I've seen so many strange things over the years...."

Well played, dear.  Well played.

True Love

Open any magazine and you will find an article about how to find true love.  Go to a bookstore or library, and there will be aisles of materials about what true love is, how to find it, what it looks like, how to improve it, etc. etc. etc.

I know what true love is. 

And it isn't roses and champagne.  Or diamonds and gold.  Those things are nice - sometimes - but REAL true love looks quite a bit different.  At times, it is a husband that carries all of the groceries up the basement stairs so the wife doesn't have to.  On another day, it is a wife that comes home after a long day at work and takes the time to make homemade fried chicken because he loves it.  It shows up as compliments first thing in the morning, ignoring bedhead and old makeup that she forgot to remove. And as endless hours of watching football (or endless reruns of The Golden Girls).

This Christmas, true love looked a lot like this:

This is a Comfort-U pillow.  And yes - it is HUGE.  -Ron knew that I had been suffering from some sort of crazy insomnia for two months, as well as trying to deal with a shoulder injury that made finding a comfortable sleeping position impossible!  THIS is true love.  He put actual thought into what was making my life miserable, and then found a way to fix it.  I don't use it every night, but when I do, I magically don't lie awake from 2-5am.  And NAPS!! Oh, the glory of an afternoon NAP!!  As an added bonus, -Ron, JC, and all the pets seem to like it, too.  This evening, I was laying on it for a minute and within minutes both guys were on either side, the cat was wrapped around my head, and both dogs were near the bottom.  Being surrounded and snuggly with your entire family.... I dare you to define LOVE better than that!!

Defeating the "Frumpy Mommy"

**Warning to all male readers - you are probably NOT going to get this one. Sorry.


I have been a mommy for eleven years now. Periodically, I find myself going through something that I have dubbed "Frumpy Mommy Syndrome".  This manifests when I find myself crazy-busy with EVERYTHING else in life except taking care of me.  My hair is usually the first thing to go.  It grows longer and longer, totally out of control, while I ignore the encroaching white areas.  Then I stop wearing make-up..... because WHO is LOOKING?  (this is what I say in my own mind) Next comes the overwhelming urge to wear only t-shirts and lounge pants.  By the end, I'm shuffling zombie-like around the house with a 1980s side-ponytail (gray/brown to be precise), wearing VT lounge pants, one of -ron's old sweatshirts that looks like moths had a feast, and my blue fuzzy slippers. And I may or may not have food nearby.  Okay - I have food nearby...


The good news for me is that I have -ron.  He has the guts to look at me and say, "Please go spend some money at the hairdresser. Or Kohl's. Or anywhere that will fix this."  It's amazing how that works, too.  Everything ends up being connected somehow.  I get my hair done and the next thing you know, I put on make-up every day.  I trade the lounge pants for slightly more stylish clothes. I start making MUCH better choices about food and exercise.  Hmm.... so this is what self-esteem feels like. :)


Happily,

Red-Headed Mo

THE PLAN - Step 1

Quick recap - the last time we were together, I stated that I don't do resolutions... but I do make plans. So it's time to take action and get the plan started. Something I really want to do this year is make more time for ME. I know, I know! If I had a nickel for every guru who told you that "me time" was the answer to all the world's problems, well, I'd have enough money to BUY "me time"!

But seriously, I really do need to work on that. I just found a list on my computer of "Things to Do When I Finish My Masters". I haven't done any of them.  None. Zip. Zero. Nada. A year and a half of ZILCH. Well, not that I've done nothing for all that time. I keep busy. I believe that God gifted me with a love of people and a servant nature. This has translated into a job teaching young children the joys of music, leading those children in performances, volunteering extra hours after school so kiddos can have a choir, leading church children's choir (yes, more small children singing), teaching youth Sunday School, singing in the choir and praise team,going on a mission project, leading two new mission projects, participating in a teachers' sorority, volunteering with Relay for Life, leading the talent show, being a wife and mother (ie: cooking, cleaning, laundry, groceries, guitar lessons, homework, playdates, sleepovers, haircuts, doctors, dentists).... tired yet?  I sure am! Sometime in there, I managed to pull off getting that masters degree - usually from 9pm-2am.

Time to implement THE PLAN. Step 1: Back out of some commitments. Done.  Did it hurt?  Yep.  Am I sorry?  Time will tell, but as of right now the answer is a resounding "NO", which is a word that I just learned.  Step 2: Cut out some of the technology addiction that wastes what precious little free time I have.  Last night, I closed my laptop and watched a new show with JC. I even played some X-Box with both my guys. (yes, that is still technology. but it was family technology. hush.) Tonight, though, I took a big step. I deleted all of the games that I play on Facebook.  No more farming. Life on the Frontier is over. I lost the Mafia War. I wonder if I'll have the shakes tomorrow?  Step 3: Find a hairdresser and get there asap. My current mane looks exactly like that - something that should be stuck to the rear of a horse. I already have a young man at church calling me "Grandma" and I currently have the white hair to back it up. (love you, Bunky!)

There are a lot more steps, but Rome wasn't built in a day.

P.S. Did you know that if you type "Feliz Año Nuevo", you wish someone a "Happy New Year"... but if you don't have a tilde and type "Feliz Ano Nuevo", you wish someone a "Happy New Anus"?  Yeah................ awkward.  For the record, I apologized to, well, pretty much everyone on Facebook.  I'm an idiot. :)