Inspiring

Obsolete Skills

My mother-in-law, Faye, and her friend, Jean, stopped by the house on Tuesday. I got my digital camera out to capture Jean’s adorable grandson Whit. I was just shooting away when Jean asked me if I was using a digital camera. I assured her that I was, and because I was, I could snap away as generously as I desired.

Faye then started to tell us about her recent visit to her niece Becky’s house. She had taken her old 35 mm camera and Becky’s children were very disappointed that they couldn’t see themselves in the camera immediately.
I got to thinking that we had that instantaneous luxury when I was a child, it was called Polaroid, and the 3 minutes we had to wait for picture development really did seem immediate back then.
So, on the radio this morning, they were talking about obsoleteskills. And then it occurred to me that even though we have upgraded to digital photography, we really aren’t as advanced as we should be.
Here are some obsolete skills that still have their place at the Gold household:
1- Adjusting rabbit ears on top of a TV.
2- Operating an old-school 70’s air popcorn popper.
3- Letter writing.
4- Rewinding.
5- Programming a VCR to record your favorite show.
6- Blowing the dust out of GameBoy cartridges.
7- Caulking the shower.
8- Grinding wheat.
9- Handwriting and spelling.
10- Using the Dewey Decimal to search for library books.
11- Making your own ice-cream.
12- Baking homemade bread.
13- Ripping the little holes off the sides of computer paper. (my motherinlaw gave the girls a huge box of the stuff to color on)
14- Using WiteOut.
15- Using fountain pens.
16- Mending and hemming your own clothes.
17 – Playing an instrument
18 – Getting off the couch to change channels on the TV (our remotes aren’t the most reliable)
19 – Getting to know your neighbors.
Wow! I guess we aren’t doing too bad when it comes to the counsel from our pioneer ancestors: “Fix it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”
Here are some obsolete skills that we are glad we don’t need:
1- Changing your own oil
2 – Repairing your own small appliances.
3 – Darning socks.
4 – Loading film in a 35 mm camera.
5- Looking for a job in the classifieds.
6- Making an operator assisted phone call.
7- Remembering passwords (this is a sore subject at our house ~ LG will not write his passwords down)
8- Using a punch card (oh yeah, we don’t have to work for the man!)
And here are some that LG or I will gladly hold on to:

1 – Mastering the use of a joystick.
2 – Building your own computer using individual components.
3- Mowing your own lawn.
4- Growing your own vegetables.
5- Cheating at video games using a loader or binary patch.
6- Driving a manual transmission. (everyone needs to learn how to do this)
7- Knowing what part of town a person lives in by their phone exchange. (this is useful)
8- Lighting a kerosene lamp. (when camping of course)
9- Paying with cash (because this would mean that we actually have some)
10- Talking face to face (This one is not so much something LG may want to keep)
11- Tying a tie (oh how dignified)

WHAT are some skills that you are attached to, glad not to have, or need to hang on to?

The beauty of tulips
As I already mentioned, I was so touched by Lisa Leonard’s last post about her special needs son, David. I just adore these special kids and have more admiration for their mothers than anyone else in this world. Those mothers (and fathers) are truly angels on an errand for God.

Abigail’s teacher has a son with Downs Syndrome and I always tell Mrs. Webb how I am almost jealous. LG and I both think that Downs kids are the cutest in the world. Mrs. Webb, of course, feels the same way. She agreed with the following piece when referring to her experience with having her son:

I think that this little literary diddy can be applied to so many life experiences.

WELCOME TO HOLLAND

by Emily Perl Kingsley.

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel.

It’s like this……When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go.

Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.””Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy.

But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there.

And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland. c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved.

To blog or not to blog…that is the question.

Kitty Bear likes to watch me blog.

Sometimes other moms will say to me, almost in a derogatory fashion, “I don’t know how you find the time to blog so much.” Sometimes I get a little sensitive and wonder why they don’t just say, “Why don’t you do more laundry or spend all your time with your kids?”

I usually just reply with , “I love to blog and so I make time for it.” I mean really, why can’t moms do things that they love, and why can’t they support other moms in doing things that they love, even if it means neglecting their never ending chores sometimes? I think I have just decided that my new reply will be, “I don’t know how you find the time to clean and micromanage your kids all day without going crazy.”

Sometimes, when I want to blog, I justify it by knowing that it is at least more productive that crawling back into bed. That is what I want to do this morning. Believe it or not, blogging actually will get one more load of laundry done today. When I am done here, I will actually be awake enough to take a detour through the laundry room, even if I do park my tired body back on the couch. I swear I will never get over this sickness…it is as if I could sleep for a week straight.

Besides, if I didn’t ignore my children once in a while, they would never have time to do something like this! Look at what they accomplished with just a little neglect. You know I wasn’t really paying attention when they pulled this one out. If I wasn’t blogging, this would have been put to an end at once. And, if I wasn’t a blogger, I wouldn’t have grabbed my camera to record it either.

You see, blogging is a really good thing for me and my posterity.

So, what I am really trying to say: I think it is healthy for our kids to have some down time without as much micromanagement….when I support my creative bug, I also support theirs…and this is a good thing, even if the result is a little devilish!

As you can tell, I don’t have much to blog about today, so here is my quote of the day:

“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.” ~ E.B White

Funeral Processions

After getting an e-mail from Karie about a funeral procession that honored a fallen serviceman, Spc. James M. Kiehl, I decided to take Kristen’s advice (read it under the comments from my lemon post) and I googled the story. (Thank you for the forward Karie, I loved it)

I mostly googled it because I thought that the story was so sweet, I had to know if it was really true. Is there still such humanity in the world? According to the forwarded e-mail, it occurred in TN, and I wanted to be so honored to be surrounded by these good people.

Here is what I read about on Snopes. (an amazing site where you can check the origins of internet garble) So, the touching story is true. Spc. James M. Kiehl was killed in action, and the people of his hometown really gave him a true hero’s goodbye. The community members lined the streets from the service to the cemetery, standing in total silence with their hands on their hearts and waving flags.

I would like to add my personal moment of silence in thanking Spc. James M. Kiehl for his ultimate sacrifice. How can one put in words the true gratitude they feel for their freedom that is won every day from the sacrifice of another family’s son/husband/brother/father?

Now, I would like to tear into the person who saw it fit to change the original e-mail. (which I am sure was not Karie) The part that so perplexes me was this sentence: “There is a lot to be said for growing up in a small town in Tennessee.” (compare this sentence to the original from the link above – “There is a lot to be said for growing up in a small town in TX”) This story didn’t take place in TN, but in TX. Why would anyone really feel the need to put their own state in there? As if this story wasn’t just as good if it happened in TX. I think that sometimes Tennesseans have a little bit of an inferiority complex. Can’t we all just be happy that the good people of TX can honor a man as good, if not better than us?

I know that the people of TX honored this man better than I did some person who was buried in Kingsport a few years ago. After reading Laura’s recent post about Southern traditions, I was reminded that I am not totally Southern. In fact, after I tell you the following story, you may wonder if my husband is either.

The first thing that came to mind after reading Laura’s post that if to be truly Southern, you have to appreciate the lack of sidewalks, I will never be Southern. I so miss sidewalks. In California people actually get out and walk, just for fun. You can’t do that here without worrying that someone will run you right over.

The other thing that Laura mentioned about being Southern is the ability to stop on the side of the road for any funeral procession. So, (Alice, focus, off soapbox, back to story) years ago LG and I decided to sneak away and catch a movie. It was a last minute decision and we found that a movie we wanted to watch was starting in just 15 minutes. It takes 10 minutes to drive from my in-laws to the theatre. We said goodbye to the fam and ran off. My in-laws live out in the country and you have to pass a cemetery on the way.

We were cruising along, glad to make it to the movie on time, when all of the sudden, we spotted a funeral procession ahead. There was a line of about 30 cars. Lucky for us, they were just turning into the cemetery, and they were lined up on the opposite side of the street. We thought and discussed that because they were so close to pulling in, we would be safe to just keep on our merry way. We thought very wrong. The front car (the hearse) decided that he needed to teach us a lesson. He yanked the wheel as to spin his car out in front of us while simultaneously flipping us the bird.

All I could think about was the poor deceased soul in back of the hearse. The decease’s driver seemed more concerned about these strangers on their way to what would be their only date in months than the person who may just come tumbling out of the back when he jerked the car like he did.

Now, you can all call me insensitive. And, LG and I both may need some lessons on funeral etiquette, but really, I don’t expect anyone to stop or get out of the way of the car that is taking me to my resting place. I especially hope that the driver of my hearse won’t pull out any offensive gestures in front of my posterity. Really, what good would it have done for us to just stop there? Did all of these people expect us to just stop in our tracks as they all so very SLOWLY pulled into the cemetery? It’s not like we needed to get out of their way.

I very much respect the deceased. May they all rest in peace! I have even volunteered beautifying cemeteries before, multiple times. I just don’t think that we have to pull off on the side of the road to show respect, and that, my brothers and sisters, makes me a Westerner. It is just so hard to give up that fast paced life sometimes. Really, when I am dead in a casket, I truly hope that strangers to me will go on living their lives as usual….especially if it means they don’t have to miss the previews!
And the quote of the day: You are alive. So live. ~ Tomi Miyasaki

Mac N Cheese Topic #1 – Staying Positive?

We started our More than Mac N Cheese mom’s brunch at the church a few weeks ago. I will give Cally 95% of the credit for the cute name of our “club” and 100% credit for the cute flyer above. My 5% comes from the fact that I was the one that got the ball rolling with, “C’mon Cally, think of something, I am thinking along the lines of More than….more than something like PB&J.”

Most people haven’t seemed to enjoy the name as much as Cally and I, but when it takes off nationwide, we’ll show them! 🙂

Anyhow, the brunch club is a way for the stay home moms to get together and talk about something besides which cartoons are the best and where to buy the best bargained clothes….o.k. it really is the whole point of the gathering to talk about stuff like that, but, hey, the perk is in the food….what’s better than mac n cheese? Just about anything when you are a mother of a toddler!

At the first brunch, we determined the monthly topics for the rest of the year. So feel free to give me feedback! If you can give me one good thing to say, I will seem smart and I won’t even have to waste precious blogging time researching the topic. Good plan, huh?

March’s theme: How to stay positive.

Well, obviously, this would not be my strength. My blog used to be subtitled “I’m a Cynical Housewife” FYI cynicism is the polar opposite of staying positive. My mom got upset with the word cynical in my blog title and I really have been trying to work on my crummy outlook on life, and so I changed my blog’s subheading a while back. Now, if you hadn’t noticed, I am just “not your ordinary” housewife instead of cynical. WOW, that little change on my blog has already made me so much more positive. (And if you haven’t heard, the new wave in blogging is to italics things when you are being sarcastic.)

So, now, the true reason for the post, the quote by Ronnie Shakes summarizes my current contribution for next month’s topic:

I was going to buy a copy of The Power of Positive Thinking and then I
thought: What the hell good would that do?

Do you think the ladies will be offended by the H-E- double hockey sticks? I can’t leave it out, that word just makes the quote so much better.

My 2 cents to add to the quote. Like Shakes, I don’t think we learn about being positive from reading a book. The thing that is the most helpful in keeping me positive: humor.

And they say that humor is rooted in tragedy. Wow, my life is looking more upbeat already.

Church signs

Go here to check out my church sign photos.

While at Cracker Barrel a few weeks ago, I saw the above book, The Great American Book of Church Signs. It was very fun to rummage through. This book is a compilation of a very important part of Southern living: the church sign. I have to admit that even though I have never even stepped foot inside of a church that sports any type of unique church sign, the signs are one of my favorite aspects of Southern living.

For my many Western friends. Let me explain. In the South a person in a vehicle can pass a different church at about every block. Under the name of the congregation, each of those churches usually display a block letter sign with a new weekly message. There seems to be an unspoken competition going on. The winner of the competition will win the most parishoners for the following Sunday. How will the church sign do that? Well, of course, the parishioners will not be able to resist attending because of the originality or perfect humor of the church sign.

I grew up in California where all church signs were very bland. Their sole purpose was to let the passer-by know which domination was represented. In Utah, it seems that every church has the same The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sign etched in granite out front. Which, in its own way is entertaining, given that you will have two exactly similar signs sported a block apart.

But, in the South, the church sign is vital for the spread of Christianity and humor. I am unsure how the church sign tradition got started, but I am sure it has to do with some unorthodox Baptist preacher a few hundred years ago. And, yes, he must have been a good preacher because he can take credit for even teaching this Mormon how to be a better Christian. Here are some of the messages from the signs that I have seen recently:

Lost? Get a GPS (God’s plan of salvation)

You think it’t hot here.

Who’s your daddy?

Free trip to heaven, details inside.

Church parking only – violators will be baptized.

God loves you and he approves this message.

Wal-Mart is not the only saving place.

God answers knee-mail.

Friends don’t let friends go to hell.

Don’t make me come down there. ~ God

If God is your co-pilot, switch seats.

The wage of sin is death, repent before payday.

At the heart of sin is the letter I.

Pessimists need a kick in the cant’s.

So, feel free to add your favorite Southern church sign in a comment. Whenever we all get over the flu at my house, and I can actually think I may try to come up with some signs that they can adopt to put in front of the Mormon churches in Utah. Here are a few off of the top of my fried sick brain:

Join our ward, the boundary is unlimited.

Our Bishop is better than yours!

Is your sacrament bread homemade?

Join us, every Sunday is fast.

Yeah yeah, these are week; I am sick! I can’t stop coughing, so I am going to go. I just didn’t want to be banned to my own bi-weekly blogger list.

‘Tis better

Alfred Lord Tennyson: ‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Romney is officially out. All I have to say is what I wrote in my comment to this article Fox News atricle:

“I think it would be a digression of a few hundred years to get someone like
Huckabee in The White House. He is totally religiously prejudiced. As a Mormon,
I cannot support him, knowing how he feels about my religion.

I have NEVER heard Romney put anyone else down…yes, he has faught the issues to the core, but he has never personally attacked anyone or their religious beliefs. He embodies Christianity and I think it is a shame that the people of our country have failed to see that a belief in God is one of the most important factors for this country to continue to be strong. How many people just turned their heads to Bill Clinton and his charade?

This speech was brilliant! As a conservative, I agreed with every word. Our societal woes are the things that the majority of our society want to continue to ignore (especially the liberal democrats) Romney’s willingness to speak of such things is music to many of our ears.

I don’t think that the end of the world is near because Romney has pulled out. I do think that it is the end of the world because so many people in the land of the free and home of the brave, have completely forgotten the God who has given them all the opportunities in the world.

It’s a shame that many of those people are members of the Republican Party.

It is time to form a new party I think!”

Romney’s best quote of the day, “The threat to our culture comes from within.”
The announcement according to abc and cbs and lastly, cnn.