TTT: Why haven't they invented?

1. An underground heating system that would automatically melt snow off of sidewalks and driveways?

2. Crustless bread

3. a remote control that you can "find" by pushing a button on your TV

4. a way to defog the front windshield of a car as quickly as the back window

5. a scanner built into a microwave so that you just 'beep' the barcode on your TV dinner and it knows how long to cook it

6. a non-kid section in retaurants

7. a no-perfume section everywhere!

8. a garbage disposal that doesn't spit at you

9. shock collars for contractors who don't show up at their appointed times

10. shock collars for parents who scream at or hit their children

Been writing some today

Not sure if any of it is of share-able quality yet. Posting it on Helium, though to get some feedback. Today is my first time "alone" in a long while. I cherish these few hours but look forward to when my family returns in a few hours. Can't help but love them!

I've heard over and over again lately that my husband doesn't smile. Nobody sees him smile. He must be miserable. I have a little secret. (He smiles all the time at home.)

New Year's Eve/Day Superstitions

These are customs (completely made up by my friend Pam and myself) that should be followed to ensure good luck in the new year

- Wear your pajamas backwards to ensure that things will go "the right way" in the new year

- If you are yawning when the new Year rings in, you will have great oxygenation all year long

- Buying me the new Girl of the Year doll from American Girl on New Years Day will ensure you are lucky all the years of your life!

- Hide a book outside before sundown and bring it in on New Years day. This will ensure your year will be full of enlightened literature.

- Rub noses with your loved ones after your midnight kisses, to make sure you will not "rub each other the wrong way" throughout the coming year

- Make sure that a woman is the first one to enter your home on New Year's Day. This will ensure positive flow of communication throughout the year. Because she doesn't have to ask for directions, you will not get lost this year. Due to her resourcefulness and multitasking abilities, things will come easier this year.

- Give all your money to the oldest female in the house, to make sure that you have luck in love year-round

- Do not fart in the kitchen and your wife will not kill you

End of ought-nine

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential. ~Ellen Goodman

In the spirit of the above quote, and because I missed TTT yesterday, I am going to list 10 things I'm happy to have experienced this past year.

1. Attended a fabulous class reunion and reconnected with some wonderful folks
2. Did some writing publicly, and grew from the feedback received
3. Moved into our dream house
4. Hosted a sleepover with a dozen little 2nd through 4th graders
5. Overcame my fear of driving to Chicago
6. Watched my daughter mature enough to fall in love with church
7. Volunteered my brains out
8. Gave to charity
9. Helped friends in need
10. Visited my brother-in-law's family in Florida for the first time
* Bonus - accepted and learned more about Asperger's and Cassandra's to more fully understand and appreciate one of my most important people.

I challenge you to put away your failures and instead of thinking how you could do better next year, find at least 10 things for which you can back yourself on the backk for accomplishing this year. Celebrate your accomplishements and enter the new year with your head held high!

Ten Things Tuesday

Ten things I'm looking forward to right now

1 One of my very best friends coming to visit from TN
2 Our quick trip to Chicago
3 My first visit to Mideival Times
4 Lunch at Packo's tomorrow
5 The end of cold and flu season
6 Watching kiddo unwrap her gifts
7 A few quiet days at home
8 Christmas Eve Service
9 My daughter's dedication
10 City water

Pray for me!

(Yes, sorry - another religion one)

I'm sure a lot of people who have read my blog are already praying ABOUT me if not for me. "Please God," I imagine them to plead "please don't let her influence young children."

I admit to being a Facebook addict, and I have also come to the realization recently that I have been way too generous with the connections I allow on there. To be fair, I have connected with people from my past that I wouldn't give up now for all the tea in China (never mind that I don't drink tea, it's just an expression). But some days, I just have to wonder if maybe I shouldn't set some more strict criteria (read "any at all") to my standards of whom I will accept as Facebook friends. Recently I've started hiding a whole group of people, although I don't have the heart to "unfriend" them. These are the people who ask for prayers in their status updates.

Especially annoying are those who ask for prayers for mysterious reasons or those who ask us to pray for their friends (named or unspecified, doesn't matter). Now I'm not saying that there isn't somthing to this power of prayer phenomenon. Positive thinking has been shown to be helpful in many cases. Of course, you can positively influence your future by also makeing careful choices about your own behavior . . . but I realize that some things are simply beyond our control.

It's not the quoting of scripture that bothers me, either. Unless, of course, it is being used to condemn others. I love quotes in general, and when they are used in a meaningful way they are even better, whether they are from scripture or other literature.

What I find intolerable is when people ask for prayers and imply that the more prayers that are received, the more God is likely to listen. I want to say to them "This is NOT American Idol!People!" God isn't waiting for his prayer-phone to ring to see how many calls he gets from each of the righteous in behalf of the pitiable. Or maybe he does, and that explains why there are little children that hide in closets praying that dad/brother/mother/stepparent/whoever doesn't come to get them again tonight. They are only one small prayer for the cause, while THOUSANDS of Facebook strangers may be praying to the same diety in hopes that Mr. Skippy John Jones will be able to conceive another child. If that's the way it works, I don't like it. So, I'm just going to reject the whole idea, hope for the best, and try to stay positive. That is, after I remove these annoying people from my Facebook News Feed.

TTT Ten things Tuesday: Holiday amusements

Ten happenings that confound (& amuse) me at this time of year:

1. Parents of elementary schoolers being irate that somebody may have told their child the truth.

2. Shoppers who think that "saving" money means paying less for something that their loved ones will have to pretend to appreciate, instead actually putting the money in their own bank account.

3. Neighbors using their unemployment checks to buy decorations for their home which will drive up their utility bills.

4. Parents forcing their children to sit on the lap of a disguised stranger and then being frustrated when the child cries and/or struggles to be free.

5. Getting up in the wee hours of the morning in the cold to buy something that you could've purchased online.

6. "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" signs and buttons (no, he's not)

7. Receiving unsigned mass produced greeting cards from people who don't take a moment to call, write, or email all year long

8. Baking a variety of cookies and then putting them all into a sealed tin together so they all end up tasting the same.

9. Every show on TV has to produce their own version of Dickens' A Chritmas Carol

10. People justifying all of this bizarre behavior because of a date on a calendar.