First, some have asked when I will know anything about the Real Simple essay contest. It says, "The winner will be notified by phone on or around January 3, 2010." So, I guess they have a lot of reading to do and I have to wait.
I am a big numbers person. Not so much numbers with math problems, but numbers with other things. I like to count down the days until something is going to happen. I had our wedding count down started from the day we got engaged. I tried to do a count down when I was pregnant with Elyse, but she was 11 days late, so that didn't work out so well. I do count downs until Christmas starting in sometime in October. I am always counting the days until vacation or the number of days we have left on vacation. The same is true with money and other random things. For instance when I was teaching in the brick and mortar school I would count the number of class periods in the week. At Miami Trace I would teach 35 periods a week and I would have 10 free periods a week for planning and lunch.
However, I tend to take it to the next level. I will count the Hours and Minutes too! I really take the whole counting thing a little too far.
The day Ryan left for Europe I knew that he would be gone 10 days or about 240 hours which is 14,400 minutes. And throughout the time he was gone, I would recalculate the new totals.
This weird counting of things does not relate to a love for math necessarily, but rather an odd fascination of amounts, time, and percentages. For instance I am fascinated at the number of hours we spend doing things in our life. IE: sitting at traffic lights-12-15 hours depending on how much you drive, sleeping- 227,912 hours etc.
When I am trying to occupy my time with something I will count things. Counting ceiling tiles. (Yes, I know I could just count the length and the width and multiply) Counting lights in a room. Counting certain cars, trucks or SUVs. Counting the stairs that I am climbing. Number of steps it takes to get somewhere.
I also enjoy the USA Today's snapshot which is in the left corner of the front page and also on the front of the life section. This includes percentages based on research or responses gathered in surveys.
Research studies with numbers are equally as intriguing. (Sometimes the Dateline, 60 minutes, or 20/20)
Well, here are some of my most recent figures.
I have save us about $1800 this year by breast feeding and making my own baby food.
By the end of one year of Elyse's life we will have used about 2,788 diapers. (Just imagine the diapers for twins for one year, 5,576) I will have spent about 456 hours feeding her. (which is about 3 months of 40 hour work weeks)
I will save you from all of my other crazy calculations, but lets just say that there are many, many more! Does this make me a math geek?
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Monday, September 7, 2009
growing up
So, as I stated from the beginning of this blog I am not a great writer. However, it is something that I enjoy. I have never been one to write and then share it with others, but that is what a blog is all about.
This post is my entry into a REAL SIMPLE life lessons essay contest. I have been thinking about submitting an entry for the contest all summer. I have known about it since May. Really though, why wouldn't I wait until yesterday to start the essay knowing that entries are taken until tonight at midnight. So, it was written last night and this morning. Here is the rough draft, I have a few more hours to finish it. I am not expecting to win, but the $3000 and a two day trip to NYC is rather enticing and I liked the topic.
Topic: When did you realize that you had become a grown-up?
Essay:I can’t wait until I am older
At 29 years old I still have days that I feel 12. Or maybe it is days that I wish I were 12. I still, on occasion, act selfish and want my own way. There are days that I do not make our bed and I really have no remorse or guilt from not doing it. Even though our house is clean, I often leave things out and do not put them back where they belong until the next day. I am sure all of us grown-ups don’t always act as grown-up as we should. Nevertheless, I am a grown-up.
As a child I can remember thinking, "I can't wait until I am older." I had that thought so often during my childhood and adolescence. I can honestly say I am still not quite sure that it happened all in one day or through a series of events, but I think it was on September 20, 2006. I think that was the day I became a grown-up.
I believe that four events or times have defined my passage into adulthood. Each event was unique and special in its own way. Maybe growing up happens in one day for some, or maybe it is a journey. I am not sure, but here is how it happened for me.
When I was young I thought that being taller in stature was a sign that I was a so called grown-up. I was sure that a sign of being a grown-up was easily recognizable by one event. I knew that once I could touch the pew in front of me at church without any bend to my arms or wrist to reach the wooden back of the seat was a sign that I was a grown-up. At about age 14 I was able to stand at church to sing with my arms extended down to barely touch the pew in front of me. However, I was not a grown-up.
So, I had to set my attainable grown-up goal on something else. I decided that I would be a grown up once I had my own car with a trunk. Now, you may be saying, "What, why a car with a trunk?" I want to tell you, I have absolutely NO idea why I thought this. Maybe I thought of this step as something that was very independent. Maybe I related the trunk to grocery store shopping, and running errands. I am honestly not sure why I thought that this was a big step in becoming a grown-up. I drove one of my parent’s cars once I turned 16, and then got my own at age 18. Driving my own car, with a trunk during my senior year of high school did not make me a grown-up.
Once again I set my sights on something else that would make me a grown-up. My next milestone was bill paying. Can’t all grown-ups be defined as bill paying people? Again, this milestone came and went and I was still not a grown-up.
After I graduated from college, I was still unsure of what I really wanted to do in life. After one year of three part time jobs I went back to school to get my masters degree. During this time I didn't really think about growing up too much. I had the tall stature, the same car with a trunk, and paid bills. I even owned a house of my very own. I got married when I was 25 and still felt like a child at times until, the 6 months after our wedding that is when I really became a grown-up.
As my husband and I sat at the funeral home with his siblings and their spouses to make funeral arrangements for his mother Ellen just 12 weeks after our wedding, I knew I was a grown-up. September 20, 2006. We were the adults in this situation. Both of my husband’s parents were ill when we started dating and when we got married. His mother, Ellen, was fighting breast cancer for the second time and his father, Steven was bed ridden with multiple sclerosis. Ellen had attended the wedding, but was very weak. I think we were so happy about our marriage that it was hard to imagine the coming days and weeks of caretaking and what the inevitable future held.
We went to Hawaii the day after the ceremony for our honeymoon. The day after we returned from our honeymoon Ryan's grandmother passed away. Eight weeks later, it was his mother. Another six weeks and Ryan had ankle reconstructive surgery from a basketball injury that put him on crutches for 10 weeks. It would be 3 weeks of calm before yet another storm, Ryan's father passed away. The first 6 months of marriage are a blur.
During these 6 months of heartache and joy I grew into adulthood. Maybe it was because we felt somewhat responsible for his younger, but grown siblings. Maybe it was because we were missing that older and wiser family link. But I think it was because I realized that no one is invincible. Our time on earth goes by quickly. Only God knows the number of days we will be on this earth. This time made me think of one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.” Time is really not in my control. I don’t know what tomorrow holds. I just live each day.
Childhood is easy, growing up is hard, but the journey is when we grow.
This post is my entry into a REAL SIMPLE life lessons essay contest. I have been thinking about submitting an entry for the contest all summer. I have known about it since May. Really though, why wouldn't I wait until yesterday to start the essay knowing that entries are taken until tonight at midnight. So, it was written last night and this morning. Here is the rough draft, I have a few more hours to finish it. I am not expecting to win, but the $3000 and a two day trip to NYC is rather enticing and I liked the topic.
Topic: When did you realize that you had become a grown-up?
Essay:I can’t wait until I am older
At 29 years old I still have days that I feel 12. Or maybe it is days that I wish I were 12. I still, on occasion, act selfish and want my own way. There are days that I do not make our bed and I really have no remorse or guilt from not doing it. Even though our house is clean, I often leave things out and do not put them back where they belong until the next day. I am sure all of us grown-ups don’t always act as grown-up as we should. Nevertheless, I am a grown-up.
As a child I can remember thinking, "I can't wait until I am older." I had that thought so often during my childhood and adolescence. I can honestly say I am still not quite sure that it happened all in one day or through a series of events, but I think it was on September 20, 2006. I think that was the day I became a grown-up.
I believe that four events or times have defined my passage into adulthood. Each event was unique and special in its own way. Maybe growing up happens in one day for some, or maybe it is a journey. I am not sure, but here is how it happened for me.
When I was young I thought that being taller in stature was a sign that I was a so called grown-up. I was sure that a sign of being a grown-up was easily recognizable by one event. I knew that once I could touch the pew in front of me at church without any bend to my arms or wrist to reach the wooden back of the seat was a sign that I was a grown-up. At about age 14 I was able to stand at church to sing with my arms extended down to barely touch the pew in front of me. However, I was not a grown-up.
So, I had to set my attainable grown-up goal on something else. I decided that I would be a grown up once I had my own car with a trunk. Now, you may be saying, "What, why a car with a trunk?" I want to tell you, I have absolutely NO idea why I thought this. Maybe I thought of this step as something that was very independent. Maybe I related the trunk to grocery store shopping, and running errands. I am honestly not sure why I thought that this was a big step in becoming a grown-up. I drove one of my parent’s cars once I turned 16, and then got my own at age 18. Driving my own car, with a trunk during my senior year of high school did not make me a grown-up.
Once again I set my sights on something else that would make me a grown-up. My next milestone was bill paying. Can’t all grown-ups be defined as bill paying people? Again, this milestone came and went and I was still not a grown-up.
After I graduated from college, I was still unsure of what I really wanted to do in life. After one year of three part time jobs I went back to school to get my masters degree. During this time I didn't really think about growing up too much. I had the tall stature, the same car with a trunk, and paid bills. I even owned a house of my very own. I got married when I was 25 and still felt like a child at times until, the 6 months after our wedding that is when I really became a grown-up.
As my husband and I sat at the funeral home with his siblings and their spouses to make funeral arrangements for his mother Ellen just 12 weeks after our wedding, I knew I was a grown-up. September 20, 2006. We were the adults in this situation. Both of my husband’s parents were ill when we started dating and when we got married. His mother, Ellen, was fighting breast cancer for the second time and his father, Steven was bed ridden with multiple sclerosis. Ellen had attended the wedding, but was very weak. I think we were so happy about our marriage that it was hard to imagine the coming days and weeks of caretaking and what the inevitable future held.
We went to Hawaii the day after the ceremony for our honeymoon. The day after we returned from our honeymoon Ryan's grandmother passed away. Eight weeks later, it was his mother. Another six weeks and Ryan had ankle reconstructive surgery from a basketball injury that put him on crutches for 10 weeks. It would be 3 weeks of calm before yet another storm, Ryan's father passed away. The first 6 months of marriage are a blur.
During these 6 months of heartache and joy I grew into adulthood. Maybe it was because we felt somewhat responsible for his younger, but grown siblings. Maybe it was because we were missing that older and wiser family link. But I think it was because I realized that no one is invincible. Our time on earth goes by quickly. Only God knows the number of days we will be on this earth. This time made me think of one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.” Time is really not in my control. I don’t know what tomorrow holds. I just live each day.
Childhood is easy, growing up is hard, but the journey is when we grow.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Keep Up So You Don't Have To Make UP
WOW! It has been way too long.
After my last post I started my new job. Some may say that I am working for a slave driver. That isn't really the case, but it has been busy!!!!!!
I told Ryan that my new job feels like I went to training for three days to learn a new language and now I need to use it everyday to teach children. It is a different culture and teaching online is way different than teaching in a brick and mortar school. I will save you all the details, but on my first day I has 78 e-mails that needed an answer right away!!! Along with classes to teach, assignments to grade and phone calls to make, it was just a bit overwhelming.
Now things are falling into a routine and I am understanding expectations. I am learning how to juggle Elyse, our 7 month old that is crawling everywhere, being a good wife, keeping our house clean, making dinner and my job.
I am also learning that I have to stick to my schedule. Work time is work time and family time is family time and me time is me time. With my desk being in the dining room (that is another story for another time) it is easy to just sit down and work for a few minutes all evening. I am trying to be able to close my computer by 3:00 everyday. However, it is a GREAT job and I am so thankful God provided it for me so that I can stay home with Elyse.
Which, all of this rambling brings me to the whole point of this post.
My dad has a saying, "Keep up, so you don't have to make up." Over the last couple of weeks I have thought of his voice saying this MANY times. I have thought, I can't keep up. How can I keep the house clean? Work my job? Take care of Elyse? Cook dinner? Be a good wife? Find any down time? Do laundry and fold it? Be a good friend? How would I ever add another child to this craziness. (this is NOT an announcement about another baby)
The answer is, keep up so you don't have to make up. This really applies to ALL areas of our lives. (I am preaching to the choir by the way.) I may think of this line when I have gained a couple of pounds, or my relationship with Christ isn't what is should be, or my house is a mess, or my relationship with Ryan feels strained, or I go running and I am tired quickly.
There are so many things in our lives that pull us so many direction. There isn't enough time to get everything done.
God has reminded me in Ephesians 1 that I was created to bring GLORY TO HIM. That is my main job. That is my whole purpose!
11-12It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13-14It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
15-19That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
20-23All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
Do you ever feel like this?
Even though these verses can't cure all of my juggling, I find comfort in these words.
And, even though I am RUNNING, I am trying to keep up so I don't have to make up.
After my last post I started my new job. Some may say that I am working for a slave driver. That isn't really the case, but it has been busy!!!!!!
I told Ryan that my new job feels like I went to training for three days to learn a new language and now I need to use it everyday to teach children. It is a different culture and teaching online is way different than teaching in a brick and mortar school. I will save you all the details, but on my first day I has 78 e-mails that needed an answer right away!!! Along with classes to teach, assignments to grade and phone calls to make, it was just a bit overwhelming.
Now things are falling into a routine and I am understanding expectations. I am learning how to juggle Elyse, our 7 month old that is crawling everywhere, being a good wife, keeping our house clean, making dinner and my job.
I am also learning that I have to stick to my schedule. Work time is work time and family time is family time and me time is me time. With my desk being in the dining room (that is another story for another time) it is easy to just sit down and work for a few minutes all evening. I am trying to be able to close my computer by 3:00 everyday. However, it is a GREAT job and I am so thankful God provided it for me so that I can stay home with Elyse.
Which, all of this rambling brings me to the whole point of this post.
My dad has a saying, "Keep up, so you don't have to make up." Over the last couple of weeks I have thought of his voice saying this MANY times. I have thought, I can't keep up. How can I keep the house clean? Work my job? Take care of Elyse? Cook dinner? Be a good wife? Find any down time? Do laundry and fold it? Be a good friend? How would I ever add another child to this craziness. (this is NOT an announcement about another baby)
The answer is, keep up so you don't have to make up. This really applies to ALL areas of our lives. (I am preaching to the choir by the way.) I may think of this line when I have gained a couple of pounds, or my relationship with Christ isn't what is should be, or my house is a mess, or my relationship with Ryan feels strained, or I go running and I am tired quickly.
There are so many things in our lives that pull us so many direction. There isn't enough time to get everything done.
God has reminded me in Ephesians 1 that I was created to bring GLORY TO HIM. That is my main job. That is my whole purpose!
11-12It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
13-14It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free—signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what's coming, a reminder that we'll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.
15-19That's why, when I heard of the solid trust you have in the Master Jesus and your outpouring of love to all the followers of Jesus, I couldn't stop thanking God for you—every time I prayed, I'd think of you and give thanks. But I do more than thank. I ask—ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make you intelligent and discerning in knowing him personally, your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do, grasp the immensity of this glorious way of life he has for his followers, oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him—endless energy, boundless strength!
20-23All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ's body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.
Do you ever feel like this?
Even though these verses can't cure all of my juggling, I find comfort in these words.
And, even though I am RUNNING, I am trying to keep up so I don't have to make up.
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